Practice This

How do you know your are growing your business? How do you know you are on track? Would you run complex statistics and try to correlate the findings? Would you run a survey and then again get buried in stats? In The One Number You Need to Grow Frederick F. Reichheld takes a stand:

by Tuftronic10000

If growth is what you’re after, you won’t learn much from complex measurements of customer satisfaction or retention. You simply need to know what your customers tell their friends about you.

Hey, I think it is the whole idea behind marketing based on social web sites – if someone bookmarks on www.delicious.com or www.stumbleupon.com, she actually recommends you to the community friends. In fact this is the whole idea of Google’s Page Rank. If someone links to your page she actually recommends you to her friends and your Page Rank grows, Google likes you more.

The question here is how do I make you recommend me to your friends? What do you think?

In Married to the Brand: Why Consumers Bond with Some Brands for Life William J. McEwen shares that…

“Brand promises that are Credible, present a Compelling offer, and manage to personally Connect will attract first dates. But far more than that, they will generate a special type of first date – one that set the stage for a continuing brand relationship” – William J. McEwen, the author.

Credibility

One of my personal principles is “integrity cannot be bought“.

• Lie to your kids and they will grow liars.
• Lie to your customer and she will never buy from you.
• Lie to your consultant and she will never work for you.
• Lie to your boss and forget about promotion.
• Lie to your reports and miss your business goals.

If you are credible your customers might recommend you to their friends.

Compelling

What distinguishes you from others? Are you the best in the world or you are focused on competition? Are you after something really big, something that matters? Are you trying to change the world? Or are you just another “me-too” thing?

If you are focused on the real thing and not on beating the other guy – you are compelling, your customers might recommend you their friends.

“Competition is a sin.” – John D. Rockefeller

…is it?

Connecting

Are you talking to your customers the language they understand? Are you listening to their needs? Do you feel their pain? Stop pushing yourself Win the Heart, the Mind Follows.
If you win your customers hearts they might recommend you to their friends.

In fact, in most of the industries that I studied, the percentage of customers who were enthusiastic enough to refer a friend or colleague—perhaps the strongest sign of customer loyalty—correlated directly with differences in growth rates among competitors. – Frederick F. Reichheld

Self Test

Ask questions, make an assignment, intrigue the reader.

• Would you recommend a liar to your friend? 
• Would you recommend a mediocre to your friend? 
• Would you recommend your friend something you do not understand  your self?

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