Break Into Biz Dev: The Do’s and Don’ts of Making Introductions

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Once upon a time, I was an introduction fool. I made every classic mistake in the book…and in the process probably pushed people away from me that I ultimately wanted to build a relationship with : (

Making Introductions

Photo Credit: jo3design via Compfight cc

To demystify some of the mistakes I made, I’m sharing a 12 minute video on The Do’s and Don’ts of Making Introductions.

This is taken from the relationship building section of my new series on How to Land A Business Development Job and serves as a follow up to the last video I shared on the challenging realities of landing startup jobs.

Relationships are important for countless reasons, but within the context of landing a startup job, they’re incredibly value because they can help you overcome the signal to noise challenge..

What The Heck is The Signal to Noise Challenge?

[note color=”#b0fdeb”]There’s a zillion and one non-technical people trying to get jobs at startups right now. Founders don’t have the time to look through all the resumes so they use their personal network as a filtering mechanism.

As a result, candidates who get introduced to them by people they know and trust not only get the first look at opportunities, but also come in at a higher plane than people who attempt to go through the standard application process.

Oh and by the way…

…In many cases, the best opportunities aren’t even made publicly available because founders want to avoid the resume onslaught all together. They rely entirely on the company’s personal network to identify candidates.

This means if you don’t have a tie to a company, you’re not getting a look at an opportunity.

[/note]

One way to overcome the “Signal to Noise Challenge” is by building relationships with high leverage people that have the potential to help you out. You can lean on these relationships to seize available opportunities as well as discover new ones.

The video below outlines and explains 1 of 5 key relationship building strategies: making relevant introductions.

The following 12:19 video is taken from my expanded  Break Into Biz Dev course that will be available to email subscribers in 2 weeks. It outlines:

  • The value of making introductions
  • What scenarios are appropriate for making introductions (warning: a lot of people screw this up)
  • My entire thought process broken down on a real introduction I made. Yes, you get to peak in my inbox. OMG!
  • Why you should avoid shotgun introductions like the plague…again with a real example – this time of WHAT NOT TO DO
  • An exact script / framework you can use for making email intros when you see an opportunity
  • Bonus: The value of an introduction followup with an exact script you can use

Relevant introductions can be an amazing way to build relationships because it initiates the give and take process which is vital for rapport building.

It’s absolutely critical that you approach thees opportunities with care because you’re dealing with someone else’s most valuable resource – their time. When you offer that up without adding a ton of value and asking, you actually end up hurting yourself. Again, I know because I botched this plenty when I was a young buck.

Interested in more tactical tips you can use to land a startup job or just be a better networker? Join more than 300 handsome people that have signed up for my free Break Into Biz Dev course to get access to them today

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