14 January 2013
Hi I’m Rob Brown and I’m a networking coach and that simply means that I help a lot of people like you get a lot more money from networking, get a lot more famous and enjoy it a lot more.
Let look at 7 killer networking follow up tips. Its not just about attending the events and shaking hands – its about what happens after that. If you don’t follow up with people you might as well not go networking because they are going to forget you very quickly. So lets look at some tips that will help you raise your game.
Tip number one is act fast. You’ve got probably a two or three day window of opportunity before they get sucked into their usual world and they forget about you. So do something quite quickly to stay front of mind, top of mind with people.
Tip two is choose your channel. So decide if you are going to make a phone call, an email, you are going to connect to them on an online network – but choose something that makes you feel comfortable and hopefully one that is going to get their attention aswell. Then you’ve got to find your angle. You’ve got to find what reason you’ve possibly for wanting to keep in touch with them and make them see that reason as well. Are you somebody worth knowing? – Are you somebody to have a coffee with after the networking? Find your angle that adds some value.
Number four is pick your outcome. You’ve got to choose what you want from this networking follow up. Is this somebody that is going to give you more business, are they going to buy from you , are they going to refer you, have they got some advice or some resources that you need. Decide what you want from the follow up otherwise its probably not worth following up.
Tip number five is add some value. Can you give someone a gift, a book, direct them to a website, share with them a resource, give them a tip or something like that, share with them a motivational quote? Add some value when you follow up.
Make yourself a person worth knowing and that makes people excited about keeping in touch with you. You’ve also got to close the loop. Don’t let things drag on and not keep in touch. Say – well lets keep in touch and let me put a note in my diary to give you a call in six months time if we’ve not done anything in the meantime. That’s just an example of closing the loop. You are just letting people know that if we don’t talk in the meantime, I am going to come back to you in three months – is that ok? And finally, be ruthless.
You’ve got to say no to some relationships – you don’t need to follow up on everybody – some people are the wrong people. I often say, is the juice worth the squeeze? And some people are not so you’ve got to let them go so you can make room for the better relationships. So be ruthless. You put all these things together, not only will you be good at networking and working a room you will be great at following up and that’s not just counting your conversations but making your conversations count.