Category: Relationship

Sunday Quickie: Replying to an Introduction

My good buddy Nick Gray posted about how to do email introductions. I love introducing the right people. It is cool to know that a person can make a new friend, a deal can go down and other positive things just from an introduction.

Nick suggested this format when introducing two people:

1 Send an email to both people
2 Use a subject such as, “Person A, meet Person B.”
3 In the body, say something like:

Person A, you work at XXX and I met you at XXX. We did this together.
Person B, you like XXX music, you work at XXX and we met at XXX.
I think you two would benefit from knowing eachother because XXX.

4 Send!

That is great but what happens when you are just introduced? Here is my suggested response:

1 Hit reply all.
2 In the body it should look like this:

Thanks sender for the introduction.
Person B (assume you are A) I think what you are doing is XXX.
I think we can benefit from working on XXX.
Can we discuss more next XXX?

The main things I do when introduced are: Thank the sender, compliment other person, recognize why we were introduced and propose next steps to meet. Personal introductions are one of the greatest things a person can give or receive. Treat them wisely.

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7 Responses to “Sunday Quickie: Replying to an Introduction”

  • hunter
    September 10th, 2006
    6:09 pm

    Agree with one tweak. In the reply, I move the original sender to BCC, note this in the message (after the thanks) and then proceed. That allows you to migrate the sender off of the email thread elegantly and get on with the conversation.

  • Noah Kagan
    September 10th, 2006
    6:14 pm

    i dont know about that one. dont you want the other person knowing you included the original sender?

  • Ray Dotson
    September 12th, 2006
    3:21 pm

    This is a great idea. I’ve never thought of using email to do introductions in this way, but why not? I have to agree with Noah here. As a rule, I try never to use BCC because I think anyone copied should know everyone who’s receiving a message.

  • Rick
    September 12th, 2006
    6:51 pm

    Noah, I’ve been doing this all along and it works great. Some people feel the need to ask the parties if it’s OK to do the intro. Waste of time. This is harmless. It shows both parties that you know what they do, care, and are thinking about them without looking for anything in return. I will also often include both phone numbers when I make the intro.

    Incidentally, when I’m introduced, I reply all with “Send me your number and I’ll give a call.” If the introducer gave me the number, I reply all with “Who should call who when?”

  • Ted R.
    September 16th, 2006
    10:47 pm

    I follow the same protocal, almost to a t.

    Though I think upon cc’ing the initiating party upon the first email to the other introductee should be the end of the first person’s involvement.

    Sometimes I get caught in cc’s for 2 or 3 rounds of people I introduce or the if being introduced the other inductee keeps including the first person … and I think that’s bad form as the person just wanted to help the connect, not get more emails they have to read ;>

  • noah kagan
    September 17th, 2006
    12:00 pm

    exactly. sometimes i just want to know they talked and get me out of it. i dont like watching couples make out if that makes sense;)

    i would also like to know how the relationship wound up a few weeks after i introduced people. i always try to follow up with the people to see how things went.

  • JibberJobber Blog » Blog Archive » Solution to Introductions gone bad… ?
    January 12th, 2007
    7:49 am

    [...] Yesterday I presented the problem, today I present a quasi-solution (my life is all about quasi-solutions). Read the problem here (make sure to read the excellent comments)… the following is an example (with real people, real stuff – this assumes that Carl Chapman introduced me to Susan Strayer). If you are a blogger I invite you to write your own example on your blog and my readers can benefit from your wisdom (here’s one from Noah Kagan at OKDork.com (thanks for the link Phil!)) Hi guys, [...]

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