Networking and dating can be a lot alike, and yet very different. In many cases, dating starts out with a crowded room of people who may be looking to connect with one another. The room could be a bar, a bookstore, or most any other place. Factors like volume, brightness and decor are all over the place, and willingness to meet others varies wildly from person to person.

While everyone in these situations may not be looking to make a connection, two people who do meet can exchange ways to get in touch with one another after the evening draws to a close. Usually it's a phone number; or nowadays, an e-mail address. Hopefully, the number isn't to a local massage parlor or police station, and the e-mail doesn't get you subscribed to a spam list.

With networking, a room that's (hopefully) filled with people wanting to do business is de rigeur. The noise level is so loud, it is sometimes hard to hear. Sometimes such functions are in a bar; they can happen most anyplace, though. People are bumping into one another trying to get to the other side of the room, but are instead stopped by...other people who want to network. Business cards and other printed material are flying left and right; it's enough to give an environmentalist an enteric-coated migraine. Aside from that environmentalist, everyone else seems to be having a good time. You get the feeling that business is being conducted in the room.

You can see the similarities and differences. The one big unifying element in both dating and networking? If one party doesn't follow up with the other, nothing gets done – ever.

Following up on a call or lead for a sale falls under the same category. You might think, "It'd be silly not to follow up with this kind of contact," and you'd be right. It does happen, though. Quite a bit, actually. It's not necessarily because the call or lead is purposely "blown off." More often than not, a lead or call slips between the proverbial cracks and is lost.

For networking, sales-related inbound calls and referrals, developing a system for following up with your contacts is key to your ongoing success. Here the system I use:

1. After I've make a contact, I'll decide if this person is a potential customer, a potential partner, a referral resource or just someone who is a nice person. I do this immediately after the event is done, so all of the people I've met are fresh in my mind and I can remember them when I look at their cards.
2. During my evaluation time, I'll assign these contacts with a letter or number, denoting how important they are to me. I use "A" for most important (potential customer or hot referral resource), "B" for the next step down (potential partner or warm referral resource), and "C" for least important (seems like a cooler partner or referral/lead resource, but could heat up later). I do have a "D" category for the people who can't really help you, but are just good people.
3. The next day, after I've entered them into my database or address book, I'll write my "A's" and "B's" a quick personal note to thank them for their time. I won't try to schedule any kind of follow-up meeting or call in this note. I just make it short and sweet. I give the note a few business days to make it to their office, depending on location, at which point I'll call to follow up.
4. For my "C's" and "D's," I'll e-mail them a quick thank-you the next day. I only mail notes to "C's" and "D's" if they don't have e-mail addresses. I've already added the "C's" to my database, but I've discard the "D's."

If you're like me, you live and die by your Microsoft Outlook contacts database, which is dutifully copied over to your BlackBerry, Treo or other kind of PDA. To help easily enter your stack of business cards, consider purchasing a card-scanning product like CardScan. A flatbed scanner with optical-character recognition (OCR) can be a big help, too.

All of that is just for immediate follow up. Some people I know have newsletters and complete calling programs to continually follow up with people they've met. I have a similar kind of program, too. Sure, it is a lot of work. But the people I know who make following up a part of their business plan are the most successful people I know.

You may be asking yourself why I discard the "D's?" They're people who are nice enough to rate a quick "thank you." But at the particular point when I've decided they're a "D," it's only because I've determined they won't be able to give me any kind of follow-up business. In subsequent meetings, they may make it to a "C," "B," or even "A." Never say never.

What if you don't follow up? Simply put, you end up being just "that gal" or "that guy" to a lot of people you meet. You're not dependable, thoughtful, or most important, the person that pops up in their mind when they think of your profession. Or worse yet, they forget about you entirely, which means all of that time, energy and money you've sunk into networking has a return on investment (ROI) of exactly zero.

In this world of sameness, where chances are a lot of people have your job at other companies, you don't want to be just "that gal." And you certainly don't want to be a nobody. If you make following up a part of your daily business life, you'll be well on your way to success.