Friday, August 19, 2005

Extra Effort

Consider the power of a little extra effort. I am cleaning out my address book this week and it got me thinking. In the course of an average week, I probably meet 20 new people on average. Why do I make a good connection with some and not with others? It really boils down to one of us deciding it is worth knowing the other person and then doing something above and beyond the typical "Nice to meet you" email. There is a level of things that make you say "that was nice" and forget someone, and then there are those things that make people reply or follow up. We recently mailed some shirts out to people we met, just as random gifts. Within days I got very nice phone calls and have set up some meetings with people that otherwise would have become a memory. People, including myself, love random surprises like that. It does not have to be a product though. Send someone the contact info of someone they will enjoy meeting.