Procrastination? Fear of rejection? No clear objective? These are the most common excuses I find my clients have as to why they don’t follow-up. And when I refer to follow-up, it could be after a networking event, conference, meeting etc.

Procrastination: The longer you avoid it, the less likely you will do it. I give my clients the ’24-hour rule’. Unless your event or meeting takes place on a Friday, follow-up within 24 hours while you and they are still top of mind.

Fear of rejection: What’s the worst thing that can happen? They show no interest? Is that going to kill you? Nike! Just do it!

No clear objective: Ok, here is where it gets interesting. If you’ve met someone for the first time and you think they are someone you should get to know better, but you didn’t take that opportunity to at least find out something that you could refer to in your follow-up, then there’s really no point is there?

Here’s the thing. If you are going to invest your time meeting with people, networking, attending conferences, if you don’t follow-up to move that relationship forward, then you wasted your time. Do you like wasting your time?