Imagine yourself attending a conference all alone. You are in the midst of complete strangers. How you wish someone you knew had accompanied you there. Then you wouldn’t have to stand fidgeting in a corner waiting for some stranger to make the first move. What is it that would help you break the ice with the stranger sitting next to you? You have that one little thing, that ice-breaker that will help you start a conversation with a stranger. It is in your wallet! And it is – Your own business card! Any professional relationship begins with a simple act. When two persons meet for the first time they exchange their business cards. The business card you receive becomes the physical reminder of the meeting that you had. A casual glance at it could bring back to your mind the context of that meeting. It could perhaps trigger the desire to nurture and build the relationship that has just taken seed. Thus is the beginning for many a tale of a successful and long lasting relationship. It is estimated that every day over 50 million business cards are exchanged all over the world. In the line of your business you may be meeting hundreds of people. This means you would be saddled with hundreds of business cards. It would be a challenge for you to collect, preserve, and index these cards for later retrieval. All this needs to be done while you have to go about your busy schedule. Some people tend to bunch business cards in office drawers, boxes, tie them up with rubber bands or stuff them in envelopes to be filed later. While others may use a business card folder or a Rolodex to file them. Browsing through a card file or Rolodex can be time consuming. What if you were desperate to contact a person but can’t find his card? In these days of busy schedules traveling is a given. However, business cards being physical data don’t lend themselves to be carried whenever you are on the move. So what can one do with all the cards that have been collected? There is one simple solution – digitizing business cards . Digitization enables you - To access the contact that you want from thousands of them in seconds. - To file, index, embellish, and retrieve in any which way you like. - Makes the data versatile, allowing you to use it in your mobile phone, tablet, or laptop. Accessing your contact data on your fingertips gives you the power to manage your relationships better. Here is a true story. Harish, a financial planner had lost the business card of a property valuer. He desperately wanted to connect because there was a Rs. 10 crore deal hanging in balance. He frantically looked for it in his stack but couldn’t find it. Then he remembered he had digitized his business cards. With the help of a few key strokes he had the contact of the person he needed. So what are the options to digitize your business cards? - Enter the data in Excel - Use a business card scanner that comes with its own software - Use a mobile application to scan and capture the business card - Outsource the task to someone who has the expertise and tools Irrespective of the option you choose, it makes eminent sense that you digitize your contacts. This is the very first step that you can take to help you build on the relationship that you establish with a stranger. This will ensure that the relationship that has been initiated by breaking the ice does not freeze.
No comments:
Post a Comment