A Pocket Full of Business Cards

Timely and consistent follow-up is the key to successful marketing. Meeting someone once is rarely enough to bring you business -- repeated contacts are what do the trick. You always want to follow up with prospective customers, of course, but you should also follow up with potential referral sources.

The Importance of Being Memorable

Have you ever attended a networking event, collected a bunch of business cards, and when you go through them the next day, you can't remember who many of them are? How can you make yourself memorable? Three points - be distinctive (dress, speech), be attentive (listen, be interested, ask questions), be repetitive (within limits - make sure they remember your name and why you are the best at what you do!).

Giving First:

When we give to someone, we take an important step toward eliciting those “know, like and trust” feelings toward us. When someone knows you care about them enough to refer business their way, they feel good about you, which produces the natural desire to give back to you. They also know that it’s in their best interests to cultivate a win/win relationship with you.

Of course, it doesn’t have to be actual business that you give.

It could be information that would help them in their business, personal, social or recreational lives, or any other area of interest to them. Perhaps you suggested a book (or sent them a copy) you knew would be of value to them. Maybe you heard their son or daughter was looking for work at a certain company and, knowing someone there who knew the personnel director, you made a call and put in the kind word that helped ensure employment. What’s important to remember is to give, not with an emotional demand that the person to whom you’re giving must repay you in kind, but purely out of the joy of adding increase to the life of another human being.

This is the grand paradox of giving and receiving:

When you give purely out of the love of giving, you cannot help but receive. Yet when you give only in order to receive, it doesn’t work out nearly as well!One reason is that people are attuned to your intent; it’s human nature. When you give only in order to get, it comes across as such. More often than not, they can tell. Some people have a knack for getting away with this more than others, but eventually it will come back to haunt them.

In business networking, like in life, you will find that the more you give, the more you get.