Mark Luscombe from Business for Breakfast offers some advice on how soon to follow up after an event.
Met new contacts? Don't let their cards be a dead weight in your pocket.
If you have just attended a conference or an exhibition, taken part in a Speed Networking Event sponsored by a trade organisation such as the Chamber of Commerce and have walked away with a large number of contacts and cards, you need to no what to do with these new contacts. Those new names and faces will be fresh in your mind for the evening after event and, perhaps, the next day. However those cards will continue to be a weight in your jacket pocket to carry around with you, if you do not have a clear plan. Business Networking is a professional marketing activity and does not end after you have exchanged handshakes and said goodbye upon first getting to know one another. Work out how to develop those contacts before you make them.
Business Networking Follow-ups. Not too fast not too soon.
There is a bit of a dilemma here. People are right not to want to rush straight to the laptop and fire off an email to a new contact as soon as they arrive home, nobody likes to appear over keen or pushy. However that reticence quickly turns into procrastination which turns into over-delay which turns into "Blimey I really should have got in touch with the guy I met at the conference two weeks ago now he won't remember me at all" or "X will be offended because I have not got back to him." So here is a simple hard and fast rule which will help you round this. The follow-up time is 48 hours.
The 48 hour follow up.
Following up after 48 hours means that your new colleagues will have had time to get a day's work out of the way and will therefore not feel your follow up is too quick. Two days is fresh, relevant and business like. The 48 hour rule means two working days. Meet someone someone on a Friday, send that email on a Tuesday. Set the 48 follow up as part of your work agenda and make it part of your plan when you book to attend an open networking event.
Make it personal, relevant and free of Sales Pitch
We have all been to events met people and a fortnight later a generic sales pitch email has arrived in the in-box. And how many times have we felt compelled to call them up and get a quote for their products? Hardly ever. Contacts you meet at conferences and open events will feel just as cold about a sales pitch from you as well. Make sure your follow up is personal. There is no point at all in sending a cheery email that looks like one of those awful christmas cards that some friends send every year. I personally hate those impersonal circulars telling me how fabulously Jeremy and Jocasta are doing at horse riding, polo and country dancing.
To avoid picking up those business cards 48 hours after the event and having your mind go blank, make sure that you annotate something about each person on their card as soon as you get home. In order for the e-mail to be personal you will need an easy reference point two quick words will do. It really helps if your conversations with people are as personal and as open as possible. If you meet a travel agent then find out what his or her niche is and perhaps talk about your experiences or wishes to travel to somehere they serve. I have a simple ploy which is to wear a Southampton Football Club pin badge. Sad? Maybe but it's amazing how many conversations , and not just with men, can be made made more relaxed and informal with just a quick refernce to footy.
The Three Point Plan
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