Growing My Social Capital

Jarrett Kimbrough is the Florida Sales Manager for Tank Depot in Pompano Beach.  The company is a low cost online retailer of plastic storage tanks that was founded in 1998 and has 8 offices in the southern region of the United States.   Jarrett is a market expert who also has a technical background in tank design and production, having previously worked for Norwesco which is a company that manufactures plastic storage tanks.  I located Jarrett through an internet search focusing on water tanks and called him directly.  He was very friendly and eager to hear my proposals, and referred me to two people in his network that are a domain expert and an important industry supplier.  He wishes me great luck on developing the ideas and to let him know first when it is time to line up distributors.  Also he encouraged me to stop in next time I am in Pompano Beach to get a hands on look at all their products that relate to water tanks.  I see Jarrett as a very important part of my network already since he is sharing contact information, seems to like the proposals, and wants to see great results.

Tom Smith is the president of Norwesco which is a principal manufacturer of plastic water storage tanks.  He has been with the company since it was founded in 1981 and manages all of the operations, qualifying him to fill the spot of domain expert.  Tom was referred by Jarrett from Tank Depot, and was reached by email and telephone follow up.  He expressed an interest in the pressurizing aspect of my proposal and sent a schematic diagram of their 120 gallon tank to assist with design ideas for custom valves.  At this point there is no return expectation other than to keep himself and Jarrett in the loop.  Tom will be of great help since he is already willing to provide details to help develop the proposals.

Kent Dickeson is the manager of the Iowa division of Dultmeier, a B2B supplier of valves and fittings for a broad spectrum of industries.  He represents an important industry supplier, and was referred by both Jarrett from Tank Depot and Tom from Norwesco.  Kent was very helpful on the phone, and is willing to send supplier agreement contracts once manufacturing is ready to begin.  He wants to get new business once it is created, and promises the lowest pricing and fastest delivery of stock items.  This will be very helpful at a later stage because manufacturing chains have moved more to “Just-In-Time” (JIT) delivery systems for parts and supplies, and Dultmeier has adapted and gives consistent and superior service.   

I was quite surprised at the ability to reach these individuals on short notice and for the amount of information received in a few short calls and emails.  Often networking experiences result in a lot of dead ends before communication is made.  It is very encouraging to know that there are people out there like Jarrett who not only listened, took interest and gave referrals, certainly above and beyond his job description.  Both Tom and Kent were also very helpful and give a lot of hope to the development process.