Growing My Social Capital

The first person I contacted was Carlos Castro. He is the general manager at a golf course in south Florida and has already implemented the use of the product I wish to distribute at his golf course. I am using him to fill my slot for a market expert because he not only knows about the market for golf courses but also the market need for the product. The way I found him was pretty easy and straight forward. He is an acquaintance of a friend of mine who gave me his number and a told him I would be calling. When I called him he was very friendly and I told him about the class and how I chose to focus on the product he uses at his course. He told me about people being excited to use them when he had gotten them there and that he thinks other courses would probably benefit from them as well. He didn't want anything in exchange from me as he was happy to talk to me about this. I think that his experience and extended network of other people in his position would be able to help me develop clientele for what I am offering.

The second person I contacted was Flynt Lincoln. He is a distributor that is sponsored by the company that makes the golf board. I am using Flynt in the slot for domain expert because he is already doing what I wish to do. I was actually able to find this person through the first person I contacted. Carlos had given me Flynt's number and told me that I should also call him because he is the person who sold him the product. Being on the business side I didn't expect much information from him as he is obviously busy running his business (something I learned from past attempts in this class). I was right but did tell a little bit about the process he goes through when selling to the different courses in the area. He didn't want anything from me either but I could tell he was a bit in a hurry to get off the phone with me. I think his knowledge of the process of contacting selling and gauging interest in the product would give me an idea of what I have to do in a similar position.

Lastly I contacted a man named Ross Kranz. He is a company representative who also distributes but works more with the actual company that developed the board. I'm using Ross as the supply expert because he works directly with the company that supplies the boards to the distributors. It took me a while to find this person as I tried to find contacts through all of the company's social media and website but finally after a couple contacts with their costumer service I was able to find a contact, He too was busy but was happy to explain how he more or less just fills orders from distributors instead of shipping them before they are sold. I think that by including Ross in my network I would already have the contact I need to the supplier of my business.

This is the first time I targeted people who play a specific role in any industry. I generally just meet people in an industry I'm interested in and don't think too much on the specific role that they play. I see the benefit of doing this so in the future it's definitely something that I will think about when at events or contacting people and maybe focus on adding people to my network that directly benefit some venture.