Be positively memorable at networking

Most of us have a pile of business cards that we’ve collected from networking and other meetings, whether the pile is in the desk drawer, in a folder, or scattered across various locations.
A clear out of my office at the weekend brought my own advice to the fore.

I found a pile of business cards in a tray, in addition to the growing mound on my desk. In the spirit of cleansing my office, it was time to tackle them! I sorted through, looking at each one and making an instantaneous decision between ‘keep’ and ‘bin’. The ‘keep’ pile was significantly smaller.

If you are someone who has given me their card, you may now question which pile yours is in. However, if it were ‘bin’, that is not necessarily a bad thing.

The sorting was done subconsciously. Afterwards, I reflected on what rationale I’d used to decide each card’s destination.

The conclusion I came to was that it reflected a little decision tree in my head. ‘Keep’ meant the card belonged to someone I could recall and, importantly, liked; they were definitely memorable at networking. Therefore, even if I couldn’t see a future way we could help one another or work together, it stayed. It means I want to keep up a connection with that person and indeed will contact them again.

The ‘bin’ pile was slightly more complicated. On the positive, it was people whom I am now connected to in some other way, e.g., LinkedIn, email, so I know how to find them if/when appropriate. I also realised, those people are those who are positively memorable to me (and therefore I like).

The others are people that I cannot recall at all, or I can but am not inclined to be connected to them in any more meaningful way than on LinkedIn (that is not saying that LinkedIn can’t be meaningful!).

So you can see that the ‘bin’ pile is not necessarily negative!

What this emphasised (just in case I ever doubted it) is the importance of following up (my part as well as theirs) and being positively memorable!

Many of those who were binned were ‘card thrusters’, i.e,. Forced their card on me, and in so doing, they were negatively memorable or not memorable at all.
So remember:

• To be positively memorable at networking

• To build relationships not just give out your business cards

• To follow up where appropriate

Read my complete guide to networking at events.

How about your pile of business cards? Is it time to tackle them? My goal is to keep the pile smaller and sort it regularly. Are you positively memorable at networking?

Make sure your card and others are a useful tool at the start of a potential relationship, rather than a piece of clutter! Importantly, focus on being positively memorable.

If you’d like help with your team’s networking strategy and skills as a key part of prospecting activities, contact me.