If you truly believe that your products and services offer world-class solutions, then you are doing your customers a disservice by not making it very easy for them to introduce these benefits to their friends.” ~ John Jantsch, from The Referral Engine
I’m on my second reading of The Referral Engine by John Jantsch. Yes, it is THAT good – and I highly recommend you order your copy today.
The first reading was a bit hurried, as I had promised a review by a certain date. Now I’m taking my time and taking lots of notes. It’s not that what he’s written about is new or cutting edge, but rather that he breaks it down and makes it real. Expect plenty of head-smacking and wondering, “Why am I not doing that?”
I’m one of those people who have always had a hard time asking for referrals. It has always felt awkward. But that frame of mind can be easily dismissed by thinking in terms of serving your customer. Making it easy for a customer to refer you might even be seen as a function of customer service. It’s certainly not restricted to marketing!
Imagine that! To give the best possible customer service, you must make it easy for your customer to refer you.
Scott Alberts of Alberts Illustration & Design (who also happens to be our lead graphic designer on the Zero To Sixty Marketing team) does an excellent job of this. He sends out a regular email newsletter featuring all of his latest work to all of his past and current clients. What a sweet way to get back in front of people you’ve already done business with! And it’s easily and readily shared.
What are you doing to make it easy for your customers to refer you?
I can see blog coaching being the same way. Maybe a company wants to start blogging as part of their marketing tactics – to connect with their clients better, but they don’t know how to go about doing it and getting the word out. I can see where they would hire a blogging coach to design, implement, and manage it for them.
I think I read this on Seth Godin’s blog and I agree with the idea that far too often the people that solicit referrals and ponder ways to get more of them are frequently the least referable!
I know that this isn’t always the case and that if you don’t ask you don’t receive, but the easiest way to get more referrals is to be remarkable (and visible – which your designer achieves through the regular email newsletters).
Thanks for the shout-out, Shari! I don’t know how I missed this post, but I am currently reading The Referral Engine, too.
I’d like to add that those “e-news” items — as I call them on my perpetual to-do list — make the referral process easier, as they can be forwarded/re-tweeted/linked to and by anyone (hint! hint!).