I walked into the sales office this morning and noticed a catastrophe on one of the desks. A smattering of business cards covering every inch. They weren’t in any particular order, at least as far as I could tell.

Maybe the owner of the desk knows which company’s card is located three cards from the top of a small pile in the upper left-hand corner, but to me it is a mystery. Not only is the collection a disaster, but it is also serving no purpose, unless he is hoping to liven up his working environment with a bit of creative decorating.

If your desk is often found in a similar state of despair, you aren’t using those business cards to their full potential. Next time you find yourself at a networking event, continuing to pick up business cards, try a different strategy.

During the next week, call those individuals you are genuinely interested in getting to know. Invite them for coffee or lunch. Timing is critical, if you want the person to remember who you are. If you haven’t made contact within a week of receiving someone’s card, it’s probably too late. They won’t remember you, nor should they. You haven’t given them any reason to.

Before the meeting, try to learn some background on the contact, company and the industry. Explore what intrigued you about the individual in the first place.

The purpose of the meeting should be to genuinely get to know them. Making a friend will get you further than trying to make a sale. It may take more time to build a positive working relationship, but this kind of connection will ensure that they think of you and your company in the future.

Following this guidance will make sure you don’t miss out the opportunities hidden under the third card from the top of a small pile in the upper left-hand corner of your desk.

Samantha Bushard is an HR employee for the Idaho office of A Plus Benefits, Inc.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, January 17th, 2007 at 5:29 pm and is filed under Networking, Sales. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.