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Anyone in sales will tell you lot that social networks are disquisitional: The more contacts you accept, the more leads you'll generate and, ultimately, the more than sales you'll brand. While at that place'due south some truth behind that thinking, information technology's a vast oversimplification. Dissimilar configurations of networks produce different results, and the salesperson who develops a nuanced understanding of social networks will outshine competitors.

The salesperson's job changes over the sometimes lengthy course of the selling process, with each phase requiring its ain item set of abilities. The skills involved in finding a lead don't apply to, say, endmost a deal. Moreover, each stage requires the salesperson to build and use a dissimilar kind of social network. A grouping of prospects, for instance, has little in common with the network of experts who might be needed to convince a client to finalize a purchase. Yet few managers, and even fewer salespeople, know how to manage their networks efficiently.

To ameliorate understand sales networks, it's helpful to view the sales process as four distinct stages: identifying prospects, gaining purchase-in from potential customers, creating solutions, and closing the deal. Success in the commencement stage depends on the salesperson'south acquiring precise and timely information most opportunities (ideally, ones that competitors don't know about) from contacts outside the seller's organization and in the market at big. In the adjacent stage, the salesperson needs to map the prospect organization and secure meetings with primal decision makers and so that the selling firm gets the serious consideration it deserves. That involves knowing who in the prospect company makes the decisions, who has influence, and what the potential customer's underlying trouble is. Because answers must come from within the prospect, the salesperson needs people inside that organization to help him attain his goals.

In the tertiary phase, the salesperson comes up with a solution for the prospect, but rarely on his own. Success here depends on the seller's ability to identify where the components of the solution reside in his own organisation—and on his skill at mobilizing and analogous these resource. At the last stage, endmost the deal, the salesperson's task is to remove as many of the customer's uncertainties as possible. The prospect wonders: Is this truly the all-time solution? Can this company evangelize it? Volition the company be around in two years? Volition the salesperson reply the phone when things aren't working out? The prospect will want to speak with other customers who can shed low-cal on the risks, and so the salesperson needs to mobilize contacts in prior sales to complete the deal.

In each phase, the salesperson's efforts can be boiled downwards to two essential and complementary types of network-management deportment: managing the information flow and coordinating the efforts of contacts. Some stages require more than of one type than the other. In fact, the more information managing that's required, the less coordinating, and vice versa. (See the showroom "Dissimilar Networks for Different Tasks.")

Different Networks for Unlike Tasks

Thus it'due south obvious that salespeople's individual skills—cold-calling efficiency, consultative abilities, and product noesis—are necessary but not sufficient. If salespeople are to succeed, they demand the resources embedded within social networks; that is, access to the right information, the ability to disseminate information technology to the correct people, and the ability to coordinate the efforts of groups of people to deliver value to the customer. If you're a sales manager, y'all need to assistance your squad build and maintain the right webs of contacts. In this commodity, nosotros introduce a framework for systematically managing these all-important social networks.

A Closer Look at Social Networks

The term "social network" refers to a person's set of direct and indirect contacts. Consider Bob, an industrial chemicals salesman. At his previous company, he worked with Jim, Andy, and Brenda, procurement managers at three unlike detergent manufacturers. He collaborated on numerous deals with each and shared an occasional beer later on piece of work to let off steam about workplace stress. One time, when Jim ran into problems with a supplier, Bob stepped in to fill the order. He also provided assistance to Andy and Brenda on numerous occasions. Bob tin at present call on these direct contacts if he needs aid finding names of prospects for his efforts to upsell within their companies or if he needs a proficient word about his products to pass along to a new prospect.

Managers oft view sales networks only in terms of numbers of direct contacts. But someone who knows a lot of people doesn't necessarily take an effective network, considering networks often pay off most handsomely through indirect contacts. If Bob wants to garner a share of orders for a new line of detergents that Jim's company is developing, he'll need to persuade the chemists there to use his product in their exam formulations and technical trials. So he can ask Jim if he knows anyone in R&D and get a personal referral to a chemist. The more people Jim knows in the house, the more valuable he is to Bob.

Someone who knows a lot of people doesn't necessarily have an effective network, because networks frequently pay off near handsomely through indirect contacts.

