1. 64 | Retail Trends
Do you have problems remembering names? And
do you notice others have problems remembering
your name too? Do you think it’s important to do
so? If you’ve replied yes, then read on and learn
an extremely useful skill in many social situations.
The problem of not being able to correctly remember other people’s
names can make us seem rude and ruin what could be the agreeable
part of business relationships.
The problem of people not being able to remember our name and
forgetting us or be able to mention us or identify us from a pile of
business cards is a common one. If someone doesn’t call us by the
right name this won’t help us have a good conversation, as it is know
that good conversations can lead to good relationships and these in
turn can leasd to good business deals.
SOLUTION:
As in the lion part of networking skills that help professionals, it’s im-
portant to have an approach that includes 3 parts: A strategy, a men-
tality or attitude and the necessary group of skills and techniques.
Strategy: Calling people by their names is vital in building relation-
ships. Traditional methods result in poor results which is why we
should be open to learn and use different methods than the usual
ones.
Mentality: You’re not the only one to have this difficulty (in fact, 95%
of people at my workshops, key-notes or classes say they are no good
at remembering names. Your memory might be good but perhaps
the way you use it isn’t the best (then after complaining at not being
able to remember names, people immediately say they have “a bad
memory”). And the time we dedicate to this important ritual is not
in proportion to the same. Professionals are surprised when, during
my workshops I ask them to look and see how long a presentation
between two people takes with the usual method: around 6 seconds!!!
It’s impossible to learn someone’s name and teach yours in 6 seconds.
That’s why the first thing to do is to devote a bit more time to the
process whenever possible (we’ll see how) Don’t wreck your efforts
with negative thoughts: “I can never remember names.” Rather think:
“Today I’m going to learn the names of 5 people and will memorise
the name of one of them and introduce them to someone”.
valter alcoforado barreira | Executive Director , KNOwing counts
Business training skills
YOUR MEMORY’S
JUST GREAT!!!
How to remember the names of people you meet at networking
activities (lunch-debates, golf courses, seminars, conferences,
social events...) and make yours memorable!
The Set of Skills To learn someone’s name:
• Repeat the name you’ve just heard (António Oliveira). Say, “Hello
António, very pleased to meet you.”
• Ask or say something about the name. “António is a name I really
like, I chose it for my son”. There are ‘1,000’ other possibilities, be
creative. The way a name is written is another possibility to explore:
“Cátia. Is that with a ‘C’ or with a ‘K’? Whenever you’re writing a
name down, make an image in your mind. Since the vast majority of
people learn visually, that means you learn better when you visualise
something. If the person has a badge or a business card with their
name use them too to visually memorise the name.
• Ask for the surname separately. “What’s your surname?” That way
you’ll hear the name repeated separately and clearly and not run
together with the first name.
To teach your name:
• Repeat your first name. “Valter. Valter Barreira”.
• Separate the names: Say the names clearly and distinctly, separating
the first name by a pause between saying the surname. Don’t run the
two names together since one of them will seem unintelligible.
• Give a clue or mnemonic. “Valter with V “ . With international
contacts I usually say “It’s like Walter but with a ‘V’.” If I’m wearing a
name badge or hand out my card I point out the ‘V’.
Other ways of learning names:
• Give a meaning to the name. Attach some meaning to the name
(or part of it) so you can visualise a picture with it. Taking the ex-
ample António Oliveira, I can imagine my son “António” playing in
a park under the shade of an ‘olive’ tree.
• Then, associate the image with a characteristic of that person which
stands out (and yes, we’ve all got one). For example, in this case, my
friend is fairly dark (besides, being a golfer he’s quite tanned) so that
I associate this tan with the summer (the time of year when my son
‘António’ was playing in the shadow of the ‘Olive’ tree.
Learning someone’s name and teaching yours is the best beginning
to an excellent relationship. So forget the 6 second ritual and begin
practising this method.