On a plane the other day I sat next to a young guy who was one of a large contingent from a big company heading for a conference the company was sponsoring.
“So, what are you going for?” I asked.
“Well, we’re hosting the big conference cocktail party, so I’d like to meet a few new people we can maybe do business with,” was the reply.
Mentally I immediately thought of the young bull and the old bull standing on the top of a hill gazing longingly down on a paddock of attractive heifers.
“Let’s run down and make love to a couple of them,” said the young heifer.
“Let’s stroll down and make love to them all,” the old bull responded.
That’s what I reckoned the young company bloke should have been thinking about for his cocktail party mission.
“How do I get the names of everyone our company doesn’t know, not just a few?” he should have been asking himself.
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Napoleon said that men would die for a medal; Mary Kay Ashe (she of Mary Kay cosmetic fame) reckoned that women would kill for a pink car. Most cocktail party guests will cheerfully throw in their business card for the chance to win an attractive prize. By the way, let me underline “attractive”… the prize has to be irresistible to the average attendee!
So, why wouldn’t he (or his company) do something simple like that and collect everyone’s names to give them the opportunity to build a relationship with all those they presently don’t know?
Well, apparently, it’s not company policy (probably meaning that the boss guy, a little way up the corporate tree, doesn’t think it’s appropriate). Might not be appropriate but it’d be mighty effective.
If it was your money paying for the cocktail party what would you do?
Of course, if you do collect the business cards, you’ve got to make sure that you have a pretty rapid follow up after getting peoples’ names, within a few days at the very least. That needs to be planned into your campaign.
I guess there’s just one other problem… more and more younger people don’t carry business cards so you’d have to have a QR code for them to scan to enter.
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