Episode 147: The Biotech Networking Playbook Part 3 – How to Turn New Connections into Lasting Relationships

Oh, the post-conference follow-up where networking either becomes a relationship or quietly disappears. Poof! You're listening to Bio from the Bayou, empowering biotech leaders with the tools, assets, and expertise to improve healthcare outcomes.

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Serving the entire Gulf South, but recorded in the heart of New Orleans. Welcome back to Bio from the Bayou. I'm your host, Dr. Elaine Hamm, the executive Executive in Residence at Tulane School of Medicine, and I have my co-host with me today, James. Hi, James.

Howdy. Glad to be back.

Third time's the charm.

Then I go away again for a while.

And then you go away, and then I dream up another reason to bring you back on, but that's all right. All right. So, this is the third of our series of networking. We have talked about all the incredible prep you should have done, the dossier you've created. We've talked about how not to just shove a bunch of artichoke dip into your mouth, how to work the room. Now, we keep saying the most important part at every episode, but This is where a lot of people drop the ball.

For realsies, we mean it this time.

We super duper mean it. And that is the post the networking event. And honestly, the thing that I'm kind of the worst at, to be quite honest. I'm good at prep, we know that. I've practiced enough to be good doing during the event itself.

That's where I'm great.

Then, uh, the after. I'm tired, I've done my thing, I've checked my boxes, and I put my business cards that I've collected into a pile and they stare at me on my desk and I go, oh, next step. And that's the after, but it's the most important piece. If you don't do this part, why on earth did you go to the event in the first place? So let's talk about the after.

Yeah, I mean, I think that's where a moment of networking, whether that be a one-on-one meeting, a chance encounter, as we talked about, or intentional at a reception. It's where you transform that, that connection into a relationship because you show that you care enough to do the follow-on, which is, let's face it, the hard part. You're exhausted and you need to do the follow-on and become a relationship, or that moment quietly disappears.

Yeah. And again, why go if you're not going to do this part of it? I think the problem is that, and I'm guilty of this, is I treat it like a task, an administrative task, and not what it really is and what it should be, which is curating a relationship. And that is, I think, makes this more genuine and less of a politician bullshitty kind of thing that we do. It is about maintaining relationships. And we ended our last podcast a little bit on the notes that you take. The notes that you take on people during the networking events aren't just, you know, I'm going to send them a pitch deck. It's little things. You mentioned your daughter's going to graduate this year. You're going on a trip. You like Chablis and whatever it may be, you've taken those notes and you've integrated that into your CRM. CRM system, and it can be a real CRM system where you document things like that, where I do put notes like that in there. I keep in a version of index cards that, I mean, this is a tip from Bill Clinton. I mean, he kept, and Elizabeth Dole kept index cards of people that had these little facts on it, just like I did in the sorority house. I keep that information because then it makes my follow-up genuine. It isn't just a pitch deck. I hope you enjoyed your trip to Italy. Did you find any good restaurants? Is such a more interesting way to follow up with someone than, here's a deck, enjoy, bye.

Yeah, it's, it, I think it shows that you were actively listening and remember what was discussed beyond just what you wanted. And it moves it past a spark to the ability to build something. And that's, you figure out what's special about where you come from, where you went to school, what you're doing, and leverage that stuff. Because I think Elaine and I are fortunate that if you have connections to New Orleans or San Diego, There are so many conferences there that somebody's going to one of those cities. You'd be like, hey, here's a restaurant that next time you go, you should go to, or here's something off the beaten path where you'll impress people. And those little things matter. And I guess the question— and so if you've done that, you've done your homework, you've taken your notes, you have your follow-up ready, how quickly should you do your follow-up, Elaine? When should that happen?