The density of the connections in a network is some other important characteristic. Exercise a salesperson'due south contacts know all the aforementioned people, or are their associates widely dispersed? Dense networks are suited to certain types of tasks, sparse networks to others. For instance, Ron Burt, a professor at the University of Chicago'south Graduate School of Business, has shown that sparser networks are better for getting admission to unique information. If Bob's contacts Andy and Brenda aren't friends with each other, at that place'south a good run a risk they have different information. The more dense a network (if Andy and Brenda are friends), the greater the likelihood that contacts volition know the same people and hear the aforementioned news. Because relationships are non "free" to maintain—Bob has to call both Andy and Brenda from time to time and requite them assistance when they inquire—a salesperson with two redundant ties might consider cutting one of them.

Dense networks are more desirable for coordination purposes, as researchers such as Jim Baron at Stanford and Joel Podolny, at present dean of Yale's Schoolhouse of Management, take shown. When Bob needs Andy's and Brenda's efforts to exist coordinated and consistent, he's improve off if they are friends than if they are not. If Bob counts on Andy and Brenda to tell new prospects nigh him, he wants them to say the same things. The closer their friendship, the more than probable they are to share a similar perspective and speak with a mutual voice.

Nigh salespeople cultivate ties inside iv social networks: Prospect networks include the key decision makers in the prospect firm as well every bit people in its purchasing and engineering groups; these webs also include other influencers inside and exterior the prospect firm. Client networks consist of individuals from current clients. Marketplace networks comprise sometime colleagues, members of trade associations, and other actors in the marketplace (such as local real-manor agents) with whom salespeople maintain relationships. Contacts with representatives at other firms selling into the aforementioned customer base are especially interesting components of this network, because those reps may have similar motivations simply are not competitors. Finally, salespeople cultivate ties to individuals within their own organizations. These engineers, managers, marketers, manufacturing experts, and sales reps brand upward a salesperson'south intra-organizational networks.

Matching the Network to the Task

If salespeople and managers understand how networks function, they can pinpoint the most effective network configuration for each stage of a sale and have the actions necessary to create it.

Identifying prospects.

Many salespeople waste a great deal of time cold-calling or trying to breathe life into sometime leads. That's because they can't encounter clearly into prospective firms to know when the companies are getting ready to buy. The right network strategy tin can make the process of finding good leads much easier.

Let's wait at prospect identification at Arrow Electronics, the Fortune 500 electronic-components company. Most of Arrow'south orders are for ongoing applications at existing clients. Customers tend to remain loyal to suppliers one time they have sourced components for particular products, so big sales opportunities arise only when a manufacturer develops a new production.

For Arrow's salespeople, then, the ability to identify firms that are starting product development cycles is a precious commodity. But prospects go on their product development activities underground to thwart competitors and to proceed customers from canceling purchases of the existing version in anticipation of the next release. So how does Arrow discover which visitor is likely to be the next big buyer of components?

Some of Arrow'south nigh effective salespeople rely on leads from nontraditional sources. Since one of the first things a start-upward company does is lease office space, a real-estate amanuensis may know nigh a new rollout before anyone else. Smart salespeople, therefore, cultivate ties with people in the realty network. Engineers formerly with existing Arrow customers are also good sources of information. Thus, Arrow's salespeople who continue up with their prior applied science contacts get leads before their competitors do. To put that into networking language, salespeople looking for new and unique data should cultivate broad marketplace networks. These direct contacts will be most beneficial in a sparsely structured network, where each can connect the salesperson to many different indirect contacts. The thin web captures wider data than a densely woven network of contacts would. (See the exhibit "Identifying Prospects.")

Identifying Prospects

The principle that information admission is maximized in sparse market networks holds true whether we're talking about selling electronic components or professional person services. John Burgess, a partner at Boston's largest police force house, Wilmer Cutler Pickering Unhurt and Dorr (known as WilmerHale), relies heavily on his marketplace network to identify firms that will be interested in his expertise in cantankerous-edge IPOs. Investment bankers usually run into IPO deals earlier attorneys, because bankers are the beginning people hired when a firm begins to think near going public. The more bankers Burgess knows, the more probable it is that i of them will lead to unique information.

Gaining purchase-in and upselling.

