What’s Better Than “Word-of-Mouth”? 

By Virden J. Thornton

     You will agree there is nothing better than to get a word-of-mouth referral from a satisfied customer or client. These leads usually come to you at no cost and with little or no effort on your part. A referred prospect is easier to please and quicker close. Referral leads generally buy more and will often refer you to another prospect in the future. 

     Top companies generally produce about 70% of their new business from word-of-mouth advertising. Amazingly this is most often achieved without any form of strategy or the use of a proactive process to produce this business. However, the down side to word-of-mouth is that it is spontaneous and unpredictable and many companies generate less than 40% of the referrals they should be receiving, leaving a lot of room to increase word-of-mouth business.  

      What’s better than word-of mouth? The simple answer to this question is…word-of-mouth on steroids. There is an innovative and exciting new approach to word- of-mouth promotions called Referral Marketing. Briefly, Referral Marketing takes word-of-mouth to its highest level and it does it by using a structured and systematic process that educates, encourages and rewards your prospects customers or clients to think and talk positively and more often about you, your company and your products or services. 

     Ok, so how does Referral Marketing work and how do you develop and operate the program for your organization? 

     I was recently asked to review a new book called The Power of Referral Marketing by Vince Golder. Vince is a British guru with many years successful marketing experience, who has developed his own proven model on the Referral Marketing concept. What surprised me as I proofed Vince’s book, was how simple and practical his model really is. The process he outlines, is pure common sense. There really was nothing new about his suggestions. The true value of his book was in how Vince put his promotional model together, incorporating innovative ideas and strategies. When his methods were combined into a very powerful structured program, allowing any business owner to easily churn out a constant stream of referred leads and new customers at little or no cost.

     Vince first emphasizes the important of database and CRM marketing to maximize and manage your prospect leads--“A business without a large database has no business”.  Vince then goes on to present his version of a “referral marketing plan”, the development and operation of this type of marketing plan involves everyone in the company, from business owner to staff, even customers and suppliers. He then asks the questions “Why should anyone do business with you, why should anyone refer you”, then gives you dozens of reasons and solutions to meet these important questions. At the core of Vince’s model is what is called a “Strategic Customer Care Program.” The rest of this model is based on 105 referral strategies and how to best use incentives to encourage and reward referrals.

    As I reviewed the book for Vince before its publication, I was not that impressed with the book title, but it does say what’s in its pages.  The introduction too long, but Vince does warn you about this and makes no apologies for it. He feels he has to fully explain his referral concept before he goes in the most interesting and innovative material.

     There is a large amount of quality and useful marketing information in this book.  Vince’s referral concept can be easily and successfully adapted without any skill requirements and used by all types and sizes of businesses. I really like his series of follow-up letters that are great for maximizing customer appreciation, respect and referrals. To add to the great value and benefit of this book, Vince has added many templates and case studies as examples for you to use in producing referrals.

     Although Vince’s book costs a healthy $50, it offers businesses and professional service firms great value for the money.  The book comes with a 100% ”No-quibble Satisfaction Guarantee,” so there is absolutely no risk in purchasing the book and as Vince says “giving it a try.” Just using some of the many ideas in this book will put your business into “referral overdrive” paying for your investment in full. For more details go to Vince’s website by clicking on the book cover at the left.

VIRDEN THORNTON is the founder and President of The $elling Edge^®, Inc. a firm specializing in sales, customer relations, and management training and development. Clients have included Sears Optical, Eastman Kodak, IBM, Deloitte & Touché, Bank One, Jefferson Pilot, and Wal-Mart to name a few. Virden is the author of Prospecting: The Key To Sales Success and the best selling Building & Closing the Sale, Fifty-Minute series books and Close That Sale, a video/audio tape series published by Crisp Publications, Inc. Menlo Park, California. He has also authored a Self-Directed Learning series of sales, coaching & team development, telemarketing, and personal productivity training guides. To obtain a substantial discount on two of Virden's new manuals, 101 Sales Myths and Organizing For Sales Success, just click on either of the titles above.

Note: You can contact Virden at virden@TheSellingEdge.com. You can also see an expan- ded biography at http://www.TheSellingEdge.com/bio.htm.

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