A lawyer I coach recently asked:

I have a quick question for you: do you have any blog posts or other guidance on a suggested method for reaching out to people who are contacts of colleagues, but not very close (the kind they met at a conference once), to try to get a meeting or other direct exposure to them?

Great question. Many have touched on that subject in books, articles, blogs.

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First step is to do research on the person and or his/her company. Look them up and see if they have any articles presentations etc on line. Read what they have written or presented and come up with a question you can ask them.

I think the best way to follow up is to have some kind of event you can invite them to, especially if it is an interest you share.

Invite him or her to lunch with statement “I want to pick your brain.”

One book you might consider is Book Yourself Solid by Michael Port. Here is an article.
Here is a link to the workbook for the book

Here also is a good summary of Keith Ferrazzi’s book Never Eat Alone.
More good reading 

Finally Jeffrey Gitomer wrote a book The Sales Bible. You can get it on Amazon but here is a pdf on Slideshare. Look at slide 56 which confirms my idea about inviting the person to something.