Joe Wheeler

Know What You Want

On one side there are ideas/plans and on the other side there is the “connected group” or individual.  If you are on the ideas side, this post is for you and might gain you some cred down the road.

I meet a fair amount of people with ideas; some of them are actively working on them, some of them are trying to pivot a service company into a product (ala 37signals), some of them haven’t even written their idea down, some of them are fulfilling an MBA obligation of “starting a company”. There are all types. I also happen to be acquaintances (some are friends) with what I call the “connected group”. The “connected group” are people who have a constant flow of inbound deals usually from their individual successes in the past or they have a super connected network. At any point I think most of us can find ourselves in one or the other groups; we either need someone to help us out or we are being approached to help someone out.

If you are on the ideas side and reaching out to the connected group one huge thing that you can do to distinguish yourself is to know what you want from the person before you reach out to them.  Sounds simple I know, but most people don’t do it. Getting a meeting is great but if you don’t really know what you need from that person, you could have just wasted your chance with them. Obviously if someone takes a meeting with you they see something that interests them, so you can always use the “I’m not sure yet how you might be able to help me but you must see something that interests you or we wouldn’t be here, so tell me how you think you can help me get this thing off the ground.”  That line will generate some conversation, but doing some homework on the person you are meeting with, knowing the deals they’ve done, how they are connected, and how you see them helping you is exactly what they want you to tell them.

See, the connected group values time and coin more than anything. During the dating phase they just want you to tell them what you need from them and then they will either agree or disagree. 

If you are on the ideas side and remain persistent you will eventually get this email response:

“What do you need from me and how do you want me to help?” 

That generally means  A) I’m interested enough in you OR your idea to respond to your email but B) Tell me what you want or what next steps are because I don’t have time to think about it.

Anticipate that they will answer and know what you want before they ask and things are likely to progress quickly if there is interest.