Becoming Front and Center of a New Contact

Once you have met someone for the first time at an event consider the following as key in cultivating and maintaining a warm and trusted relationship:

1. An individual needs to hear from you at least 3 times post original encounter within a period of 30 days to develop a strong recognition of you. These 3 contact points can be through: e-mail, phone call, in-person, etc.
2. In order to maintain and nurture a trusted relationship you will need to meet/speak at least once a month to check in with one another. Keep in mind that a check-in call with specifics on a follow-up item of interest to your contact is most precious.
3. Contacts develop into strong trusted friendships when you are able to meet a few times in-person (outside of their office) and share a meal or beverage together.
4. At minimum, you should connect once every three months to maintain some degree of relevance.
5. You want to maintain this program with at least 200 contacts.
6. Invite your contacts to join you on LinkedIn. Before you know it, you will have a powerful network of 1000s at your finger tips through the strong trusted relationships that you have nurtured over time.