Writing the Perfect e-Intro: Building your Contact Database

A quick intro to your facilitators throughout this course.  Chris Krimitsos of Podfest and Larry Roberts of Readily Random Media.

At this stage of the course you may be asking why do I need to use an e-Intro? This chapter is dedicated to the benefits of using an e-Intro as well as understanding the impact that a well-written introduction can have. Chris will also be sharing some cautionary tales that should be considered when using this powerful tool and he’ll round it out with ways that we can manage our expectations on the return of the investments made using the e-Intro.

In this chapter, we're going to discuss the art of the e-intro. It's not just typing a few words saying, Hey so and so, meet so and so. There are standard methods, techniques, and even an art to connecting. Don’t panic, you don’t have to be verbal Rembrandt. Plus, we're gonna break it down for you step by step, section by section.

So, how do these e-Intros really work?  In this chapter, we take a look at several real-world examples of e-Intro's and the conversations that follow.  We'll look at a number of scenarios, each with its own setup and conversation thread.  Using these examples, you will gain a clear understanding of how to introduce two parties by outlining mutual interests and goals between the two.

Here, we're going to talk about the purpose of booking one on one meetings and how an e-Intro comes into play in the form of follow-up and a proper reply, and finally how you can prepare and what you should do when you show up to your initial meeting.

In this lesson, we discuss how to structure your e-Intros to make future repurposing straightforward and convenient. We’re going to reinforce the standardized lengths of e-intros, discuss variations of e-Intros for doing business, establishing strategic alliance partners. Then, we’ll wrap up the chapter with e-intro variations of shared experiences.

Long term relationship building is one of many beneficial by-products of e-intros. We will meet people we would not have met otherwise if not for a timely e-intro. Realizing this, we tend to be more gracious and filled with gratitude. Operating from a place of humility and gratitude will bring out the best in you and your clients will appreciate it.

In the upcoming lesson, Chris will lead us through a discussion on the following:

• Gratitude and the power of being gracious

• Following up on an e-intro

• Acknowledging the value of the time for each recipient

• Understanding the numbers game

For this next chapter, we are going to dig into the technical side of e-Intros by creating your own contact database. Don’t let the word “database” scare you. While we can always make things as complicated as we would like, a database can be something as simple as a spreadsheet.

Chris is going to tell us exactly how to build our spreadsheet. He will cover each of the columns that we need to include so we are sure to capture all of the most important contact information.

Here we will look closer at where we can start finding people to e-Intro. To clarify, you may be asking “Do we look for them”? Do people just fall on our lap? How do we come across these people that allow us to extend not only their database but our connection database as well?

Chris is going to expand on all of these questions and more as he teaches us where we can practice connecting people, how to avoid certain introduction pitfalls, and finally how to do that one thing that challenges so many of us...Ask.

In this chapter, we're going to discuss some of the ways that we can use an e-Intro and actually roleplay a bit back and forth to summarize the conversation that you may have after an intro has been made. The first example we're going to use is a classic conversation that disarms both parties and works to discover synergistic opportunities between the two.

In this final chapter, we'll discuss the power that lies within asking for a testimonial.  We'll discuss the appropriate timing of a request and how to leverage a testimonial to continue growing your personal network and contact database.