The right way to follow-up an email intro [Part 3/3]
Almost there, don’t mess it up now.
You’re almost there — you’ve made your considerations about whether or not you should make the introduction, you sent a properly formatted email intro, and now… it’s out of your hands. You kicked the bird out of the nest and are waiting to see it fly.
If you’re on the receiving end of an intro, however, it's showtime baby! Now is the time to shine because you only have one email to make a good impression.
Lets go!
1. Respond within 24 hours.
The moment you see it in your inbox, you open it and respond to it — it’s that easy. There’s no reason for you to get excited about the intro, mark it unread (hopefully), and try to get back to it later when you are in front of your computer and have time to craft an amazing response. Just do it now! From your phone! You know why? There’s no amazing response to come up with — no bedazzling here — just simple introquette (I’m really starting to like this word I made up).
Introquette is like etiquette — there’s a simple, proper solution for your situation — knowing the RIGHT way to respond is makes you a business pro (or in the case of etiquette, it makes you a gentleman/lady).
RESPOND NOW!
2. Keep it short and minty.
Provide a little more context to the introduction. You can repeat what the introducer wrote in the email in your own words. When you do make sure you don’t just focus on your ask, make sure you focus on how you can add value to whoever you were introduced to. It increases the likelihood of a positive response and makes you more likable overall.
There’s a famous study, where servers in restaurants gave their guests a mint along with the receipt, leading to a 23% increase in tips compared to a control group. Why am I telling you this? Because by focusing on what you can provide for them, you are offering the other person the digital version of a mint.
3. BCC the introductor (sorry for all the words I keep making up).
In order for the introductor to know that you responded, just move their email to the BCC field. It shows me you’ve initiated the interaction and removes me from the thread (which is usually emails about when both parties can get together for a coffee or phone call).
What happens if you asked for the intro, but the person you were introduced to already moved the introductor to BCC — well then you have two options.
- Respond, and add the introductor in BCC again. You don’t have to address the introductor in the email though. You can, if you want to, but you don’t have to.
- Don't BCC the introductor again, but send them a separate message, thanking them and informing them that you have picked up the conversation.
Example
This example is an extension of my article “How to write a killer email introduction”, which you can find here.
@Earl Schaffer — thank you for the kind introduction (moved to BCC)
Hi David,
It’s a pleasure to meet you. From what I can tell, the student project you are mentoring looks a lot like what I was working on just a few months ago. I was mainly responsible for XYZ and am more than happy to share my experience if that would help you and the team.
As Earl said, I’m very interested in continuing my professional career in the automotive industry, specifically in the autonomous driving sector. It would be great to hear your thoughts on that and learn from your experience in the industry.
Would you be available for a phone call next week? I’m flexible on the date and time, just let me know what works for you.
Looking forward to chatting.
Michael
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy right? You can write this straight from your phone. It’s actually better to write it from your phone because you’ll probably be more concise, given you only have a small screen and writing longs texts is a pain on mobile phones. Just make sure to check for typos — twice!
That’s it. You did it. Good luck networking! Also, if you are reading this and we aren’t already connected on Linkedin, just send me a request and add a note so I know you’re coming from Medium.
