A funny thing happen on the way to the .......
This week when I was presenting a training about networking, one of the participants asked my opinion about following up with a letter after a networking event. I truthfully gave my opinion that this is not the best way to handle these new acquaintances.
1. A phone call would be better, because after all, no one is going to do business with you because of a form letter. And this phone call should be to find out more about what the other person does, not about you.
2. A personalized email is second best, as long as it is personalized and not just an electronic version of the paper form letter.
3. A handwritten thank you note can be almost as good as a phone call, although if you want to meet with this person you are going to have to call them anyway.
Last week an associate of mine also presented a training. At the end of the session, one of the participants asked for his card. He was pretty impressed thinking that this new person might be interested in his business offerings.
Not so.
Instead this newbie sent him an email form letter telling him in a very L-O-N-G email, full of industry lingo, what she could do for him if he'd only buy from her.
Follow up can be deadly if done wrong.
Follow up can be deadly if not done.
Follow up can be fruitful if done with the other person in mind.
What do you have to say about all this?
1 comment:
A troublesome practice I've encountered recently is a person who collects business cards so that she can spam people via e-mail about her business.
I thought hitting "report spam" would keep her e-mails from coming through again, but it didn't.
How annoying.
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