Expanding your

business relationships

MBA 2015
Claire Hewitson

Agenda
Networking
Informational Interviewing
Branding and Elevator Pitch
Alum experience of Networking in Denmark

Expanding business rela1onships

Exercise: Get into groups of 4 and outline:

1. Who is in your network?
2. How can you expand your network?

Informa1onal Interviewing
A meeting in which a potential job seeker seeks to gather information
on a potential role, industry, and company
Provides an non-threatening forum" for discussion as the two sides
learn about the other
Will help you start to develop your network if your network is minimal
in a specific industry/job function
Timeframe typically quite short (15 min)
Phone/Face to face

How does informa1onal interviewing

help in the job search process?

Informational Interviewing
Steps
1. Outline your objective for informational interviewing
2.

Identify people to interview

3.

Initiate contact

4.

Prepare for meeting

5.

Conduct meeting

6.

Follow up

1. Outline your objective

Where are you in the process?
What do you want to get out of your interactions

Understanding more about the industry, loca5on or role

Understanding more about the company
Wan5ng to write a winning applica5on
Wan5ng to ace an interview

These will change as you move along the

job search process
Ensure you have done your desk
research first!

Exercise:
1. Currently, what is your objective to
undertake an informational interview?
2. How will you identify the right people to
interview?

2. Using the Alumni LinkedIn

Group to identify people

LinkedIn

Dont invite someone without common ground

Personalise connection requests

Ask for introductions if you have a common connection

3. Initiate Contact
How would you go about it?
Email
Introduce yourself
Outline how you know them (particularly if someone has
introduced you or if you have a connection)
Refer to something you know about them, their company or
industry through research
Outline what you would like to speak to them about
Suggest a time and medium (but be flexible)
Be courteous
Be formal to begin with

3. Initiate Contact
Phone
Introduce yourself
Outline how you know them (particularly if someone has
introduced you or if you have a connection)
Refer to something you know about them, their company or
industry through research
Outline what you would like to speak to them about
Ask them if they have time to speak or if you could arrange a
time
Be courteous

Exercise:
1. Draft an email to a potential contact you
would approach for an informational
interview
2. Share with your neighbour and give
feedback

What professionals say about

informational interviews
As a senior executive, I often receive invitations to meet for coffee from
other senior executives or younger managers. I respond well to emails
where people have taken the time to relate it to current challenges or
successes in my company things they have researched, seen in the
news or heard through the grapevine. Demonstrating awareness and
interest is key to capture someones attention, and I am usually very
open to meeting people to discuss key learnings from challenges or
successes. Job-related emails should always be honest, thorough in
their research, well-written and relevant.
SEVP, Head of Consumer & Group CMO at TDC

4. Prepare for meeting

Outline your objective for meeting

Draft an agenda for meeting
Know who you are talking to
Know their industry
Know their company
Have questions to ask them be specific
Have your pitch about yourself prepared

5. Conduct meeting
Be on time
Take control of meeting you asked for it so dont make
the other person have to control the meeting
Be curious
Listen (and make notes)

How could you poten5ally help this person?

Be aware of the other persons time

Ask insightful questions
Good questions at the end of the meeting:

May I contact you in a couple of months once if I have any more

ques5ons?
Is there anyone else you could suggest I speak to?

Thank them on the day

6. Follow up
Always email and thank them for their time
Specifically stating something you got out of the meeting
If they give you a lead, always email them at a later date
once you have followed that lead and let them know the
outcome
If they have indicated that you can keep in contact
schedule it in your diary so you dont forget

Record your meetings

Target Industry:

Open

Target Companies:

Maersk, Novo Nordisk, Lego, Danfoss, Cube PR,

Coloplast

Target Role:

Communica5ons

* Please note the red text is just an example

People that you would like to connect

with
Jannik Nielsen

Title/Company

Company

Communica5ons Execu5ve Novo Nordisk

Industry

How do you know them?

Emailed/
Called

Responded Y/
N
Mee1ng Date Further ac1ons

Alumni

Called

13/4/15

Suggested I speak to Jacinta Mar5n

from

Will follow up in 2 weeks 5me - 15/6/15

Link to Interview Template

Jannik Nielsen

Jacinta Mar5n

Communica5ons Manager Leo Pharma

Aquaintence of Jannik
Mar5n

Emailed

Anna Milton

Communica5ons Director Coloplast

Met them at an event

Emailed

Jakob Sails

Communica5ons Manager Maersk

Is in the same basketball

team

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

#N/A

12/4/15 Will follow up in 3 weeks

Anna Milton

11/3/14 Followed up

Jakob Sails

What is your brand?

Define your offering

Who are you?

What is it that you do specifically?
What job/career/industry interests you and why?
What makes you special and unique?
What solutions do you bring to the table?
What do you have that is interesting to the other person or group?

Build your elevator pitch

Your personal pitch is a personal statement that clearly communicates
what you do and how others can benefit. It gives enough information
that is likely to rouse their curiosity and pre-empt further discussion.

Exercise:
1. Deliver your one minute elevator pitch to
your partner.
2. Can they summarise your pitch?
3. Did they summarise the
things you wanted them to hear?

Networking at an event

How to make yourself known to someone when they have a

huge crowd around them?

You want to meet the representative from a company, how do

you start talking to them?

How do you join a conversation?

What do you do if you have been talking to someone for ages

and you now want to move on?

What recruiters say about

networking
You can learn a lot about an industry, company or role by speaking to
someone from the company. You can then use this throughout the
application to make yourself stand out Hiring Manager, Novo
Nordisk

Treat contacts as you would friends and build a genuine relationship.

These contacts won't turn into a job right away, but using these contacts
to build a network is so important for many different reasons Mentor,
Copenhagen Mentoring Programme