Play #005 Building Your Network

Welcome to the Play #005 of the Founders GTM Playbook Newsletter. Each week I will bring you one GTM play that is tested through scaling multiple 7-figure B2B businesses that you can put into action to scale your business.

Let's talk about building a high quality network. Before I lose you, I'm not talking about going to networking groups. I'm talking about building your network on social and cultivating relationships. This is something I paid no attention to in my first startup and I see many founders make the same mistake. I'm going to give you a few simple ways that have worked for me contributed large amounts of revenue across three companies.

1. Develop Real Relationships Online

The most obvious place to do this is on LinkedIn. The problem is that the way most people use LinkedIn is ineffective. Most people are using the platform to see what they can take from it as opposed to what they can contribute. The simple shift of the way use use these platforms will help you build real relationships. Focus on meeting with people that you can learn from, add value to and collaborate with. My good friend Rob Napoli likes to call this having a Social Soul which his Book covers in more detail. Oh yeah, Rob and I met on LinkedIn.

2. Show Up Regularly

Once you develop these relationships you will want t to nurture them regularly. One way you can do this is by engaging with them on the social. I recommend you keep a google sheet of the people you want to support and add a few notes about each person. Simply following them doesn't mean they show up in you feed since the algorithm is constantly changing. Refer to your notes to see what type of intros you can make and how you can support them and they will want to do the same. This is called the rule of reciprocity.

3. Messaging That Works

Reach out to people you want to develop relationships with. Send them a message or even better a video. People get pitch slapped daily so you need to stand out. Using video or voice DMs is one way but your message needs to be simple and authentic. Here is a template that you can steal or make your own. "Hey Name, I came across your post on XYZ. I found XYZ interesting because of XYZ. I wanted to see if you would be up for getting aquatinted over zoom and I promise it's not an undercover "sales call." This works most of the time to get a conversation started. On the flip side here is the template I use for people that connect with me."Hey Name, Thanks for connecting! I'm curious what prompted you to reach out?" Depending on how they answer this question should give you a good idea if they are prospecting you, value your content or want to build a relationship.

See you again next week.

-CM