You may be familiar with The PRISM 5-Minute Methodology, which involves taking 5 minutes after meeting someone to enter them into PRISM (or your personal CRM), discovering a little more about them, and following up with your meeting within 24 hours. Another process we think is very important to successful networking is the 24/7/30 Principle. Dr. Ivan Misner and Brennan Scanlon explained The 24/7/30 Principle in the book Avoiding the Networking Disconnect: The Three R’s to Reconnect. The 24/7/30 Principle is one of our favorite networking concepts when it comes to best follow-up practices, and we believe it will help you to build relationships more effectively.
What is The 24/7/30 Principle?
24
Within 24 hours of meeting someone new, send a brief email or text letting them know you enjoyed meeting, and that you will be following up within the next week to set something up to get to know them better, and to learn more about how you may be of assistance to them. This interaction is important to complete within 24 hours, as it shows that you care and appreciate the person and the time they gave you.
7
Within 7 days, follow up and ask if they are willing to have a brief phone call or meet face-to-face. This follow-up task is simply to ask to schedule another conversation with this person. If you are meeting with many people regularly, it is best to keep track of when you should reach out to a certain contact; PRISM allows you to do this easily and simply. You can set a “Follow-Up Reminder” in your PRISM system to remind you to connect with a contact.
30
Within 30 days of meeting someone new, you will want to have a follow-up meeting. This is the meeting that you set up in the first 7 days. Get together and go through the Relationship “DISCOVER” steps we advocate for. The Net PRISM Guide is an excellent tool that will help to guide you through this conversation. You will want to ask questions to understand who they are, what they do, and what they are passionate about.
