Networking Is Easy. Following Up Is Hard.

I love a good networking event.

User groups. Community conferences. Demo Jams. Random hallway conversations at Dreamforce. The kind where you walk away energized because you just met someone building something cool or solving a problem in a completely different way.

That part? Easy.

Put me in a room full of curious builders and I’m happy.

But what happens after the event? That’s where things fall apart.

You get home. You’re exhausted in that good “people battery drained” kind of way. You open your laptop and reality hits: inbox full, Slack notifications, project deadlines, life. A few days pass.

Then a week.

And suddenly you’re trying to remember…

Who was that woman working on Agentforce enablement?
What company was that guy from who wanted to collaborate?
Did I promise to send someone a resource?
Did I actually follow up — or did I just think about it?

This is the part we don’t talk about enough.

The struggle isn’t networking.

The struggle is follow-through.

And here’s the irony: we are Salesforce people. We design systems for a living so our clients don’t rely on memory. We build automation so opportunities don’t fall through cracks. We architect CRMs to track relationships at scale.

And then for our own professional networks? We rely on vibes and good intentions.

We connect on LinkedIn. Maybe we add a note in our phone. Maybe we drop a business card in a bag we’ll clean out “later.”

We would never architect a customer engagement strategy this way.

So why do we manage our personal professional relationships like this?

That’s why I was excited to host a session featuring Confirmed at our recent user group. The premise is simple but powerful: take your memory out of the picture.

Capture who you met. Where you met them. What you talked about. What you committed to. And yes — integrate it with Salesforce so it becomes part of an actual system, not just a fleeting thought.

What I love about it isn’t just the tech. It’s the mindset shift.

It moves networking from accidental to intentional.
From “I should follow up” to “I have a reminder and context.”
From serendipity to strategy.

Because relationships deserve systems too.

If you’ve ever left an event thinking, That was such a great connection — I really need to follow up, and then didn’t… you are absolutely not alone.

We recently did a full demo during our San Diego User Group session, walked through how it works, and talked candidly about the very real struggle of staying on top of your network when life and client work take over.

If you missed it — or want to see how it actually integrates into the Salesforce ecosystem — check it out here!

I’d love to hear your take: do you have a system for managing your network? Or are you still relying on memory and hope?