Countless millions of hours and dollars are wasted at networking events every year. Obviously as a trainer on the subject I’m not saying that networking doesn’t work. It’s incredibly powerful if you know how to do it the right way.

However most peoples networking efforts are completely lost because of one simply mistake… they don’t follow up. Or they follow up in a very ineffective way that actually leads to resistance and loss of trust.

Based on my experience I would say that 90-95% never follow up and of the 5-10% that do follow up 8 out of ten don’t do it in an effective manner.

In my opinion networking is almost a complete waste of time if you don’t follow up. Why because networking is all about building trust and lets face it … you don’t really trust someone after meeting them just 1 time.

In most situations they won’t even remember you a few days after the meeting… that is unless you follow up.

Most people totally misunderstand the purpose of the follow process and of networking in general. Many people actually try to avoid following up because they don’t like it or they feel like they are “pushing” their contact. If it feels like you are pushing people… its probably because you are and you are doing it the wrong way.

I’m going to give you the right way to follow up. People always want me to give them a script or the words for following up, but a follow up script alone will not work.  Only  if you understand the true purpose behind the words you will be able to produce your own scripts for effectively following up.

So the purpose with the follow up is to:

1) Make them remember you. If they don’lt remember you will simply lose to the people they DO remember. You have to become part of their immediate memory.

2) Build trust in YOU as a person.

3) PROVE to them that you are a pro at what you do.

4) Ultimately get an order from them or even better… get them to refer leads ant d prospects to you or even do a joint venture with them. This should never be attempted until you have done the first 3 steps.

Almost everyone tries to jump to number 4 but this one of the worst things you can do in networking. If you skip the first 3 steps they will lose trust in you, because you will show yourself as someone just trying to sell to them and therefore not having their best interest at heart.

And I totally understand that you really may want the best for them, but the bottom-line is that you will not appear that way. Perception is everything and in business it’s your prospects perception that counts. Being the best person in the world will not give you the order or a referral. It’s how you are perceived that counts… never ever forget that.

Actually at the very first follow-up you should simply focus on the first 2 purposes of the follow up:

1) Make them remember you and
2) Create trust in You as a person.

Now that you understand the purpose of following up lets look at a few ways to do it.

Follow up strategy #1. Send them a card. Simply let them know it was great meeting them and that you will keep them in mind if you meet anyone that is in the market for what they offer. Do not try to sell your products or services at this point. In the early stages Your purpose is to sell YOU. Don’t have special offer of the week or anything like that. That will make you look like “just another salesperson”.

Follow up strategy #2. Send them a short letter. Same content as in #1.

Follow up strategy #3. Send them a personal video mail. This has been one of my most effective tools. I use a website for this called www.eyejot.com. You can get a free account which will allow you to send videos of up to 1 minute in length. 1 minute is enough for simply following up, but if you want to do videos up to 5 minutes in length the upgraded accounts are really cheap.

Do NOT just send them a regular e-mail. Well actually email is still better than NOT following up at all, but it’s the weakest way you can follow up. Email is better later when they know and like you.

Continuing to do these few simple when following up will separate you from the competition, get noticed and develop the trust in the relationship that will make it profitable for you.

I wish you happy and profitable follow ups.

Patrick Powers