You’re Working with the Wrong People

by Bill Poole | Apr 7, 2026 | Resources, Sales, Strategy

I used to think people who offered services similar to mine were competition.

So I kept my distance.

Then I started building relationships with a small group of them—intentionally.

What I found was surprising.
We weren’t competing. We were collaborating. Referring business. Helping each other win.

That shift changed how I think about referrals entirely.

Because most referral strategies don’t fail from lack of effort.

They fail because you’re spending time with the wrong people.

The Hidden Cost of the Wrong Connectors

Most people don’t realize how much time they’re wasting here.

You might have:

• A full calendar of conversations
• A long list of “good relationships”
• People you genuinely enjoy talking to

But when you step back, you’re not getting:

• Consistent referrals
• High-quality introductions
• Conversations that actually lead to business

Instead, you get a lot of activity and very little outcome.

That’s frustrating. And it’s easy to misdiagnose.

You start thinking:

• “I need to network more”
• “I need to follow up better”
• “I need to stay top of mind”

Maybe.

But more often than not, you just need better people in your corner.

The Shift: From Random to Intentional

Here’s the shift most people never make:

They let their “strategic connectors” choose them.

• Someone reaches out → you take the meeting
• You have a good conversation → you stay in touch
• You like them → you assume there’s potential

That’s not a strategy. That’s reacting.

Building a referral network should look a lot more like how you target ideal clients.

You don’t just work with anyone.

You define who’s a fit, who’s not, and where to focus your time.

The same should be true for the people you expect to refer you.

A Better Filter: The Ideal Strategic Connector Profile

The goal isn’t more relationships.

It’s the right relationships.

A true strategic connector has three things:

• Fit
• Access
• Relationship Strength

Miss one, and the whole thing breaks.

Let’s break these down—starting with the one most people get wrong.

1. Fit: The Most Overlooked (and Most Important)

Fit is simple, but most people don’t take it seriously enough.

Ask yourself:

• Do they serve the same ideal client you do?
• Are your services naturally complementary?
• Are you helping solve related problems?

When the fit is right, something powerful happens:

• They understand your value
• They’re having conversations with the right people
• Referrals feel natural—not forced

When the fit is off, everything falls apart.

Even if they like you…even if they want to help…they can’t do it effectively.

You end up with:

• Low-quality referrals
• Missed expectations
• Conversations that go nowhere

Because they’re not in the right conversations to begin with.

If the fit is off, nothing else really matters.

2. Access: Are They Talking to the Right People?

Access is about proximity to your ideal clients.

Not just:

“Do they have a big network?”

But:

“Are they consistently in conversations with the exact people you want to reach?”

There’s a big difference.

Someone can be “well connected” and still be a poor connector for you.

If they’re not regularly engaging with your ideal clients, they won’t create meaningful opportunities—no matter how strong the relationship is.

It’s not about how many people they know. It’s about who they’re actually talking to.

3. Relationship Strength: Be Honest With Yourself

This is the one people tend to overvalue, but it still matters.

At its core, relationship strength comes down to:

• Trust
• Credibility
• Willingness to advocate for you

But there’s a more basic question that gets overlooked:

If you’re honest, do you actually enjoy working with this person?

Because if you don’t:

• You won’t invest in the relationship
• The connection will stay surface-level
• And it will never turn into something meaningful

That said, this is where people get themselves into trouble.

They prioritize relationships they enjoy…even when there’s no real fit or access.
And that leads to a lot of time spent with people who will never produce results.

A strong relationship can’t make up for a lack of fit or access.

The “False Positive” Connector

This is where most people get stuck.

You’ve probably got a few of these in your network:

• Someone you’ve known forever
• Someone you genuinely like
• Someone who keeps reaching out
• Someone who says, “We should refer each other business”

They feel like a great connector.

But they’re not.

Because they’re missing one (or more) of the key elements:

• They don’t serve your ideal client
• They’re not in the right conversations
• There’s no natural alignment

Just because someone is a good relationship doesn’t mean they’re a good strategic connector.

What Happens When You Get This Right

When you start filtering your network through fit, access, and relationship strength, everything changes.

• You spend time with fewer people—but in a more meaningful way
• Your conversations get deeper and more focused
• Referrals become more natural and more frequent
• The quality of opportunities improves dramatically

And maybe most importantly:

It becomes a lot more enjoyable.

It’s simply more fun to build real relationships with the right people than to maintain surface-level connections with a lot of the wrong ones.

Take a Hard Look at Your Network

If your referral strategy isn’t producing what you want, don’t start by doing more.

Start by asking a better question:

How many of the people you’re investing time with actually meet all three criteria?

