The Referral Engine

Build A Remarkable Business

"Many small businesses actually run, thrive, and grow based on figuring out how to do something better than everyone else in their industry, how to create a richer experience, how to deliver a better bang for the buck."- The Referral Engine, page 31

The referral process starts, not surprisingly, with looking at every aspect of your business to ensure that the products and experiences you are creating are better than those of your competitors. Think about what differentiates your business from the rest, and then “figure out how to communicate the essence of that difference in the simplest way possible.”

Jantsch emphasizes that businesses generating the most buzz tend to be driven by purpose, with leaders who communicate their unique view of the world. If you share your story with your customers and potential customers, they will likely connect with you on a much deeper level than before. Your uniqueness enhances the value you bring, and becomes a powerful differentiating factor for your business.

“You must embrace the true value your organization produces and develop a referral system that allows you to bring the best of your authentic self to every opportunity.”

Now that you have something for people to talk about, you’ll need to build a system and community around it.

Every Business Needs A Marketing System

"Until you start looking at marketing as one of the core systems in your business, it will always feel like a disjointed and disconnected thing that you know you should do when you get around to it."- The Referral Engine, page 53

Regardless of size, every business needs a marketing system. For small businesses, Jantsch encourages looking at lead generation from a different angle, and focus on “being found” rather than finding your potential customers.

Jantsch recommends analyzing every customer touch point, and building a plan for communicating at each stage. Any opportunity to create connections via social media is encouraged, as “the most easily referred companies are naturally social”. These connections need to be tracked and measured against outcomes, in order to determine the most successful channels.

In a search engine optimized world, your unique value and point-of-view needs to come through in your content. Jantsch provides pages of ideas for ways to be more readily found, including through generating content in multiple formats, followed by the creation of spokes, both online and offline, which lead people back to your business.

Once you have a system, you can start to build a community.

Create A Referral Community

"Nothing grows a loyal customer like a connection to something bigger than the product or service you happen to provide."- The Referral Engine, page 171

Creating a community around your business, with your customers, strategic partners and others who may be connected to you, creates opportunities for referral conversations to take place, without you needing to ask. You can provide introductions, industry information, and updates about your activities, which extends the value you deliver and creates a reminder for them of the work you’ve done. Your community forum, whether online or in person, also creates a place for thanking those who have already made referrals on your behalf.

Your referral community also extends to your employees. If employees are passionate about working for your organization, they will become part of your referral network, whether recommending your business to future customers or possibly future employees. Take some time to think about whether the employee experience at your organization is worthy of referrals as well.