Are You Following Up?

So you’ve met a contact at your dream company. You connected for a few minutes at an event and got their business card. Or you had a good informational interview and were excited about their organization.

What did you do next?

Did you write down the interaction, and send an immediate thank you email? Did you make a note to follow up with them in a month? Then did you follow up with them a month later?

Odds are you did not. Most people do not.

Why Not?

Are you apprehensive about aprpoaching them again? Do you not want to bother them? Do you worry they’ve forgotten you? Does it feel odd?

These are all real feelings, and totally normal. Most people have them and don’t follow up becuase of them.

Then there are a few who take a deep breath and follow up.

Those are the people that surprise, excite, and impress. Those are the people that get remembered, and get hired. Don’t you want to be one of those people?

Yes, its hard. Emailing someone you don’t really know. Making yourself vulnerable to a rejection, or worse, a non-response, is crazy hard. I have those feelings every day too – and that’s with colleagues I’m already working with.

And yes, its amazingly effective. I remember every single person who follows up with me. I make time for them. I know my friends do too. And all it takes is an email.

Wondering What to Say?

Are you at a loss as to what you should say? Here’s a few ideas that you can apply to almost any facts you can remember about the conversation:

When we met, we talked about X. Here’s a news article on X you might like [link]
You spoke about knowing A. Did you know her LinkedIn says she now works at B?
I’m still impressed by your organization. Did you see this press article about them?
I remember you said you were from X. How did you feel about incident Y?
You mentioned how A is impacting B. Has that issue resolved itself?
Good to meet you at X. Are you going to their next meetup on [date]?

And there are many, many others. Create your own. Send it. Follow up and impress!

Thanks for reading this far,
Wayan