The other morning while brushing my teeth and brainstorming ideas for an upcoming breakfast meeting about social networking, I had a thought—How much is a network worth? Not in the mystical, invaluable way, but in the cold, hard cash way.
Obviously having a strong network and a reputation to match can often allow you to charge a premium for your service or product. It can also open doors to opportunities you may not have experienced otherwise.
So how about when it comes to something like salary negotiation? Is your network worth an extra $5,000? $10,000? $50,000?
If someone offered you money just to use your network, how much would you sell yours for?
Please share your thoughts…
Obviously having a strong network and a reputation to match can often allow you to charge a premium for your service or product. It can also open doors to opportunities you may not have experienced otherwise.
So how about when it comes to something like salary negotiation? Is your network worth an extra $5,000? $10,000? $50,000?
If someone offered you money just to use your network, how much would you sell yours for?
Please share your thoughts…
That is an excellent question I would like to answer someday.
ReplyDeleteSeriously though, "priceless" is the answer for me. It's easy to see that a great deal of the income I have generated in the last 20 years of my life has been thanks in some part to my network--even my first job (except for the family business) which came thanks to a referral from my older sister.
If there's not some awe in that, there should be reverence about sharing it... how would you like to find that your name has been sold for someone else's gain?
Interestingly, as long as my name isn't being sold for money, and the person contacting me has something I am genuinely interested in... I don't mind my name being shared at all.
Thanks for your thoughts Robert. One of the things that actually prompted this post was a spammy message I received from a LinkedIn contact. They had a new service that allowed you to "sell" introductions using your network. It made my skin crawl. I am with you that if the contact is genuine then I am almost always interested. Networks are about relationships, and those are invaluable. My thought on this post was whether a developed network should carry more weight in a salary negotiation for example. Thanks again Robert.
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