October 27, 2010 Following Up After the Conference – Working the Room Part 5
It’s all well and good to go out and make introductions with new business contacts, but this means nothing unless we find a way of continuing to build a relationship these persons. The trick is to find a system to stay in touch, and to deepen the relationship over time.
The first thing to do after the conference is to jot down some notes on the business card about the circumstances of your first meeting such as date, event, professional duties, interests, and so on. Before I adopted this policy I would periodically clean out my Rolodex of the business cards of professionals I hadn’t a clue about how I knew them or who they were.
Second, jot off a quick email telling the person that it was nice to meet them, and recount any information that was discussed, make a referral, get a piece of information, send an article on the subject, send something particular to their industry preferably that you wrote.
Third, invite everyone you met the evening before, who also uses LinkedIn, to join your professional network through this fantastic site. LinkedIn is so feature rich. It keeps your name and photo in front of your clients and prospects, and yours in front of them. You can send emails internally through the LinkedIn system; learn of a job change, promotion, or a change of address; post an update to the front page of their LinkedIn home page; and lots more. It helps you to build a bond with a person who your trying to get to know.
Next, enter the prospect into your firm’s databases so he can receive periodic and appropriate USPS and email correspondence. This is something at which many firms, large enough to have a marketing department, do an excellent job. Sending out “alerts” concerning changes in legislation, developments in case law, approaching deadlines, and the like help you to add value and build your firm’s brand with legal consumers. You can also use this system to keep your prospects informed about your speaking engagements, blog postings, articles you published, etc.
Enter your new contacts in your own personal database as well. You never know what the future will bring, and you may have occasion to keep things confidential.
Now think of a way to meet your prospect in person again. You can call someone for lunch, invite her to a baseball game, round of golf, your table at a charity event, or a concert. (This is far more effective if you have already gleaned what their interests are.) Another way to stay in touch is tell your prospects about upcoming professional conferences that you plan to attend. Be creative and make sure you meet them in person again.
Tags: associate, attorney, breaking the ice, chief marketing officer, cold approach, cold calling, Ice Breaker, law, law firm, lawyer, legal, marketing, networking, opening a set, rainmaker, Working the Room
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