I was at a networking event this morning and afterwards was talking with a good friend of mine, who worked for the host of the event. A woman came over and took our picture, but she wasn’t related to the organization. She  never introduced herself, or asked our names. As we were starting to leave, she came over and said she’d love to connect and do I have a card.

What I SHOULD Have done was say NO, I forgot them.

What I DID do though was say yes and give her one. At this point, she has STILL not asked my name or what I do. I finally asked what she did, and she said full service marketing, so I replied with, “so do I.” “oh that’s great, I’m talking with some other folks about doing a tradeshow if you’d be interested.” “oh good luck with that, sounds interesting.” (friend chimes in) “yeah, done those, good luck!”

We awkwardly walk away, and she’s STILL never asked our names.

And guess what I had in my inbox at the end of the day? a LinkedIn invite. Someone needs a lesson on polite etiquette and networking techniques!

Don’t be weird. People like to talk about themselves. What’s your name? What do you do? Who’s a good client for you? Where do you live? How was your holiday weekend? How long have you been/owned the company?

There are a lot of questions you can ask besides “can I have your business card.”

Just a reminder.