Many of us are networking by meeting people online and collecting business cards at live events. Ideally, we will follow-up with those we have met with a “Good meeting you” email, but then what?
Here are some tips for moving from a contact to a mutually beneficial business relationship.
1. Clearly understand who you want to meet. How would you describe the perfect client or customer for your business? This could be by title, function, industry, location, income, age, gender or any combination of attributes. It is also helpful to have a profile of your ideal partners, suppliers and anyone else who is important to your professional success. In addition to being clear in your own mind about who you want to connect with, defining the criteria that fit your ideal prospect helps you search for contacts with tools such as LinkedIn and other online databases. [Read more…]