Be careful when making contact by e-mail. Many people are offended by e-mail messages that are essentially generic marketing letters. It's more advisable to use these media as tools to communicate more personally with people you have already opened a dialogue with.
After your initial contact, think of ways to keep in touch on a regular basis. Call to see how people are doing, or to tell them what's new with you. Send a note with a clipping or cartoon, or e-mail a link to an interesting web site. Don't forward jokes or inspirational stories, though, unless you know for sure the recipient will appreciate them.
In person
To follow up in person, schedule lunch or coffee, or invite your contacts to an upcoming event you plan to attend. Once you have a large follow-up list, consider a regular newsletter, ezine, or postcard mailing.
To manage your follow-up activities, you need a contact management system. When your list is short, you can use a notebook or 3 x 5 cards. You will quickly outgrow a manual system, however. By the time you reach 200 contacts or so, you'll be ready to graduate to a computerized system designed for contact management, such as Microsoft Outlook!
However you choose to keep track of your contacts, the important thing is to stay organized. Always have one central place where you record who you meet, what contact you have had so far, and when it will be time to follow up next.
If a business card you have collected doesn't belong to a prospective customer or referral source, throw it away. There's no point in keeping the card of someone you don't plan to follow up with.
If you want a Business Acceleration session of how you can use this in your business, please click here to schedule a call with me.
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