The Referral Engine
Teaching Your Business to Market Itself
By: John Jantsch
Published: May 13, 2010
Format: Hardcover, 256 pages
ISBN-10: 1591843111
ISBN-13: 978-1591843115
Publisher: Portfolio/Penguin
"Human beings are physiologically wired to make referrals. That's why so many businesses can grow and thrive by tapping this business-building strategy alone", writes marketing and digital strategy coach, and award winning social media publisher at Duct Tape Marketing, John Jantsch, in his transformational and practical book The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself. The author shares the reasons that referral marketing is such a powerful growth machine for a company, and provides the tools and techniques necessary to make referrals an integral part of any business strategy.
John Jantsch understands the importance of customer referrals to the growth of a business. The author demonstrates hands on familiarity with proven referral techniques, as well as with the psychological drives that cause people to recommend products and services to others. As one of the leading experts in referral marketing, John Jantsch writes from years of experience, with knowledge, and with much wisdom gleaned from many successful companies. The author is able to drill down past the most obvious forms of referrals, to include the very deep emotional reasons that create the desire to pass along a recommendation, and the need to complete the referral with others. Because John Jantsch understands referrals so well, he is the ideal guide for any business that wants to add a perpetual referral machine to their strategy.
John Jantsch (photo left) recognizes that much of what generates customer referrals is providing an superior customer experience. Satisfied customers, who feel engaged by a company through its employees, are very likely to evangelize a business to others. As John Jantsch points out, not being rude to customers, being exciting and not boring, and giving to others to get business in return, are the guiding principles of referral based organizations. The author also understands the unique relationship between various employees and their customers, and the role they play in the referral process. Sales people, for example, have a direct link to customers and as such are crucial to creating a successful referral program. At the same time, all employees must talk with customers, and really listen to what they have to say about products and services.
For me, the power of the book is how John Jantsch combines the theory of customer referrals, of the psychological need that customers feel to share their experiences with others, and the practical tools to put an effective referral system in place. The author shares proven techniques, to establish an ongoing referral program, that have been tested and have worked well in the real world. Unlike many books on referrals, John Jantsch fills his book not with platitudes but with a workable process that not only engages the customer, but involves every employee within the organization.
At the same time, the author extends the engagement of the employee beyond the doors of the business to include education for the best customers as sources of referrals. The education process helps the customer to refer other ideal customers, within their own narrow band of qualifications, to the company. The result is s multiplication of ideal customers referring other customers sharing the same overall characteristics. The holistic approach to referrals, taken by John Jantsch, sets this book apart from others of the same topic.
I highly recommend the seminal book on building a business through referrals, The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself by John Jantsch, to anyone seeking to turn referrals into an integral part of their organizational marketing and growth strategy. Whether the business is brick and mortar, internet based, or a combination of the two, any company can be transformed into a dynamo through the use of referrals. John also is careful, and to his credit, to point out that a commitment to a referral system is a long term and ongoing process. There are no quick fixes or magic bullets. Referrals require building trust, and that takes time. For a business prepared to create that level of engagement, however, the growth potential is almost unlimited.
Read the essential and game changing book The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself by John Jantsch, and put the power of the customer referral to work for your own company. Combining superior customer service, with a committed employee team at every level, and an engaged customer base, will turn your organization into a perpetual referral machine.
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