Key #1 to Successful Networking:  Make Yourself Memorable!

Have you ever attended a networking event, collected lots and lots of business cards, and when you go through them the next day, you can't remember who many of them are, what they looked like, what they did?

That’s what you are aiming not to do!

It’s all well and good to pass out lots of business cards at an event, but if people don’t remember you,  the chances are they wont be calling you which means then wont be keeping you in mind if they have a future need or if they come across a potential referral for you.

The key to successful networking, is to make yourself memorable (in a good way!) when you are at networking events.  So here are a few tips on what you can do to ensure you stay in peoples minds and remain remembered:-

1. Dress to impress!
A brightly-colored tie or an unusual necklace or piece of jewellery can all help you stand out from the crowd at a Networking event. It's not that you want to be remembered and identified for that, but it acts as a memory prompt so that people remember the other things about you.  It’s also a great conversation opener!  Remember you have 7 seconds to make a good first impression, and often meeting face-to-face at a Networking Event is your first encounter with a business contact -  so dress to impress and don't just blend in with the crowd.

2. Be fully present!
Being fully present in the moment, fully engaged and fully aware of the people you are interacting with is vital at networking events.  We all know when someone is genuinely interested in what we are saying and truly engaged in our conversation!  The basics are to listen well, respond promptly, maintain eye contact etc, but if you are truly engaged with that person, those things will happen naturally.   Consider the time of day when you are at your best e.g. If you are not an early morning person – maybe an early morning meeting is not going to be best for you, particularly if it can appear that you are only "half there".  Being fully engaged helps you to be remembered.

3. Take a genuine interest in other people
This one leads on naturally from the previous point.  Its not always about asking thought-provoking questions, often the best questions will be specific to the conversation and the person you are interacting with – the best tip is to be genuinely interested in the other person.  Find a common ground and you will be remembered just by taking the time to speak with the other person and to be interested in what they have to say.

4. Reinforce your keywords.
It is surprising how often the people I met week after week commented that they still didn’t know what I did.  The key to being memorable is to keep it simple!  People aren't going to remember long descriptions of what you do, or even remember the 15-second elevator pitch/ intro that many experts teach us to do.  People will at best remember a 3 or 4 few key things about you:
•    Your name
•    Your company name
•    Your business/industry (in three words or less)
•    Your product
•    Your location
Anything you say that reinforces one of these helps make you more memorable. If people can remember just three of them -- "Emma the HR Expert from Newry" or "John the web designer from Belfast'" -- you're well on your way to be remembered.
You can consciously, in as unobtrusive a way as possible – try to drop these things into the conversation to keep them memorable.  I am lucky that I have an unusual surname so I can drop that into the conversation if there is an opportunity.  Think about some of the things you can say:  Does your business have an unusual name? What's the story behind it? Refer to your place of business when telling an incident that occurred ("I was driving down Hill Street leaving my shop, when...").

5. Follow up - Follow up - Follow Up

In the majority of cases, business deals and making lasting connections won’t happen at the Networking event itself – see the networking event as the intro to the conversation – a Taster!  The ‘business’ end of networking happens after the event .  The key is Follow up - Follow up - Follow Up.  Arrange to meet up with the person – that’s when the person will truly understand what you do, where you can establish opportunities for business now or in the future or for possible referrals.  If you have promised that you will do something – do it.  This will ensure that you are remembered for all the right reasons!