Making stellar introductions is one of the best ways to strengthen your alliance in the business world. Yet, so many things could go wrong when you make an introduction! The key to a successful intro is to always require double opt-in. Here’s why:
Every introduction is a bet. You’re betting that the people you introduce to each other will get value out of the conversation. Of course, there are “jackpot” intros that lead into lasting, value-creating relationships (in 1993, LSI Logic’s Wilf Corrigan introduced a former employee who wanted to start a company to Sequoia Capital’s Don Valentine. Based on Wilf’s recommendation –– Wilf had already made Sequoia a lot of money –– Don backed that former employee, Jensen Huang, and his startup with the funny name of Nvidia.) None of your intros are likely to lead to a $5 trillion outcome, but as long as both the introducees enjoy and get value from their conversation, the intro will be a net positive.
The power of the double opt-in intro isn’t that you’re getting “permission” from your connections to make an introduction, though of course that is the right thing to do. It’s that you’re confirming in advance that the intro will very likely be value-creating for both parties to the introduction.
Skipping the double opt-in, on the other hand, sets an introduction up to fail. When you connect two people without asking first, you're implicitly telling the recipient one of two things: either "I don't value our relationship enough to check with you" or "I'm in a position of power, so you'll take this meeting." Neither leaves a good taste.
My rule of thumb is that I should only check if someone wants to receive an introduction if I believe there is a greater than 80% probability that the answer will be “yes”. Not only do I want 100% of my introductions to be successful, I want a supermajority of my pre-introduction check-ins to be successful as well!
Of course, there are “bust” intros, where the parties involved get zero or negative value to the point where making the introduction actually damages the individual relationships you have with the introducees.
The good news is that you don’t have to make these bets blind. You can actually look at the cards before you have to place the bet. You just have to lay them out on the table for the introducees.
I also want to touch upon one of the underappreciated emotional reasons for making introductions. I like smart and interesting people who want to make the world a better place, and I like introducing those kinds of people to each other. The more of this kind of introduction I make, the more I build a network of this kind of people around me, and the more valuable the entire network becomes to each of its members.
