Who Should You Be Meeting?
THIS WEEK'S PLAY: Acquaint: Step 1 of the Alignable Method
Most business owners build their network out of whoever shows up. The person next to you at the chamber breakfast. The vendor who stopped by last month. Nothing wrong with that. It just means your network grows by accident, and the people you most need to meet rarely walk in on their own.
Here's what gets missed. The customers and referral partners you want are usually one introduction away. Someone already in your network knows them. You just can't see the path from where you sit.
That's the first step of the Alignable Method. Acquaint means getting in front of the right people on purpose, through someone who can vouch for you. People take the meeting when someone they trust makes the introduction. That's the whole mechanism, and it's why a cold message so rarely goes anywhere.
WHAT IT LOOKED LIKE LAST WEEK
A marketing agency owner opened Allie and asked some version of this week's question. Allie worked through the owner's second-degree network, meaning the people their connections know, and narrowed it to a short list of businesses that fit what the owner was after.
Then it drafted four personalized introduction requests.
No new contact list. No cold outreach. Everything Allie found was already sitting in the owner's network, a single conversation from being put to work.
YOUR PLAY THIS WEEK
Ask Allie the Acquaint question for your own business.
→ [Ask Allie: Who should I be meeting that I haven't met yet?]
When Allie gives you names, keep going:
- Who can introduce me?
- Write the introduction request for me.
- What should I say once we're connected?
Then send one introduction request before Friday. Just one. Let the right person hear about you from someone they already trust.
If you don't have an Alignable membership, that's ok. You can still run the play. Run it by hand. Write down the kinds of businesses that serve your customers without competing with you. Pick one. Look through your connections for someone who knows a business like that, and ask them for the introduction.
It works. It's also slow, and you're guessing at who to ask.
Allie doesn't guess. It reads your actual network, tells you who you should be meeting and who can introduce you, then writes the request. That's what paid members get every day.
Comments (1-7)
Eric, this reminds me of a problem I noticed with traditional Chamber networking.
Suppose the breakfast is monthly. I attend about half the time. Somewhere in that same room is someone who would be an excellent referral partner for me, but they also attend only about half the time. We might be in the same room several times during the year and still never actually meet.
We had proximity, but we never reached Acquaint.
BNI solves part of that problem structurally. Everyone gets regular exposure to everyone else, and attendance is expected. But we are adults; I don’t necessarily need someone taking roll call to make networking work.
What I do need is a master connector—someone who can see that two people should know each other and is willing to make the introduction without needing to extract something from the transaction.
That is the part of Allie’s role I find interesting here. It can look across the network, notice a relationship path I may never see from where I sit, and effectively say: “You two should probably know each other. Here is who can make the introduction.”
The value isn’t simply finding more people. It is helping the right people actually reach the Acquaint stage instead of spending a year standing across the room from one another.
Proximity ≠ acquaintance.
I don't have a paid membership but I do have the ability to search in my area for businesses, pick the ones that would be ideal customers for me, find out if we have common connections and ask for the introduction. Yes, it is more time consuming but the outcome is pretty much the same.
Absolutely, intentional networking through trusted introductions like Allie’s is helping me build stronger, more meaningful business relationships faster. I’m excited to put this method into action!🔥
When I meet new people I am always happy.Sometimes you need to find someone who fits into your Best Client group of Prospects.The first thing that I ask a new contact is please explain your business model to me.My existing Clients always want me to learn more about any potential business funding professional.How does this person fit into my business plan?Sometimes I learn about new contacts by going to Google Sites.What do prior business people say about there experience with this person.Do they have a specific circle ⭕️ of Trust?
Allie, Who should I be meeting that I haven't met yet?
Thanks Eric! Great info! Appreciate you.Love Allie!