What would you do after collecting 200 namecards?

Sending hand written 'nice to meet you' cards through the mail is one of those above-and-beyond things you can do to stand out and be remembered!

Remember, building relationships is the goal! the appointments and new clients are the by-product of building relationships

Not really enough info. How relevant are your services to the people you will be networking with?

If you're meeting them face to face, try to interact and figure out if they would be interested in your services. If they are, ask them whether they'd like a follow-up call afterwards and when suits them. Or if they just want info by post or email, again note that down.

If you're just grabbing cards without talking to the people, then that's much harder. I generally won't take calls from anyone I don't know. But I will read letters. So I'd go with a postal letter. Fewer and fewer companies opt for this route. I get hundreds of emails a day which are simple to ignore. But I only get a few letters and tend to quickly scan all of them.

With any hot lead, do your research before the call. Check out their website and LinkedIn profile and figure out how you can best convince them to use your service.

Hi there,

It sounds like you're going to collect ALL the business cards there - WHY? that's a waste of your time. Most networking sessions have at least 20% of their attendance littered with MLM and network marketing peeps. Give them your card and you'll be sorry you did.

Similarly, why take the card of someone who is not qualified to use/buy your service? We train our folks to meet everyone they can at a networking event but only give their cards to people who meet certain qualifying criteria. They judge this in about 2 minutes of talking to them. They are instructed not to give their cards to anyone without qualifying them first, and similarly not to take anyone's card who doesn't fit the criteria of the type of client we are looking for.

All the best,

Sasha.

Here's what you do:

Call them all immediately the next week.

Ask for an appointment to show them what kind of work you do.

It's a suspect like any others.

Preferably, I would approach each person you take a card from and chat with them a little bit; see what they do, ask them about their business.

Then, when you call, your call-to-appointment ratio will be tremendously higher, when you can recall the conversation to the suspect.

What are you going to tell them you do? Do you have a quick "elevator speech" you give? Does it say that on your card?

Now, I use "I create quality leads and sales for local businesses who already have a website".

If they ask me a little about that, I call. If they don't, I don't call.


And you need to participate in this discussion. Personally, I lose interest pretty quickly, if you are too lazy to even post a "Thanks guys"

Personally I wouldn't do it. Here's why.

If you are spending the whole time speed networking to get 200 cards you could have gotten 200 names to call, direct mail, or email online faster.

Networking can work. But you need to enter the event with a different out look.

"I'm going to get 200 cards." Screams waste of time.

"I'm going to meet dozens of people and hope to find 1 to 3 prospects who need what I offer. I can follow up with them and sell later." Is the way to think.

Hell you might even pre-close 1 to 3 people with that kind of attitude. But too many people go to network events to sell when that isn't what they should be about.

And if you are going there to sell and everyone else is as well do you really want to go?

Think about it this way. if you wanted to sell hot dogs would you set up a cart where there were lots of buyers? Or would you find the place with no buyers and loads of other vendors? Some network events are clearly the second.

Make sure you get an email address for each one and get them in some for of a CRM system and keep in contact. Getresponse is good for this because I think you can add and email address after permission of course.

From there from time to time send them articles related to their business. Ask how would you know if someone you are talking to would be a good client for them. Establish a relationship help them and they will want to help you.