My 3 Step plan for immediate followup.

Since this blog is all about networking, I thought I would share exactly what I do everytime I meet someone.  OK, so you go out to an event like a chamber luncheon or even a street fair.  What do you do with the contacts you make?  Here are just a few things I do and to be quite honest I am writing this as I take a break from emailing all of the contacts I met at a Network Navigator class yesterday.  Please check out Anne’s class if you happen to be in Los Angeles.  It was AWESOME!  So here we go.

 

1. Email everyone within 24 hours of the event if possible.  This is just to say nice to meet you and lets get together to learn more about each other.  Here is my exact example.  Howdy Gina, It was so great to meet you yesterday at Carol’s house.  I hope you had as much fun as I did.  Thank you for being a great audience while I was speaking on SendOutCards and how it can help you in your real estate business.  Lets get together soon and I would love to learn how we can become referral sources for each other.  Give someone an AWESOME day!!  Casey 

 

2.  A followup phone call the next day.  This is used as nothing more than to schedule an appointment for us to talk about a time to get together either on the phone or in person so i can learn more about what they do.  I will almost always come to the meeting with some kind of referral or lead for them to call.  It helps give me creditability as well as shows that I am on top of it.

 

3.  Send a greeting card.  I will be talking about this til I am blue in the face.  If you are doing it, great I assume you are on the top of your game.  If you are not, we need to talk!  This can be any type of card but not very many people do this.  This is for me the most important because it shows you actually care about them and are really interested in them.  The note can be a simple nice to meet you or maybe an invite to coffee.  This will start this new relationship off on the right foot…..I promise! 

 

If you met someone today, try these steps and let the networking begin!  I will see you at the top!  Casey

Find a meetup and meet up!

I would like to introduce you to a site that should help you answer the question “where should I go to meet people?”  I have used meetup.com to meet some of my best business partners.  I discovered meetup about a year ago when a friend suggested that I speak at a group for people who work from home.  I had a great time and met some really great people.   Meet up is a site where you can search by city and type of group you would like to visit.  There are 1000’s of groups meeting for everything from quilt making to motorcycle engine repair.  Type in business or networking and you can usually join for free and then just hook up with the group when they meet.  Usually there is no fee except to buy a meal if you meet at a restaurant.  I would highly recommend looking for a game of Cash Flow in your area. 

Meet up can be a great way to network while on vacation as well.  You can look up any city and visit a group while out and about.  I did this while in Vegas and not only did I meet some really cool people,  the trip become tax deductable!  Check with your own tax folks for advice on this. 

Happy Networking!!

Live what you sell

A bit of advice I like to give deals with the importance of how your own life correlates to the work that you do.  Present yourself in a manner that is consistent with the business you maintain. To put it simply, live what you sell.  No matter how great of a product or service is that you offer, you won’t be effective in selling it if you are not an example yourself.

There was a situation at a networking event I attended a while back that really illustrates the point I’m trying to make.  It was a “speed networking” function, similar to speed dating, where everyone rotates five minutes with each other as a way to hopefully make more contacts in a smaller amount of time.  What it basically boils down to is a series of five-minute windows for people to either make a connection or pass you by.  First impressions are huge.

At this function, I sat down to meet with a woman who happened to be involved with a network sales company much like myself.  The first thing I couldn’t help but notice was her blase demeanor, totally devoid of any enthusiasm.  I was preparing myself for her to literally doze off to sleep at any moment.  After our quick introductions, I asked her the quintessential question “so what is it that you do?”  (When meeting someone new, I tend to guide my conversation more around the other person and less around myself, as a way to get a feel for whether or not my business would be of any use to them.)

It came as a shock when she replied that she made a living by selling a well-known vitamin supplement product, which has consistently been touted for its abilty to improve the energy and vitality in those who take it.

“How will these supplements benefit me?”
“Well, they like, umm… are supposed to give you more energy, and stuff”
“How long have you been using them yourself?””
“Like over two years, I think”

Cut! …I think we all know how this scene plays out.  How effective was her pitch when she presented the opposite of every virtue of she claimed of her product?  I wasn’t expecting her to be bouncing off the walls with enthusiasm, but at the very least she could have said something like “I know I may not look 100% right now, but that’s only because I forgot to take my supplements for the past few days, see what happens without them?”

Live what you sell.  People don’t buy vitamin supplements for the great taste, they buy them for the results they are purported to give.   It was this woman’s job to try to sell me those results, and she failed in less than five minutes.   I cannot stress it enough – live your life in a way that is consistent with your business, or at the very, very least appear that you are.  Nothing kills word of mouth connections quite like hypocrisy.  For whatever reason, if you find it hard to do this, move on to something where you can!

Building a Better Business Card

I like to consider business cards as each a 14 square inch piece of real estate (front and back combined). The question is how would you like to develop that space? Do you buy a half acre corner lot and toss a trailer onto it with your name painted on it?

When I get asked about what works and doesn’t work with business cards, there are three key points that have worked for me, as well as many of my colleagues

1. Don’t print your cards on your home computer

It may initially seem like the fastest and cheapest way to go, but that’s exactly the message they end up sending to potential clients – fast and cheap. There’s nothing that says “unprofessional” quite like a card with perforated edges and ink that smears in your wallet. Quite frankly, you might be better off writing your contact information on a scrap of paper and saying you forgot your card holder at home instead of handing one of these out.

2. Don’t use an online “free” card offer.

There are a handful of printers online offering deals where all a customer pays for is the shipping. The catch is that the printer will put their own company logo on the backside of the cards, turning you unwittingly into a sales rep handing out their product samples. Who are you trying to promote, you or them? To be perfectly honest, almost every time I receive a card with the printer’s logo on it, it goes on a one-way trip to the circular file. If you are willing to make the effort to go online and design and order your cards, go the extra step and actually pay for it. You easily can get a run of 1000 cards for under hundred bucks.

3. Put your picture on the card

This is no time to be camera shy; a photograph of yourself is much more effective than just your printed name alone, especially in a networking function with a hundred people. Your picture needs to be clear, tastefully posed, and current. Unless you have a friend with an above-average proficiency at digital photography, I highly recommend booking an appointment with a pro. It probably is not a good idea to scan your senior yearbook picture from a decade ago because you were twenty pounds lighter. People need to accurately associate your name with your face, and if the one on your card looks nothing like the person they just met, then what’s the point?

Ultimately, be sure to keep your cards clean and simple. Don’t use wacky fonts or too many graphics and remember to include your name, title, company, address, phone numbers, and email. You don’t have to be a genius at design to get a great looking card, a little common sense and restraint can go a long way.