Using a tool like Outlook is very important because it sets up reminders. If you spoke to somebody last week and you promised them that you’re going to return a phone call the next week, you need to put that in your calendar. After you contact 50 people and layer on 5, 10, or 15 networking elements for each individual, you’re going to forget something inevitably. This is your professional track record that we are talking about. You need to make sure that you keep it in check. Old day timers are not going to cut it. Other tools such as excel are static and don’t send reminders.
This is essentially like a client relationship management tool for networking. There are actual professional tools out there, apps, other pieces of software that you can download, but for the most part, the people reading this are not going to take this to such a degree that you need anything more than the tools already at your disposal. You just have to use them, and you have to use them from day one because after you’ve been doing this for a few days, inevitably you’re going to forget things. So, write it down and follow up.
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