In August 2024 we are asking you to get specific in our introduction rounds by telling us who you would like to meet.
Being specific with your requests for introductions will help your fellow networkers to understand exactly how they can help you.
I’d like to meet… a named individual.
The ultimate in specificity would be a named individual… ‘I’d like to meet Sara Davies of Dragons Den’. Or ‘I’d like an introduction to Ade Adepitan.’
Giving a reason why you would like the introduction will help your connections to share theirs, especially if you are looking to meet someone in the public eye. If you can make your reason advantageous to the person you want to meet even better. For example, you might say I’d like to interview Ade Adepitan for an article I’m writing on overcoming discrimination, a cause which is important to him.
The more famous or high powered the person you want to meet is the more protective their contacts will be. You’ll need a really interesting reason for wanting to get in touch. The chances are you won’t get their contact details, but your contact might be willing to approach them or to give you their assistant or agent’s details.
It will be easier to get direct introductions to named people with a less high profile, e.g. a local business owner or community leader. Still try to package your request with a benefit to your target.
I’d like to meet… someone in a job role
The more research you can do to find the name of the person you want to meet the better but sometimes that can be like hunting for a needle in a haystack. In this case you might want to describe the job role of someone you want to meet.
For example, you might like to meet the person responsible for food buying at Brentford football club or the head of staff wellbeing at Farnborough airport. Again, being as specific as this might help your contacts identify someone they know. Or someone amongst your contacts may know the name of the person you’re looking for without being in a position to introduce you.
When you have the name you’re looking for you can go to LinkedIn and try to connect with them directly or find a route to someone who can introduce you.
We’re still being pretty specific here so you will usually have a genuine reason for wanting to make contact. Perhaps you’ve read an article that says your target wants to source more locally made products. Or maybe you’ve heard that a local business is struggling and needing to cut the workforce so you could offer redundancy advice to the company or careers advice to those facing the change.
I’d like to meet… a type of client
You may have expertise in dealing with a specific type of client and want to find more of them. The more detailed you can be in your description the easier it will be for people to identify who they know. ‘I’d like to meet a mother who is setting up a business now her children have started school’ is more helpful than ‘I’d like to meet someone starting out in business.’
‘I’d like to meet a man who is retiring in the next few years after a City based professional career and is dreading having too much time on his hands.’ Or maybe you want to meet ‘the wife of a man who is retiring and is dreading losing her autonomy when her husband is home all day!’
Your job
The purpose of your introduction is to help us identify one or more people that we can introduce you to. More importantly you need to encourage us to want to make that introduction because we know how it has the potential to benefit our contact.
So your introductions in August will comprise a sentence to tell us what you do and a couple more to tell us about who you’d like to meet and why. I look forward to making the connections.
