Author: Ali Albazaz / Source: The Next Web
You can’t build an empire alone. You need partners, team members, customers, investors, and other people to help you. But it’s hard to get to some people. Extending your network with the right investors, customers ,or future employees can be very tough. Additionally a lot of people think that the only way to connect with high profile people is to get a warm intro.
Nowadays cold calls and cold emails are somehow very undervalued and I wanted to give you my experience on it because it’s become an important tool for me — and I believe there’s an art to it.
For my company, I’ve raised one million dollars from a VC in a curry wurst queue, raised $550,000 with an email to an “info@” address within 10 days and raised a further $250,000 dollars with a cold call. I got to know the best angel investor in Germany by just walking into his office (he invested later on and became an invaluable advisor to me). I hope the information in this article helps you to connect with the people you want to meet more effectively.
So, here’s what I would consider the main touch-points to consider when you’ve exhausted your friendly or introduced contacts, and have started to think about making cold pitching part of your strategy…
Introductions are overrated
There, I said it. This might shock a few people, but in my experience the traditional introduction is overrated. In my opinion, (if not executed by a super high profile introducer) the introduction adds a middle-man that can sometimes confuse the situation and slow down your process. Additionally, the people you’re being connected to might be even so busy that when they actually find the time to meet you they have already forgotten who introduced you.
For me, I think I’ve gotten about 30 percent of the people I wanted to know through warm intros and probably 70 percent through getting active myself.
Whatever path you decide to take — cold or warm — either way you need to come to them with a proposition they either can’t refuse. That’s the most important things, more about that below.
You never know who is listening
This couldn’t be more true. Whether it be someone you’re sat next to on a flight, bumped into in a bar, or waiting for a taxi, as an entrepreneur you always need to be ready to make your pitch.
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