Networking: 2 Minute Training (special edition!): A Pen You Can Write With
You just met a great graphic designer— Incredible knowledge of his field and yours, business sense and a great personality. You take their card, a thick, slick, glossy masterpiece of printed graphic design built at 2-1/2 by 4″. You pull out your pen and write on the back “Call about pricing, Ask for (here you write their name). You shake hands, and slide the card into your pocket. Later, you retrieve the card, but the nice gel pen you wrote with has smeared everything into an unreadable mess.
Has this ever happened to you?
Polls, comments, and common sense tells us the same thing: People love their pens. People especially love their pens if they picked them out themselves. They love the way they feel, they love the way they write, they feel faster, more accurate, and more confident when they use their favorite pens.
But not every pen works in every situation.
Case in point: One of my designers filled out a FEDEX envelope with a red felt-tip pen. When I went to deliver the item, I noticed that the pen did not push down hard enough to fill out the carbon copies. I had to sit in my car and fill out the forms underneath. If I hadn’t been looking, or hadn’t noticed, that item would have sat in a FEDEX shipping center with no idea where it was going, or really where it had even come from…
Gel pens, and some water-based inks will not write on business cards with UV or Aqueous coatings. They are MADE to repel water. The next time you receive a card like this, I implore you: Take it to a store WITH YOU.
When perusing the pens at an office supply store, you will find that almost all have a pen display where you can write on paper to see how the pen works. Again, this display is set up because we LOVE our pens. Take your glossy card down there, and write a word, then try to smear it. Do this with every pen on display until you find a few that will work. Of these few pens, do some writing on the paper provided. Find the pens that meet your needs AND write on those troublesome cards.
If you have some of these troublesome cards, bring a few extras when networking, or better yet, have them branded for you by a promotional company. Do you use a special kind of pen? Tell us the brand, and why you prefer it!
I got burnt once with a gel pen. I met a hot networker for a promotional company. I wrote her cell phone on the back of her business card, and the thing smeared illegibly. Not only that, but when I called her in the office to get it, she didn’t remember me, and wouldn’t give out her personal number. Now I always carry black bic pens. They aren’t sophisticated, but they work.
Thanks for helping me to bypass this problem!
its really helpfull and informative. People smear my cards all the time. I’m not getting anymore glossy coatings. PERIOD.
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