RUN2VC - cold prospecting in hot London
This week I’ve been busy planning and executing an old school outbound prospecting campaign by going door to door around 20 VCs in London.
VC firms are a valuable partner channel for me as they conduct due diligence on potential investments and provide post investment support to their portfolio companies.
I wanted to do something different than just add them to an email sequence or cold call them so decided to run around their offices and hand out my Go To Market Org Chart cards.
You can follow the journey in the short montage video below, but here were some lessons learned if you choose to do any door to door prospecting yourself.
Diffuse immediate rejection with a bit of humour - “This is going to sound bizarre but I’m currently running 20km around 20 VCs in London and you are number 5” By raising a smile and letting them know they weren’t the only one on my travels I was always given the opportunity to talk through the cards.
Have something to hand out - the conversations were softened by me saying I have a gift for you and immediately having that to hand. I’m not here to speak to anyone, I don’t need anything from you, but let me show you these cards.
Show the gift, and ideally put it in their hands. By opening the pack of cards I could provide context of the specific situation when they would be used “imagine you are sat with a founder and you are having them explain how they plan to scale their team….”
Provide something educational. In addition to the cards I left a Series A Founder’s Guide to Revenue Operations. It is a useful guide not marketing material, so I believe if it finds its way onto the right desk it invites opening.
Guide the referral. As with any referrals, instead of asking “who do you think this would be useful for?” you need to guide either with a name or at least a team, “this would be useful for your investment partners or portfolio management team…”
The taller the building the less chance you are getting on the floor. The buildings I was not able to get access to had more stringent security (for good reason) and without the name of someone I was meeting and pre-registration there was no chance I was getting in the lift. Shared office spaces also had a similar challenge.
Get a name. No matter who I met I got a first name on the way out. That allowed me to follow up via email and LinkedIn to try and reinforce the brief in person meeting.
Cold email others in the company. Having delivered the cards to one contact at the company, I then cold emailed others to say that I’d popped into the office and X person has got a pack of the cards that they might find useful.
Physically being in a partner’s/client’s office is valuable. I have a feel for each of the offices I visited and any further communication will have that in mind. I would never have achieved that insight with a cold email or call.
Out of 20 on my list,
I made it to 18 offices
I got into 14,
Which I think it a good result.
Time will tell if this specific campaign results in any referrals or further conversations but for me it was valuable and worth doing.
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