by Alice Heiman on November 8, 2011
Here I sit, the queen of follow up, writing a post about follow up because the past few weeks I have failed miserably at it. Everyone blocks time on their calendar to attend an event, whether it be a trade show, conference or a professional organization’s networking event. But rarely do they schedule time to do the follow up. I always recommend putting time on the calendar the next day after the event to sort through the business cards and a take appropriate actions. But the past few weeks I have been so busy, I now have 3 stacks of business cards from recent events that are collecting dust. Well this weekend I plan to do something about that and I thought I would share my plans with you and give you the list of follow up activities so that you can use them the next time you have follow up to do from networking.
- Schedule time to do the follow up! The very most important tip and the one I failed to do recently. Block at least two opportunities for follow up in the 2 to 3 days following the event. That way if something comes up and usurps the first scheduled time you have another planned.
- Pre-plan you follow up. Think about why you are going to the event, what you hope to accomplish, the types of people you will meet and use that information to decide what you will do to follow up. You may end up drafting an email that you can tailor after the event or prepare a postcard with a specific message. Or you may craft a message that you will cut and paste into a LinkedIn or Facebook email. You might write an article that pertains to the event and prepare to post it on your blog and then email that link out after the event or post it on the corresponding LinkedIn group.
- Use your smartphone. This works really well when I am at a conference. As I collect cards throughout the day I use the Facebook, Twitter and LinkedIn apps on my phone to connect with people. I also use Card Munch, which allows you to take a photo of the card with your smartphone and add it to your database.
- Hire Someone. If you don’t have an assistant, hire someone to enter the contacts into your database so that you can easily contact them. I do have an assistant, so I write on the business cards and then bundle them together with a note of where I collected them. Then my assistant enters the data and a note for each that reminds me where I met them and any notes I may have written on the card.
Networking is one of the easiest and most effective ways for salespeople and small business owners to generate leads but it is ineffective if you don’t do the follow up. If you would like to learn more about how to get connected at networking events, join me for my webinar
Networking Mastery for Sales Professionals on December 8th at 2:30 (ET). You can
register now and
save 20%.
by Alice Heiman on September 14, 2011
Where do you meet your prospects? I’ve met some of my best prospects at my son’s sporting events.
Year’s ago when my son played Little League baseball, I hated sitting through those long games, especially when it was freezing cold outside. 
But like you, I went to most of the games and cheered his team on to victory. At the time I never would have told you that I went to the Little League games to network because I didn’t, but it’s definitely in my nature to meet people and get to know them. I was just doing what I do and at each game I sat with someone different and chatted in between plays and before I knew it, I knew all the parents and what type of work they did. By the same token, they knew me and what kind of work I did.
Did I walk up to people at the game and put out my hand and say, “Hi, I’m Alice Heiman and I will help you increase sales.” Of course not, the parents would have run the other way. But what I did let them know that inadvertently. I wasn’t thinking, “If I go to the baseball game and sit with a different parent each week I will surely meet some new prospects.” No, I was genuinely interested in getting to know all of the parents.
During one of those seasons, one of the parents did happen to have a company that needed my help and because I had taken the time to get to know him he felt comfortable to call me. I did end up providing sales training for his company and it worked out great.
Looking back, I realize this was a great place to network. But I didn’t go about it the same way I would if I was attending a business event designed for networking. I did what came naturally.
I recommend you look around and find some opportunities to network at your children’s sporting events. Don’t go around selling your products and services to the other parents. But do sit with different parents and get to know them. Build relationships that can lead to sales, in the event that person is ever in need of your services. Be genuinely interested in others and don’t worry about talking about yourself, your chance will come if you are a good listener and get to know people.
Building your network is a lifelong process, look for opportunities at every point in your life, even your kid’s baseball game.
If you’d like to learn how to make connections & build relationships that lead to sales, join my online training webinar, Networking Mastery for Sales Professionals on September 21st.
Here I sit, the queen of follow up, writing a post about follow up because the past few weeks I have failed miserably at it. Everyone blocks time on their calendar to attend an event, whether it be a trade show, conference or a professional organization’s networking event. But rarely do they schedule time to do the follow up. I always recommend putting time on the calendar the next day after the event to sort through the business cards and a take appropriate actions. But the past few weeks I have been so busy, I now have 3 stacks of business cards from recent events that are collecting dust. Well this weekend I plan to do something about that and I thought I would share my plans with you and give you the list of follow up activities so that you can use them the next time you have follow up to do from networking.
