I am a Name not a Number

I have to make a  confession. When I started my career in teaching I could never remember children's names. When you first start out in secondary teaching you have 7 or 8 groups of 30 children to teach. You meet them all once within the first 3 days, that's 240 names to learn. In my first year I struggled terribly for the first half term and there were still about half a dozen children whose names I could not remember. Part of the problem is that when you start teaching there are a bewildering array of things to learn, systems, timetable , staff names, discipline systems (or more usually a complete lack of them).

After the first 2 weeks I met with a Mother who wanted know how her son was getting on. I didn't know who he was. There was not much point making excuses that I was a new teacher and was suffering from information overload. I managed to fluff my way through with some generalisations and from then on resolved never to be caught out again. I developed a number of tricks to make sure that I had a class' names taped within two lessons.

Amazingly, I come across people in the business world who only meet 1 or 2 people at a time and yet still don't remember their names second time round. Greeting someone by their name is a compliment, especially if you have only met them once before. When someone greets you by your name they have clearly taken the effort to value you as an individual.

Two tips for remembering names with more to follow:

1. Repeat the name as you are presented. I don't mean repeat christian name and surname like Arnie in The Terminator, just say "Tom nice to meet you". Verbal repetition is a useful way of memorising something. You are also positively reinforcing your new acquaintance's identity.

2. If you've taken a business card from someone then send them a brief courteous e-mail that evening. By looking at the card and recalling the name and face you will again be embedding that person's identity into the memory bank.

How Not To Work the Room

Yesterday I went to an event hosted by Yorkshire Business Angels, they are a group of venture capitalists who invest in SMEs and have regular conferences where entrepreneurs can make presentations and pitch for investment.

I went along not because of any need for a business angel but to network and tell people about BforB. I met some familiar faces and one or two new ones as well. One particular chap I met is a  business consultant. As we talked I understood that we had a lot in common, we both spoke more than one langauge and we had both lived in Mexico city for a time. I also learnt that he was a vastly experienced business man who had worked for and on behalf many prestigious companies around the world.

As we spoke we were joined by somebody else who described herself as a "Non Exec". Having asked what we both do she spoke largely about herself and then said her goodbyes and joined another group. At the end of the presentations my older wiser and more experienced colleague turned to me and said: "Just a word of advice, I found that woman who joined us and then cleared off after 5 minutes pretty offensive. Make sure you remember that."

As we said our goodbyes he said: "I wouldn't expect you to pay me, but if you ever feel you need some advice on running your network referral business then let me know"

Enough said.

Following up after a Pitch

A friend of mine has made four major pitches in the last two months. Each of the contracts he was bidding for had different specifications and therefore he was not able to regurgitate the same pitch four times. He won one of the contracts but lost out on the other three.

The contract he won he was told there and then on the spot. The three companies who did not engage his services behaved in three very different ways.

Company 1. Thanked him for his pitch, left him to find his way out of the building. Informed him that he had been unsuccessful when he called to enquire a week later.

Company 2. Thanked him for his pitch, offered him a drink before he left. Informed him by letter 3 days later.

Company 3.  Thanked him for his pitch, received a personal e-mail the same day thanking him again for his presentation and pointing out specific strong points. the e-mail went on to say when he would be informed of the decision. A week later an e-mail telling why he had not been successful followed later by a call form the MD thanking him and expressing a wish to do possible business in the future.

Result. My friend has already recommended this business to a colleague.