Are you guilty of relying on your existing network for sales and your 'little black book' of contacts?
Well, the hard news is you're holding back your growth.
Don't believe me?
Well, what is true is that most businesses don't get their first sales through cold outreach. They start with what's already in front of them and who's in their little black book.
It's made up of friends, old colleagues, clients from years past, and those ever-valuable warm introductions. These early contacts are familiar, warm, and often willing to take a call. And this early momentum feels great. You get a few quick wins and some promising leads. Real, paying work. And the dopamine hits hard.
But there's a catch. This early traction, built entirely on your existing network, doesn't scale. And worse, it has a half-life and seriously diminishing returns.
And if you don't realise that quickly, your growth will stall as fast as it started.
Why your network works, at first
Tapping your existing network is a smart move in the early days. It's faster than cold prospecting, it gives you immediate access to people who trust you, and it offers a sense of progress when you need it most.
In fact, most early-stage businesses thrive in their first year or two purely because the founder is actively working through their network. You'll see new companies emerge with a flurry of case studies, new logo wins, and activity. And from the outside, it looks like they've cracked it.
But underneath, they often rely on the same finite pool of contacts. And once that pool runs dry, it runs dry quickly.
The dopamine trap of network-led growth
The problem is that winning work through your network feels good.
Too good.
You get fast results, high conversion rates, and relationships already built on trust. It's easy to believe this is how sales should always feel.
Maybe even your ego creeps in thinking sales is easy?
Uoh.
All of this makes it dangerously addictive.
You stay in the comfort zone.
You keep fishing in the same waters, talking to the same types of people, leaning on the same referrals.
And by the time you realise it's no longer working, your pipeline is already shrinking.
It's especially true for founder-led businesses. Most early sales are driven by the founder, using their personal relationships. But if you're not actively growing that network over time, at scale, you're heading for a cliff edge.
Even bringing in advisors purely for their contacts doesn't fix the root issue. It may buy you time, but it's still a stopgap.
If you want sustainable growth, you need something more durable.
Building a scalable network engine around the founder
Rather than abandoning your network, the solution is to evolve how you use it.
The goal isn't to stop relationship-driven sales. It's to make them scalable, repeatable, and structured.
Start by getting crystal clear on your ideal customer.
Not everyone in your founder's network is valuable, so you need a way to filter who's worth building relationships with and why.
This means defining your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP) with precision so you know exactly what kind of new connections you want to make.
From there, shift your focus to building a consistent and proactive network-building process. One that happens whether or not the founder has the time or headspace to do it themselves.
The sales team should be responsible for driving this forward by identifying new contacts, creating warm introductions, following up consistently, and managing the cadence of communication.
But crucially, the role of the sales team isn't to pitch.
It's to get the founder in the room.
In the right kind of room.
For conversations that build long-term value.
These aren't sales meetings. They're genuine conversations, the kind that deepen relationships and uncover future opportunities. Think networking over pitching. Think connection before conversion.
Consistency is the real secret here. One-off interactions don't build anything. A system for thoughtful follow-up, helps you stay present and relevant.
Relationships compound over time, if you invest in them.
Scaling beyond the founder
Once you've built a rhythm around the founder, you can extend it across your team.
Every person in your leadership team has the potential to become a node in a wider network-building machine. And once you've exhausted those routes, your subject matter experts can also play a role, contributing value, creating meaningful interactions, and developing influence in the right circles.
The aim here is not to create an army of salespeople. It's to create a company-wide culture of connection, where relationship-building becomes a strategic part of growth, not just a founder's side job.
What not to do
It's worth pausing to call out the traps here.
Don't turn this into just another outbound tactic. Don't treat every conversation like a sales opportunity. And definitely don't try to scale it by automating the human out of the process.
This approach only works when it's real. When there's actual connection, relevance, and long-term intent behind every interaction.
Let's wrap this up
The black book got you started, but it won't take you where you want to go.
If your entire growth strategy is based on existing contacts and personal hustle, you're building on shaky ground. The sooner you replace founder-led networking with a scalable, repeatable process, the sooner you'll create momentum that doesn't run out when your black book does.
Start by being honest about where your leads come from today. Then, build a process to grow your network intentionally, with your team driving the effort and your founder showing up for meaningful conversations — not sales calls.
No pitching. No pushing. Just consistent, value-led relationship building.
Get that right, and you'll go from relying on your black book to building a scalable pipeline that accelerates your growth.