Have you ever attended
a networking event, collected a bunch of business cards,
and when you go through them the next day, you can't
remember who many of them are? Or try to think of someone
you met and had a conversation with, but you can't
remember their name or their business to look them
up?
Well, you certainly
don't want to be one of those that other people can't
remember, do you? It's all well and good to pass out
business cards, but if people don't remember you well,
they probably won't be calling you to follow up, and
they certainly won't keep you in mind for their future
needs or possible referrals.
Here are five tips
on how to make yourself memorable (in a good way) when
meeting other people face-to-face:
1. Be distinctive.
A brightly-colored, hand-painted
tie, an unusual necklace or other jewelry, a good (but
not overpowering) cologne, even just impeccable grooming
can all help you stand out in a good way.
It's not that you want
to be remembered and identified for that, but anything
that helps people separate you from the crowd helps them
remember the rest of you. You don't have to be outlandish
-- although some people work that quite well -- just
don't blend in completely with the crowd.
2. Be fully present.
Be fully engaged
and fully aware of the people you interact with. You
can break this down into smaller, somewhat mechanical
pieces -- listen well, respond promptly, maintain eye
contact, etc. -- but if you are truly present in the
moment, those things will happen naturally. Many people
only seem to be "half there", so being fully engaged
helps you stand out.
3. Ask thought-provoking
questions.
Networking expert
Bob Burg has some good suggested questions in his book
Endless Referrals: Network Your Everyday Contacts into
Sales, such as "How did you get started?" or "What
do you enjoy most about what you do?" But the very
best questions can't be communicated in a book because
they're specific to the person you're interacting with
and will arise in response to your initial conversation.
Do #2 and this will flow naturally. As Dale Carnegie
suggested, you must "take a genuine interest in other
people".
4. Reinforce your
keywords.
People aren't going
to remember long descriptions of what you do, or likely
even that 15-second intro that many experts teach you
to make. People will at best remember a few key things
about you:
- Your name
- Your company name
- Your business/industry (in three
words or less)
- Your product
- Your location
What you want to
do is find ways to unobtrusively increase the occurrence
of these things in your conversation. For example,
is there some kind of story behind your name? Have
it ready to use if there's an opportunity. Does your
business have an unusual name? What's the story behind
it - what does it mean? Refer to your place of business
when telling an incident that occurred ("I was driving
down 17th Street leaving my store, when...").
Anything you say
that reinforces one of the five items above helps make
you more memorable. And if they can remember just three
of them -- "Joe the barber from Soho" or "Maria the
translator who wrote 'Spanish in Six Weeks'" -- you're
doing great.
5. Contribute to the
group conversation.
Don't hog it, and
don't say just anything in order to say something publicly,
but saying one really smart thing at your table or
in front of the whole group will make you much more
memorable than half an hour of semi-conscious small
talk. Create value for others and you create value
for yourself.
When we look at brand
strategy in marketing, one of the most important concepts
is that a brand is not just a memorable name or logo
-- it's an experience. A great brand communicates values
and emotions that get called to mind whenever someone
thinks of the name or logo.
Here we're talking about
your personal brand. Remember that you are your business.
The impression that you make on people is the impression
they will have of your business, so make it good and
make it memorable.
