Lesson 57 - Build Your Network

Get the companion study guide for all episodes — packed with practical assignments, templates, and key takeaways at thedailyquota.com

Networking is key to long-term success in sales, and can lead to numerous opportunities throughout your career. In this lesson, you’ll learn strategies for building and maintaining a strong professional network. Your assignment will involve reaching out to five new connections in your industry.

Transcript

0:00

Nicholas, welcome back to the daily quota. I'm your host, Nicholas Hill, and in today's lesson, you're going to build your network. Your professional network will be an invaluable resource for giving and receiving advice, trading stories with other professionals, learning from one another's mistakes, getting each other jobs, and ultimately, it's just sometimes nice to be able to vent with other people that are in your field and kind of trade war stories with each other, and let yourself know that the things that are stressing you out are also stressing other people out in your field, and just make you feel kind of less alone in the job, right? Plus the stronger your network, the more you're going to learn, the more opportunities that are going to come your way, and the better you'll become as a salesperson. So let's go ahead and talk about how you can build your network, both internally and externally, outside of the organization. Let's start by networking internally. My recommendation, one of the most powerful moves you can make is to connect with some of the top performing account executives or sales reps within your organization. You don't need to stick to people that have similar styles as you either. I would, in fact, recommend reaching out to account executives that sell with a different style so that you can learn new approaches and kind of help you sharpen your own skills. So reach out to the top executives, find out who they are, ask them if they'd be willing to sit down for an informational interview. This could be a virtual meeting, or if you're in the same city, ask if they'd like to go out for a coffee or for a drink. But, you know, ask if they'd be willing to sit down with you. One of the ways that you can do this, you might say something like, you know, Hi Mark, I've admired, I've really admired your success in the company. I'd love to learn more about your approach to sales. I was wondering if you'd have 30 minutes to meet with me for an informational interview. I'd really appreciate hearing about your experience and any advice you'd be willing to share. Let me know if there's a time that works for you. So once you've set up this meeting, keep it informal. You don't want this to be an interrogation, right? You don't want to just show up and kind of, you know, bombard them with questions, but you do want to show up prepared. So there's a little bit of a balance here. There are three questions that I would be prepared with that could lead to an effective conversation. The first is, how did you first find success in this role, and what were some of the things that worked well for you early on? The second is, what is something that you wish you had known when you were starting out? And the third is, are there any methods or tools that you swear by that have helped you to be successful? And just by asking those three questions, you know, you can really start to get the conversation going after that. You should really personalize these things. So if there's something that you're specifically struggling with, have that conversation with them. You could ask them, like, what is your approach to prospecting? Do you have any routines? How do you manage your time? How do you stay organized during a busy week? What is your strategy for moving stalled deals forward? How do you handle objections during a demo or negotiation? The benefit here is that these folks are at your same organization, so you can ask them about things that come up for you. Chances are those things came up for them as well. So after having a few informational interviews, and I would recommend having a few at that point, you should probably search for a long term mentor. This person could be your manager or another leader within the organization, but ultimately, you want to find a mentor that is living the life that you want to live in the future. So figure out what your goals are, find someone who's living that life, and then go talk to them and ask them. How did you get here? What knowledge can you offer? Right? Learn from their mistakes, learn from their experience. And normally, you'll find folks that want to pass their knowledge down, and they want to be a mentor. Your company might actually offer a formal mentorship program. So check with your people team or HR team to see if that's something that that you can leverage. It could also be a formal career coach, someone that you pay to be a mentor, although you don't really have to do that. I've never had to pay for a mentor. I've always found people that have been willing to help, and ultimately, they're going to help you set long term goals. They'll share experience and insights. They'll guide you as you navigate your career. Once you find a mentor, meet with them regularly, come prepared with specific questions challenges that you're facing, progress towards the goals that you've set together and make sure that this relationship is too small. Excited. It shouldn't just be Take, take, take, right? You should show up being able to share your own experience, your own insights, your own stories and that that will help them to continue to learn as well. It's also important to understand that your network is not just limited to your company. You should be identifying key influencers in your industry, people who are sharing content, leading conversations, thought leaders, people that are pushing new ideas. You want to start to engage these influencers. Follow them on social media, engage with their posts, send them a message or an email. Sorry about that. Leave thoughtful comments, offer your own experience, ask questions, right? Building relationships with influencers is not impossible. They're people too, right? And you want to make sure that you know that will help you to kind of stay informed about industry trends and be at the cutting edge of where your function is going. Another great way to expand your network is to join LinkedIn groups. These groups are filled with like minded professionals. They share insights, they share advice, they share opportunities. And my recommendation is, if you're going to join a group at all, don't just join a group and lurk, right? You want to introduce yourself. It could be something as simple as like, Hey everyone. My name is Nick. I'm an account executive at XYZ company. You know, I'm new to tech sales, and I'm excited to connect and learn from this community. One thing that's been working for me recently is reaching out to prospects on LinkedIn with short video messages instead of text. Has anyone else found creative ways of reaching out that have worked for them? I'd love to trade ideas. So what I've done there is I've introduced myself, I've given value. I've talked about something that's been working for me, and then I've asked for value in return. Let's start a conversation about creative things that work. And ultimately, people will engage with a post like that and be willing to share some ideas. And you might get some people that are rude but like who cares, disregard them. More than likely on LinkedIn, you'll find people willing to to engage in the conversation. Um, one last way to network is to attend formal networking events. Make sure that you take your time to do some research. Find two to three networking events that you'd like to attend, whether that's virtually or in person. It could be industry conferences, webinars, et cetera. Also the website meetup.com has a lot of professional networking events, and especially for young professionals, I've noticed so like 20s and 30s. So that could be something good chance to meet new people. So all in all, your network is going to be super beneficial to your career in the long term, make sure that you get started now, right? It takes time to lay the foundation of a good professional network. It's not going to happen overnight. You may not see early success in building your network. Your first mentor might suck. Your first informational interview request might get denied. Your first webinar might be a total bust, but keep going, you will begin to build your network and find the right people for you. All right, now it's your turn for today's assignment. I want you to follow the steps above. You're going to reach out to a top performing AE at your organization for an informational interview. You're going to write down what you're looking for from a potential mentor, as well as two to three possibilities for who in your life could serve as that mentor you're going to engage with an industry influencer on social media. You don't have to do that, but I would recommend it. Join a sales group on LinkedIn, introduce yourself with a post, and then identify two to three networking events that you'd like to attend over the next year. Your study guide to walk you through this process in more detail, your manager, mentor, new hire buddy, might be able to give you some ideas on different mentors, top performing, AES, et cetera, that you can connect with. And that is it for today's lesson on the daily quota. Thank you for listening, and we'll see you next time bye. You.