An introduction is the most valuable thing your network can give you and the thing executives ask for worst. The failure is almost always in the shape of the request rather than in the relationship.
The common version puts the work on the other person: it asks them to think of who might help, to decide how to describe you, and to take responsibility for the outcome. That is three jobs, and busy people postpone three jobs indefinitely. Silence follows, and both sides feel slightly awkward afterwards.
The other common failure is asking for a job. It puts someone on the spot about something they usually cannot deliver, and the polite way out of that position is to go quiet.
“Do you still know anyone at X?” is answerable in ten seconds. “Let me know if you hear of anything” is not answerable at all.
People can always give you fifteen minutes of somebody's time. Almost nobody can give you a seat.
Three or four lines they can pass on unedited. Removing the drafting job is the single biggest improvement you can make.
“If it is not a natural one, no problem at all”. Making refusal costless is what makes agreement likely.
Ask for something a busy person can do in one minute, and give them the words to do it with.
Tell the introducer what happened, briefly, whether or not it went anywhere. It is common courtesy and it is also the thing that makes a second introduction possible. The people who get introductions repeatedly are the ones who close the loop.
A well-shaped ask does not create a connection that is not there. What it does is convert the connections you already have into conversations, which is where most of them currently fail.
The awkwardness is almost entirely on your side. Here is how to reopen a dormant relationship without it reading as pure self-interest.
Read → The reverse job searchA cold message to a senior person has about four lines to earn a reply. Here is what belongs in them, and what reliably wastes them.
Read → The reverse job searchFifteen years of colleagues is the most valuable and least used asset in a senior search. How to see it clearly, and how to ask without spending it badly.
Read →A short call, your target list, and an honest answer about whether this fits how you are running your search.