Did you, like me, create a list of New Year’s resolutions that even as you wrote them your devil’s advocate was saying things like ‘Oh there’s one from last year’s list!’, ‘You are kidding with that one aren’t you?’. In a moment of absolute clarity, I threw out my list. I’m as busy as I can possibly be, so a list of extra resolutions just really isn’t sensible (duh!). 2011, I decided, is the year I change tactics! So using the latest hippy trend of the “one word mission statements”, I looked long and hard at what I’m doing to find the one area I know isn’t working and to look at a few things that I could really focus all my attention on. As with all business owners, my 2011 schedule is already well planned and, when I count all the charities, theatre, work functions, seminars, sports and NGO work that I’ve already accepted, I attend an extraordinary a number of events – an average of 15 or so a month. These are fabulous and I wouldn’t change them as I meet people from all over and in all sorts of industries and positions, which over the years has given me a list of contacts of amazing professionals and entrepreneurs. However, rather than a highly active and informed network, I spend a lot of time with a few while the others go into my ‘little black book’ and I have to admit that there are an awful lot of names that I have a hard time remembering who / what & why. I want to change that and make my ‘little black book’ a thriving living thing so I realised that I need to work on the one thing that will provide the biggest bang for my time – return on investment
So, my one-word mission statement is FOLLOW UP.
It’s something that every one of us who takes part in business-to-business networking can do better: Researching the reference material around about what are the key ‘to-dos’ here’s a list of the things that I don’t do now and that I will be doing in 2011.
- Sending thank you notes or at least acknowledging people who’ve given me referrals
- Actually making that coffee appointment that we talked about
- Giving a referral as soon as I think of it (so it’s not forgotten) and getting in the habit of looking for ways to refer more
- Putting people’s information into a trusted system that we’ll use (I’ve started using BatchBook.com – though I’m still partial to paper.)
- Learning about and acknowledging the accomplishments of others (I’ve set up Google alerts for names or their company name)
- Setting aside time every week specifically to do follow-up work
- Having a system in place to help get these things done
I’m still working to put these all into practice and make them a habit – acknowledging.
Will better follow-up give you a big return on investment of your time that is spent on business networking?
If follow-up is your area of improvement, I hope the above lists of ideas are helpful in achieving your networking goal. If it’s a strength, have you got some tips on how you make the connections after the event – I’d love to hear them.
