Why WOM rules!

If you have a powerful word-of-mouth program backed up by a savvy, online presence, you will be the winner in the marketing game.

So what’s the secret to creating more word-of-mouth business? I reckon it’s a numbers game that focuses on the simple approach of ‘connect and WOW’. The more people you connect with and the more people you give a WOW experience, the more people will rave about you – which will ultimately nett you more business.

Here’s an example of how it has worked for me.

A number of years ago I was flying en-route to Adelaide to a conference and happened to be sitting next to John, an employee of a major NZ insurance company. We got chatting about life and business and swapped cards. Three months later John calls me. “How would you like to come and speak at our conference in Hawaii? It’s for our top 200 advisers and we’re flying in experts and professional speakers from all over the world,” said John. “I’d love to,” I said bravely (even though at that stage I wasn’t a professional speaker and had never delivered a key note).

So over to Hawaii I flew. The day of my speech arrived. The speaker before me received many a laugh and a standing ovation. How was I ever going to compete with that? I didn’t even try to compete. I just stood up and talked from the heart and gave the advisers some real practical tips on how to market their business more effectively. No standing ovations or thunderous applause for me, just a polite clap and onto the next speaker. Pretty despondent, I flew home, wondering if I would ever hear from the big insurance company again.

Of course I did. Even though I hadn’t ‘bought the house down’, in my own small way I had given the audience a WOW experience. As it turned out, I had made the whole ‘marketing’ thing real and practical for them. They had gone away and actually thought about what I said and started to implement my ideas. And more importantly, they were keen to continue working with me.

To cut a long story short, this one enjoyable conversation on a plane ended up turning into a speaking invitation in Hawaii, a subsequent speaking gig, three consulting gigs and three workshops worth more than $50,000. This is fantastic of course, but imagine the outcome if I had had ten enjoyable conversations that week and the next week and so on?

So how good are you at word-of-mouth? Ask yourself these questions;

1. How powerful is my WOW factor and do people rave about us?
2. How many networking events am I attending this week? 
3. How many of my best clients am I having coffee with this week?
4. How many potential alliance partners have I called for a catch up this week?
5. How many events am I going to speak at this week? 
6. How many follow-up phone calls am I going to make this week?

If you’re dissatisfied with your answers and your word-of-mouth game plan needs some work why not buy the definitive no-nonense guide to marketing - MARKETING YOUR SMALL BUSINESS FOR DUMMIES