I was at a networking meeting today and as usual I met a lot
of people and handed out as well as collected a stack of business cards.
One of the cards wins the “MOST INFORMATION EVER PRINTED ON
A BUSINESS CARD” Award. This card was a standard sized, white stock, black
print card. The entire card was in a font so small that I needed a magnifying
glass to read it through my bi-focals. The card was printed front and back from
margin to margin.
When the person handed me the card I just stared at it in amazement,
I scanned the card quickly to try and spot the name of the person. I couldn’t
find it. I kept looking for the person’s phone number. I couldn’t find it. I
tried to find out what type of business the person was in without reading the
entire card. I couldn’t do it. I couldn’t quickly find any information at all.
When I got back to my desk after the networking event I laid
all the business cards I had gathered face up on my desk, I will admit the card
that was print from side to side and top to bottom stood out from all the rest,
but not in a good way!
As I scanned all the cards I could easily see the names of
the people, on most I could see the phone number and on a few I could see a
business name. Some of the cards stood out because of the colors of inks used,
some because of the design, and one because of the size (it was a small card
sold by MOO). Nothing stood out on the “special” card.
I picked up the card to read it and see what was printed on
it. Lost in the middle of all the print was the person’s name. The name was in
the same size and font as all the rest of the information. I found the phone
number after a few seconds of searching and like the name it was the same size
and font. This person had listed 29 (I counted) services they offer. The 29
services were in the line after line of text.
OK, I think you get the picture, this card was a mess. As
far as I could see it was worthless.
I took it with me to meet a friend of mine this afternoon.
When I showed it to her she said it looked “cool”. I asked why, she thought it
was unique, she said look at all the print. I then asked her to find the name,
she didn’t think it was so “cool” after the first 10 seconds of searching.
The point is, a business card isn’t a resume nor is it a
marketing brochure, it is a reminder of who you are, and how to contact you. It
can have a little about what you do such as a title or simple words describing
what you do, but not a novel.
Imagine handing a prospect this card, if they started
reading it you would either be talking for 10 minutes without the prospect hearing
a word you said or you would be waiting 10 minutes for them to finish reading
so you could start your presentation.
Business cards should make an impression, look at your card
and ask yourself what impression is it making.
Lorin
No comments:
Post a Comment