Social Selling Mastery

Chapter 11DevelopScaling Up Your Social Networks

Succeeding in business is all about making connections.

—Sir Richard Branson

In Chapter 6 we discussed how growing your social networks can provide you with massive opportunities. Jill Rowley is correct in saying that “your network is your net worth.” ¹ In fact, if you read Delivering Happiness by Tony Hsieh, the CEO of Zappos, you'll see that he has attempted to calculate how long it takes to monetize a new personal network. Tony found that it can take upward of two years for a new connection to become a valuable relationship. Why is this timeline important? Because many sales professionals ask themselves, “Which is more important in growing my network? Quantity or quality? I don't necessarily have a large target market, so why should I build my network beyond those accounts?”

I've already helped you understand the importance of quality through expanding your social reach, where you will grow your social networks to mirror relationships in your CRM accounts. Now, I'd like you to understand why quantity can also play a large part in your success. I want you to recall our digital newspaper analogy from Chapter 6. Your personal network (think of that as your newspaper subscriber list) is what fuels your ability to virally attract new buyers. When it comes to evaluating new, organic connections, some of the arguments I hear most often from sales professionals are: “They're not a decision-maker,” or “They aren't in my target market. ...