thank you Creative Commons for your Yellow Ribbon.
How to be remembered
You’ve been invited to a professional dinner with other professionals. What do you talk about?
What, who, where, when or how is the conversation going to center around? You have a million questions but you are stuck on “What am I going to say?” You’re not sure if this is a networking event for getting more business or for meeting vendors and giving business. You were just invited to attend. And, you want to be remembered favorably.
There are three steps to being remembered and having a wonderful evening.
- Understand that the evening is not about you and find out why you were asked and who is attending. Is it about giving or receiving business? Who is the mover, shaker, rainmaker of this event?
- Be a good conversationalist. Read the newspaper. Try the Wall Street Journal or the New York Times, Read the headlines, read an article of interest to you. When you’re interested you’ll remember more about what you have read. You don’t need to read the whole paper.
Be a name dropper. Start with, “Did you see the article in the WSJ about…………?”
- Your job is to ask a few questions. Find a few good ones. Here are three for starters.
- If you had a chance for a “do-over” in life, what would you do differently?
- What do you feel most proud of?
- What is your favorite music?
My experience at a very male dominated, real estate driven event, where the attendees were architects, engineers, and economic developers, I was at a loss. Not my circle of influence at the time, nor the best place to network for me. As I stood next to a very nice man, in this loud, overcrowded room, we commented on the numbers of people in attendance. I asked him, “What’s your favorite dessert?” He looked at me quizzically. Yes, it is a strange question and it is quite memorable. We chatted about apple pie and cream-filled tarts. Laughed a little at the chocolate vs. vanilla Ice cream dilemma, then shared a little about our lives, work a day world, and what brings us to the event. We exchanged business cards.
I sent him a thank you note for his time at the event. Hoped he would find the perfect dessert and named it, of course.
Three months later, I was contacted by Muhlenberg College, Allentown, PA and asked to be a panelist at a business conference they were having. A perfect, networking event for me. But, how did I get to be asked? When I looked at the board of directors, guess whose name was on it? Yes, he did like apple pie and he remembered me.