By Alex Ball
This morning, I found myself engaged with a financial planner who is in the process of building his business. Of course, times are tough all over, so while the population at large is kicking itself for NOT doing some strong financial planning a few years back, at the moment, figuring out what do with the little money they have left is not difficult…they spend it. They spend on food, on clothing, on shelter…and they hope they have enough. The future is not years away, it’s next week.
That makes building a business in this environment tough.
So I asked my friend, “Where are you focusing your efforts to attract new clients?” My friend answered: “I’m building the business by referral.”
Referral, or Word of Mouth. Truly, it is the best way to build a business. A prospect who learns your name from someone they trust, and who arrives at your doorstep already having heard great things about you, is a hot prospect. No argument there.
BUT- the problem with word of mouth, is that it only works one person at a time, and it only carries as loudly as one person can talk. So, if you need to extend and enhance the power of Word of Mouth, what can you do?
In thinking about this problem, I was reminded of a story from my past. When I was in junior high school, I awoke every morning to two sounds: The first was that of eggs frying on the stove; the second sound was VPR on the radio…and for a great deal of that time, Wake Robin, the continuing care facility, sponsored morning programming. “Brought to you by Wake Robin” - those words were indelibly etched into my childhood memories.
Some twelve years later, I moved to the other end of the state, where Wake Robin is located. One morning, at a four way stop, I found myself looking at a Wake Robin van. “Oh!” I thought, smiling, “Wake Robin!” As I looked at their logo, a warm, comfortable feeling came over me.
What was that? I thought? I have no connection to Wake Robin. None. I don’t know anybody who lives there, I don’t know anybody who works there. So, why, for heaven’s sake, did I get a warm, friendly feeling just by hearing the name?
Then, it hit me…12, yes, TWELVE years previously, they’d manage to impress themselves into my brain. Twelve long years later, those synapses still fired: right on cue.
(By the way, Wake Robin is not a client of Shadow, so I have no ulterior motive in sharing this story.)
Now, flash forward again to 2009. I find myself preparing for a family conference- we have some relatives who may no longer be able to live in their home. What was the FIRST place I thought of? You guessed it: Wake Robin.
Now, if my relatives were to decide that Wake Robin was the choice for them, the institution would likely score one for “Word of Mouth”- my relatives would say that they were sent there because of my personal referral. In reality, however, the ground had been laid back around 1985 with a radio sponsorship. Some 24 years later, that seed sprouted into a word of mouth referral.
The moral of the story: Word of Mouth IS the most effective form of advertising…but good, well written, well placed advertising is an incredibly effective tool which gives “word of mouth” a very long staying power. Put another way: Word of Mouth is what keeps the ball rolling, but a good message is what STARTS the ball rolling.
Posts
