Networking (Part II)

Learning to mingle and to follow-up with business contacts could be the best thing you can do to promote yourself, your service or your product. 

Nine additional ideas to increase your success with networking include:

  1. When meeting someone, repeat their name to help you remember it.
  2. Ask questions about what they do; the challenges they face; the changes they are experiencing.
  3. Be a great listener.  Listen more than you speak.
  4. Spend no more than 5-6 minutes talking with any one person at a networking event.
  5. Exchange cards.  Ask for their card if they don’t offer it.
  6. Set up a system to manage the details of the people you meet.
  7. Follow up within 24 hours of the event.  Call or write.  Try to refer to your conversation and mention something they said.   Arrange a meeting or lunch if they have serious potential.
  8. Send them an article about an interest they expressed.
  9. Try to build a relationship; recognize that the process takes time and will require multiple contacts as you attempt to build trust.