You took part in networking event and you swiftly closed the
conversation with magic phrase “I look forward to following up.” But what it actually
means, and why it’s so important today?
You don’t have to read "The McKinsey Way", "The McKinsey Mind" or "The McKinsey Engagement" to find out that simple, traditional “thank you notes” sent by
McKinsey consultants to their engagements sponsors after delivering the service were the key to generate next engagements, even many
years later. It appears that small acts of kindness are not forgotten and the follow up is the secret weapon of
networking.
Before we got to this, let’s recapitulate on your engagement
during networking event maximizing potential for successful follow-ups:
- You took some preparations and set a goal to reach
to 5 most important person for you before you went to networking event, - You came first and went out last, or at least gave a try, - You were reading peoples IDs pinned to their
suites (that’s they are for!) to localize, who you were looking for, and you
was doing everywhere – standing in line for food, in corridors, in exhibition
sites, - You knew what are “opening gambits” and “middle
game questions” and you focused on telling how you find solutions to challenges
people face, - You obviously took notes on the back side of the
business cards you exchanged, - You was using “end game techniques” you was finishing up the conversations you had in 3 minutes.
Now you are ready to follow-up. Basically follow-up is
getting back to the person you met using one of plenty communication channels
available today, incl. social networks for professionals, like LinkedIn,
sending a text message or an e-mail. The most natural communicate you could
pass is thanking person for the time they found for you. Doing so you may be that
you’ll do a “footprint in the contact list” of person you met, and will be
within they reach the moment they may look for someone like you.
But hey, doing thanking for time people give us is so
natural, that it should not be the propose of following-up. So how to make it
more successful in terms value creation for the business you develop or nurture?
Consider e.g.: - Attaching link or scan of article, which may be
interesting the person you write to, - Attach link or write something you’ve heard a
about the people or companies your person is aspiring to. Writing something
about competitors is also not a bad idea, - Attach something funny, like comic story or mem
related to the business the person you met operates in, - Attach your company’s newsletter – yes a newsletter.
If you think your company is small and you haven’t been doing newsletter because of that,
be convinced by the argument that there are 2- pager newsletters sent with persistence
by start-ups and SMEs, which turn out to be successful. Short information about
current project you are engaged in, something about success of the client you
supported recently, and interview with one of your employees or partners will
do it. Besides, if you want to start doing it in a big scale someday, you have
to master newsletters and mass communication. If you’ll your first newsletter
in personalized way and attach it to follow-up note with ask for consent for
receiving the next ones – you are in, - Write something about new product to appear on
the market, which may be interesting to your contact, - Inform about an event, seminar, lecture,
training – anything which may be interesting to your contact and would be
natural occasion to meet again and deepen the conversation you started, - Don’t attach everything and at once. Spare
something for next, value adding follow-ups.
This is the way you turn the networking into following-up with
value adding follow-ups. And if you give value first – you make them call you,
not you calling them ;-)