So I think in theory, to help it make it less overwhelming for me, I will do as much as I can that night. After the event and, or on the plane ride home, I try to get them over and done with. But if you aren't able to do that, I know people that prioritize, you know, someone that is really high on their priority list, they do within 24 hours. And then someone that they enjoyed meeting, maybe a couple of days. I will say it makes it challenging. And I'd love to get your thoughts on this of like, after a big meeting, we're all inundated with our inbox and you don't want to get lost. And so I do tend to think, I think about that, like, or if they mentioned that they're going to be traveling after the conference, making sure that I drop a note and say, it was great to meet you. I'll follow up with you in 2 weeks after you're back from your trip. But how do you navigate that? Because you come back to a very full inbox, and they do too.

It's the same kind of thing, I think. It's, if it's something that obviously there is immediate interest, do that right away. Get that one out, get it going. But if it's something where it's not urgent, or it is kind of, you don't want to say, but it's obviously something where the interest is a little more down the line, And you've been in a bio where there are 27,000 people, I'll give them a week or two sometimes. And it doesn't mean I don't write it, but I'll set it to send 2 weeks later when their inbox is less full and they're actually not going to get as many. And it's a chance to pay attention. But now everyone's going to do that because we gave them that tip. So now we're going to have to move back to 3 or 4 weeks, but whatever.

Yeah, no. And I think there's another system. Harvard Catalyst had something like a 24/7/30 system where it's a note within 24 hours. You connect with them on LinkedIn or whatever within 7 days, and then you try to set up a face-to-face or meeting, video meeting, Zoom, whatever, within 30 days.

I like that.

That's a good way to think about it. I will say, like, the note is always key. And then the, I'm going to follow up with you in 2 weeks, and then put out a request on LinkedIn and remind them in your invite in LinkedIn why you're talking to them, why you're following up.

Always send a message with your LinkedIn invitation.

I want to punch people in the face. I hate it when they do that.

I don't think we should ever punch people for inept LinkedIn-ing, but we should guide them on how to do it better. Violence is not the answer, Ham.

Sometimes that is. And if you don't send me a note and it's just random, I just get so many LinkedIn invites. And I know that sounds very self-important. I get so many. I mean, they're spam, but we all get lots of LinkedIn invitations. And so, like, you'll have to remind somebody why you're inviting to connect. We met at this meeting. I was the woman that asked the question on your panel, or I wore the crazy glasses, or Whatever it is, remind them who you are and why you're connecting. That's such an important piece.

It can be a way to do follow-up from meetings where you didn't get to meet somebody. So say you see somebody who, for lack of a better word, is a luminary who was on a panel. But if you're like, hey, I saw your panel on this, I really enjoyed this point, I would love to connect. I have had more often than not people accept who I didn't even get a chance to meet in person because they were swarmed. Afterwards, but I genuinely remember something thoughtful from the point they made. And I said, hey, loved you on this panel, or loved you on this panel and this point you made. Would love to connect and chat after. Then we'll usually try and set up a virtual coffee or something and get to know each other. But you don't have to have met someone at an event to be able to leverage after work and connection. And that's something that is important too.

I like to do after conference hot takes, sometimes cold takes, because it takes me a while to actually post on LinkedIn sometimes after the conference, but If there's— I like to give summaries of the panels of like, if you weren't there, here's some great takeaways. And that allows me to tag the people that were on the panel and then follow up. Like you said, like, we didn't even have a chance to meet, but I really loved what you had to say. I get quotes from it. I record it on my iPhone, the panel, so I can actually pull actual quotes from the panel, or I take notes depending. But sometimes I'll just record it on my iPhone so I have a transcript. And then I try to make that, that post as genuine as possible. These days, lots of people use ChatGPT. I try to put myself in the post as much as I can, so it feels like me. I'm just gonna add that as a little tidbit.

So, um, you're basically making it easy for yourself, but more importantly, you're making it easy for the other person in doing this. You're increasing your chances, but it helps them get context cuz they've met as many people, if not more so than you have. Yeah. And it's hard for them to remember as well, especially if it's an investor. Holy heck. Like if you're pitching investors, you have to do something to make it easy for them to stand out.

Yep.

