You may have heard of a 20-60-20 rule for many aspects of business, like leadership, change, delegation, success, etc.

I have found in networking and other associations that the 20-60-20 rule applies to good referral partners as well.

20-60-20 Rule for Networking

20% of the people are engaged in actively growing the group and their relationships within the group. These are the people that volunteer for positions within the group and work to not just fulfill their roles but go beyond when they can.

60% actively participate but do not go beyond their membership requirements. They might end up being great referral partners and move into the top 20%, they could continue to just do enough to get by or they could drop to the bottom and add to the negative aspects of your membership.

20% of the group is not fully committed. They don’t show up, they don’t follow up and they don’t get involved. They do one or two great referrals to their closest partners in the group but never make an effort to really engage the rest of the group.

This is fairly typical since we know that the 80/20 rule applies to almost everything we do. (Where 20 % of the people are doing 80% of the work, creating 80% of the referrals, and are able to give to and received from 80% of the group).

For a group to be a value to your business, you need to be connected to the people in the top 20% and 60%. You need to have a great relationship with them so that you are giving them and they are giving you referrals. If it is a powerful group and you are not getting referrals from these two demographics within your group, you may not have made the right connections yet. Actively seek to be connected to the top people in your networking group and you will see a difference in your business.