For some Networking meetings, the agenda is obvious: Your companies are considering doing business together, or you’re looking for a job and this person might help you get one. But many professionals find themselves in networking meetings where the goals are murkier. Perhaps a friend thought you’d hit it off with someone and introduced you, or you met the person briefly at an event and they followed up for indeterminate reasons. In some cases, you’ll decline the invitation (see “5 Ways to Say No to a Networking Request” for my tips on how to do it). But if the connection seems promising, you may decide to say yes and see where it leads.

Here are four ways to ensure your networking meeting is productive and meaningful, even if the agenda is amorphous.

First, it’s important to be clear on your reasons for accepting the meeting. It may be to do a favor — say, a friend asks you to advise his sister-in-law on career opportunities. You might have informational goals (the person works in a field you’d like to learn more about), social goals (you think they could become an interesting friend), or long-term business goals (there’s a possibility you might collaborate someday, but you’re not sure when or how). The possibility of making a friend or learning more about artificial intelligence isn’t an “agenda,” per se, but it can help you keep in mind why you agreed to the meeting and help you steer the conversation accordingly. It will help the meeting feel like a win, instead of a waste of time.

Next, align your personal goals with the type and duration of your meeting. If you’re doing a favor for a friend, spending several hours dining one-on-one with your contact is going above and beyond; a phone call would likely suffice. Alternately, if you think the person could become a personal friend, you may want to invite them to a more relaxed event, where you can get to know them better. Just this week, when I found myself with an extra ticket to a hockey game, I invited a business colleague with whom I’d spent a lot of group time but hadn’t connected much one-on-one.

“Meeting for coffee” has become our professional default, but it doesn’t have to be the only way to get to know someone. Remember that, depending on your preferred level of investment in the relationship, you can suggest a range of options that vary by time and energy investment, including a 30-minute phone call, a 60-minute phone call, a small group gathering (like a lunch or dinner), a large group event (like a cocktail reception), or a coffee or meal for just the two of you.

During the meeting, be sure you’re asking the right questions. Even without a formal agenda, it’s important to draw the person out based on your reasons for accepting the invitation. If you’re doing a favor for someone, let them take the lead; you can simply ask, “How can I be most helpful?”

If you’re interested in learning from them and have an informational goal, let your curiosity shine and have your questions ready. If your new contact works at NASA, for instance, you could ask her: What’s the hiring process like? What projects are you most excited about and why? What’s a typical day like? How do people get selected as astronauts? What do you think of private companies in the space exploration field? People enjoy being asked about their area of expertise, and if your questions are sufficiently nuanced, you can almost guarantee an interesting encounter.

If you’re thinking of someone as a potential friend or long-term business partner, your goal is to get a better feel for chemistry and compatibility. Are they easy to talk to? Does the conversation sustain your interest? Do you get a sense that they’re trustworthy? Competent? Because you’re not planning to rush into a formal relationship, you don’t have to make any snap decisions; the main goal is to start the evaluative process and determine whether you’d like to spend time with them in the future.

Finally, too many networking meetings are wasted because they’re treated as one-offs. If there’s no follow-up, even someone with whom you’ve had an in-depth meeting will be quickly forgotten. If you’re meeting with someone purely as a favor, you don’t need to worry about this, because your goal isn’t to establish a relationship with them — it’s to solidify your relationship with your mutual friend. But for anyone else, if you enjoyed their company, it’s useful to create your own follow-up plan.

Contact management systems, such as Contactually, can help you stay organized, or you can do it on your own with calendar reminders. During the meeting, strive to learn at least one thing about the person that can serve as a cue to reconnect. For instance, if they love sports, perhaps you can invite them to join you for a game in the future; if they want to meet more people in the consulting industry, you could loop back next month with an offer to join you and a friend who’s a consultant for lunch. Those thoughtful gestures, repeated over time, will make even the most tenuous of initial connections stick.

The best networking takes a long-term approach; you can be yourself and get to know others authentically because you’re not fixated on making an immediate “sale.” Agreeing to a networking meeting without a formal agenda may seem like a waste of time, with little ROI. But by using the approach above, you can create your own metrics for success and potentially develop life- and career-changing connections.