• Do they truly fit?
• Do they have real access?
• And do you genuinely want to work with them?

If the answer is “not many,” you’ve found the problem.

And once you see it, you can start fixing it.

Want Help Getting This Right?

If you’re realizing your current approach might be off, you’re not alone.

This is exactly the kind of problem we work through in our Referral Clarity Workshop—helping you step back, define your targets, and build a system around the right relationships.

You don’t need more connections.

You need better ones.

If Referrals Drive Your Revenue, Your Approach Deserves a Strategy

by Bill Poole | Mar 23, 2026 | Resources, Sales, Strategy

You’re busy as hell networking.
Intro calls. Coffee meetings. Events. Follow-ups.

And yet, referrals are inconsistent at best.

That’s not an effort problem.
It’s a strategy problem.

Most people respond to this by doing more.
More meetings. More follow-ups. More events.
But more activity doesn’t fix a missing strategy.

Most people don’t have a referral problem. They have a strategy problem because they’ve never defined the number of deep, referral-generating relationships required to hit their goals.

Let me ask you a simple question: How many clients do you actually need this year?

Now, how many referrals does that require?

And how many deep relationships does that imply?

If you can’t answer those questions, you don’t have a strategy. You have activity.

And when you don’t know the target, every networking decision feels productive, even when it’s not moving you any closer to the outcome you want.

You’re Not Building a Strategy—You’re Maintaining a Network

This is where most seller-doers get stuck.

You say yes to introductions.
You take the meeting.
You “stay in touch.”

Over time, you build a large, well-intentioned network.

But here’s the problem: You’re treating all relationships as if they’re equally valuable to your business.

They’re not.

Some people:

• Understand your ideal client
• Are connected to the right opportunities
• Are willing and able to make introductions

Others aren’t.

But without a strategy, they all get your time. So instead of building a referral engine, you end up maintaining a list of people you don’t want to neglect. That’s not strategy. That’s politeness.

Think Like an Investor, Not a Networker

If you invested your money the way most people invest their time in relationships, you’d be spread thin across low-return assets.

Your time is capital.
Your relationships are investments.
And not all of them produce returns.

Most people over-diversify:

• Too many conversations
• Too many weak connections
• Not enough depth where it actually matters

More relationships don’t increase your returns. Better ones do.

Referrals Come From Depth—Not Volume

This is the shift most people never make.

Referrals don’t come from more relationships. They come from deeper ones.

Depth looks like:

• Consistent interaction
• Real value exchange
• Mutual understanding of each other’s work
• Trust built over time

And here’s the constraint most people ignore: You can only maintain a small number of deep relationships well.

Not 25.
Not even 15 for most people.

For many, it’s somewhere between 3 and 12—depending on your business model, your goals, and your capacity.

Which means: If you’re trying to maintain a large network, you’re almost guaranteed to lack the depth required to generate consistent referrals.

Strategy Starts With Goals—Then Forces Focus

A real referral strategy doesn’t start with “who should I meet?”

It starts with clarity:

• How many clients do you need?
• How many opportunities does that require?
• How many deep referral partners does that imply?

Only then do you ask: Can I realistically maintain that many deep relationships well?

Because you don’t get to choose a strategy that ignores your capacity.

If your goals require more than you can maintain, something has to change:

• Your expectations
• Your approach
• Or how you invest your time

But doing more isn’t the answer.

The Hard Truth: You Need to Cut People (Respectfully)

If you’re investing time in relationships that aren’t producing value, you’re not being strategic—you’re being polite.

That might be uncomfortable, but it’s real.

This doesn’t mean:

• You stop liking people
• You cut them out of your life
• You never talk to them again

It means you stop confusing personal relationships with business development priorities.

You can absolutely grab dinner, stay friends, and keep the relationship, but your focused business development time should go to the relationships that align with your goals.

A Quick Note for the Lone Wolves

If you only need a handful of clients at a time—because your engagements are large or long-term—this matters even more.

You don’t need a broad network.

You need a few very strong, very aligned relationships.

Trying to maintain a large network in that situation isn’t just unnecessary—it’s a distraction.

What to Do Next

Decide how many deep referral relationships you can actually maintain well.

Not how many you wish you could manage.
Not how many sound impressive.

How many you can realistically invest in consistently.

Then align that number with your goals.

And if there’s a gap? Don’t just do more. Make better decisions about where your time goes.

Because if everything is a priority, nothing is.

Final Thought

If referrals drive your revenue, your relationships deserve a strategy.

And that strategy should define:

• How many relationships actually matter
• How deep they need to be
• And where your time is best invested

Everything else is just activity.