Once a salesperson has identified an opportunity, she needs to practise two things: educate the prospect company about her firm's products or services and larn more detailed information nigh the prospect and its underlying problem. Thus, she isn't merely trying to maximize data inflow as she was during opportunity identification. She now needs to convince her initial contacts to invest fourth dimension in educating her on their firm and introducing her to other people in their organisation. (Run into the exhibit "Gaining Buy-In and Upselling.")

Gaining Purchase-In and Upselling

Asking an initial contact to introduce her to someone or to endorse her or her proposal is very different from simply asking for information. The contact isn't going to put himself on the line unless he's sure she won't jeopardize his reputation. And then instead of building multiple nonredundant contacts—as she did in the market network—the salesperson needs to establish fewer, stronger ties in her prospect network.

That is no piece of cake task, as Hewlett-Packard'due south Computer Services Arrangement discovered in the mid-1990s. The unit had planned initially to penetrate new accounts past satisfying the (substantially commodity) hardware reordering needs of purchasing managers and then use those initial contacts to open the door to the It department, where information technology could sell more than complex hardware. HP planned to leverage those contacts to build relationships in the C suite in order to sell lucrative consulting projects. This pes-in-the-door program failed because managers in customer companies derive a sure ability from being continued to the supplier and all the benefits the supplier's salesperson brings. Contacts at client firms didn't want to hazard losing that power by allowing sales reps to telephone call on other people in the arrangement. Had HP's sales managers spent more than time evaluating the underlying prospect networks, they might have foreseen that their client contacts would not necessarily assistance them motility higher in the arrangement.

In this stage, then, it'south crucial for the salesperson to map out the prospect arrangement network and empathize how information technology works. If he can determine who wields influence, he tin devote his fourth dimension and energy to cultivating ties with those individuals so that they can help him gain buy-in from the official determination makers.

A salesperson trying to gain buy-in at a potential client must map out the prospect organization network and understand how it works.

Upselling is similar in some means to gaining buy-in. To create more deals within existing clients, salespeople must focus on building new relationships inside their prospect networks. They should study the client firm to identify brokers: people with multiple various contacts inside the organisation. Brokers can provide the salesperson with a host of indirect contacts who, if tapped efficiently, tin can lead to a mother lode of information.

To discover a broker, a salesperson must evaluate the nature, construction, and shape of the networks in the target firm. Who has formal authority? Who has informal authority? Who has access to information? Who always seems to know where to detect things, people, and funding? Over time, the salesperson will be able to locate the almost influential brokers. When he does, he should invest significantly in edifice relationships with them.

Creating solutions.

A salesperson lands an account by developing a solution tailored to the client's unique business trouble. Her ability to bring precious, hard-to-find technical cognition to the customer tin can brand or break a deal. Considering she cannot possibly know everything herself, she must rely heavily on the expertise located within her intra-organizational networks. (See the exhibit "Creating Solutions.")

Creating Solutions

In electronics sales, for example, a single motherboard might include hundreds of components, each of which is offered by many suppliers. Most of the components, moreover, become obsolete in less than a twelvemonth. When a customer asks for help on the design of a new board that is to be installed in, say, airport autoflush toilets, what's the salesperson to do? She needs a thin intra-organizational network that will link her to a diverse range of technical experts within her company. If she has built the right web, she can detect the right expert quickly. She can create huge value by using intra-organizational networks to locate the right information and deliver it to the customer on demand.

A salesperson can create huge value by using intra-organizational networks to locate the right information and deliver information technology to the customer on demand.

When creating solutions, a salesperson is rarely able to simply tap his network for information. He must likewise act as a broker and get together an ad-hoc squad of experts, coordinating the efforts of people who may not have met one another before. The autoflush toilet, for instance, requires several types of applied science experts: specialists on a particular sensing device and generalists who know virtually compatibility issues with newly designed chips. The salesperson who can connect the far-flung nodes and create a smaller, dumbo network focused on the task at paw will be more constructive.

Closing the deal.

Past the time the salesperson has made it to the final stage of the sales process, he has demonstrated the product, held scores of face-to-face meetings, and exchanged hundreds of due east-mails. The prospect has kicked the tires and taken a test-bulldoze only is worried about what volition happen later 50,000 miles of driving on his highway, the way he drives. How should the salesperson reply to that worry? He needs to discover someone who drives but similar the prospective client. In other words, he needs to provide references. (Meet the exhibit "Closing the Deal.")

