The Relationship Edge: The Key to Strategic Influence and Selling Success, Third Edition

Chapter 9. HOP FROM ONE PYRAMID TO ANOTHER

Pyramid hopping is actively pursuing contacts by leveraging the relationships you have with people on your Relationship Pyramid. It is networking on steroids—making a good connection, not just a connection. The strength of the connection is based on where you are on someone's Pyramid. By Pyramid hopping, you can be more productive and effective because you are able to access people who can help you. It is proactively doing something most of us do unconsciously all the time: asking for recommendations from someone we trust.

When a friend asks, "Do you know a good plumber?" and you recommend a reliable one, you've helped the plumber hop from your Relationship Pyramid to your friend's. When someone recommends you as a possible resource and you follow up, you hop from one Pyramid to another. (The phrase "Pyramid hopping" was actually coined by Debbie Warner of AstraZeneca in one of my seminars.) Most of us do it to some degree, but we could probably develop the skills to do it much better.

PYRAMID HOPPING IS NOT NETWORKING

Once again, Pyramid hopping is not networking in the ordinary sense. Networking is handing out as many business cards as possible at a business mixer. Networking was what Ron Cleboski, now at Time Warner Cable, did early in his sales career when he was selling long-distance telephone services. He would make it a point to go to golf outings and networking events where, if he could find one person to talk to him, he regarded it ...