We’ve all heard that line about how everyone on the earth is no more than 6 connections away from knowing anybody. I’m not sure about you, but I couldn’t care less about knowing nearly everyone on the face of this earth. The only thing I care about is knowing the 3% or so of the people on this earth that I can help or can help me. Don’t kid yourself — 3% is still a lot of people to invite over to the house for a party.
To be serious, what I’m talking about is developing a network that works for both the people who are in it and you. What we don’t realize is we all have a network that is far bigger than anyone of us initially comprehends. I’m stating this because I hear from too many salespeople and others who claim they can’t develop any decent leads. They say they don’t have any good prospects. Well, that is simply not the case for anyone who has spent any amount of time communicating with others and using social media sites like Facebook, Linkedin, etc.
I’ll use my Linkedin account as an example. I recently checked the stats for my profile and I’m connected to 975+ people. According to Linkedin, those people allow me to connect with 305,000 people and there is more than 9,700,000 people to whom those are connected.
If you run the math, that means the average connection has just over 300 other connections. Now go with me for a second, but if you run this out one more level you come up with a number that is in excess of 3 billion people! That means the village idiot that I am is now connected to nearly the world!
But wait, I said I only needed to be connected with about 3% of the world’s population. I translate this to mean that I have more than enough connections to develop all of the leads and prospects I need in my business.
The reason I’m sharing this is very simple. Don’t ever think for a minute you don’t have the capability to find good leads or prospects. They’re right there in front of your nose. I’ll beg to say the reason you don’t have good leads is you have chosen not to develop good leads, because you’re afraid of the work and ultimately the business it will bring you.
Now I’m hitting below the belt — I know, I’ve been there. You see, in the end we reach the level of success we choose to reach. It’s a mindset. It’s what we want to believe and accept. Don’t for a minute think you can’t be successful because you can’t develop any leads. They’re there below your nose.
By the way, since I used Linkedin as an example, feel free to connect with me on Linkedin you can find me www.Linkedin.com/in/MarkHunter.
Copyright 2010, Mark Hunter “The Sales Hunter.” Sales Motivation Blog.
