4 Steps to Creating a Multi-Million Dollar Network

"Your net worth is in your network."

That’s what my coach said to me on one of our first meetings.

Then she explained, if you have 100 high quality people in your network, then each of those people is a potential revenue stream.

That’s 100 paths of potential revenue.

WHAT?

I didn’t get what she was trying to say at first.

Coming from a marketing background, I thought I needed to get content out the door and into the wild where my potential customers would find it and then come running to my business to help them solve the problems they were experiencing.

I was so indoctrinated in the inbound marketing strategy – where all I had to do was produce lots of content that my ideal customers would eventually find and love so much that they’d want to hire me right on the spot. I thought a really good inbound strategy was all I really needed to grow my business.

Up until her stating that my “net worth is in my network”, I’d never thought that strategically growing my network could be a very lucrative form of outbound marketing.

What I would discover about this strategic networking method is that it would pay off faster and be more financially lucrative than all my inbound marketing efforts combined.

WHY IT WORKS SO WELL

You probably know someone who is so well connected. It seems like whatever you need, they know just the right person who can help you. They’re masters at connecting the right people together.

These people have created a large network of contacts they can tap into to get almost anything done. Most of us, however, have very small networks.

And this is perfectly fine if you want to keep your business small.

But for those of us with ambitions to grow a large business, a small network simply won’t do.

And here’s the reason why –

With small networks, we simply don’t have access to the ‘right’ people to grow our business quickly.

These ‘right’ people might be:

> influencers

> key decision makers

> joint venture partners

> funders (funding agency or venture capitalists)

> people who are connected with the people you’d love to get to know

Get to know these ‘right’ people and suddenly your business grows a lot quicker.

How does this happen, you ask?

It’s because these ‘right’ people have something you want.

That something might be access to others, knowledge, experience or something else.

And that’s why you want to build a relationship with them – so you can access their network or knowledge or experience.

See, these ‘right’ people can grant us access to off-limits people and resources that we can’t access without them.

Let me give you a great example:

John Ruhlin (author of Giftology) tells the story of meeting Cameron Herold, COO of 1-800-GOT-JUNK. John wanted to get to know Cameron because of Cameron’s network. John knew if he could add Cameron to his network and build a relationship with Cameron, it could change John’s business forever.

So, John took the biggest risk he’d ever taken. John knew that Cameron was coming to his city for a quick trip. John managed to book an evening with Cameron because Cameron had no commitments for the night he was in town. Typically, evening meetings involve dinner and a professional sports game like baseball or basketball. But John wanted to do more than dinner and a game. John wanted to impress Cameron in such a big way. He wanted to impress him so much that Cameron would always remember who John was.

John knew Cameron wanted to go to Brooks Brothers to buy clothes while in town. So, the day of Cameron’s arrival, John went to the Brooks Brothers store and bought every single shirt and sweater in the new collection. John arranged with the hotel staff to help him set up Cameron’s room as if it were a Brooks Brother’s store. John and his team made sure that when Cameron entered the room, he would be blown away by what he saw.

(John said that as he waited at the bar downstairs for his meeting with Cameron, he knew this would be either the best thing he ever did or the worst. John was a huge bundle of nerves.)

When Cameron finally met John at the hotel bar, he was so blown away by John’s thoughtfulness that he insisted on paying for all the clothes. John and Cameron developed such a close relationship from this one gesture that John writes on his website “that relationship with Cameron opened more doors than $10 million dollars in advertising could.”

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HOW TO BUILD YOUR NETWORK

The great thing about building your network is that you can do little by little.

It just takes a little bit of effort every day to get started.

STEP #1 – BUILD YOUR CATEGORIES

The easiest way to create your network is to divide them into categories.

These categories will make:

a) searching easier

b) help you build your list faster

c) help you keep organized

You’ll want to create categories that make sense for your business.

I have 6 categories that I work with:

1) blog editors

2) influencers in my industry

3) key competitors

4) local people in my industry

5) companies I want to partner with

6) 'pie in the sky' -- these are people with such influence that it would be a dream to connect with them like Tom Bilyeu or Seth Godin.

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STEP 2 -- FIND THOSE KEY PEOPLE

You want to find the most influential people for your list.

This means spending a bit of time finding the people that can help you grow your business more quickly.

Each day, take 15- 30 minutes to find people you want to add to your list.

Scour LinkedIn, SaaS forums, Quora, Facebook groups, and do general Google searches.

Gather details like -- contact info, who they know, and why you chose them.

Keep all this info in one place, like an Excel spreadsheet or Airtable base.

Every time you find someone who would looks appealing, add them to your network list.

Tag them in one of the categories.

Then add a time around the length of time you think it might take you to connect with them.

This is critical because it will help you decide how frequently you will be in touch with that person.

For example,

I have 3 time frames for each person on my list:

0-6 months

6-months to one year

1 year+

For my “pie in the sky” category, I know that building a relationship with these people will take longer than 1 year. They get tagged with the 1 year + time frame.

If you’re unsure, pick a longer time frame.

That way if you connect with them earlier, it will feel like a bigger win. ??

(This is what happened with James Altucher. Despite being in my “pie in the sky” category, I managed to connect with him after he was on my list for just a couple of months.)

STEP 3 --REACH OUT

This is the best part of this whole process, in my opinion-- starting to build those relationships.

I personally am a big fan of LinkedIn, so I start there.

(Sending emails, Facebook friend requests and asking a mutual acquaintance to introduce you are all great ways to get started too.)

Keep your first contact light and easy.

And ...

FOCUS ON THE PERSON YOU’RE LOOKING TO CONNECT WITH.

A typical outreach should include:

1) something personal to them

2) what you want

3) a quick sign off

Here are some examples:

You can even make your first connection fun:

You'll notice 2 things:

1) all of these are brief

2) the word "I" is nowhere to be found

You want to keep the focus on them, not what you want. It takes a bit to learn this but it's INCREDIBLY POWERFUL if you can focus on them 100% the first time you connect and remove the word "I" from your connection requests.

STEP 4 – BUILD THE RELATIONSHIP

Once you've established initial contact, you need to nurture the relationship.

This is where the time frames that you created are invaluable.

If the relationship is one that might take years -- YES YEARS -- to develop, reach out every 3-6 months.

You're looking to stay on their radar but not be top of mind just yet.

This is a long-term play that will reward you highly if you stick with it.

For people who are less than a year, decide whether you want to reach out every couple of months, once a month or even twice in a month.

You are looking to build a relationship with them NOW.

This means you want to keep in touch more frequently, so you stay top of mind.

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The key to building a high net worth network is to have a system.

As your influence, authority and reputation grow, start adding new, higher net worth people to your network list.

The great thing is that your network list serves as a system to ensure you’re always reaching for more and more valuable relationships.

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Anita is a consultant to growing B2B SaaS companies, helping them to increase profits by reducing churn.

To learn more about crushing churn and increasing profits for your business, visit her website (click the image):