|
|
| About John Jantsch |
| John Jantsch is a veteran marketing coach, award winning blogger and author of Duct Tape Marketing - The World's Most Practical Small Business Marketing Guide (foreword by Michael Gerber, author of The E-Myth) published by Thomas Nelson - due out in the fall of 2006 He is the creator of the Duct Tape Marketing small business marketing system and Duct Tape Marketing Authorized Coach Network. His Duct Tape Marketing Blog was chosen as a Forbes favorite for small business and marketing and is a Harvard Business School featured marketing site. His blog was also chosen as "Best Small Business Marketing Blog" in 2004, 2005 and 2006 by the readers of Marketing Sherpa. |
Recent Article:
Is appreciation referral motivation enough?
- For more on John Jantsch visit www.ducttapemarketing.com
I talk to lots of small business owners and marketers about referrals. One of the burning questions always revolves around the topic of motivation. In other words, how do you motivate someone to refer your business when the time comes. Or, the perfect situation, how to do you get them to proactively evangelize your business.
The tried and true approach (although while it’s tried I’m not sure it’s really true) is to offer incentives. You do this I’ll give you free service or $10 bucks. This can generate some business, but I’ve found that over time it won’t create evangelists, in fact, it may turn evangelists off.
Highly motivated referral sources do it for two reason - 1) they think you offer a good deal, good service, something of value and 2) they know, like and trust you enough that they want to help, want to see you succeed, want to connect at a deeper level and be a part of what you are doing - particularly if that can help a friend.
So, can see how payola could actually demotivate that second reason.
I did two interviews this week with successful business owners who had moved their entire marketing focus to systematically generating referrals. In both cases, they had started with traditional pay for referral approaches and quickly realized (in some cases with direct input from the referral sources) that appreciation was all that was needed. In other words, keep us in the loop, thank us, send us the occasional hand written note or unexpected gift - and keep providing over the top service to our friends.
Mike MeDerment with FreshBooks.com says that his most successful referral tactic for his online business is to make personal thank your calls and invite local customers for a dinner when he’s on the road at a conference.
Zane Safrit of Conference Calls Unlimited sends referral sources the occasional stunning bunch of flowers from out of the blue. That bouquet sitting on the desk does more to generate word of mouth than all the 20% off your next purchases in the world.
So, when designing your referral system consider making creative appreciation a big part of it?
What have you successfully done to motivate referrals?
I would love to interview you if you have a great referral success story. Send your idea to me at john@ducttapemarketing.com
Is appreciation referral motivation enough - To learn more about this author, visit John Jantsch's Website.
Like this article? Share it with your friends
 | |
 |
No article feedback found. |
| |
Leave Your Feedback |
 | |
| |||
Joe DagerJoe Dager is President of Business901, a progressive coaching company providing no-nonsense direction in areas such as Lean Six Sigma Marketing and organized referral marketing. What others say: In the past 20 years, Joe and I have collaborated on many difficult issues. Joe’s ability to combine his expertise with “out of the box” thinking is unsurpassed. He has always delivered quickly, cost effectively and with ingenuity. A brilliant mind that is always a pleasure to work with.” - James R. If you want to learn more about Business901, start a conversation with us. We can be found @ Web/Blog: Business901.com Web/Blog: FundingYourNonprofit.com LinkedIn Profile Follow me on Twitter - Visit Joe Dager's Website |
|||
|
To learn more about the Evan Elite Author Program please contact us. | |||
|
|
 | ||
 |
||
|
||
 |
||
 | ||
 |
| Have you written articles that would be of value to entrepreneurs? Become an expert on our site by publishing them! Expose yourself to a wide audience, drive more traffic to your website and get more sales! Click Here for details. |
 |
 |
| Modeling the Masters: Learn the true secrets behind Walt Disney's business success factors & grow your company! Video produced by Phanta Media |
|
|
 |
"Learn straight from Evan how you can Make a Full Time Income (And More) from a Website"
Click Here To Learn More |
|
|
|
|
Get advice & tips from famous business owners, new articles by entrepreneur experts, my latest website updates, & special sneak peaks at what's to come!
|
|
 |
 How to Get a Life Coaching System Network More Effectively Make $ From Your Invention NichePreneur Mindset |
|
 | ||
 |
Top 50 SEO Posts - 2007
Top SEO Posts of the Year | |
 |
Top 50 Blogs For Startups
Top Blogs To Watch In 2009 | |
| ||
 | ||||
| ||||
|
| ||||
| ||||
|
|
|
|
|
||||||||||||
|
Email us your ideas on how to make our website more valuable! Thank you Sharon from Toronto Salsa Lessons / Classes for your suggestions to make the newsletter look like the website and profile younger entrepreneurs like Jennifer Lopez and Sean Combs!
|
|
|
