Blog · Method
Networking and Your Sales Force
It's common to hear someone complain that they generate business for their network and get none from it. Almost always there's one cause, and it's a simple one: they've never explained to anyone how to introduce them.
Published 3 November 2021 · revised 16 August 2026
The shift in perspective
Don't close a sale: train whoever introduces you
If you were training salespeople, what would you tell them? How would you describe what you do so they truly understood the value of what you offer? That conversation — the one you'd have with the people in your network — almost nobody ever has it.
And without that conversation, people introduce you as best they can, which usually means poorly — not out of ill will, but because nobody ever told them how.
What whoever introduces you should do
Assess the person's needs before mentioning you. Give them a heads-up that you'll call, so your call doesn't land cold. Give them some background on you and state what their relationship with you is. And follow up afterwards, to find out how it went.
Four behaviors, all of them obvious. Almost nobody follows them — unless you ask.
In practice
Three tips
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Don't generalize when you ask
"Anyone who needs my service" is the most common answer and the least useful one: if you can help everyone, nobody will believe you're an expert in anything. Ask for something specific, and you'll receive it.
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Leave something in their hands
Something the people in your network can see and carry with them. It helps you stay top of mind, and it gives them something to show when they talk about you.
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Train the people who work with you
Not just your external network: the people inside your company too. You can't expect them to do it well if nobody's ever taught them, and it isn't something you explain just once.
One word at a time
"A network of paid tipsters" is the outdated part
That was the 2021 phrasing. The substance of the article — training whoever introduces you instead of chasing the sale — still holds completely. The compensation mechanism doesn't.
Why payment isn't enough
It pays for the gesture, not the quality: whoever passes along a hundred random names earns more than whoever passes along three good ones. And above all it doesn't compensate for the real risk, which is reputational, not financial (Sixth law).
What replaces it
Whoever makes the introduction is a Connector and receives back the same thing they give: people worth knowing. The unit of exchange is the Match Credit, a right to an introduction, and the mechanism that governs it is the Reciprocity Engine.
Inside a company, the person who does exactly the job described in this article — training whoever introduces you, keeping up the routine, measuring — is called the Referral Director.
A sales force is trained. Even when it isn't on your payroll.
The first step
Where your company stands, in one number
AIRA-SCAN© measures the Relational Capital your company already has: ten questions, three minutes, no registration required. Your browser calculates the score and it appears immediately, along with the dimensions where you're losing the most points.
The extended report then arrives by email, and within one working day someone calls you: you look at the result together and assess whether the AIRA-DX© Stoic Analysis makes sense for your company. It's free and limited to twelve a week, so it isn't owed to whoever takes the check-up: it's decided together.
Would you rather just talk it through? The number is 0549 888808.