What to do After You Receive a Business Card

Building a large and valuable network is not something that can be done in a few weeks. It takes years. You must place great importance on your network if you want to maximize its value. You must carefully kept track of all those whom you come in contact with, distribute your business cards liberally, and continually connect members of your network together.

How many times do you get someone’s business card and simply never follow-up with them? You might even take the time to send a short thank you email, but often never leverage your new contact ever again. To truly build a valuable network you must have some type of follow-up system. One effective strategy that can be used to maximize the value of your network in this manner is called the Top of the Funnel strategy.

This strategy centers around an easy to use and yet effective contact management system. When you receive a new business card, you add that person’s information to your contact database. You can keep notes on the last time you spoke to them, what organization they are with, and any other pertinent items. You also can categorize them based on a few categories you have created. Once this is done, you can easily keep in touch with each person and send them email updates every so often on what you are up to and perhaps even send them your monthly email or print newsletter. If you can segment your network by groups you can send targeted information and leverage each segment when they are needed. You might have segments for a personal Advisory Board, friends and family, industry business owners, potential investors, press contacts, and your email newsletter.

There are a number of easy to use software programs that you can use. Here at Professional Taste, we use and recommend a program called IntelliContact Pro for these purposes. It truly is amazing how much more value you will be able to get out of your network by simply staying in touch. The person starts at the top of your funnel when you first meet them. As you continue to stay in contact with them, you’ll build a relationship and soon bring them lower into your funnel where your prospects are and then to the bottom of your funnel where you best clients are.

While you will be able to bring persons into your network with this strategy, you won’t be able to receive the full value of a network unless the person on the other end also has your business card. If you do not yet have a business card or your business cards are out of date or not as professional as you would like, we can help you by providing you with a very good deal. We encourage you to visit us online at www.business-cards.com and www.professionaltaste.com.