The Most Important Thing I Learned From Cold Pitching A Start-Up Company

If there’s any one thing that you should know about me, you should know that I’m one of the introverted people you'll ever meet.

But being in business forces me to communicate, negotiate and work with different types of people if I want to get ahead.

A lot of the time this requires me to be out of my element and often uncomfortable.

I’ve learned that this just comes along with being in the game and now I intentionally make an effort to put myself in uncomfortable situations.

Whether that’s going to networking events by myself, or giving a speech to a few hundred people or even sending cold pitches to companies that you want to work with.

I do all of these things a lot more than I ever want to or imagined I could.

But I realize that once you make a habit out of doing something you’re uncomfortable with, it becomes a little less uncomfortable.

In fact, you might actually start to enjoy it and things might start happening for you the more that you do them.

This is exactly what happened for me when I sent a marketing pitch to a start-up company that I believed I could work with.

Here’s how it happened and what I learned from the experience:

On any given day, when I’m either looking for strategies and tactics or not in the most productive mindset, I’ll browse through LinkedIn because I know I’ll more than likely find something that will get me back on track.

This particular day, I came across something that I had never seen before.

It was a promotional video for a product that to me seemed different, revolutionary, and in my opinion, had a lot of potential to grow.

It was a sports product and being a former athlete, I wondered why something like this hadn’t been invented before or why I hadn’t seen any of these products around.

Immediately after the short video ended, I thought to myself,

“Why isn’t this bigger than what it is?”

At that moment, the entrepreneur in me woke up and I began doing more research to learn about the company, the founder, their market, etc...

After about 10–15 minutes, I came to the realization that this company was just starting out and they hadn’t even begun really getting the word about the product.

A light bulb went off in my head.

I thought to myself, “I have the experience of being an athlete. I understand the nature of sports and how to utilize sports products. Furthermore, I studied business in college and have started a few companies on my own.”

Why not offer to help this company market this product better?

So that’s exactly what I did.

I found the company founder, who happened to be a former NBA coach, added him on LinkedIn and proceeded to send a DM (direct message):

Not the most insightful, extravagant or detailed message; nonetheless, I got a response within just a few hours.

The former NBA coach then connected me with the Director of Marketing and from there the real process began.

That next week, I set up a call with the Director of Marketing to learn more about where they were with the product, what the company mission was, what their vision was, what ideas I had, as well as where I can fit in it with all of this.

As we got towards the end of the conversation, I asked her what she thought the next step should be. 

“Send us a formal pitch on what you think will work and various ideas to implement,” she responded bluntly.

Now mind you, I’ve never written a formal marketing proposal to a company before, but I knew that this was a potential opportunity to be a part of something that could be huge. I couldn’t it pass up.

“Ok, sure! I’ll have it over to you in a week.” I responded.

I didn’t know what the hell I was doing exactly. I didn’t know a lot about the company, let alone tried the product out for myself. But something in me told me that this was right. Something told me that this was an opportunity I needed to pursue. I genuinely trusted my instincts.

That next week I sent over my proposal or at least what I thought was a good proposal and waited.

After a few days, I heard nothing back.

A few more days went by and still nothing.

I started to get worried that I had done something completely wrong and blew my chance.

Then, one day I got an email from the Director of Marketing.

She told me how much they loved the proposal and every idea I presented to them. We then set up a call to discuss terms, my position in working with them and any additional questions that needed to be addressed.

3 months ago I sent this cold pitch to a former NBA coach and his Director of Marketing.

Now, I’m officially on the team of a start-up who has an innovative product that has the potential to be a game-changer for all athletes.

The most important thing that I learned throughout this entire process is that:

Providing value upfront always works.

It doesn’t matter what you’re doing, or what industry you’re in or trying to break into. When you give first and lead with providing value upfront, great things can happen for you.

I don’t know where this opportunity will take me in the future or what will come out of it, but what I do know is that being of service has to be at the forefront of your business and brand strategy.

Once you shift your thought process from “What can you do for me” to “What can I do for you?” that’s where the real magic happens.

That’s where you build relationships and brands that last a lifetime.

Put serving and giving value to people first and they will never, ever forget you.

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Malcolm Lemmons is a former professional athlete turned entrepreneur, and author. To check out more, visit his website at www.malcolmlemmons.com.