Aug 29, 2023
Remember that person you met, but whose name you can’t remember? You had the most interesting conversation, but you don’t know how to reach out because a simple name has slipped your mind.
Bob? Bill? Something else? We’ve all been there before.
I pride myself on meeting new people and building new connections – personal or professional – and even I’m not immune to the occasional lapse in short-term memory. There was recently an individual who could help me with certain projects for work, but for the life of me, I could not remember his name. Several months ago, he was reaching out regularly to see whether my agency had any work for him, but we didn’t at the time. And so, he went from top of mind to back of mind.
Today, I could use this person’s services. But I don’t have enough information to even search for him or his company’s name. (He specializes in book publicity. That’s all I know.)
There’s a lesson here: Keep in touch with your contacts. If you meet someone for the first time, do whatever you can to store their name away in your mind – whether that means writing it down repeatedly, connecting with them on LinkedIn or even sending them a friendly note in the mail. I am personally an advocate for handwritten notes since I find that they foster a different, deeper sense of connection than digital outreach. It is easier for me to remember a name when I put pen to paper instead of just sending my 35th text message of the day.
The article read in this episode originally appeared on the Forbes Agency Council CommunityVoice™ in July 2023.
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