First of all, why do you need to remember your customers’ names? Well –as a young and successful entrepreneur, having a good memory and remember your customers’ names will serve you really well in the following situations:

- When you market to customers who are interested in your products
- When you sell to new customers who want to buy your products
- When you sell to old customers who want to buy from you again
- When you are building rapport and relationship with your future investors (they could be your parents’ friends whom you didn’t care about before)
- When you give your first speech at your first entrepreneur award banquet and you want to thank your investors

So how can you remember all the names that get threw at you everyday?

1) Concentrate – Focus on what you have at hand. I know there are always friends, parties, TV shows, magazines and shopping to do. Those things will not go away even you focus what you have right now. They won’t go away. Can you imagine how annoying it would be if you are talking to someone and his eyes start glazing to his cell phone? If you do the same, I guarantee you will not remember anything about this person. Nothing. Well – you could say… I will concentrate when I talk to my customers. Here is another issue. You cannot act differently when you are with different people. You want everyone to be your customer right? Would I buy from someone who eyes always graze over to his cell phone? I think not! I want to buy from someone who is attentive and concentrate on me now!

2) Draw picture in your mind – When you hear and see new information, try to draw pictures in your mind and associate this new piece of info to something else you already know. Some fun examples:

- I just met a new person whose name is Britney. Guess who I would associate this new to? Britney Spear.
- Another time I met a guy who comes from France and want to translate Youngster Inc into the French. I asked him where he is from and he said Paris. Guess who I will associate his hometown to. You’ve got it. Paris Hilton. Then I asked his name and he said my name is Philip. It just happened the brand of my home washing machine was also called Philip. This person will forever associate to my washing machine. J You do not say these thoughts out loud. These are just simple tricks that can help your memory.

3) Ask questions – Don’t be afraid, just ask. There will be times that you learned something brand new and there is nothing you can associate this idea to. Just ask questions. Ask whoever that just told you about the history of China. You didn’t know anything about China before. You didn’t know anyone who was from China. What do you do? Ask them questions. Ask them to tell you a story. I will always remember this Youngster story about this little girl who was diagnosed with cancer since she was born and sold over 1 million dollars worth of lemonade to support cancer research (Read What could be your next business idea?), but I just cannot remember her name. Do you remember the story about Snow white? Probably yes. But do you remember the names of the 7 dwarfs? I don’t think so.

I think I had proved my point. Now – go out there and practice. If you are into sport, join associations. If you are into singing, join the choir. If you are into reading, join a book club. If you are into speaking, join toastmaster. Whoever you meet next, practice your memory skill with them. 1) Concentrate, 2) associate their names with something you know previously or 3) just ask questions. Make them feel special. They all can become your next customers.

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