Networking on LinkedIn to Enter New Markets

Creating An Automated Networking Process For Entering New Markets

How we’re using LinkedIn and We-connect to automate our market entry networking.

We want to expand our footprint for K&J Growth beyond NZ and the US, so I need to create a repeatable market entry process we can use.

This week I’ve been planning a test run into Brisbane, Australia.

Out of the 250+ clients we’ve worked with at K&J, word of mouth has been our best lead source. I plan to use digital automation to build IRL connections and generate word of mouth.

We-connect will help me automate my LinkedIn outreach. It automatically sends connection requests on your behalf to people you’ve selected using filters.

So I can send a connection request with an intro message to people with the job title ‘marketing manager’ who’ve been in their role for 3+ years and live in Brisbane.

This is my connection request message.

“Hey [FIRST_NAME],

We’re setting up shop in Brisbane in the next 3 - 6 months, and I’m hoping to hit the ground running and have a few people I can chat with when I land. No stress if you’re too busy, but I thought I’d ask.

Cheers,

Kale”

If they accept my connection request, I’ll follow up a few days later with a message like this.

“Hey [FIRST_NAME],

Cheers for linking up. We’re jumping into the co-working space WOTSO in Fortitude Valley and then looking to slot into our own space after a few months on the ground.

I’d love some help if you could point me in the direction of anyone who you think might fit the bill of working with an agency with a footprint in LA, NZ and soon-to-be Aussie or just smart people that you think might be good to chat with in Brizzy, that need:

• High ticket lead-gen for B2B and B2C businesses and sales optimisation (3 - 100 K+ ticket price - Microsoft is one of our local clients here)

• App downloads (TikTok is one of our clients)

• SaaS and E-comm companies that need high-volume user acquisition

No stress if any of the above doesn’t fit the bill in terms of your network, but I would love to pay for 30 minutes of your time when I land and meet up in person to get your feedback on marketing in Aussie and Brisbane. Hope the week is going well.”

If I get a response, I’ll follow them up and hopefully book an in-person meeting with them when I get to Brissy.

Then at these sit-downs, I’ll ask for referrals at the end of each meeting to build word of mouth.

Notes: Word of mouth is the king of marketing, but you can automate the hell out of it.

Optimisation Vs Innovation

How I approach the tradeoff between optimising and innovation.

There are two ways businesses grow.

They can optimise their value creation process or innovate to find new ways to create value.

Innovation is difficult and risky, but the payoffs can be huge… 10X, 100X etc..

Optimising is simpler and low risk, and the payoffs reflect this difference. Most optimisation makes small 0 - 15% differences.

I use the different risk profiles of each approach to decide when I should focus on one or the other.

It's like investing.

Common sense says a young person with a 40-year investment horizon should heavily weigh their portfolio towards riskier assets, like stocks.

While the older person with, say, a three-year investment horizon should stick with low-risk assets like cash deposits.

So if I need near-term results like extra cash to cover a tax bill - I'll look towards optimisations. Like increasing prices, sourcing a cheaper freight supplier and so on.

When thinking long-term, like how to 10x my business, I'll look towards innovation. Like new products, new business models, new markets and so on.

Notes: Like investing, I use my results horizon to decide how much risk I want to take.

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The Loonshots Approach To Innovation

How Safi Bahcall defines company innovation and how companies might structure this process

The Apply story has two distinct arcs, defined by the two people who led the company through them.

There's the Steve Jobs (yes, Steve was sacked and came back) era and the Tim Cook era.

During Steve's era, Apple was known for creating epic products. Now under Tim Cook, Apple is known as a great company.

The last time Apple created a truly great product, like the iPhone, was long ago. Yet, depending on what day you check the markets, they're now the world's most valuable company.

According to Safi Bahcall, the Apple story perfectly depicts the two ways we innovate.

There's the P-type, or product innovation - I.e. what Apple, led by Steve Jobs, was great at.

Then there's the S-type, strategy innovation - What Apple under Tim Cook is now great at.

Great products don't survive without at least a decent strategy. And great strategy without a product is worthless.

But few, if any, founders or CEOs are good at both P and S-type innovation. And history says that forcing one to do the other doesn't work.

Safi explains convincingly in his book Loonshots that companies need both an artist and a strategist, and neither should rule the other. He advocates for building companies that bring ideas to market like phase transitions in science - like water turning to ice.

Where ideas created by the P-types are given a chance to be nurtured, then championed internally by the right person and eventually brought to market under the right strategy by the S-Types.

Notes: There are product and strategy innovators; great companies need both, but no founder or CEO does both well. Instead, we can build a structure for both types in a company.​