Higharc’s Trust Network Distribution: Scaling in Industries Where Everyone Knows Everyone

Higharc’s Trust Network Distribution: Scaling in Industries Where Everyone Knows Everyone

Most B2B companies think about their market as a funnel. Strangers become visitors become leads become customers. You optimize each stage, add more at the top, and pipeline flows out the bottom.

This breaks in industries where everyone knows everyone. In homebuilding, markets aren’t funnels—they’re networks. Trust propagates differently than awareness.

In a recent episode of Category Visionaries, Marc Minor, CEO and Co-Founder of Higharc, explained how they built distribution around trust networks instead of paid acquisition.

The Network Reality

Homebuilding isn’t anonymous buyers Googling for software. It’s a web of relationships where reputation precedes every conversation.

“Home building is quite local. Everyone kind of knows each other,” Marc explains. “If you think of home building in the US as a kind of network graph and there are these nodes of trust, you know, we want to tap those nodes of trust and then leverage success with those nodes to reach the other parts of the market.”

This changes go-to-market strategy completely. In typical B2B SaaS, you target based on firmographics and intent signals. In network markets, you target based on relationships and influence. Who do other builders listen to? Which companies set trends?

The challenge isn’t awareness—it’s credibility. Builders know disconnected software creates problems. They need proof that solutions work, delivered by someone they trust.

Why Traditional Demand Gen Fails

Higharc tried the standard playbook. “Cold outbound sequences don’t really work for us at all,” Marc says. LinkedIn ads generated no results. The entire digital demand generation machine simply didn’t function.

The failure reveals something important. Cold outbound assumes the prospect doesn’t know you. In networks, that’s rarely true. By the time you cold email someone, they’ve probably already heard about you—or they will soon.

Trying to manufacture awareness through ads competes with organic word-of-mouth. In tight networks, word-of-mouth always wins. A recommendation from a trusted peer carries infinitely more weight than any ad.

Customer Success as Distribution Strategy

When distribution depends on word-of-mouth, customer success becomes your growth engine. Not abstractly—concretely. “Whenever you are a kind of system of record, you know, or like a mission critical type tool, the path is always going to be through successful customers,” Marc says. “And so we’ve invested pretty heavily in implementation, onboarding, and support.”

This isn’t about preventing churn. It’s about creating advocates who actively recommend you. The investment profile looks different: longer implementations, more support, higher CS costs per customer. But each successful customer becomes a distribution node reaching dozens of others.

“It’s all about making successful customers and using that to create a flywheel. So customer product fit is like everything,” Marc emphasizes.

Mapping the Network

If markets are networks, you need to understand network topology. Not every customer has equal influence. Marc describes the strategy: “We want to tap those nodes of trust and then leverage success with those nodes to reach the other parts of the market.”

This requires different qualification. Standard SaaS qualifies on company size and budget. Network-dependent sales adds: network position. Who does this customer talk to? Are they known for being early adopters? Do other builders look to them for recommendations?

Landing customers at network nodes creates compounding returns. One successful deployment opens doors to everyone that customer influences.

The Event Strategy

If distribution happens through networks, be where networks gather. “Events are always really good for us,” Marc notes. Not for booth presence or lead scanning—for face-to-face relationship building where the network is physically assembled.

Events serve multiple functions. They’re where you identify the nodes. Where you build relationships with those nodes. And where successful customers can organically share their experience with peers.

The ROI calculation looks different in network markets. You’re not measuring cost per lead. You’re measuring relationship depth and network access.

Marketing as Sales Enablement

When distribution runs through networks, marketing’s job transforms. “Marketing team’s job then is really to enable them and to give customer prospects a reason to spend some time with us because they’re just so busy,” Marc explains. “The challenge is typically getting in the room.”

This led to unusual tactics. Physical video mailers with built-in screens worked exceptionally well. At $30-50 per unit, they’re expensive compared to digital ads. But when each unit targets a network node and one conversion opens up dozens more prospects, the economics work.

The principle: in network markets, optimize for depth not breadth.

The Patience Requirement

Network distribution is slower than paid acquisition. There’s no performance marketing lever to pull for pipeline this quarter. “It’s going to take longer than it would be if were kind of PLG style motion where we could draw up demand and through ad sales or whatever,” Marc acknowledges. “But its much more efficient for us in the long run.”

The tradeoff is efficiency and defensibility. Once you establish position in a trust network, competitors face the same slow climb. Your successful customers become barriers to entry.

When Network Distribution Works

The strategy makes sense when the industry is relationship-dense, decision makers know each other, purchase decisions involve high risk, implementation requires significant change, and contract values justify high-touch investments.

Higharc hits all of these. If you’re selling low-ACV software to dispersed buyers, paid acquisition works better. But for high-stakes software in tight networks, treating the market as a graph changes everything.

The Underlying Mental Model

The shift from funnel to network isn’t just tactical—it’s conceptual. Funnels optimize for conversion rates at each stage. Networks optimize for propagation through trusted relationships.

In funnels, you manufacture demand. In networks, you tap into existing trust. In funnels, you scale through paid acquisition. In networks, you scale through successful deployments. In funnels, customers are endpoints. In networks, customers are distribution nodes.

Marc’s approach to homebuilding distribution reveals the pattern. When markets operate as trust networks, your entire GTM motion—from customer selection to success investment to marketing tactics—must align with how trust propagates through those networks. Fight the network topology and you waste resources. Work with it and you build compounding advantages competitors can’t easily overcome.

For founders in tight-knit industries, the lesson is clear: stop treating your market like a funnel. Map it as a network. Find the trust nodes. Build case studies at those nodes. Let the network distribute for you.