Endmost the Deal

At data storage behemothic EMC, for instance, a salesperson might be asked by a buyer from an airline: "How will EMC's storage system work with my applications? How will information technology interact with my Information technology infrastructure? How will EMC respond to my problems when I call?" The salesperson must then mobilize his network of past customers to find another airline with similar (or, amend yet, the aforementioned) applications, infrastructure, and bug and must put people from the sometime client in touch on with individuals at the prospect. And so in add-on to being crucial for identifying upselling opportunities, a salesperson'south customer network is very valuable for closing deals at other firms.

Experts outside the firm can be of import in sealing a deal, too. An industry guru can have a powerful impact if, for example, he can tout a product as the wave of the hereafter.

Network-Smart Sales Strategies for Managers

We've shown that salespeople need to develop marketplace networks to identify new opportunities; that they need to build prospect networks to place upselling opportunities and gain buy-in; that they must work their intra-organizational networks to create solutions; and that they need customer networks to close a bargain. Moreover, the further along they are in the sales procedure, the denser their networks should exist. In this section, we'll look at how companies and sales managers can use three levers—sales force structure, compensation, and skills development—to encourage salespeople to prefer a network-based view and make the best possible apply of social networks.

Sales force structure.

Conspicuously, the best way to ensure that your salespeople hear about new opportunities is to encourage them to build market networks with many various contacts. Not everyone, however, is naturally proficient at that, so you should consider decoupling atomic number 82 generation from other tasks. This is a common practise in certain industries. Many financial directorate, for instance, utilize "bird dogs" who exercise nothing but identify leads. Some people are very good at building diverse ties but non so adept at maintaining other kinds of networks. They are extroverts who like to keep upward with many people simply lack the patience to connect individuals and coordinate their efforts. If they are allowed to focus on what they excel at, chances are they will get even better at generating diverse contacts and volition thus produce leads much faster than people working at managing the ties within their networks. The people whose strengths lie in nurturing fewer but stronger relationships are likely to be far meliorate at creating solutions and endmost deals. If they can focus solely on those tasks, they'll probably go even more than effective.

The downside to a decoupled construction is that it can work confronting the bones premise of networks. A network is effective considering participants are willing to share with one another. They are office of what anthropologists telephone call the "gift economy." A contact shares her resource with another on the agreement that she will proceeds access to that person'southward resource when needed. With a decoupled structure, it can be hard to keep the gift chain intact.

More specifically, lead generation is frequently tied to reciprocal favors delivered in afterward stages of the sales process. A manufacturer who gives a lead to a distributor's salesperson might expect that the manufacturer's line will be considered for incorporation in the solution when the salesperson gets to that stage. Decoupling lead generation from later stages can intermission this gift chain, considering the lead generator has no opportunity to return favors. That situation could eventually pb to subpar operation by the marketplace network. I remedy is to create a database to track the source of each pb. Then, in the closing stage, the salesperson would be able to recognize what is owed to the referral source and would be empowered to satisfy the obligation.

When it comes to gaining buy-in at prospects, managers can preclude salespeople from falling into the trap HP found itself in. Managers might fifty-fifty make use of the solution that HP ultimately came up with: restructuring to access prospect firms through multiple sales forces. A manager at a customer firm may non want to introduce "her" salesperson to other people in the visitor, merely she'd be happy to introduce the salesperson's colleague around. This approach can be very costly, withal, and then it's appropriate mainly for high-value sales.

In the solution stage, a salesperson might justifiably experience frazzled trying to cultivate the correct networks for creating various customers' solutions. There are several ways managers can lighten the load. Starting time, consider the extent to which your firm's offerings have anticipated solution-creation needs. If solutions are relatively standardized, you should prepare upward defended solutions teams for major accounts, assigning support staff and salespeople on the basis of customers' requirements. Dedicated teams develop trust and commitment as members become comfortable working together to complete circuitous tasks, oft nether smashing stress. This arroyo too allows executives at the selling company to evaluate the workings of the networks of experts inside their organisation—for instance, the executives can monitor how rapidly people reply to a salesperson'southward telephone call for help. Is the sales force getting the support it needs? Which people piece of work well together? Most important, establishing formal teams removes the brunt of intra-organizational networking from the salesperson. She doesn't demand to spend valuable time finding experts for every proposal. Management does all that networking for her.

