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Episode 15: How to get more warm intro's
To get to more intros we need to make it as easy as possible for our connectors to say yes by taking the guesswork out for them.
Farhan Manjiyani
April 22, 2024
👋 Yo! Welcome to the next episode of How to Negotiate where you learn how to grow your career and income with better negotiation strategy in less than 5 minutes.
“Do you know anyone with abc background?”
We’ve all asked this question to our network and try not to get our hopes up because the response is often some variation of “no sorry”.
This question often ends up with a “no” because we have the right idea but wrong execution.
It’s not just knowing the person / how to reach them. It’s also about how to introduce you, how to contextualize your ask with context, and how that might reflect on the connector.
To get to more intros we need to make it as easy as possible for our connectors to say yes by taking the guesswork out for them.
3 things to start doing:
Find the connection for them
Instead of asking if they know someone, search for a connection of theirs and ask if they can confirm they know them well enough for an intro.
For example, if I am looking for a warm intro at OpenAI, I can search for who I think is connected on LinkedIn and search through their connections to ask for a recommendation
When you click on the search function and filter by people, go to ‘all filters’
You will have the option to enter in the name of the person you want to be a connector for you.
Write a forwardable intro
Write an intro with all the context necessary that they simply need to forward to the relevant contact.
I recommend following this template (copying the example below)
From: krystle @ getbentobox.com
To: alex.iskold @ techstars.com
Subject: Intro to Danny Meyer at USHG for Bento Box
Alex, thank you for passing this note to Danny.
Danny,
Bento Box (Techstars '15) is building a digital operations platform for restaurants starting with mobile friendly web sites and marketing tools. Here is our demo day pitch.
We now have more than 100 top New York City restaurants as customers including most of the Union Square Hospitality Group, Meatball Shop, Breslin, etc. The restaurants on the platform are seeing significant increase in conversion and reservations. We've been growing across our key metrics 30 percent month over month and are now expanding to Boston and Portland.
I've been a follower and admirer of yours for years, and I would love to get your feedback on our business.
Thank you,
Krystle
Once they get this from you, they only need to hit ‘forward’ and add a few lines on top.
Note: you should follow double opt-in - meaning you first ask the person if they are willing to be introduced/can make time and then you forward the context.
Close the loop
People like to feel helpful and if you make it clear how helping you made an impact, it helps pay it forward (for yourself and others). After your conversation, go back and update whoever provided the intro for you.
Let them know that you were able to get connected and how the conversation was helpful for you. Even if it helped you realize what you weren’t looking for, that’s still helpful to know for that person.
Following these tips minimizes the amount of work for the connector and will help you increase the # of people willing to do this for you. A helpful question I always ask when requesting a connection is ‘what do they need to guess at?' which guides what context I add.
As always, feedback is a gift and I welcome any/all feedback on this episode — good or bad. See ya next week 👋
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✨ Special thank you to Gigi Marquez who suggested I start this newsletter 🙏