Don’t forget me when you’re gone
As well as being a lyric from the soundtrack to that 80’s classic movie The Breakfast Club, the title to this post is also what you wish of the folks you meet at every networking event you attend.
Inevitably, you will meet someone on your “hot list” — a person of influence you’ve been trying to meet for weeks (if not months) — and here’s your big chance. And… you don’t have a business card! You either didn’t bring enough to the event (oh! I just handed out my last one!) or you “have more in the car” or perhaps you’ve run into this person out of context — outside of a formal business networking event (grocery store, sporting event, concert, etc.)
A famous quote by Woody Allen says “90% of success is showing up.”- A famous quote by Jeffrey Gitomer is “90% of success is showing up prepared.”
- A soon-to-be-famous quote by me is “why not show up prepared to be unprepared?”
My friend Noah Rickun came up with a great idea the other day when faced with this very situation. Noah is a networking madman. He attends up to ten different events per week — sometimes as many as THREE in the same day! You can imagine the number of business cards this guy goes through, right? Ever think he’s been faced with the problem of running low on cards? Probably. But that wasn’t an acceptable situation (nor a way to make a postive memorable impression on a new contact) so, Noah came up with a brilliant solution.
Noah says:
“When you forget your cards, you look unprepared and uninterested in connecting. I know this is a weakness of mine, so I took a proactive, creative approach to ensure I would always be ready to connect—anytime, anywhere. I bought a domain name and built a simple one page website in less than an hour. Now when I forget my business cards, I tell people to visit IMetNoah.com.”
Frickin’ cool, right? (or rather, “fRickun” cool!)
This is one of those ideas too cool not to immediately adopt as your own, so I plunked down a few bucks for a domain from SalesToys.com (just click the “Get A Domain Name” link at the top of the page) and created a quick and simple landing page with all my contact info and social media links — www.IMetDon.com (something tells me we’re going to see a rash of “IMet…” domain names being reserved!)
Noah also has a 7-step process how to creatively (and effectively) follow-up with those important new contacts you meet at networking events. His advice was featured in today’s issue of Jeffrey Gitomer’s weekly ezine Sales Caffeine (go to salescaffeine.com to sign-up for free if you don’t already subscribe.)
If you missed the article and would like a copy of these tips for yourself, connect with Noah on his website (www.Rickun.com) and tell him The Idea Guy sent you. I’m certain he’ll be happy to send you a copy of his article (with a very cool follow-up note.)
