A man came and joined them at the table. As usual, name cards were exchanged after handshake and brief chat.
Halfway through the seminar, the man had to leave and after excusing himself and a quick handshake again with them, he went off.
Later in the evening, F received an email from the guy at the seminar. It's a follow up email from him. In the email, the man apologized again for having to leave early and expressed interest in catching up with F to know more about what he does.
Wow, that was fast. F was impressed with the guy's fast follow up.
Since F received an email from the man, he naturally thought J must have also received one as well. After all, they were chatting together. So he asked J if he received an email from the guy. J checked his email and there was none. He even checked his spam mail to make sure.
So why did the man only follow up with F but not J? Could it be that J does not have anything that is of interest to him?
Of course, we cannot control the action and thought of a person. The guy has the right and freedom to contact and follow up with anyone he wants to at such networking events. But is there a bigger lesson to learn from it?
Everyone knows that at networking events, everyone try to make as many contacts as possible. These people are the potential future customers that you can follow up with. And what are most of these people thinking at such events?
"How I can sell my products and services to these people?"
"Who will be most beneficial to my business?"
When they go with this mindset, what do they look out for?
Yes, people whom they think that they can qualify as a prospect or someone whom they can make use of, be it to link them up with higher authority or someone with connections.
Now back to F and J. F works in a big corporation while J is an entrepreneur. If you were F or J, what will you think about the guy? Would you think the guy follow up with you with an agenda?
If F did not ask J about the email, he probably think that the guy is being courteous to follow up and is sincere to keep in touch. If you are J and you know that this guy chose to follow up with only F, what impression will you have of him? Will you even think of referring him businesses in the future?
And what makes the guy decides to follow up with one but not the other? Did he choose to follow up with F because F works at a big corporation and he sees the opportunity of securing business with the company? On what basis did he decide that J is not worth to even keep in touch?
If the guy met F and J separately and chose to follow up with one but not the other, does it mean he's safe (as the chance of F and J knowing what he did is lower)? Then is he being smart?
News travel fast. The one thing you cannot be sure of is who knows who, who talks to who, who shares what with who. In no time, people will find out about the kind of person you are.
Well, that's reality, isn't it?
But what's reality?
Instead of thinking of promoting yourself, think of how you can add value to the other party. Even if the other party is not your potential customer, there's no harm keeping in touch. You never know when you will need his or her help in future. You never know who he knows. You never know if he can influence the decision of your potential customer.
Networking is not about the company name and job title printed on the name card.