If it wasn’t for the chambers, many awesome people such as Michael and Anjie I would never have known!
Last night was a fantastic event at Parramatta Chamber (covering Western Sydney). It’s a great chamber that recently went powerful with council area mergers in its favour (picking up Sydney Olympic Park) and the events have gone from small gatherings to hundreds of people in the last few years.
I have been an active networker for years now and my approach has changed lots for the better. I used to spend time at the smaller breakfasts; but later got involved into the awesome and serious business chambers.
When you hit these events, or meet awesome people as you go about town and like; you get business cards, contacts and make new friends (potentially).
If you don’t follow up however, you may lose contact with people forever and nothing may ever come of it. You lose the value of that event / connection which doesn’t do anyone any good.
What I have learned is that you must immediately follow up with people as you meet them. I have been doing exactly that as last night right after the event I added people on Facebook, LinkedIn and sent them follow up emails saying hello.
Most people actually don’t respond at all, but you made a lasting impression. This can be great from many viewpoints in that they refer you, if they need your services you a thought or say many years later you may get a phone call / an email.
This happens to me all the time. Lots of my leads and business interests come from work done months before and even though in that moment the follow up doesn’t seem to work – yes it does!
If I never sent that email or made that LinkedIn connection – no deal. We never would have connected or become friends and clients like we have today.
My advice and thinking friends? I know it can be late when you get home from a networking event but add everyone to LinkedIn and Facebook (if appropriate). Send really personal emails saying it was great to meet them and stay connected.
Every little one adds up over time!
Love your work, thank you for the read, thank you to Parramatta Business Chamber and stay awesome!
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