Networking Tip from Jay Rosensweig:
One of the most challenging aspects of business networking is how to keep in touch with people that you meet. Out of site, out of mind, right place, right time. Lets look at an example:
Background story
Vincent the carpet cleaner meets Gina the attorney at a networking event. They talk for a while and realize that they can not help each other at this time, however do the customary business card exchange. Gina mentions during the conversation that her birthday is tonight, and that she will not be staying much longer at the event since she is meeting her husband for dinner.
Scenario #1
Vincent the carpet cleaner, the great networker that he is, sends out a nice to meet you email to Gina the attorney and all of the other attendees from the event. Fourteen months go by and Gina the attorney has been promoted to oversee the entire law office. Shortly after, the law office experiences a flood and all of the carpets need to be cleaned. Gina vaguely remembers meeting Vincent, but does not know where his contact information is, and she hires a local company to clean the carpets. Vincent did not get the job.
Scenario #2
Vincent the carpet cleaner realizes that although he and Gina can not help each other at the present time, that could change at a moments notice. He wants to keep in touch with Gina and stand out from the dozens of other individuals who also sent a follow up nice to meet you email.
Vincent remembered that it was Gina's birthday, and he sent her a follow up hand written nice to meet you/ happy birthday card. He added Gina's contact information into a database along with her birthday. A year later, Vincent the carpet cleaner sent Gina the attorney another hand written happy birthday card. The card also had his picture and company logo along with birthday wishes and a reminder that they met about a year ago at a networking event.
Shortly afterwards Gina the attorney was promoted to oversee the entire law office and needed to have all of the carpets cleaned after a flood. Can you take a guess who got the phone call?
Vincent kept in touch with Gina and he was the first person she thought of when the issue of carpet cleaning came up. Are the people you network with and meet during every day life going to think of you first?. They might, but you can improve your chances greatly by using the same system that Vincent did.
That is way to time consuming!
So let me get this straight. You are suggesting that instead of sending an email:
* I go to the card store to pick out a card for someone who just lost a loved one, had a birthday, baby, got promoted, or celebrated a wedding anniversary.
*I come up with a system to remember people's birthdays or other special days.
*I hand write a note to them.
*I go to the post office and mail the card to them.
*That is going to take way to much time and expense (card cost and gas etc.)
The answer
What if I told you that you do not have to do steps 1-4 above, and that you can send out the hand written card from your home in less than ten (10) minutes? The cost of the card could be .62 cents plus your standard postage rate of .42 for a whopping investment of $1.06.
If you can spare about 15 minutes on the phone with me, I would like to show you how you can increase your referrals by keeping in touch with people that you meet. You can send your own hand written custom card for free. I can be reached at (718) 757-6933.
If you would like to check the system out for yourself first, you can see it here.
Best regards,
Jay Rosensweig
Speed Networking Long Island
NYC Business Networking
