This is a guest post from Cathy Jennings of NoPressureNetworking.com
Let’s see if this sounds familiar. . .
You attend lots of mixers, meetings, coffees and conferences. You collect tons of business cards and connect with hundreds, even thousands of people online. But what do you have to show for it?
You’re “busy”, but not “busy” in a good way – with clients and customers and growing your business. You’re racing around from one networking event to the next or bouncing from one social networking site to another — with too much to do and never getting anywhere.
You can’t seem to “fit” follow-up into your busy schedule because, well . . . you’re “too busy!”
The fact is, you’re right. You ARE too busy. And we need to do something about that!
Try this instead: Whenever you register for an event – whether it’s a conference, networking mixer or other meeting – schedule time for following up. Look at your calendar and put some time aside in the day or two after your event to follow up with the people you meet. Having it “scheduled” will make it more likely to happen.
What if you look at your calendar and you just don’t have any time available to schedule follow up?
Then you’ve just realized something very valuable – you are too busy to be attending MORE meetings and events and scouring social networking sites for more connections.
You see, follow-up is NOT an optional component of networking and building your business. It is an essential part of business development. Ask any successful sales and marketing professional and they will tell you the same thing: the fortune IS in the follow up. You don’t make money, get clients, create joint ventures or get referrals from business cards or names in your database or your “Friends list” online. You have to “do” something with all those connections you are making.
And, that starts with following up after you meet. Whether it’s an email, a phone call, an online chat or a handwritten note doesn’t matter. What DOES matter is keeping the connection alive and moving forward and not squandering the momentum you’ve taken your time, money and effort to get going by attending these events and spending time online.
So, unless you have time to waste (which I think we already determined that you DO NOT!), you need to consider time for follow up into your overall networking and connecting time.
By doing so, you will become more selective about the groups you join and events you attend since you’ll need to prioritize where you spend your time based on your business goals. This will enable you to focus more on building relationships with the people, companies and organizations that can bring you business opportunities – rather than just attending anything and everything and joining every social networking site online you can find.
When you view follow-up as PART of networking and connecting, rather than an entirely separate activity, and schedule time for following up with those you connect with, you’ll see much better results from the time, money and energy you invest in building your business.
And remember, if you’re too busy to schedule any follow up time, then you’re too busy to be going to yet another event. 🙂
Want to learn how to make your follow up simple and turn those connections into clients, referrals and other great business opportunities? Then join us for this FREE teleseminar on Wednesday, August 15th at 4pm EST:
Fabulous Follow Up: How to Get Clients, Leverage Your Connections and Stay Top of Mind – Simply and Without Spending a Fortune
Cathy Jennings of No Pressure Networking will share her top tips for follow up that gets results.
Stop collecting piles of business cards and masses of online contacts and start generating business – register today!