Assignment 20A – Growing Your Social Capital

1. Domain Expert in my Industry: The first person I interviewed was Joe Williams, and he is the lead sales representative for Powersports USA. He has been working with them for 5 years and he sells motorcycles, scooters, and anything dealing with their equipment. He is the domain expert for my product/service mix. Mr. Williams fills this spot because he has been working around scooters for some time and owns a motorcycle himself. He knows scooters and motorcycles and knows what it is like to sell scooters to college students. The way that I found the person was looking up local scooter places in my hometown and then picking one to go to talk to someone. He was the first person I approached, and he happily talked to me. The favor that he did for me was offering me valuable and vital knowledge of the scooter market today and some more facts about scooters that I did not know already. The return expectation is that I will refer some people I know to the store so they can check out the merchandise they are selling. Including this person into my network will enhance my ability to exploit this idea by I will have a better network connection on more information about trying to sell them to college students and more things to learn about scooters.

2. Expert in my Market: The second person that I reached out to was Mr. Joe Wilson, and he is a Division Manager for Motorsports Training Yamaha Motor Corporation. He has been with Yamaha Motor Corporation for approximately 12 years and he loves what he does. He is going to be the market expert for my industry. He fills this spot perfectly because he is targeting the same market with a similar service and will help me gain vital research. I found his information on the internet and decided to contact him via email. The favor he did for me was that he shared his knowledge on how to better research my customers so I could better attract customers to my product/service mix. The return expectation was that I will update him on my service and how I am doing on it. Having this individual in my network will allow me to gain insight on how to attract more customers to my service. Also, it will help me have an ability to network with him and others that he knows.

3. Important Supplier for my Industry: The last person that I contacted was Jeremy Smith. He is the Manager and the Market Analytics & Product Education Group for Kawasaki Motors Corporation. He has been with his company for 20 years. He will be my supplier and he fills this spot because he has been with the company for a long time and has more connections with the education world for two-wheel transportation. I found the person on the internet and decided I was going to email him and find out more information regarding selling my services to other firms in my industry. The favor that he will help me with how to supply the riders with vital riding and safety knowledge. He said that he just expects me to use this information so I can succeed with my idea to keep roadways safer. Also, I will keep in contact with him as well with the help with my idea from him. By including him into my network it will aid me in gaining more knowledge on the education aspect for my service. Then it helps me have more people to help me with getting my business idea to others. This process allows me to gain businesses to offer the scooter to the rider for completing the course which will increase their sales.

Reflection: This experience will shape how I network in the future by I will be more confident to approach people to gain insight into what they do and if they can help me. This experience is a great place to start so then I will have a bigger network of people to communicate with. Yes, this experience did differ from my past networking experiences because I was selling myself to the people in the past. In this situation, I am selling my idea and solution to them, so I can gain valuable knowledge about the market and industry. I am selling myself somewhat, so these experiences have some things in common, but I had a specific mindset going into this networking experience. This experience was successful and will be worth it in the long run.