Now That You Have Collected All Those Business Cards, What Do You Do?

The key to networking is to connect and collect – you connect with people and collect information on people who YOU want to do business with or ones you might have referrals for.  This involves getting business cards and if you are a busy networker that means a lot of business cards! (Networking tip, take a sharpie with you and put dates and notes on all the business cards so you have details to better organize your contacts in your database)

What do you do after you get them – most of the time they stay stacked in a pile that you continue to add to saying “I’ll put those in my database” but as the pile grows larger you grow more lost at getting it done.  The best thing to do is – as Nike would say “Just Do It”!

The best thing to do is to sort through them – get rid of those that you thought you should take but don’t really know why you did.  Throw out the ones you were given and did not ask for, you always have someone pushing their business card on you in networking situations!  Now you should be down to those you wanted for your database and those you might have had a referral for – get the referrals out to those you intended them to be for.  Phew, don’t you feel like you are getting a lot done? I do!  Now you are down to your pile – organize those by some key determinants:

• type of business
• type of business owner
• prospect vs already a client (important to have them in these groups no matter other categories you use)
• event me at
• year you met

Once you have them noted and organized the BEST thing to do is create an excel sheet for each “category” (even if you are duplicating information on them) then you can save it on your computer as a back-up of your database and or print it our and use it as a contact roster and it also allows you to import these contacts into just about ANY email marketing – database program around!  Now are set to Target Market!

Here is an example of how you should create your excel sheet with the information from business cards(be sure to have the header-line that is the command center for your other programs):

The you can get rid of the business cards!

What can we do with our own business cards?

We all know business cards are a must in all of our line of work – be sure to be creative with your business cards.  Make them stand out in the crowd and give them a purpose beyond the meet and greet!  Maybe add a QRCode to your  business card , other people can then scan it and be directed to where ever you want them to see your “stuff”.  Do you promote other products?  Maybe have information on the back of your business card about them so people have a list of websites to visit.  How about creating the back of the business card to be a “save the date” and you can fill in information about your next meeting (date and time). There are so many opportunities for your business card, try something different.

Don’t get stuck with a pile and no leads to market to!

Pile of Business Cards

We are here to help – if you have any questions or need some suggestions on what to do in your situation, please feel free to contact us through the contact page…