By Bruce Newman, U.S. Mid-Atlantic Bureau Chief (New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, Maryland, Virginia, West Virginia, Washington DC)Successful networking requires a systematic process. No longer is it sufficient to merely scribble a note on the back of a business card and - possibly - make a single follow-up phone call.
In this constantly evolving social and event-driven networking age, merely collecting business cards and contact names is at best limiting and at worst, time consuming and unproductive. All too often at networking events, people have taken my business card – sometimes even making notes on it, and never followed up. I have even told salespeople that I am interested in their product or service and still, not received a follow up phone call – something I find infuriating. Why go to the trouble and expense of getting my attention, only to then ignore my potential business or importance as a networking contact?
For networking to be successful, networkers must realize that the initial meeting or contact period is only the first part of the networking process. What is needed is a comprehensive and useful system in which networking leads are methodically processed.
This is the function of contact management and customer relationship management (CRM) software which allow you to effectively manage your contacts, appointments, tasks and meetings (among other things). This software is essential for excellent networkers. By entering your contact information into the system, you automatically create a “working record” that allows you track all communications with each contact. Contact management software also allows contacts to be scaled, grouped, keyed, sorted, assessed or processed in any way that allows you to effectively access them – by group, if desired, and to easily generate informative reports.
I use my CRM system to track every one of my contacts including all my LinkedIn connections. This allows me to categorize them, apply several ranks to them (for my purposes) and track all my communications with them. This grouping and sorting is very important and compensates for one of the major failings of most social networking programs: the ability to rank contacts. A casual contact in my network should have a different rank than one with whom I am in constant contact. Similarly, a recruiter, writer and outstanding technical consultant should all be grouped in different occupation categories. By using these categories, I can send a message or an interesting article to all members of a specific occupation merely by using a few keystrokes.
Contact management software also allows you to schedule your follow-up phone calls and appointments – and to easily reschedule unsuccessful or non-responsive calls. I find that most contacts appreciate my (if necessary) repeated communication efforts.
An occasional email to a contact is also effective. It serves the dual purpose of enabling me to remain “in front” of the contact while also providing a point of reference when we speak. (Having a CRM system is helpful because if a contact calls me in reference to a particular email, I can easily retrieve it from within the contact’s record and knowledgeably discuss its content.)
Every successful networker requires a contact manager to continue and enhance the networking process. Without one, much networking effort is wasted and usually reduced to limited notes written on the back of business cards.
Please contact me if you want more information on networking as a process or on contact management and CRM systems.
Bruce Newman is a consulting guru and the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC (http://www.blogger.com/www.prodinst.com) which provides prodinst by matching the specific software products and services needs of companies to rated outstanding consultants who can meet those needs. Need consultants? Sign up for our free referral service and be contacted by up to five rated outstanding consultants. We do the searching and consultant evaluation for you. Also, subscribe to our free newsletter and read our blog and software product descriptions.
________________________________________________________
Posted to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER. To subscribe for your free newsletter, go to www.TheNationalNetworker.com. For the complete National Networker Relationship Capital Toolkit and a free RSS feed, go to: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com.
In this constantly evolving social and event-driven networking age, merely collecting business cards and contact names is at best limiting and at worst, time consuming and unproductive. All too often at networking events, people have taken my business card – sometimes even making notes on it, and never followed up. I have even told salespeople that I am interested in their product or service and still, not received a follow up phone call – something I find infuriating. Why go to the trouble and expense of getting my attention, only to then ignore my potential business or importance as a networking contact?
For networking to be successful, networkers must realize that the initial meeting or contact period is only the first part of the networking process. What is needed is a comprehensive and useful system in which networking leads are methodically processed.
This is the function of contact management and customer relationship management (CRM) software which allow you to effectively manage your contacts, appointments, tasks and meetings (among other things). This software is essential for excellent networkers. By entering your contact information into the system, you automatically create a “working record” that allows you track all communications with each contact. Contact management software also allows contacts to be scaled, grouped, keyed, sorted, assessed or processed in any way that allows you to effectively access them – by group, if desired, and to easily generate informative reports.
I use my CRM system to track every one of my contacts including all my LinkedIn connections. This allows me to categorize them, apply several ranks to them (for my purposes) and track all my communications with them. This grouping and sorting is very important and compensates for one of the major failings of most social networking programs: the ability to rank contacts. A casual contact in my network should have a different rank than one with whom I am in constant contact. Similarly, a recruiter, writer and outstanding technical consultant should all be grouped in different occupation categories. By using these categories, I can send a message or an interesting article to all members of a specific occupation merely by using a few keystrokes.Contact management software also allows you to schedule your follow-up phone calls and appointments – and to easily reschedule unsuccessful or non-responsive calls. I find that most contacts appreciate my (if necessary) repeated communication efforts.
An occasional email to a contact is also effective. It serves the dual purpose of enabling me to remain “in front” of the contact while also providing a point of reference when we speak. (Having a CRM system is helpful because if a contact calls me in reference to a particular email, I can easily retrieve it from within the contact’s record and knowledgeably discuss its content.)
Every successful networker requires a contact manager to continue and enhance the networking process. Without one, much networking effort is wasted and usually reduced to limited notes written on the back of business cards.
Please contact me if you want more information on networking as a process or on contact management and CRM systems.
Bruce Newman is a consulting guru and the Vice President at The Productivity Institute, LLC (http://www.blogger.com/www.prodinst.com) which provides prodinst by matching the specific software products and services needs of companies to rated outstanding consultants who can meet those needs. Need consultants? Sign up for our free referral service and be contacted by up to five rated outstanding consultants. We do the searching and consultant evaluation for you. Also, subscribe to our free newsletter and read our blog and software product descriptions.
________________________________________________________
Posted to THE NATIONAL NETWORKER. To subscribe for your free newsletter, go to www.TheNationalNetworker.com. For the complete National Networker Relationship Capital Toolkit and a free RSS feed, go to: http://thenationalnetworkerweblog.blogspot.com.
Forward/Share This Article With Colleagues And Social Media:
No comments:
Post a Comment