We used to say, “you can judge the success of a man by the size of his Rolodex.” Of course today we would say, “you can judge the success of a person by the size of his or her list”.
It’s true. The more people you know, the more conduits you have to clients, referrals, introductions, and information. As the currently running ATT commercial says, “more is better”.
However, while the size of your list is important, even more important is the quality of that list.
You may do pro bono work at a legal clinic and know 1000 indigent people. From a networking standpoint, the five people you know on the clinic’s board are probably more valuable to you.
Who you know is more important than how many.
A small list of high quality contacts will almost always beat a much bigger list of weaker contacts.
What is a high quality contact? Someone who needs your services, has the authority to hire you and the ability to pay is a high quality contact. So is someone who is influential in your target market. They might not need your services themselves but if they can refer a lot of people who do (or who know people who do) they are a high quality contact.
But there is another equally important factor: your relationship with the people on that list.
You may know a lot of people who have the ability to hire you or the ability to refer clients to you but if they don’t yet know you well enough to hire you or send you referrals, their value to you is limited.
It’s not just who you know, it’s who knows you.
So you want a list of high quality contacts, people with the ability to hire you or refer lots of others and who know, like, and trust you enough to do so. Where do you find them?
You find them on your list of low quality and average quality contacts. Quantity leads to quality. The bigger your list of low quality and average quality contacts, the bigger will be your list of high quality contacts.
The man or woman with a big Rolodex or email list has lots of high quality contacts but they also have lots of low quality contacts.
So yes, size still does matter.
Want to grow your list online? Click here to learn how.
