Beware Of The Warm Intro

Jen Abel from Jellyfish posted this great Tweet the other day.

 
 

When a friend or colleague makes an intro, you feel somewhat burdened to take the call, to be nice, and to make it seem like the intro makes sense and that there's a deal there. But so often, this isn't the case. Sure, the person making the intro has the best of intentions in mind, but often, they have no idea whether a partnership between the two organizations being introduced actually makes sense. And they're often doing it to build up their own social capital in the hopes of leveraging that capital for themselves down the road. This is ok and sort of the way humans work, but it's crucial not to get fooled by the false momentum that comes from these connections. This is particularly difficult when the intro is centered around a more ambiguous partnership or when it comes from someone more senior than you. It takes real discipline to drive clarity and prioritize the opportunity appropriately.

Warm intros should be qualified and disqualified using exactly the same criteria as a cold outreach. Don't get caught up spending time with someone who is happy to take your call but ultimately doesn't have a high-priority problem that you can solve.