How do you recover from a disastrous introduction?

Through some networking, I met someone, John, who said he would introduce me to a friend of his for a prospective sale.

I knew the person he was talking about and I really wanted to meet her and demonstrate my product. She would have been a great client to have.

I told him I thought that was great.

So he introduces us via email:

Cindy and Ray, Hey guys I want to get the 2 of you together so that
Ray can show Cindy his iphone app.

My contact info Her contact info

And that was it. My introduction to a potential client. Cindy doesn't know who I am and I would surmise she didn't know what John was talking about. After all, I'm sure in her mind, she's thinking she has no use for an "iPhone" app.

Which, by the way, was completely misrepresented. It's web SAAS, not an iPhone app. I digress.

I responded in "damage control" mode: I explained what my product actually did and that I would love to take her out to lunch some time and show her its features and how it can maker her life easier.

Any time you could give would be sincerely appreciated.

I never got a response from that email.

I was able to contact her since then and we ALMOST connected once.

However, the ball was left in her court, and after two email attempts with no reply, I just let it go.

I definitely learned a good bit from this experience, but is there anything more I could have done to recover from that introduction?

This sucks, but in my experience it's not infrequent.

• Friends of friends that don't answer when you ask for help
• Potential customers you've been in talks with who suddenly disappear off the face of the earth
• Recent contacts that seemed eager to connect just a couple of days ago
• Even friends sometimes

It reflects badly on the other person, so unless you're constantly overwhelmed with email, make sure you don't do this.

As to having done something better, what you did sounds correct. I can't think of anything that was particularly wrong or lacking. Maybe some of these points can be helpful:

• The person may have missed your email (some people are very poor at email management)
• Try calling, confirm whether the email was received, ask if they have any questions or you can help in any way (it's easier not to push)
• Better than not pushing is framing the meeting in a way that's going to help them, where it's all about them (but I think you already know this)
• Sometimes people might be interested, but it's just not the right time. Tell them that you'll check up on them in a few months (and set a reminder for yourself to do just that)
• Sometimes you just have to forget about a person and move onto someone else. If you've made yourself available, and if you're getting nothing back, the message is clear

There's nothing much that you can do if her doesn't even answer your email , you could call her one time, asked to your friend if she saw your answer, sometimes we get so anxious that we think the other person will answer our email in like 2mins. And you can in a next approach, ask for your friend to give you her contact info, so 'just' you and your potential customer will be talking .... (of course your friend needs to ask the 'customer' if he/she allow contact sharing).

Hope you understand ! *(bad english)

You have probably done as much as you can under the circumstances.

Just a couple of things I would do (if given the chance again from the start):

1. Ask your friend if it is OK to use his name when contacting the prospective client and obtain her contact details from him. Send her an email copied to your friend with a last sentence mentioning that you will be in contact shortly by phone. If possible, ask your friend to endorse you in a reply email to your prospective client. Then try contacting her by phone to follow-up on the email.
2. Maintain control of phone communications. Generally, I do not leave a message to asking to call back. If you are to leave a message say who you are and what it is about (regarding an email send on ...) and say that you will call back; this may prompt her to read the email, if she hasn't already. Ask the person answering the phone (unless it is a recording) when is the best time to call back. If that person asks you to leave a message, make an excuse to say that you will be hard to contact over the next day or so, and that you would prefer to call again. Remember, you can call back many times if you do not leave a message. As a very last resort, leave a message for her to call back.

I hope these points may be useful in the future. Good luck.