Now Get Recognized
,Now that you’ve successfully captured attention and used working memory to create a memory file for you in long-term memory, which can last hours or decades, we need to help people access that memory.
Getting into memory is challenging, but unfortunately, as soon as you’re there, the process of forgetting begins. Don’t take it personally, it’s just how our minds work.
To make sure that your business is not forgettable, we need to help people remember you. The type of memory that is involved here is recognition memory (as opposed to free recall, where people would have to think of you on their own). Recognition memory tends to take less effort and be easier for people than free or cued recall, so let’s focus our efforts on being recognized.
There are two important processes associated with recognition memory:
• Recalling you within particular context
• Being familiar with you
To get at the first, let’s say that you were e-mailing a potential joint venture partner who you met at a conference a couple of years ago. You could say, “I met you at the Internet marketing conference in Philadelphia in July 2010 and really enjoyed discussing your theories about digital media over lunch.”
Something I like to do is to take photos of myself with people who I meet in person. I then attach the photos to the e-mail to help them remember who I am. Since we tend to be better at remembering faces than names, this is a great recognition aid.
To get at the second (being familiar with you), you want to stay in touch with people on a fairly regular basis to keep your familiarity alive. We’ll discuss how to do this in the next two chapters.
It is your responsibility to make sure that people remember you. Don’t assume that they do because if they don’t, they will feel stupid, and the last thing you want to do is make your potential clients or referral partners feel stupid.
Now you know how important it is to follow up. Of course, you probably already knew this. But are you doing it regularly? If not, you’re like just about everyone else who doesn’t have the time, system, or fresh ideas for how to follow up. Let’s get into that now.