Networking Is Useless
Unless you do this afterward
Many of us have been there — the exclusive party or networking event where we are surrounded by people significantly cooler and more influential than ourselves. We loaded our pockets with business cards, rehearsed our elevator pitches, and put on our imaginary night-vision-esque networking goggles that list everyone’s credentials next to their not-as-important faces.
At the end of an evening of hardcore schmoozing, we arrive home with sore smile muscles and a stack of the embossed business cards of our new “friends.” Inevitably, the more ambitious of us begin emailing right away. “It was so great to meet you tonight at cool-ass-networking-party-number-458. As promised, here is the information about my new business/product/project. Let me know if you’re interested in chatting about it.”
We plow through our new contacts and reach out to each one. Whew. Networking DONE. We wipe our brows, pour a nightcap, take off the inevitably uncomfortable party wear, don some much-more-cozy tattered PJs, and head for bed feeling that our work is done.
Guess what? My unverified statistics vault says that 80% of folks who think they are done after one email to a new contact have wasted their time emailing them in the first place. Why? I have news for you:
