I’ve just posted a free business development class on Udemy called “BD 101: How to Get Meetings With Any Company.”
The focus of the class is how to go about getting meetings with people you don’t know. This class is ideal for entry level BD/Sales people who will need to maverick their way into getting in the door or people who think they might want to work in business development at a startup.
The class is broken down into 5 video lectures spanning just under an hour:
Introduction to the class and setting yourself up for success
Finding and identifying decision makers
Introductions and how to ask for them
Cold email tactics and scripts
A primer on effective cold calling (includes scripts)
I originally taught this …
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I’ve been playing LinkedIn like a keyboard this week and thought I’d share one of my favorite LinkedIn hacks.
An essential task when building out a hitlist is identifying the first and last name of the decision maker. I’ll use this information to figure out their email address and have a name to call.
Let’s say I’m trying to connect with an app developer at the NFL. Unless you have a tricked out LinkedIn account, you’ll often run into this….
I need to get Marco’s last name in order to contact him and don’t feel like shelling out a couple hundred bones. A simple trick you can do here is google the target’s name and title as it appears in this profile.
Would you look at that!? …
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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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At some point in a deal, partnership, or sale you’re bound to encounter request that you can’t accommodate.
“Does your product have this feature too?”
“Can we have it for this price instead?”
There’s a right and a wrong way to handle these type of situations.
Within the framework of striving to drive the most possible value for your company, the goal is to persuade the other side to maintain compliance despite the fact that you can’t accommodate a request.
The Right Way:
Prepare to have your mind blown by a seemingly obvious formula on how to say no.
As my devilishly handsome colleague Lee Zucker reminded a few days ago, the best way to handle these scenarios is to say no and provide a reason immediately …
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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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Every time I’m pitching someone, I always try to make fun of my life in some way. In fact, I intentionally seek out opportunities to do this.
A lot of business development and sales is about likability. Given two equal products, buyers will purchase from the seller they like more. Hence, by making myself more likable, I increase my odds of succeeding.
There are many components to likability; some which we can control, others that we can’t (like being 6’4, tan, and really, really ridiculously good-looking – crap). One aspect of likability we can control is how relatable we are.
How Being Relatable Enhances Likability
People like people that they can identify with. There’s an inherent sense of understanding injected into an interaction when you …
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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
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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