Once a month I'll be presenting a stellar success story from someone who has read my books or participated in the Relationship Masters Academy. This month's story comes from Terence Kirby and highlights how a little audacity can lead to a lot of success. Terence is the VP of Sales & Marketing at School Gate Guardian. He tweets @KeepSchoolsSafe.-KF

"Right out of college, I was one of about 75 candidates for a pretty good sales job.  For whatever reason, the owner of the company and I hit it off.  He promised me I would be one of five follow-up interviews and that he would contact me no later than Monday of the following week.

Monday came and went and I started getting nervous that I was wrong that we had hit it off, and that he was just being polite.  I still had not heard from him by Wednesday so I called him and asked him point blank if he still intended to have me back for a follow-up interview. His response was yes; he would call back by the end of the week to schedule. I took a deep breath and simply said, 'Since I have you on the phone right now, why don't we just go ahead and schedule that meeting?'

Since this was for a sales position this seemed to be the right thing to say since it's a situation I'd be likely to face in the field – you're often promised sales presentations by prospective customers when they never intend to meet with you.  He seemed to like the way I went about this and said, 'Sure, let's meet for lunch at my favorite restaurant this Friday and we will talk about the position'.  I got the job that Friday.  He later told me that by me forcing the appointment on him he felt I was the right candidate for the job.  As you can see below I am now the VP of Sales & Marketing for a successful software company.  Thanks for the reminder for success!!!!"

You're welcome Terence! Tell me about a time you won by being audacious – or what's holding you back.

In the teaser, we list the Anchors, ask if there'’s anyone the invitee would specifically like to meet, and then WE act as their ambassadors to make that connection happen.

This method is VERY successful, but only appropriate for larger, big-name events.

Here's my time-honored method for quickly and effectively following up after collecting large numbers of business cards at conferences, conventions and other networking events.

The three basic steps are:

1) Take notes on the card while talking to the person.
2) Immediately decide if you intend to followup -- if yes, put the card in your left pocket. All others go in your right pocket.
3) Immediately after you collect the cards, spend 5-10 minutes sorting the cards according to your priorities and categories.
4) Rank the importance of each card (Potential Hires: is the person an "A" candidate, or a "C" candidate?)
5) Followup with specific emails or phone calls within 48 hours, and delegate if you can (the notes, categorization and ranking makes delegation much easier).