If your offerings are circuitous and customized in an unpredictable way, consider an ad-hoc approach to squad development, in which support people are tapped every bit needed. Managers can create an intranet listing of employees' areas of expertise and former work experiences so that salespeople assembling ad-hoc teams tin easily observe the most appropriate members. The salesperson can then send an due east-mail to all the experts at once, describing the state of affairs and requesting back up. Instead of spending time finding internal experts, he can straight his efforts toward developing market place or customer networks. As an added benefit, managers volition learn valuable data about support people's response rates to these requests and their speed in answering.

Another useful approach, common in professional services but applicable in other production domains, is to create groups that cut across functional areas. At the law firm Unhurt and Dorr (ane of the predecessors to WilmerHale), managing partner Bill Lee instituted "exercise areas" that transcended traditional specialties such as corporate law, litigation, and tax constabulary. The Life Sciences grouping, for instance, brought together attorneys from every specialty to discuss problems relevant to companies such every bit biotech firms. Members became part of an breezy network, so that if a corporate lawyer from the group needed aid on a litigation issue, he already had a human relationship with a litigator through the group. Essentially, this arroyo established relatively sparse networks for members of each practice surface area.

Managers tin besides have an important impact in the last phase of the sales process. Prior clients can help close a deal, equally we've pointed out, but salespeople often have trouble maintaining networks of potential references, who understandably don't want to be a part of helping rival firms make better purchase decisions. A sales manager can create an organizational structure that will motivate by clients to help. The fashion to do that is to assist the clients in building their ain valuable personal networks. If a past client is a CIO, for case, the salesperson tin assist him run across other CIOs who might be useful not but in making future engineering science decisions but also in career moves—especially since the average CIO tenure is only 12 to 18 months.

In one case a prior client has agreed to be a reference, y'all must decide who owns the right to contact him. Creating a team to manage and nurture the reference pool ensures efficient employ of previous clients. If the CIO at, say, American Airlines will have the biggest affect on a prospect at either United or Delta, the salesperson will want to be certain that those are the places where the CIO's opinions are heard. A centralized construction minimizes the chances that any contact's privacy will exist violated or his time wasted, and it thus helps foreclose burnout, a mutual complaint amidst references. (In one case customers concord to serve every bit references, salespeople may be less than diligent nearly protecting their privacy and respecting their time, peculiarly when the reps are chasing deals at the cease of the quarter.)

To reduce the risk that references will cramp at helping a reference specialist with whom they have no prior relationship, managers can carefully transition each client to the centralized team. Such a handoff is fraught with risk, notwithstanding. Success depends on the manager'southward making sure that the specialist positions himself as useful to the client and the client'south own personal network and reputation.

Compensation.

A well-designed bounty plan will meliorate your salespeople's network management skills and maximize the catamenia of resource from networks. Since edifice the right kind of networks to foster leads is a fourth dimension-consuming endeavor, consider offer explicit incentives for lead generation. Although this is an indirect arroyo to network edifice, it serves two important purposes: Information technology increases the firsthand benefits to salespeople from investment in their marketplace networks, and it makes a argument to the sales force about the importance the visitor places on leads and lead generation.

A system of financial incentives tin also induce a salesperson to take the fourth dimension to log each lead and all its associated information. Capturing detailed data—Where did the pb come from? What happened to it? Which contacts are providing the all-time information?—is extremely valuable for companies, especially in industries with high turnover. If the salesperson leaves, the lead doesn't disappear. Additionally, tracking information of this sort allows managers to ensure that salespeople are developing high-quality leads.

The salesperson's company tin spur the creation of effective intra-organizational networks by compensating employees for supporting the sales force in creating solutions and closing deals. To discourage support people from aiding only the projects that seem easy to sell or merely the salespeople who seem most probable to close deals, the company should base of operations compensation on how many sales efforts are supported, the number of hours spent, and how rapidly assist is provided, rather than on how many solutions the support people assist create. An added do good of paying the back-shop employees a committee—even if it's not on the same calibration as the salesperson's—is that you lot'll ease the resentment of the support people, who may feel they're doing all the work while the salesperson reaps all the benefits. Although that resentment stems from an underestimation of the effort that goes into selling, it tin can become in the manner of a well-performance intra-organizational network.