If You Want Help

If you want help thinking through this for your business, that’s exactly what we work on in the Referral Clarity Workshop. Our next one is Wednesday 4/15 at 11:00 AM EST. We’d love to have you join the discussion!

How My Referral System Was Quietly Shaping My Quality of Life

by Bill Poole | Jan 13, 2026 | Resources, Sales, Strategy

How My Referral Approach Was Quietly Shaping My Quality of Life

For a long time, I didn’t think much about my referral system. 

Like a lot of seller-doers, my business grew because of relationships. Referrals came in. Some months were great, others less so, but overall, things were moving forward. On the surface, nothing seemed broken.

What I didn’t realize at the time was that the way I was getting referrals was quietly shaping my quality of life. My income, my time, and my energy were all being affected in ways I hadn’t fully connected yet.

What It Looked Like When My Referral System Wasn’t a System

I was doing what most relationship-driven professionals do.

I took a lot of calls.
I went to networking events.
I said yes to introductions that felt “worth exploring.”

My calendar stayed full, which made it feel like I was doing the right things. But if I’m honest, a lot of those conversations weren’t going anywhere. Eight hours of Zoom coffees had me jittery and wired, but my revenue was stagnant.

I had plenty of relationships, but very few of them were actually positioned to refer me well. Instead of a small group of strategic connectors, I had a wide circle of people who vaguely knew what I did.

That led to a lot of shallow conversations. I found myself explaining my business over and over, hoping something might come of it.

The Part No One Talks About

The biggest cost wasn’t obvious at first. It wasn’t revenue. It was time and energy.

It was the midday call where, five minutes in, you already know this isn’t going anywhere. You’re nodding along, staying polite, mentally scanning for a clean exit. You don’t want to be rude, but you’re painfully aware that this conversation isn’t going to turn into anything meaningful.

You hang up feeling drained. Or worse, with a vague sense of false momentum, telling yourself that maybe something will come of it, even though deep down you know it probably won’t.

Then there are the networking events. The ones in the evening. You show up, have a dozen conversations, exchange cards, and do a lot of smiling. On the drive home, you replay it in your head and realize that none of those conversations are likely to turn into real referrals.

That drive home is quiet. And it’s either a little deflating, or filled with false hope that maybe one of those conversations will turn into something, even though again, you know they likely won’t.

Over time, this kind of activity starts to add up. It crowds out billable work. It bleeds into personal time. It creates a low-level pressure that never quite goes away.

And maybe the most frustrating part? It just isn’t very fun.

There’s nothing energizing about conversations you can’t wait to get out of. The ones where you’re mentally hitting the eject button while trying to stay engaged.

What Finally Clicked for Me

At some point, I realized the problem wasn’t referrals.

It was that I didn’t have a system.

I was relying on effort, goodwill, and hope instead of intention and focus. I hadn’t defined who should actually be referring me, how those relationships should work, or how much time and energy I could realistically invest.

When I stepped back and got more intentional, something interesting happened.

The number of referrals didn’t suddenly spike.

But the quality changed dramatically.

By focusing on fewer, more strategic connectors, people who were truly positioned to transfer trust, the referrals I did receive were much warmer. Conversations started at a higher level. Conversion rates improved. Deals moved faster.

Fewer referrals. Deeper trust. Better outcomes.

The Financial Impact Became Hard to Ignore

Once I looked at this honestly, the financial impact became clearer.

Lower-quality referrals take more time. They convert at lower rates. They create more drag in the sales process. When you add it up, an unsystematized referral approach quietly costs far more than most people realize. Not just in lost revenue, but in how much effort it takes to get any results at all.

Improving the system didn’t mean working harder. It meant working with more intention. That created more predictability, both financially and personally.

Why I’m Sharing This Now

I see this same pattern constantly with other seller-doers and founders in relationship-driven businesses.

They aren’t doing anything wrong. They’ve simply never stepped back to evaluate their referral approach intentionally so they keep doing more of what feels responsible, even when it’s inefficient.

That’s why I created the Referral Clarity Workshop.

It’s a short, practical session designed to help you understand where your referral system is actually working, where it’s costing you time, energy, and money, and what to focus on next.

Before the session, participants complete a Referral System Self-Assessment. During the session, we walk through the core elements of an effective referral system so you can look at the results of your assessment and see clearly where to make adjustments.

This isn’t a sales presentation. It’s a diagnostic conversation meant to give you clarity.

Click here to learn more & register for the next session!

