Consider your company’s collective network a critical piece of your competitive advantage and part of your business growth.
A collective network extends your visibility, positioning, and influence. We tend to rely on salespeople to build the best networks and overlook someone else who, through tenure or access, talks with or knows the buyer or influencers within a current or potential client.
Our work shows that salespeople do not always have the most strategic network, especially if they have changed industries throughout their careers or have not thought about how they could use LinkedIn strategically. And, if you’re thinking that you have all this data and information in your CRM, read Jim Cusick’s blog, Leadership – 5 Need-To-Know Absolutes For LinkedIn And Business Growth, to understand how 1st party data and collective networks provide different and often far greater insight than the data within your CRM.
However, someone who has been in customer service, a partner in the company, and an operations leader with deep industry experience may have a far more valuable network than anyone expected. They may need to be encouraged or invited to share their networks.
Harnessing the Potential Within Your Collective Network
The best salespeople, recruiters, and marketers understand the value of people – their networks and communities – and strive to build meaningful connections with them. LinkedIn provides an ideal platform for this, offering firsthand data and filtering capabilities that allow you to view people, their companies, and their most important news and milestones at a glance.
Picture your organization as a network of connections—each employee, partner, customer, and stakeholder is a node linking to numerous other nodes. This web of relationships forms your collective network, a tangible asset that can significantly impact your bottom line.
According to LinkedIn, companies that leverage their collective networks are up to 58% more likely to outperform competitors demonstrating the benefits that businesses reap in terms of growth, innovation, and market dominance by harnessing the power of their collective network.
Turning Referrals into Revenue
Referrals play a crucial role in business growth. LinkedIn says 84% of B2B decision-makers start the buying process with a referral. Each connection your employees create enriches your collective network, enhancing your business’s growth potential.
Creating content and encouraging your employees to share it with their networks is essential because it helps position your message in front of the right people. When this happens, your content becomes more than just another post in the feed—it transforms into a conversation starter, a relationship builder, and a revenue generator.
Bridging Connection Gaps with Digital Platforms
Despite the best efforts, gaps in connections often exist within an organization. However, digital platforms like LinkedIn can effectively bridge these gaps. LinkedIn’s tools, such as LinkedIn Sales Insights, allow companies to filter down to specific personas within target organizations, showing exactly how connected you are to that particular company. This connectivity informs who you’re marketing to, ensuring your efforts are targeted and effective.
The Impact of Collective Networks: From Solopreneurs to Enterprises
Collective networks are scalable and beneficial, whether you’re a solopreneur or running a large enterprise. Solopreneurs can establish a sense of connectivity within their groups or organizations, effectively building their version of a collective network.
Meanwhile, enterprise-level organizations can leverage their collective network to foster a culture of collaboration, drive innovation, and accelerate growth.
Final Thoughts
A collective network can be a competitive advantage for business development and recruitment for most businesses. It’s about making the right connections, nurturing those relationships, and leveraging them to drive business growth. Cultivating and harnessing the collective network can significantly impact your organization.
Why wait? Start weaving your collective network together today and increase your business and recruiting opportunities.
Check out our blog on Intero Advisory or our YouTube channel to learn more about maximizing LinkedIn for your business outcomes.