Some salespeople are inclined to hoard their most valuable reference sources to ensure that the contacts are bachelor to them when needed. To counterbalance that inclination, some firms pay salespeople a pocket-size incentive, or "spiff," for every name added to a reference pool. An fifty-fifty more powerful tool for prying names from private lists is recognition: Give credit to the originator of a contact who eventually facilitates a closed deal.

Skills development.

Senior managers must ensure that the network-based view of sales becomes the norm throughout the organization so that salespeople can readily learn network skills. Managers should thus promote an organizational culture that supports network-friendly activities. For instance, the company should sponsor social events to which salespeople tin bring their contacts from various industries and contexts. Training is critical to transforming the firm into a network-enlightened organization. Frontline sales managers need to sympathize network concepts and be able to evaluate salespeople's efforts to implement network strategies. Moreover, the visitor's hiring and promotion decisions should exist based on individuals' understanding of how to employ networks effectively.

If your company has chosen not to decouple lead generation from the remainder of the sales process, there's an intriguing new technology that is worth investigating. Online networks—something similar a Friendster for consultants and salespeople—may be extremely useful equally a skills-development tool for people in your company who aren't naturally gifted at networking. These forums permit users tap into a vast pool of contacts who are entirely different from their current contacts—that is, into a vast set of sparse network relationships.

Salespeople must exist taught how to evaluate their own, as well as other people's, networks. Assessing networks is a crucial skill when it comes to securing buy-in at prospective clients. Salespeople should go used to asking themselves questions such as "Are my market place ties sufficiently diverse?" "Should I jettison a redundant contact then I'll have more than time to build new relationships?" "Who in the prospect firm has the biggest and sparsest networks?" (Sometimes the contacts with the most valuable networks are difficult to discern from the org chart.) "Who will be likely to promote the offering effectively?" "Who are the brokers?"

Salespeople must be taught how to evaluate their own networks. They should become used to asking questions such every bit "Should I jettison a redundant contact so I'll have more time to build new relationships?"

While we're not advocating an extensive (and costly) social-network assay of every prospect firm, we would urge managers to requite their salespeople the skills, tools, and foresight to evaluate factors such as the extent of a contact's connections in a prospect firm, whether the contacts are connected to ane another, and how well the salesperson is positioned to make use of key influencers and decision makers.

Because the best mode to get customers to serve as references is to aid them build their ain social networks, salespeople must be able to evaluate a contact'southward personality blazon also equally her networks. If she already has a wide and diverse network, she's likely to be highly motivated past the opportunity to expand her network, since she is clearly invested. If she frequently participates in conferences, she may well value the opportunity to heighten her public profile and make new connections.

Finally, an important element of maintaining a healthy customer network is recognizing that networks need maintaining. Most managers are comfortable training people how to do such important tasks as common cold-calling and endmost a bargain, but few are confident in their ability to explicate the all-time ways to only keep in bear upon with contacts. Due east-mailing a contact every in one case in a while to "check in" or "simply say hello" may not always exist the best approach. Customers are likely to be irked by such a ploy. Managers should ensure that communications always add some sort of value. ENSR, an environmental consulting business firm, produces a monthly newsletter that its salespeople send to their client contacts, many of whom are corporate managers of environmental affairs. It contains plenty of information about recent ENSR projects, to exist sure, merely it as well provides data on manufacture trends that recipients may notice useful.• • •

Once you understand the four distinct stages of making a deal, it's articulate that certain network configurations are better suited to certain tasks. In the primeval stage, a various marketplace network is best for identifying new leads. In the adjacent stage, cultivating a prospect visitor network for access to the decision makers will help a salesperson gain buy-in. The tertiary stage is all virtually coordination: Hither the salesperson needs to forge ties among contacts in his intra-organizational network then they will work together to devise solutions for his prospect's unique bug. And to close the deal, the salesperson needs contacts from his customer network who can vouch for his good reputation.

We're not proverb that cultivating all these networks is easy, simply we believe that the salespeople who accept the fourth dimension to exercise it will reap tremendous advantages. Moreover, they don't have to become it lone. We've institute that companies tin can brand changes to their sales strength structures, compensation plans, and training programs to institutionalize the network view of sales. Companies looking for meliorate results should help their sales teams build improve networks.

A version of this article appeared in the July–August 2006 event of Harvard Business organisation Review.