Tricks to Build Relationships When Meeting Influencers

by Scott

How many follow-up emails do you think influential entrepreneurs, investors, and authors receive after going to a heavy networking event like a dinner, conference, or retreat?

If they actually hand out cards, my guess is a ton.

 

I’d like to share a few props and tricks that I use to create an interesting excuse to continue the dialogue after I meet an “A Player.” Before I talk guerrilla networking tactics, let’s paint a picture of how most people treat these interactions in order to understand why these untraditional tactics can be effective.

After their initial conversation, the typical networker asks the “A Player” for their card so they can send a follow up email to establish the connection (Score!). The next day they …
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The Power of A Follow-Up Progress Report

by Scott

One of the most powerful things you care do in the relationship building process is to let someone know how they’ve helped you learn, grow or succeed. We’re presented opportunities to provide those who’ve helped us with feedback on positive results constantly, yet few people actually follow through.

Human interaction is the biggest catalyst to progress in our lives:

An introduction may help you close a deal.

Product feedback may inspire an enhanced iteration.

Advice over coffer may dramatically change the shape of your career.

Each one of these interactions represents an instance where someone else has afforded you their time, energy, or reputation to enhance your well-being. Sharing the fruits you’ve reaped from their labor accomplishes …
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An Intentional Approach to Networking Video

by Scott

Awhile back I did a presentation to New York’s CTO School about how to bring an intentional approach to networking. Here is the video that accompanies the slides which I previously shared.

The structure of the talk:

How to be Helpful to others
Developing a Networking Plan
Maintaing Your Network

 

Here are the slides that accompany the presentation.

If you enjoyed this presentation and are interested in networking you might also like:

How to Break in and Build A Network in the Startup Scene from Scratch

The Art of Asking Someone to Meet for Coffee

The Biggest Networking Fail

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How to Write An Effective Follow Up Email

by Scott

One of the biggest fallacies I see amongst professionals who write cold emails is their failure to follow up. Knowing how to write an effective follow up email effectively is probably the easiest way to increase your response rate if you aren’t already doing it.

Make It Easy

The optimal way to follow up to an unanswered email is by replying to the first one you sent. This practice allows you to:

Keep the followup short
Make the initial context easy for the reader to find
Emphasize that they have not responded to you

By initially following up on a separate thread, you’re putting an onus on the reader. Often they didn’t read or forgot the initial email. As a result, when they receive …
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How to Cold Email Prospects

by Scott

I’ve written hundreds of cold emails over the past year and come to a few conclusions about how to elicit a positive response. I’ve also received a few myself and consistently see people use strategies that just haven’t worked for me. Here’s my two cents on how to cold email prospects effectively.

Do:

Keep it 4 sentences or less (ideally 3).

When you send someone you don’t know a novel to read, you’re making them work. Busy people have too much on their plate to dedicate time to a speculative narrative – so they don’t read them diligently (this may not apply if your email domain rhymes with moogle or hicrosoft).

Most long, cold emails I receive are from JV sales people that rarely …
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CTO School Presentation: An Intentional Approach to Networking

by Scott

I recently gave a presentation on networking to New York’s CTO School. The focus of the talk was on ways to provide value to others and how to bring an intentional, targeted approach to networking:

Video:

  

Slides:

 

To accompany this talk, I created a page for CTO School with other resources on networking. Feel free to check it out.

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Networking Tip: Are You Using the Act of Connecting Strategically?

by Scott

Have you ever met a great contact, then found yourself cautious to email them months later because you’re not sure if they even remember who you are? I sure have.

I’ve wrote about this before, but the biggest networking fail is consistency.

A great networker strategically massages his network in order to turn acquaintances into trusted professional contacts and friends. The methodology for doing this is simple – consistently provide value to these acquaintances without expecting anything in return. Just like content marketing, time + value is the magic formula.

Anyone who’s attempted this realizes that building relationships this way can be challenging and time-consuming. After all there’s only so many relevant articles to ping, feedback to provide, or potential hires to source …
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The Art of Making Things Easy

by Scott

Many people miss opportunities because they don’t make things easy when they ask for something.

The best way to increase the number of positive responses you receive when you ask for anything, is to make it as easy as possible for the other person to follow through. The more difficult fulfilling a request appears, the less likely they are to do it.

I want to take this opportunity to highlight a few examples of “making things easy” done right so people know what this looks like.

Hiring

 

This is an email from my buddy David Fraga. Instead of making me hoof it over to the Shutterstock site to fetch all this information to forward along, he linked to it throughout the ask email. He …
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