To let them know that you're more about the relationship than just the business transaction potential. And that takes a little more effort than just, hey, it was great to meet you. Here's my stuff. It's, you know, hey, it was great to meet you. Per our discussion, I've attached our deck. You'd probably be particularly interested in slides 2, 3, and 4. I put them up front for you. Or if you don't want to rearrange your deck, you want slides 7 through 10. That goes to the conversation we had where it shows them that you paid attention. And if they promised you something, say, hey, you know, when you have a moment, I would love to receive X, Y, or Z that you said. And that could be an introduction. It could be information back. It could be, hey, there's this conference. Could you send me the link? I tried to search it. Is this the one? Make it easy for them. But, you know, remind them of those things too, because they often may not remember. And it's the best of intentions. And that little push can get you what you need as well.

And all of those, the emails, the LinkedIn messages are documentation. I mean, it's, it's the things, it's the fodder you put into your CRM system. I'll get, we all have these millions of connections on LinkedIn and we may not remember who, how we met that person. So if you can go back and look through your messages of like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah, they reached out to me, we talked about this, and this is how we know each other, I might be able to actually make a more warm introduction. Or it helps me remember that I need to do XYZ. So all of those conversations, emails, LinkedIn messaging get funneled into a CRM system or index cards if you're old school like me sometimes. So, all right. That kind of leads into the next piece of it of how do you organize a follow-up? I do use a CRM system because my sad Excel spreadsheet just got a little too unwieldy, but I started out with an Excel spreadsheet of literally a tab for investors, a tab for pharma partners, all of those things that includes not just their contact information, but the information that the notes that I've taken about the meeting, the tidbits of Their daughter going to college, whatever it is, I keep it in there. A CRM system like Airtable, they have a great free version. I got so many contacts, I had to upgrade to the paid version, but it can be a really great way of tracking who you've met with, what's important to remember about them, and how you can curate a relationship with them down the way. Do you—

We're Airtable as well. And I'll tell you, we're so fortunate to have Daniela Gama on our team who Is, I don't, she does magic and wizardry with Airtable and can make it do appearances and dashboards and layer AI in to automate like draft responses or like, hey, it's been 6 months. Let me just generate a general follow-up to say, hey, how are you? And anything you can do, you always want to personalize it. Don't just use the draft. You want to go in and tweak it a bit, but anything like that, because in addition to organizing your network, you also really want. it to be a relationship and not a transaction. You don't want people to think, oh, they only email me when they want something. You want that organization of your network to help you build relational things as well.

Um, I think that's such a good point, James, that piece of like the follow-up post the conference, but then there's the follow-up follow-up, the way that you maintain a relationship that I think people often forget about. And this is, I think, such an overlooked, underappreciated part of how you build a strong network is the continued engagement, and it's not when you need something. How should people manage that?

That's the interesting thing. I think it's where you really have to organize your network, as you talked about, be memorable and intentional in doing that, but do that with that long-term mindset that gets us to that endpoint, to that goal. And just knowing that a relationship may not have an immediate payoff, but it could be 7 years down the line. And I don't think we talked about this before, but I still remember Bruce Talion, who was at Alonco years ago, came down, came down to like one of our conferences in New Orleans when I was at Tulane. And I was like, you're animal health. Why are you here? We don't have a vet school. And he's like, he basically was like, I just kind of just like, Poppy, you're aware that all of your experiments go through animals before they get to humans and that we're way better and faster in a marketplace that could generate money for your companies to do their work, to get things into humans. And I was like, I had never thought of it that way. And they tracked 5 projects they saw in the first year. It was 7 years before one of those projects had gotten far enough, but they started sponsoring the research on one of those projects from year, year 1 of 7 years before they did it. But they tracked them and watched them, and we stayed in touch and built a relationship and would have dinner and talk about our lives and what was going on on top of the work and where the science was. But 7 years later, that led to an investment in a program. And it's a long game. It's not a short game.

