I was recently at Dreamforce, the largest enterprise software conference in the world. The goal was to connect with potential customers and future investors for Troops, as well as to get a better pulse on everything that is happening in the sales software ecosystem.
There’s a boatload of different tactics that can and should be employed at large conferences or events, and today I wanted to share two related to follow up and cold approaching busy people.
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At conferences of this magnitude everyone is meeting a ton of people. Business cards are exchanged and sometimes you can meet 50 people in one day.
One challenge in these brief interactions is creating enough rapport that someone will want to hop on a call …
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You may think that building relationships with awesome and accomplished people is about having amazing interpersonal skills…
But actually, to get close the best and brightest, there’s something else that’s far more powerful…and the reason why this is the case might be hard to hear.
REALITY: Most people that have already “made it” probably have enough friends and people to hang out with. In fact, at the highest levels, probably the last thing these people want is another person trying to get a piece of their time…coffee date request anyone?
That’s not to say that you’re not unique or don’t have the capacity to add value to their lives, but at a certain point, being socially-skilled just doesn’t cut it in the bigs.
What …
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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 : (
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 …
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“How can I help?”
Have you noticed the most notorious relationship building question in the book has it’s challenges…
What do you do when you’re looking to build a relationship with someone by providing value to them and they say, “I’m all good for now” when you ask how you can help?
You could say crap and pack it in, but I think there’s a better way that I want to share with you…
Photo Credit: IvanWalsh.com via Compfight
But in order to instill a greater sense of confidence around what I’ll soon propose, I want to highlight this important foundation:
Everyone and anyone regardless of how much “they’re crushing it” can have their progress accelerated by other people (whether they’re aware …
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I’ve tried this 4 times and I know it’s worked twice…
Having an understanding of how people behave puts you in a unique position to engineer situations so you achieve ideal outcomes…
Today I want to talk about a [theoretical] strategy you can use to further enhance positive feelings people have about you.
Have you ever been introduced to someone and totally rocked the in-person meeting? Feels good right…
In an ideal world, the person you just met reports back to your mutual contact that they got a lot out of the connection (and that you’re cool a badass). You want this to happen because it further supports your street cred and gives the connector a sense of gratification from the value …
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This is a sneaky post…
Recently somebody on twitter asked me when they should follow up with someone whose made an email introduction in the deal cycle.
After the first conversation?
Mid deal?
After the deal has closed?
Never? (Really hope you didn’t say never)
First off, if you aren’t following up with someone providing the results and/or a progress report after they’ve made an email introduction change that. It’s important because it signals that you’re grateful making these people more likely to make introductions for you in the future. Also 90% OF PEOPLE DON’T DO THIS which makes you stand out…
The second reason why you should follow up with someone whose made an introduction has implications …
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This post was originally featured on Technori.com, a leading digital publication for the world’s best starters.
There are certain people out there that seem to always have amazing things come their way. NEWFLASH. It’s not a coincidence.
Your ability to attract great opportunities comes down to a simple formula:
Size and Quality of Your Network + Transparency + Perceived Ability to Create Value = Volume of Opportunities
Let’s dig in.
Network:
Your “true network” is not everyone you’ve ever met. Your true network is the group of people who’d gravitate towards helping you out given the opportunity (assuming the ask is appropriate).
The larger your true network, the larger the pool of people who might decide to send an opportunity your way. Network quality has implications …
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The tactic I’m about to share is not only for sales and business development professionals; it’s a unique strategy that can literally be used to start an email dialogue with anyone who has an online presence.
One of the most important things in writing an effective cold email is to keep it short. However, communicating all the things necessary to elicit a response in 3-4 sentences can be extremely challenging. One way I’ve been able to overcome this and start dialogues with many c-level execs and big time entrepreneurs is by communicating my message in a more visually engaging format that’s easier to consume than text.
I’ve written about how to write effective cold emails before. The formula is simple:
Keep it short
Personalize it …
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