Use a Preliminary Introductory Letter to Build Relationships Between Colleagues
From time to time, you will need to introduce one of your colleagues to another via email. Before you do this, ask the person you represent to write their own introductory email, which they will send to you first.
Roy Bahat, head of venture capital firm Bloomberg Beta , suggests that before you introduce someone, ask them to send you what he calls “introductory forwarding email.” The purpose of this email should be to explain why you want to be introduced to who you are and to start a new conversation. Sending an email to a new person that says, “You can just dig into this old conversation I had with someone else,” is a terrible way to introduce yourself:
First, why am I asking this? (Compared to, say, “please send me an annotation about your company,” or “write me a letter I can send,” or some other way to get things done?) It allows you to do what you do best everything – describe who you are, what your organization does, why you want to talk to the recipient, speak in your own voice, etc. And I only do what I do best – I know the recipient and share my opinion about you. It also allows me to spend as little time as possible, so I can introduce you as quickly as possible.
When you send me an introductory email like this, I literally click forward and write something like, “Hey James, I just met this founder and thought she knew something. Take a look at the following, would you like to talk? “
As a representative, this has several benefits for you. First, you can edit the introduction before submitting it so you don’t risk sending a friend to someone who is wasting their time. More importantly, from the introduction, you will get rid of the grumpy work. The smoother the introduction is at the beginning, the easier it will be to make this connection .
Acquaintance and Direct Introductory Letter | Roy Bahat