It's a long game. Yeah, absolutely. And I think it changes your mindset of like, not what you can do for me. And that is the easiest way for people to get the ick from you and not want to engage with you because you're going to come off like, I need a job. I need you to invest in my company. I need you to license my thing. And they're not going to want to talk to you because it's transactional and icky. I mean, let's be honest. And so I think that if you come with that vibe, that's going to stick with them. So you have to find ways to engage in a genuine way. And I think the first step, as you said, is to think of it as long-term. Of this is going to be someone I'm going to talk to 7 years from now. It's not about what they can do for me now. But the notes I take play into that. If they're in a certain research area, I keep track of publications in that. I don't know if you've seen this publication, but I thought of you when I saw this. Here you go. Enjoy. That's where that 2-lane access to the library where you can actually get publications that are usually behind a paywall comes in handy. I'm just like— But it's also a good touchstone of just like, I thought of you. I remembered something that you do, and it's not asking them for anything. It's, hey, this is an article I thought you would enjoy. And then I do this even with my friends of like, if I think of them, I text them. I'm really bad about keeping up with people. I'm a hermit by nature, and I have to— when I think of someone, I send them a text and it's literally just, hey, thought of you. Hope you're doing well. I don't have expectations of a conversation. In fact, I'd rather not, but I was thinking of them. Yeah, no, honey, you're the only person I talk to on the phone besides my mom. Let's be fair.

Only because you know that I'll keep calling until you answer.

Oh yeah, that is a thing. You do wear me down more than— it's— no, I love you. And I— and then you will until I call you back. But when I think of someone, I send them a note. Same thing with business too. If you see something, say something, and don't just come to people with an ask. That's gross.

Yeah. And this is why I think we missed this in our last podcast. So I'm going to drop it in now. But this is great for the follow-up. One way to make that happen is if you're comfortable with somebody, if you're having a great time, take a selfie at the conference and have that in your photo rotation. And those will probably be like, hey, this popped up. It was from BIO Europe 5 years ago. And send it to the group, which helps everyone in the group. You've seen me do that.

That's one of my— I know.

I love that.

No, it is nice.

I do that on a personal level. But selfies are a great way because you have your auto photo rotation on your phone where it's like, hey, moments and memories. And your phone will remind you, often because of the creepy whatever behind it or the helpful whatever behind it, however your perspective is that day. It's like, hey, you're headed to BIO. Here are all the people you're probably likely to see. I'm like, how does my phone know that? Probably from emails and, you know, the partnering app. Like, everything integrates now.

Yeah.

But your phone can become a really great tool to give you pieces to let people, hey, I'm really looking forward to seeing you. We have to update the selfie this year. Things like that that just give you Really intentional personal touchpoints.

Well, and that's actually very smart in that, like, it's also a good visual reminder. I mean, if you— Here's my face. Yeah, here's my face. But like Steve Blank, he recommends when you do customer discovery interviews and asking the person you're talking to take a selfie so that you have a visual cue of that person. You add that to your CRM.

Oh, interesting.

Oh yeah. Yeah. You were doing it without even knowing it, James, but like, that's part of the customer discovery process is you take a selfie. You have the other side of that is like it actually like is a way to like follow up with people and it makes it more personal and you have more of a connection, but it's also a great memory tip too.

So, yep.

I'm also a little bit old school. I'm going to add, if it's a really good conversation and they're also old school, I will send a handwritten thank you note.

Love that.

I'm just one of those people. And if you're talking to an older generation like me, we love a good handwritten thank you note. Oh, there's yours. Oh, look at you with your little stationery.

They just came today and the think I'm a boomer and crazy.

You are.

And for y'all out there, I have Connect handwritten thank you notes now that I designed. They're very simple. Oh, those are cute. But they allow me to send a little note to people because that is something I was raised on and I'm not great at, but I think it matters. I'm with you.

It does. With the right person, it can be everything.

Boomers for life.

