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What is the best way to get a warm intro via social networking?
Sales and Business Development executives constantly need to reach out to the business decision makers at the companies they target as sales prospects or business partnerships. The key is to get a warm introduction, and avoid a cold call whenever possible. With the advent of social networking for professionals (e.g., LinkedIn, Focus, and others) it is easier than ever to identify the individuals we want to reach out to. But the stigma of an unwelcome introduction remains, even when referred through someone in your own network. What best practices do you use for gaining these introductions, without offending or otherwise putting off your the person you wish to contact?
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1 Answer
It all depends on how useful your product is, when I used warm intros for good products it was never an issue, when you are essentially pushing someone else you know to recommend you, if they don't believe it's worth the other guys time then that will come over in the introduction.
Sales people need to be careful about using personal relationships to progress their sales, I don't want every salesman I know networking me every ten minutes when they have a minor change to their offering - it's a good way to get yourself deleted from my friends list. But I have no problem if they want access to a C-level exec and can convince me I won't be making an ass of myself for making the introduction because they have researched the business well and can show me the value in what they do.
So it's back to selling all over again, you want my intro, sell to me first, and then I'll make a decision. I must recieve over 50 contacts a month from sales people on LinkedIn but I only pass over 1 or 2 of those at most to decision makers. Random blah e-mails annoy me, you have to work harder to make it worth my support, because it's me that you embarass if you go in half-cocked in front of my professional network.
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