Growing Your Social Capital
1.
1st person
o
The first person I contacted is John Morgan an
Outside Sales Associate for Air Filters, Inc.
o
This person is filling my supplier slot because
as an outside sales person he sells filters and parts for filters to other
companies that would be likely competitors.
o
I found this person through LinkedIn and
contacted him through their In-Mail feature.
o
I simply asked Mr. Morgan who his top consumers
were and whether his main sales were to other businesses or to the ultimate
consumer. I do not know what the return expectation would be.
o
I think having someone who understand sales
especially in my industry is a good connection, because based on his knowledge
I can know who my competitors are and how to outperform them.
2.
2nd person
o
The second person I contacted was Chris Mullins
a commercial salesman who also works for Air Filters, Inc.
o
He is filling my slot for the person who has a
strong understanding of the market. He would know a lot about the market
because he is already making sales in the filter market and has been for 60
years.
o
I also found this person through LinkedIn and
used the In-mail system to contact them.
o
I just asked Mr. Mullins what his strategy was
to find customers, such as what kind of businesses do you target for air
filtration or what ultimate consumers do you look for.
o
I think having someone that can help you
identify who your possible consumers could be is a very strong connection to
have.
3.
3rd person
o
The last person I contacted was Andreas Hammer a
Senior Business Analyst at Ari Filters, Inc.
o
This person is filling the first slot because he
would be a professional when it comes to knowledge about the product.
o
I found this person through LinkedIn as well and
contacted him through the In-mail function.
o
I just asked Mr. Hammer what were some of the
biggest difficulties in manufacturing these filters and making a profit.
o
I think having someone that understands the
step-by-step process of creating this product is a good connection to have.
Reflect: I thought that this was an interesting experience
because it is somewhat difficult to find people in a specific industry that are
available to contact. I think that finding ways to break through this barrier
will be helpful in the future. This assignment also helped me to learn that
asking questions to people you might know may result in better information then
only asking people in your “circle”.
I also found this assignment difficult because of the time spent finding the contacts for experts in my industry. However, the benefit of receiving information from these experts significantly outweighed the inconvenience of the time I spent looking for their contacts. I believe the people that you contacted will help you when creating your product, targeting your market, and outmaneuvering your competition.
ReplyDeleteOverall great job finding your 3 experts. I did not think to use Linkedln for this assignment that was a very good idea. Also, good job on each of the five elements for each person. I agree with your reflection it was hard to find people for this assignment, but I found it to very helpful in terms of networking with people.
ReplyDeleteYou did a great job finding the right people and asking them questions relevant to their expertise in the industry. I think something that would help you as well would be to reach out to people from different companies to get another perspective on the market you're trying to enter. The bullet points were clear and concise and helped to keep your post easy to read.
ReplyDelete