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Inspiration

Make your networking pay off

magine that after a long period of isolation due to Then, keep it short and to the point. After reminding the
COVID-19, you attend a tradeshow and are thrilled person of who you are and the subjects you touched on at
to see old friends in person again and meet potential the tradeshow, deliver any resources you may have prom-
I new friends and colleagues eye to eye. All fired up ised, such as PDFs or useful links, state concisely what you
upon your return, you have new contacts noted in a mix and your company can do for them, and include one call to
of electronic notes, emails or physical business cards. Then action. This could be, for example, scheduling a meeting,
you sit down at your desk and face a backlog of emails offering a product demo or asking a question about their
you couldn't tackle while away, as well as several mat- greatest business challenge.
ters not connected to the tradeshow needing immediate
attention. Pretty soon, the day is over, and you haven't When you sign off, be sure to include in your signature
followed up. multiple ways the individual can reach out to you, includ-
ing your phone number, street address, and social media
Get organized handles, particularly LinkedIn, the platform most noted
To prevent this, no matter how busy you are, set aside time for business connections.
each day for follow-up actions. If you don't have customer Keep track
relationship management software, consider getting this
valuable tool right away. Some CRMs are designed spe- Whether you follow up via email, phone, text or social
cifically for ISOs and agents. So research available options media, record these interactions in your CRM so you'll be
and pick one that you determine will be the best fit. Hav- able to track the results of all outreach efforts and make
ing all your contacts in one place where you can keep track informed decisions about your next relationship-building
of interactions is invaluable for establishing and maintain- steps.
ing ongoing relationships with new and long-time con-
tacts. Sometimes following up can feel like a pain, especially
when keyboarding information into a database when
Of course, once you have this tool, it's essential to enter all you'd rather be sending the next email or text, or making
the information you've gathered into your CRM. That way your next phone call. But if you persist in daily follow up
you won't have some people listed in your phone contacts, no matter how inconsequential or boring it may seem at
others on social media platforms and others on physical the time, it will make the most of your networking efforts
business cards. They'll all be in one place and in the same at tradeshows and lead to numerous fruitful relationships
format. down the road.

Be personable and succinct
Email is a popular form of follow up. When doing so, write
a short subject line (about seven words) that makes it clear
the message is a follow-up email. Including the person's
name in the subject line is often highly effective in getting
someone to read a message. Kate Gillespie, President and CEO

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