As you know, part of the value of meetings and conferences is the chance to make contacts with vendors, potential customers and other people who can help you grow your business. In fact, for some meetings and events, the networking is the primary takeaway.

Chances are, when you get home from events, you take a few minutes to go through the list of contacts you made and send a follow-up email. Or maybe you’ll make a couple of phone calls to the people on the list who seemed like the most likely sales or business development prospects. But your email goes unanswered. Or the contact you want to reach isn’t available -- and doesn’t return your call -- because they’re really busy at the moment, and, well, they’re not quite sure whether you are the guy with the mustache that they didn’t like, or they guy with the gray hair they thought was pretty knowledgeable.

So you forget about those contacts, and they forget about you.

That kind of thing happens a lot, but it doesn’t have to be par for the course.

You can make your follow-ups stand out from everyone else's - and better position yourself to get your future calls answered with this simple strategy: Send your new contacts a short handwritten note through the postal service reminding them where you met and what you had discussed, or why they’ll benefit by speaking further with you. Ask them to give a call if you can be of help. Be sure the note includes some visual representation that will help the prospect better remember who you are. It could be a business card, or you might want to consider custom follow-up cards that let you include a photo of yourself, your business, or products.

More: Top 10 Ways to Maximize Your Networking Approachability

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