Mine are not so close at hand, but I have ones for each company. And, you know, you don't want to be creepy about it. I had to stop myself. There was a family office group and I realized they did put their address on their card. They didn't put the address on their website. They don't want me to find them. So if I figured out a way to track them down and they get a note from me, it's going to come off real creepy. So I stopped myself. I thought they would appreciate a handwritten card, but they didn't have an address, so I'm not going to send them one. But you can send them one to their business if it's on their card. I mean, use your best judgment. But the older generation, such as ourselves, we like a good handwritten thank you note.

Yeah.

And it adds a little lagniappe, which we obviously love in the New Orleans area.

I'll tell you, even the young generation straight out of college, like, they are like so appreciative of a handwritten card. I think Ian is and everything else. And I've seen that, like, it's funny, my, you know, 1, 2 year out of college people love when I leave them a handwritten card. Oh, because they're not used to it.

They're not used to it. Yeah, yeah, it makes you stand out. But it also, I think, in a world of ChatGPT, authenticity is So hard to achieve these days. And it's, you just become, it sounds like a ChatGPT. Now I'm not saying that you can't use ChatGPT to help you write those thank you notes, but if you go that extra step, you stand out and that brings that authenticity piece to it. And I love, Ian, that you said that you agree, that you appreciate that. And as our younger generation representative here, that you agree.

He's getting old now though. He's over 25.

Oh yeah.

So he's old news.

But it's, it is nice. It is nice to like get something because we are so immersed in such a digital landscape.

And I think it's my job.

generation is especially so used to everything being email or text or whatever, social media. And I think getting something handwritten feels like somebody put more time into thinking about what they're gonna write and they put their hand to paper, right? So it does feel really nice to get those little handwritten things. Physical notes are, I don't know, something that we just don't think about, but they're really nice.

Yeah. They're nice. And that brings to the connection that there's another type of connection. You mentioned the digital, everything's digital. If you can set up a fun Zoom, like we have done in the past, James, of like, hey, these are cool people that have similar interests. Let's set up a little happy hour, like pandemic style is a good way to, to network yourself, but connect other people and be seen as a connector too.

No obligation. Yeah.

Yeah, no big deal.

Although I'm finding less and less people want to do that now because people are so tired of Zoom that they want to be in person more and more. Which can be a— when you're at a conference, set up a little side like, hey, it's just 6 of us. Do you want to come sit and not be overwhelmed? And that's one of the only ways I can get Elaine. She'll be like, well, who? And she's like, OK, those people are OK.

Who all's going to be there?

And she'll do a little small one, though. But she won't do another big reception. But Elaine, before we wrap up today, because you and I are of a different generation, and Ian is of the generation that is the younger BD people at this point, I'm curious if Ian has any thoughts on things we've said. What resonates with folks your age? Do you have any advice?

Because—

What are the kids into? Coming at it from the Gen X perspective, but you are the age of a lot of the people who are in these meetings now. And do you have any tips or things that you think are relevant?

Yeah, that's true. I guess I'm not in the biotech business development side, but I have heard a lot from y'all over the years I've worked with y'all. I think it is just that mutual respect piece that's really important where you are talking to each other like a person and you're not going into it with like, I need something from you. Especially, I think as a younger person, we're used to like Kind of being dismissed a little bit, like, oh, we're not as knowledgeable, which is true sometimes, but coming at it with like, I respect you as a person and you are your own individual and I want to get to know you more than just as a business partner.

Yeah.

That's also important, of course, but like, let's talk and figure out what we both connect with and then kind of go into the business perspective of it is, I think just being respectful of everybody is really important and from a younger generation perspective, that's one of the best things you can do as an older generation. Like, be respectful to everybody.

Barely older is what you meant to say. Barely older.

Just, you know, you guys are just getting on your 30s right there.

That's— Elaine's face as you said older. She's like, I wasn't specifically talking about you.

What'd you just say? Let's be real. I mean, this is probably 3 generations spanning here.

That's fair. You and I are both Gen X, even though I act like I'm not. We are. Nice try.