2 Ways to Set Your Sales Scorecard Goals for 2025

by Bill Poole | Jan 29, 2025 | Resources, Sales, Strategy

Setting sales goals is extremely important for entrepreneurial businesses. Do it right, and your entire sales team is bought into their role in delivering the needed revenue to meet the business’s goals. Do it wrong, and your goals are meaningless. Your sales team is deflated and not bought into their role in supporting the goals of the business.

Vital as it is, many teams struggle with doing this effectively. There are two high-level approaches to setting Sales Scorecard goals:

• Top-down
• Bottom-up

Throughout my years in sales, I’ve experienced both methods firsthand—each with its own advantages and pitfalls. In this blog, I’ll share stories from my career that illustrate the realities of both approaches. These insights can help you set your Sales Scorecard goals for 2025 with confidence.

A Story About the Top-Down Approach

I was on a sales team with seven total reps that took the top-down approach to setting Sales Scorecard goals. It started with the CFO casting a 30% YOY growth goal. Why 30%? Because that’s the growth they wanted. I call this the “spaghetti-on-the-wall” approach.

Sure, 30% growth would be nice, but the goal was based on a dream, not a plan. It had nothing to do with past performance or plans to invest in enabling that growth—it was just left to the sales reps to figure it out or work harder!

There were some advantages to this approach:

• The math was simple! Last year’s revenue x 130%, divided by 7. That sure didn’t take very long.
• The sales goals (not the people) were aligned with the business’s goals.

As you might imagine, the disadvantages in this case outweighed the advantages:

• We were not engaged in the process, so we weren’t bought into the numbers as a sales team.
• These numbers were unrealistic. We were given a significant increase in our Sales Scorecard goals without being given anything to drive the increase (new products, sales tools, more reps, etc.). Maybe they thought we would work 30% more?
• We didn’t feel like it was fair. The revenue goal was divided by seven without considering territories, skill levels, or other variables.

The result? By May, no one was on track to reach their goals. As a result, goal attainment—and the associated bonuses—were no longer a motivator. We were all focused on how we could make enough money to meet our own personal goals, and we lost visibility of the business goals, which of course fell short.

A Story About the Bottom-Up Approach

In a previous life, I was wearing a marketing hat at a technology company and learned about their bottom-up approach to setting annual Sales Scorecard goals.

The goal-setting process required gathering a lot of input from individual sales team contributors. It also took into account the macroeconomic environment, market conditions, the historical performance of the company and individual territories, and resource availability.

All these factors were considered when developing the first round of Sales Scorecard goals. Then, the company revenue goals were taken into account, resulting in an upward adjustment of the original goals.

There were some advantages to this approach:

• The sales team felt involved in setting the goals.
• Incorporating historical context into the goal-setting process ultimately made the goals more realistic and achievable than in the top-down scenario.

There were also some disadvantages to this approach:

• This was a very time-consuming process, and the goals were not communicated to reps until mid-February.
• The lack of involvement from senior leadership in the initial part of the process was risky. Though the goals seemed achievable, they could have hindered the company’s performance.
• While the process was collaborative, uplifting the goals affected the team’s buy-in of the final goals.

The result? In this case, there was buy-in, and the sales team was invested in pursuing their goals and associated bonuses throughout the year. In the end, the company fell just short of its revenue goals.

Here is a comparison of the two approaches:

The Answer is Somewhere in the Middle

It’s clear that neither approach is perfect, so what’s the best solution?

Instead of choosing top-down or bottom-up, the answer lies somewhere in the middle. Business goals need to be factored in, reps need to be involved, and historical data and market realities must be considered.

The keys to making this work are:

• Top-down alignment: Establish a collaborative culture where everyone is on the same page. This is broader (and more challenging) than setting annual company goals. The spaghetti-on-the-wall scenario is symptomatic of a leadership team not aligned with the rest of the company. Maintaining open and honest communication about company goals on an ongoing basis and valuing the insight of team members should be the foundation of the goal-setting process.
• Informed and action-oriented decision-making: Company leaders set annual goals based on historical data, market trends, and plans to make investments in products, tools, or strategies that will enable the desired growth.
• Sales team involvement: Start by involving the sales team as described in the bottom-up approach.
• Collaboration: Once the goals have been set, let the sales leadership go to work! With everyone on the same page in this collaborative culture, the role of the sales leader is to coach the reps and team to collaborate on a Sales Scorecard that will support the business goals.

This approach balances ambition with practicality, fostering buy-in across the organization while ensuring alignment with the big picture. It may take longer than the top-down approach, but start earlier! The result is that everyone will be aligned and invested in reaching their goals as a team.

Need Help Setting Your Sales Scorecard Goals?

Convergo is rolling out our Sales Scorecard Workshop to help teams get this right. Stay tuned for details, or contact us today to start the conversation!