How to track introductions in Affinity

In this article, we'll go over the two main ways to track introductions in Affinity:

1. Source of Introduction
   • How to understand Source of Introduction
   • How we determine the Source of Introduction
2. Introductions Made
   • How we determine if an interaction is an introduction

Source of Introduction

Considered to be the very first introduction made between you/your team and a person or organization, the Source of Introduction can be found in two places:

1. On people lists and organization lists, through the Source of Introduction column. Clicking on each cell will show you the interaction that Affinity considered to be the introduction.
   
   
   Note: The Source of Introduction column will not be available in opportunity lists by default. However, you can choose to manually create a Source of Introduction field in each opportunity list as you best see fit.
   
   
   
2. On a profile page, within the Connections tab.
   
   Note: The Source of Introduction field will not be available in opportunity profile pages.

How to understand Source of Introduction

When it comes to me (Ryan) and my team's relationship to Rachel (an external contact), Matthew (another external contact) is the Source of Introduction since me/my team's first interaction with Rachel was made possible by Matthew. Matthew has introduced me/my team to Rachel by way of CC'ing Rachel in the email thread on January 28, 2020.

How we determine the Source of Introduction

In order to calculate the Source of Introduction, we look at the First Email and pick:

• The sender who appears in the From field (this is the most common case).
  • If we are unable to create a contact in Affinity for the sender (because we couldn't find a full name for example) or if the sender is the entity in question (Rachel), then we pick an internal teammate who appears in the To field.
  • If not in the To field, then we pick an internal teammate in the CC field.
• If there are no internal teammates, we pick an external contact in the To field if one exists.
  • If not in the To field, then we pick an external contact in the CC field.

If the Source of Introduction has been calculated incorrectly, feel free to double-click the cell and change it to the correct person. Just know that we may not be able to tie a past email thread to this individual in the same way we do for the other introductions we have auto-determined, your edit becomes the source of truth moving forward.

Introductions Made

More holistically, you can track all introductions made by your team and all introductions made to your team. You can find this information in two areas:

1. On the Introductions tab found in people and organization profile pages (not on opportunity profile pages).
   
   
   
2. By exporting all introductions in view in any one of these areas:
   
   
   1. All Organizations Directory
   2. All People Directory
   3. Any organization list
   4. Any people list
      
      

When you export a CSV file of introductions, you'll notice there are two parts to the CSV file:

1. The first part begins with Row 1 - Introductions Made By.
   
   
   
2. The second part begins somewhere in the middle of the CSV file depending on how many introductions are made by in the first part above (e.g. Row 562 - Introductions Made To).
   

How we determine if an interaction is an introduction

We look at email subjects and email bodies to figure out whether an email is a formal introduction, who the people being introduced are, and by whom.
To ensure that introductory emails are caught by Affinity, you can simply introduce one person (Alice) to another (Bob) by:

• Titling the email subject as "Intro: Alice <> Bob"
• The email cannot be calendar-related such as an invitation or calendar update.
• At least 1 recipient must be external (not from your company/ have the same domain)
• The email must be the first email in the thread (not a reply or a forward)
• The word "intro" or "introduction" must be in the email subject
• "Please meet" or "to introduce you to" or "adding" or "connect you with/to" in the email body
• Making sure Alice and Bob are in the To/CC fields
  • Both their first names should be somewhere in the subject or body

There are still some rare edge cases where this won't work, but will cover most cases.