How many business cards have you given out over the years? How many have you received? Hundreds? Thousands? Tens of thousands? How many of those people do you stay in touch with on a regular basis?/ You could probably count them on your fingers. The rest were the people who were happy to give you their card during a few magic moments when your lives crossed. And then they were gone. Vanished. Never heard from again. Maybe you did business with them. Maybe you didn't. Maybe there was a reason, even if it was fleeting. Now if all of those people who gave you all of those cards don't call, don't write, or don't contact you in any way, think of the enormous opportunity you have if you contact them. You do the networking. You do the schmoozing. You develop and maintain your own platinum pipeline. You control your own golden database that could result in a lifetime supply of business. Business cards are a start. Personal linking is what makes things happen. If there's no follow-through, nothing happens. That's what this book is really about.
Bob Popyk is an author and speaker on sales and marketing strategies. He is also president of Bentley-Hall, Inc., publishers of the Creative Selling newsletter. His monthly column appears in many national trade and industry magazines.