From Business Cards to Business Relationships: Personal Branding and Profitable Networking Made Easy, 2nd Edition

Figure out what your sales process is once you meet someone who identifies as a target market. For me, it's really simple. The majority of my business has come from conversations over a lunch meeting or at a networking event when a person who is a decision maker—or could introduce me to the decision maker—for a target client expressed an interest in my training content. That meant all I had to do was present the options for training their team—such as workshops, conference keynotes, technology-driven virtual training, or a large-scope consulting program for their entire firm. Then I keep following up until they make a decision as to how they would like to engage my services.

Random Names

These names definitely fall under the “suspects” category. The majority of the time the best way to deal with this list is to delete it. If there is no connection and it's just a cold list, the best you can do is to find a way to warm it. Consider, perhaps, a phone campaign or direct-mail piece that includes a link to a relevant website or introductory video—something to entice people to take notice of how your service would be valuable.

Short of that, there isn't much hope for the list. The reason this category exists, as mentioned above, is to give you a temporary resting place for these names until you decide what you're going to do with them. The sooner you take action to either delete the name or move it into a warm category, the sooner you can focus on nurturing your real-life network of ...