Networking is Useless Without the Follow-Up
Michelle Gamble-Risley, CEO at 3L Publishing (www.3LPublishing.com). As business owners, we spend a lot of time out networking and meeting people. What I see as a colossal waste of time is when you network and fail to follow-up on leads. You get back to the office and the non-stop phone or email or texts distract you -- and pretty soon you haven't had two seconds to make sure all those hot prospects turn into actual business. I ask you, what is the point if you don't follow-up? You ate rubber chicken, drank sour coffee, and maybe consumed a semi-tasty cookie (what is it with cookies for dessert these days anyway?). Your waistline expanded maybe, but your bank account didn't increase. You spent the money, ate the bad food, and you didn't follow-up. I say why don't you just take that cash, add it up, flush it down the toilet, and add some Drano just to ensure it goes down smoothly. The whole point of networking is to build relationships to grow your business. So ...