Here's a bummer: You've just met a potential customer that's likely to drop an impressive amount of money in your company, you've talked for about an hour, you've laughed, even shared some personal details about each other when you suddenly realize that you can't remember the guy's name. It's too late to go "What was your name again?" and a cliche like "I remember you well, but I can't recall your name" is way out of this league. Question: What do you do now?
I propose something even better: What follows is a list of a few tips on how to protect yourself from embarrassing situations like the one from above! Sorted in ascending order are the most (according to the author, that is) helpful things one could do to store a name in their memory:
6. Associate the person's name with an unusual feature of the person's face
If anyone asks, I didn't tell you this! This tip may sound a little, how should I put it, unethical, even racist but some people swear on it! Associating a big nose, for example, saved me an awkward situation in a computer hardware shop in which I've been many times but never before remembered the manager's name.
5. Associate it to a word, an item or a famous person
For example, Will can easily be pictured as the funny guy chasing aliens in a black suit, Jack goes pretty nice with a well-played hand of another Jack and three more Aces, and Phil (hey, that's me) can feel.4. Make sure that's their name!
Say what? No, seriously, let's say Jim introduced you to a guy that's, most probably, going to be a customer of yours anytime soon. The thing is, thought, Jim knows the guy since they were kids and he said: "Hey, Stephen, that's Dick!" Dick, however, does not kindly appreciate being called like that in formal meetings, so he might not be very comfortable in the situation. So, you can say something like, "Hey, Dick , nice to meet you. Bla-bla-bla, is that, by the way, what you like to be called?". This would not only boost your prestige, but help you remember Richardo's name. Yes, Richardo.
3. Imagine writing the name in the air
Some scientist somewhere have proven that (that's some source, huh!) writing secretly your new contact's name in the air would help your brain put it in the long-term folder. I can verify. Just make sure they don't see you.2. Imagine their name on their forehead
Yes, yes, yes, good old F. Roosevelt's strategy was to picture the names of people on their forehead. I tell you, this is a great way to have fun at boring meetings and, at the same time, do something useful.
1. Don't sleep!
The best way to remember somebody's name is by, wait for it, actually paying attention to what they say. Many people think that they can't remember people's titles because of, I don't know, some secret psychological or even physical condition - namopathia - well guess what, guys, you're still sleeping!