Jim Rohn was a highly-regarded motivational speaker, author, entrepreneur, investor, and business philosopher.  One of his best-known quotes is “The fortune is in the follow-up,” meaning you need to follow up with a person to make a sale.

This approach is also very relevant to business networking. Following up after events or group meetings is essential if you are to generate results.

Recently, I was telling a business colleague that 70% of my business comes from networking. She responded that if that was the case, I must be good with my follow-up, and I am.

My disciplined approach to follow-up dates back to the 17 years I spent in sales. I went full-time into my Boomers’ Social Media Tutor business after retiring from that sales career. Having a background in sales has proven invaluable to me as a business owner, especially when it comes to my persistence and follow-up.

In researching for this blog post, I came across a piece that was especially helpful. Entitled “8 Do’s and Don’ts of Networking Follow-up,” it provides easy-to-follow tips for what to do after a networking event.

Here’s some highlights from the article, as well as some of my own ideas.

Some Do’s for Networking Follow-Up

  • Send a LinkedIn invite to the person you met through business networking. In the note you send with the invite, reference the event or group where you met.
  • Once the person accepts your invite to connect, send them a thank you message via LinkedIn. Also include a link to something of value. For example, I send a link to my free e-book “9 Ways to Stand Out on LinkedIn.” People really appreciate getting this information from me.
  • Add the person’s name and contact info to your database, along with any specifics you might have about them.
  • In addition to the LinkedIn invite, send an email suggesting a phone call or a virtual or in-person visit. Include a link to your scheduling tool if you use one. More and more are using them these days.
  • Follow the person or their business on Facebook, Instagram, LinkedIn and or Twitter to indicate your interest in them.

Some Don’ts for Networking Follow-Up

  • Don’t send LinkedIn invites to everyone you meet at a networking function. Reach out to the people you resonate with.
  • Don’t wait too long to reach out to them via email or LinkedIn. You run the risk of them forgetting who you are.
  • Avoid sharing a lot of information about your company when you first reach out to the person. Doing so can overwhelm and even annoy them.
  • Another thing to avoid is reaching out more than a few times. The person may simply not want to connect with you. Or perhaps they are very busy and will get back to you when their life opens up.

 

About Joyce

Joyce Feustel helps people, especially those age 55 and up, to become more effective using social media, especially LinkedIn and Facebook. She works with business owners, business development professionals, business consultants, job seekers, and more – ranging from entrepreneurs to people in large corporations. Find her at www.boomerssocialmediatutor.com.