Go-to Market or Go-to-Network?
It’s not getting any easier to go to market. Despite the increasing availability of tools, intelligence, and expertise, it still feels like a slog to put yourself in front of strangers.
Phone pickup rates continue to drop. Technology is only making this worse.
Email response rates are dropping, too. Technology is certainly not making this any better.
It’s pretty easy for the people you're trying to reach to disappear. I have an email address I only check once a quarter, usually just for password resets, and I'm not alone.
It’s an arms race for access, and as the tech advances, so do the obstacles placed between our prospective clients and us.
That doesn't mean you avoid it. Can you afford to?
You still need to be fluent in cold outreach. Most of us still have to find a way to put ourselves in front of strangers, and best practices still matter.
And if you're not willing to do the hard work of prospecting, you're not going to make it in sales.
I also think that cold outreach should be one of your last resorts.
The Underutilized Path
Going to your network, and doing so in a way that gives as much as it receives, is a massively underutilized way to grow your book of business.
Most salespeople treat referrals as a nice-to-have. A bonus when it happens. Not a strategy.
That's backwards.
The studies I’ve seen collectively suggest that 91% of customers would be willing to provide a referral if asked, but only about 11% of sales reps are willing to ask.
Yes. Most of you are leaving money on the table.
Referrals are the most efficient path to growth. The close rates are higher. The sales cycles are shorter. The customers are better fits.
So why don't more people do it?
“But Jeff, it’s haaaaaaard…”
What's hard:
Dialing 100 times a day and getting 4 pickups
Sending 200 emails a day and getting 2 responses
Connecting on LinkedIn and hearing nothing back
Getting in your car or on a plane to visit someone who may not see you
What's easy:
Complaining that none of it works
What's also hard, maybe even harder:
Letting your guard down in a business context
Getting vulnerable with people when we've been trained to believe vulnerability is weakness
Asking for help from people you're supposed to be helping
Well, choose your hard…
The Truth About Relationships
Show me a strong relationship that doesn't include any vulnerability.
They don't exist.
If your relationships are as strong as you say they are, you should be able to get vulnerable with those people. You should be able to ask them for help.
If you don't have those relationships yet, the way you build them is by getting vulnerable, being honest about what you need, and by showing up as a human, not just a salesperson.
This is where everything comes together, and the Excavate/Validate/Integrate framework starts to bear fruit.
The boardroom work gives you clarity on what makes you different.
The validation conversations confirm it with your best customers, and deepen those relationships in the process.
That depth earns you the right to ask: "Who else do you know who might appreciate what we do and the way we do it?"
And because you've done the work, you can be specific about who you're looking for. Not "anyone who might need what we sell." But "companies like yours, facing similar challenges, who would value the same things you value."
That specificity makes the referral easier to give and more likely to convert.
Extreme Firmographic Focus
My friend Todd Caponi talks about "extreme firmographic focus": knowing exactly what your best customers look like so you can find more of them. (I sat down with Todd recently for a Candid Conversation on my YouTube channel.)
Demographics describe people. Firmographics describe companies: size, industry, structure, buying patterns…
When you know your firmographic sweet spot, you stop wasting time on prospects who were never going to be a good fit. You focus your energy where it's most likely to pay off.
But you can't get there without doing the excavation first. The boardroom work. The validation conversations. The brutally honest assessment of who you serve best.
The Efficient Path
Going to market is about putting yourself in front of strangers and hoping some of them turn into customers.
Going to network is about deepening relationships with people who already trust you and asking them to introduce you to others who would benefit.
Both are hard, but one is a lot more efficient than the other.
The question is whether your pride will let you ask for help.
Jeffrey Gitomer Was Right
"Most salespeople won't do the hard work up front to make the selling part easier."
That's the whole argument in one sentence, and it's been true for decades.
The work isn't complicated. But it is hard.
It requires honesty about what you don't know. It requires vulnerability with your best customers. It requires discipline to say no to bad-fit business. It requires courage to ask for referrals.
Most companies won't do it. Most salespeople won't do it.
That's exactly why it's a competitive advantage for those who will.
