What's The Stickiest Way to Be Remembered by Customers?

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Hello friends and readers! Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of connecting with incredible professionals like you, who know how important it is to make a lasting impression. But here's the reality: We often reach prospective customers at a moment when they are just not ready to buy. Maybe it's at a conference, a social event, or when they are in "just looking" mode.

They may love you, but have no business for you right now if:

• You are a real estate agent, but they are happy in their current home.
• You are an attorney, but they have no legal problems at the moment.
• You are a consultant, but all their current work is already staffed/contracted.
• You are an accountant, but tax season just ended.

Etc.

While it would be great to have a magic spell to turn lookers into buyers, in most cases you can't control that. Your next best bet is to just be "remembered," so that when the time is right for the customer, they come back to you.

So how do you do that? I'd suggest that there are two key parts to being "remembered": being memorable and being "re-findable."

Being Memorable

When you meet that future prospective customer, plant the seed for why you are the one to come to when the time is right. Give them a sense of your expertise, either by providing them some advice on the spot or perhaps by sharing a few examples of the results you have delivered.

Be conversational, of course, not too "salesy." For example, if you are a real estate agent and someone tells you they live in Huntington Hills, you might say, "Oh! I just sold a house there. The owner was ready to sell for $600k, but I used a few of my tricks for sprucing up the house and marketing it. I was able to get a bidding war going for much more than that. So much fun! So, what do you do?"

If you're successful in your role, you probably already have a lot of techniques for impressing prospective customers, and that's really what being memorable is all about—impressing them with the value that you can bring specifically to someone like them.

Being Re-Findable

But being memorable is not enough! In fact, many people spend a lot of networking energy focusing all their energy on being memorable but fail to maximize the potential because they are failing to be re-findable. What's that?

Imagine this nightmare scenario: You are a financial planner and meet Barbara at the retirement party of a friend of a friend. You get into an intense discussion of today's market and optimal investment strategies. This prospective customer is absolutely entranced by your brilliance and tells you that if she had extra money to invest, she would give it to you in a second. But alas, she just cashed out her investments to buy a new home, and her oldest is starting private college, so the time is not right. She takes your business card for future reference and holds it like a treasure before carefully putting it in her pocket.

But that's not the nightmare. That part is just par for the course. And you did a good job; you were memorable! You've set her up to be a potential client when the time is right. But you made a critical mistake.

Fast forward six months. Barbara's elderly Aunt Molly passes and leaves her $500k. Barbara wants to invest this money for her retirement and immediately thinks of you! (That guy she met at that party.)

But what was your name? She can't remember. Though she remembers your face clearly, was it Bob? Or Dan? Maybe Stan? Something with an F? Frank? Phil? … darn!

She does remember that you gave her your business card, but where did she put it? She looks through her "junk drawer," where, amongst the takeout menus and rubber bands, there are a lot of old business cards: her landscaper, exterminator, 3 insurance agents, an acupuncturist, but not yours.

She checks her briefcase. She even looks through her old "dress" purses trying to see if it might be in one of those from that night. No dice.

But no surprise. Studies show that 80% of business cards are discarded or lost within a week of being received.

However, Barbara isn't giving up yet! She Googles "Financial advisor near me." Hundreds come up, but she doesn't see you. She even goes so far as to call the host of the party. To Barbara, you were extremely memorable, but apparently less so to the host (who you barely talked to, as there were over 100 people there). The host isn't sure who Barbara is referring to. And at that point, well, that's about as much work as she's willing to put in to find you.

So Barbara asks a friend to recommend someone else and goes to that advisor. She tells her new advisor some of the great strategies you had mentioned to her at the party, and he assures her he can implement them as well. She agrees to put herself, and her inheritance, in his hands.

Then you wake up!

I told you it was a nightmare, right? Because the party actually isn't until next week. It’s not too late to avoid this disaster! But how?

In your dream, you did a great job of being memorable, but you used very old-school techniques of being re-findable—techniques that are proven to work poorly.

Imagine this: Instead of the paper business card, what if you had had her scan the QR code on your phone to download your digital business card to her contacts app? If you are using a platform like QCard Enterprise, that card is now findable on her phone.

So let's go back to sleep and rewind the nightmare back to the moment Barbara finds out about her inheritance. She wants to contact you but can't remember your name. BUT, she remembers she downloaded your "card" to her phone.

And let's put a few barriers in the way. Say that in the last six months, her iPhone fell off her car roof and shattered, and then she switched from Apple to Android. Doesn’t matter. The data is still there.

To find you, Barbara doesn’t even need to open her contacts app. She can just search her phone for "financial advisor" or "investment" or a related keyword (QCard associates a list of relevant keywords with your profile), or she can even just say to her voice assistant, "Investment advisors in my contacts app," and your data appears with your photo. Barbara sees your attractive mug and recognizes you instantly, taps it to send you a message, and dictates a message about her new source of funds and a request for a meeting. Less work for her, and more importantly, a new client for you. You can learn more about this feature on our help page.

And by the way, what if you had just put your phone number in her iPhone rather than downloading a full business card? That might have worked better than the printed card, depending on what was written in the app. But if the record only said "Phil" and a phone number, it wouldn't have been nearly as easy to find, and she wouldn't have been nearly as certain she had the right person without that photo. That's why professionals handle this well, professionally, with a platform with built-in intelligence, like QCard Enterprise.

How long does contacts app data last?

We know that around 80% of business cards are discarded or lost within a week…how long does data stay in your contacts app once you add it?

For most people, the answer is essentially forever. On my phone, I have some contacts that were originally entered on my Palm Pilot before the new millennium. That's 25 years ago! People tend to never delete contact records unless it’s an old girlfriend that you don’t want to run the risk of drunk dialing or your college weed dealer that you become paranoid about having stored in your cloud account.

We'd love for you to try QCard Enterprise.

The reality is that in today’s fast-paced world, being memorable is only part of the equation—you also need to be re-findable when the time comes. That’s why I’m excited to introduce my new digital SaaS company, QCard Enterprise, a platform designed to make sure you not only stand out in the moment but also stay easily accessible long after the interaction ends. With features like QR codes, NFC, and seamless integration into contacts apps, your profile is always within reach and searchable, ensuring you don’t get lost in the shuffle. For those ready to embrace this new era of networking, we’re currently offering an exclusive opportunity to join our pilot program for free throughout 2025. It’s the perfect time to experience firsthand how QCard can elevate your professional profile and help you connect with potential clients effortlessly. Click here or down below to apply now to be part of the pilot, and let’s make sure you’re both unforgettable and easy to find when it matters most!

YOUR TURN

Do you rely solely on business cards, or have you explored modern tools to make yourself more accessible and re-findable? If a potential client tried to contact you six months from now, would they be able to find your information easily?

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Howard Tiersky, founder of Qcard Enterprise, helps professionals from various brands excel in digital transformation by fostering meaningful connections and engagement.

• Check out his Wall Street Journal bestselling book, Winning Digital Customers: The Antidote to Irrelevance.
• Click here to apply for the limited free pilot program to QCard.
• Learn more about QCard by visiting the website.
• And of course, SUBSCRIBE to this newsletter to make sure you stay on top of his weekly insights on digital transformation here on LinkedIn.

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