We're a little bit boomer at heart, and that's okay too. But the key is, I think, the respect. I think curiosity. Again, it goes back to that. Like, that is, if you're in science, you're naturally curious. Use that as part of your networking of become curious about people. And that really is my touchdown, is curiosity. It's hard to remember when you're in a room full of millions of people in suits, but it's a big part of it. Be curious.

Yeah.

All right. Anything else?

Be curious.

We gotta get Taco Bell as a sponsor.

Taco Bell, we're still open for sponsorship.

Slide into our DMs and get at us because I want some gorditas for life. Yes, live moss. I mean, that is the way to live moss though, is be curious. Live moss. Don't let good relationships and conversations disappear. Prepare, follow up, make it easy for people to want to talk to you, make it easy for people to want to get to know you, and think of it as a relationship in the long game more than anything.

It may mean you're not getting something in the moment, but that's not a reason not to continue the relationship because you never know where that person is going to wind up and what they're going to have to offer you regardless of where they are. And that's why it's useful to maintain those no matter what.

We are the perfect example of that. We met so many years ago and I didn't think you were going to hire me one day.

You never wanted to work for me.

You're like, oh, I was playing a long game. I knew you were going to hire me and give me health insurance one day. And I plotted ever since. No, we just genuinely liked each other. We kept up with each other over the years. You're one of those people again that speaks my name in rooms I'm not in, another important piece of networking. So, and then you might end up on a podcast together. You never know. Yeah.

That is an important after though. One thing we haven't talked about is speak the names of people, be committed, respect to other folks, help them build their networks.

Yes.

You know, and, you know, hopefully they'll do the same, but even if they don't, somebody will. Because they see that kind of example. And I think the other thing too is an important part of building relationships is when you've been part of a team and you leave a team and move on, regardless of what that is, maintain that relationship because you never know how that can be useful, and not just in a transactional way, but in a personal way.

Absolutely. Great place to end it, I feel like. Well, I'm going to have to think of other ways to bring you in. This was an obvious one because I met you through networking. We networked together, we follow up together. So, It's, it made a lot of sense. So we'll think of other subjects and maybe some of our listeners can think of other subjects for us to follow up on and have you come back on. But thank you so much for taking the time out of your busy schedule as CEO to come and connect with us on connecting. Do you see what I did there?

I love that. And just for people who want to do that with us, I'd love to just say, check out the, in addition to all the, the bio for the bio, all the websites, check out sandiegoisbetter.com. We just launched that for Idea Week. This is sort of like a South by Southwest, Elaine. This is something we could talk about too, but maybe we can get Elaine out to speak at something. We're doing our first ever Founder Summit, a day just to educate founders on things they don't often get. And we have so far, I think, 15 other organizations doing activations that week. It's the week of October 19th. But if you go to sandiegoisbetter.com, it's innovation, discovery, expression, and art. So there's some cool museum activations, some cool biotech, some tech, some defense. But if you're in the space and you like San Diego, it's a reason to come out and spend a whole week and get a whole bunch of different stuff.

And enjoy the beautiful weather. And you also have a podcast.

Oh, we do. We have the Connect Current. Yes.

Perfect. So be sure to find that on anywhere you can locate podcasts, whatever the line is. I should have my spiel down tight, but I don't.

Everywhere you podcast is what I always say. That's not how the kids say it, but that's how I say it.

Smash that like and subscribe. Mash it?

Oh my God. You're not beating the old allegations.

No, they smash the button. They not smash, not the kind of way you're talking.

I think smash means something else, Elaine.

No, it does not. It's about the YouTube button.

Yes, it does. Oh boy. I don't think you know what smash means.

Coming from the person that networks in a gym, get out of here with that nonsense. All right, with that, we do hope you smash that like and subscribe and that you follow us for more episodes of Bio Bye, y'all.

Thanks for joining us for Bio from the Bayou, and we hope you'll join us again.

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This podcast was edited by Resonate Recordings.