I saw Matt Van Horn speak at SXSWi on how to be audacious enough to build business relationships from nothing. Here are my notes:
- make a list of your top ten companies and stalk them
- send quick 2-3 line emails (w/in 48hrs of meeting)
- mention one unique thing about yourself to help them remember you
- add them on your social network
- add value! do some research and thinking about how you can help them
- get a 1 on 1
- read Never Eat Alone
- fit as much info in the subject line as possible, very helpful
- LinkedIn is great for search (b/c of degrees of separation, FB could kill them if their search did this) and nothing else, don’t use to contact people
- Twitter is great for @replies for getting on people’s radar, pre-introduction
- Dunbar’s number says we can only maintain 150 connections, know yours, choose them wisely
- Major relationship decay occurs after 9 months of not seeing someone so make sure you at least contact important connections every 3-6 months
- get interesting people together, example: when you visit somewhere, tell all your friends to come to a happy hour and introduce them
- build a personal board of directors, mentors with whom you keep monthly contact
- when you go to a conference make a list of 10 must-meet people and find connections, introductions
http://schedule.sxsw.com/events/event_IAP7105