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Brick No4: The man who knew fifty thousand people by their first names
By Matt Weston, Tuesday 30 September 2003 Make no mistake about it, the more people you can remember and call by name, the more successful your small business will be. Politicians put great stress on putting names to faces, knowing voters and influential people on first name terms. Franklin D. Roosevelt put much of the success of his 1932 presidential election campaign down to his campaign manager Jim Farley, who he claimed knew 'fifty thousand people by their first names'. And I'd say it's even more important for small business owners like you and I. In the small business world, people literally ARE their businesses - it's vital you know people and they know you. Think how flattered you are when people remember your name after only having met you once before. When you recall his or her name, you show that you are interested in the other person, that you remembered them from the time before. If you show that you're interested in them, you can bet your last pound that they'll listen to what you have to say. That person will make every effort to remember your name too. I can't stress how valuable a skill it is to have. How my best friend's sister quadruples her salary If you address someone by their name when you see them - 'It's so good to see you, Rosanne', 'Chris, how's your rugby team doing this season?' - you instantly personalise the relationship you have, and give yourself a much better chance of doing business. My best friend's sister is a hairdresser in a top West End salon - she makes over 3 times her basic salary in tips. The secret of her success? When booking, her customers ALWAYS ask for her by name, and she ALWAYS remembers their names (and the names of their partners, kids and friends). She moved job to help start a new salon a couple of years ago, and took over 75% of her customers with her (her old salon tried in vain to stop her). If you can teach yourself these tricks, you can remember the name of every influential person you meet The first step is to recognise the importance of remembering names - the second is teaching yourself how to do it. And I stress the word 'teach'. Whilst we all know naturals, most of us have to work very hard to 'get connected'. Here are some tricks that work for me - 1. Work hard at linking names to faces, and faces to names When you're introduced to someone, concentrate hard on their face when they say their name. When you depart, think about their name and visualise their face - what distinguishes them from other people? What's unusual about the spelling of their name? The more you can embed the image of someone in your mind the better. I often find it helpful to think of other people who share the same name, and try to visualise them too. So if I'm introduced to someone called David Brown, I'll try to form a mental link between him, David Beckham and Gordon Brown. It might sound a bit convoluted, but it often works for me. 2. A Napoleonic Trick Napoleon III, Emperor of France, claimed that, despite his hectic royal duties, he could remember the name of every person he met. For particularly important contacts, he would wait until he was alone and would write down the name on a piece of paper, concentrate on it, fix it in his mind and tear up the piece of paper. This was to get his brain working not just on the sound of the name, but the look of the letters that made it up too. With this technique he had twice the chance of remembering the name. 3. The more times you say the name, the more it will stick How many times have you, after having been introduced to someone, forgotten their name half-way through the conversation? I bet, every time, this was because you didn't say the name back quick enough. If it's an unusual name, ask where it derives from, ask the spelling - make it a subject of conversation. An old colleague and friend of mine has a peculiar Welsh name - Emyr. I've heard people call him Emu and Emma, and address him in letters as Emit, Emir and Emy. People always get his name wrong - a fact that he's turned to his advantage. He realises how important it is to get names right, and makes a big effort to do so. He even uses his own name as a conversation starter. If the person's name isn't unusual, start using it straightway - using a name is a great way to get people's attention - 'So John, how long have you been in these offices?' or 'How's business been over the last few months, Sarah?'. And the more you use the name the more you're likely to remember it. I think this is a good time to reiterate the point I made last Friday - always follow up new introductions quickly. Get a call or email in to your new contact the same day or next day at the latest - and use his or her name regularly in the conversation or email. 4. Card Tricks Earlier this year, I helped run two small business shows, in Croydon and Southampton. I met and talked to over a hundred business owners at each event. On the Monday after the Croydon event, I reviewed the stack of business cards I had collected, but struggled to put conversations to names, and names to faces. Even though, at the time, I'd tried hard to remember, my mind had simply been flooded by the number of conversations I'd had. I didn't make the same mistake at Southampton - I took ten seconds to scribble down a few words to remind me on the back of every business card I received. On the following Monday, I made a dozen highly effective follow up calls to the best contacts I had made. Another couple of tips - keep your own cards in a separate pocket from the cards you receive, and, for really important contacts, give them a couple of cards, one to keep and one to pass on. Making a 110% effort to learn and use names is the first, but biggest step of networking. Focus too on building your network of names - ask existing contacts who else is worth talking to, and always have useful contacts at your own fingertips, ready to pass on. The rule to remember is that the more effort you put into doing this, the more effort people will put into knowing you and your business. Remember to sign up: back to top |
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