It is amazing to me how many people that I meet who tell me they will follow-up with me about something and they never do. In fact, I meet more people who don’t follow-up than who do. This is a real problem that needs to be addressed.
Your words and actions are everything in networking. Building trust and credibility takes time. However, this won’t happen if you don’t come through. Your reputation is all you have so why would you do anything to tarnish it?
We are all busy and get overwhelmed but don’t over promise if you can’t deliver. Part of your business routine should be connecting, building, and helping others. The more you do these things the more it will be second nature.
Start small and don’t promise everything to everyone. Be smart about who you help. Follow-up and follow through needs to be done fairly quickly since it is still fresh in peoples’ minds. When you meet someone for the first time at a networking event, make sure to follow-up in the next day or two. You want people to remember you.
Same thought should be for any promises such as an introduction, article, or information that you will share. Don’t think that because you don’t come through that people will forget about your promises. That is not true. In fact, others may think negatively of you. Don’t let this happen because people talk. Business circles are small so it may get around. At the same time, you may come across some of these people again and may need their help or try to do business with them. Your chances are diminished because of the way you treated them in the past.
Do what you way you will do and then you will be alright. Treat others the way you would want to be treated.
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