In my prior two posts, I mentioned the #1 worst communication mistake when you’re marketing yourself ~ not providing your contact information in every type of communication you have with people, so that it is easy for them to get in touch with you.
That way, you don’t miss out on potential clients, customers, referrals or joint ventures.
I then shared with you My Number One Most Important Rule of Communication When You’re Marketing Yourself:
ALWAYS make it easy for people to contact you!
So what is the #2 worst communication mistake when you’re marketing yourself? Not getting the contact information of people with whom you want to follow up.
So that leads me to My Number Two Most Important Rule of Communication When You’re Marketing Yourself:
ALWAYS make it easy for you yourself to contact other people!
One of the first lessons I learned about networking is that it is far more important for you to get the business cards of certain targeted people than it is for you to give your business cards out to all and sundry.
When you give your business cards to other people, you have absolutely no control over whether or not they follow up with you.
When you get the business cards of other people, you have absolute control over whether or not you follow up with them.
As an added suggestion, don’t depend upon your memory when it comes to knowing what you wish to discuss with any particular person.
You can’t just call someone up in a vacuum and say that you met somewhere, at some time or other, and discussed something, but you can’t remember exactly where, when or what.
If you don’t know those things, chances are you will never follow up on a potentially great lead.
My recommendation is to write the following 3 things on any business card you receive:
- The date you met that person.
- The place or event where you met that person.
- The particular subject you wish to discuss with that person.
Knowing those three things makes it so much easier to actually pick up the phone and reconnect with people and start building the type of relationships upon which your future success may very well depend.
And you don’t have to wait until you have time to catch people on the phone. Following up immediately with an invitation to connect on LinkedIn and/or Facebook is a great way to start building that type of powerful relationship with people you’ve just met.
One word of warning about this suggestion: Some people get really annoyed if someone writes on their business card, so wait to do it later when you’re unlikely to offend anyone.
Just in case you missed the first post in this series, you can find it here.
My career diplomat Dad used to do that after returning from a function (so it was discreet) with a note about any topic they discussed at the party. No wonder people loved him for remembering details!
It’s something I learned from him and helps me to focus on the other person’s interest in follow up conversations. It’s a good way to develop good relationships.