Word of Mouth Marketing Part 1 It’S the Opposite of Advertising, but a Lot More Effective, Much Cheaper and Much More Fun

A STRATEGIC WORKSHOP: Word of Mouth Marketing part 1 it’s the opposite of advertising, but a lot more effective, much cheaper and much more fun

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 1 WORD OF MOUTH Part 1 am 80 page "Virtual Workshop" The goal of this Virtual Workshop is to: help you identify strategies that can turn your current friends and clients into and unpaid salesforce (and have them love it and thank you for it)

You’ll learn:

 the critical difference between passive and active word of mouth (and why you’re probably using the former)  the subtle but important difference between Word of Mouth and referral systems  the critical difference between getting attention and getting more clients  the three roles that all of your marketing must play  17 premises of word of mouth  the client funnel and why it’s important  14 examples of low cost, low risk and high value free gifts you can offer  4 things you need to become a “cult brand”  a three step word of mouth process

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 2 “If you build it they will come.” haven’t given them something they’ll enjoy sharing with others to entertain, to sound smart or clever, to sound Those are probably the most destructive words an with it – forget it. You ain’t got buzz.” entrepreneur can utter - aside from, “I already know that.” and “the government can pry those taxes from my cold But there’s other reasons. We all know that word of dead hands!” mouth (WOM) is the best form of marketing there is. People distrust advertising, but they trust their friends. Sure, if you offer a great quality product and service word Simple. will spread. Especially if you’re at the forefront of a trend “What counts is not what a business says about itself, and you’re the only gig in town. But otherwise - you may rather what others say about it.” need to encourage that word of mouth. Marketing Without Advertising - Salli Raspberry Why does it work? Well, as Mark Hughes points out in his We know that good WOM can make a business but that book, Buzz Marketing: one bad piece of WOM can have a huge impact. As Winston Churchill put it, “A lie will travel half way around “One of the secrets to word of mouth is that you’re the world before the truth even has a chance to put its speaking face-to-face, which gives you what tons of pants on.” marketers are trying to get every day: attention. Face-to- face attention competes with no other media, grabbing “I tell this story to make a point. Buzz is not about elegant undivided mind share. Media expert Ken Sacharin said it advertising or glitzy trade shows. It’s about what happens best: “Our ‘rules’ [of advertising] are rooted in another in the invisible networks--the interpersonal information time – a time not too long ago when it was far safer to networks that connect customers to each other. It’s about assume that we already had people’s attention and that what customers--the people who pay money for all we had to do was inform, persuade, educate, and sell. products--tell each other about these products.” - The The smart folks are catching on. If you assume you have Anatomy of Buzz - Emmanuel Rosen people’s attention, you are dead wrong. Rule number 1: Get their freakin’ attention. Don’t follow the herd, “People will ask other people about you before they because you won’t get heard. decide to buy from you. We turn to people we trust first- friends, family, coworkers, and other people like us- According to a study by the American Academy of when starting to look for something to buy. Not ads, not Advertising, when a TV commercial comes on, 92 brochures, not phone books.” - Word of Mouth percent of us change the channel, mute the commercial, Marketing - Andy Sernovitz ignore the commercial, or divert our attention to something else. Don’t forget TiVo, either; 71 percent of people interested in TiVo said the feature they liked the And this verbal ‘buzz’ plays a huge role in many people’s most was the ability to skip the commercials. One of the decisions to purchase products and services just like most comprehensive advertising studies of the magazine yours. I’ve heard it said that 25% of all conversations are sections in Sunday newspapers performed in the 1970s about products and services. That’s a lot. Consider the showed what you might expect: One’s ability to recall following statistics (from page 5 of Emmanuel Rosen’s advertising related to the thickness of the magazine. The book - The Anatomy of Buzz): more advertising in a given medium, the less effective each advertisement. More clutter, less impact. “Customers are scared (and rightly so) or being ripped off, buying something they won’t be able to use, or simply More than twenty-three thousand new products are paying too much. Checking with friends before they introduced each year in America. Twenty-three thousand invest their hard-earned dollars (especially in big ticket marketers and brand managers are competing for the items) is a good way to reduce this risk. Consider that .. . same level of attention and the same purchaser’s dollar. They all want to grow. They all want to achieve  “sixty five percent of customers who bought a Palm breakaway sales. And those are just the new products. organizer told the makers of this device they had What about the brand products, and companies that heard about it from another person. already exist?  forty seven percent of the readers of Surfing DEFINITION: Buzzmarketing captures the attention of magazine say that the biggest influences in their consumers and the media to the point where talking decisions about where to surf and what to purchase about your brand or company becomes entertaining, come from a friend fascinating, and newsworthy. To put it simply, Buzz starts conversations.  friends and relatives are the number-one source for information about places to visit or about flights, That’s the essence, the key. If you haven’t given people hotels, or rental cars, according to the Travel something clever, amusing, catchy, remarkable…if you Industry Association. Of people they surveyed, forty

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 3 three percent cited friends and family as a course of mouth, instead of confusing, low-credibility information in information. the form of advertising, salespeople, or other traditional marketing.”  fifty-seven percent of customers of one car dealership in California learned about the dealership by word of mouth. “This is not unusual,” says Jim “We never call it by its real name.” Callahan of the Dohring Company, which conducts Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz surveys for about five hundred car dealerships around the country every year. “We've just started using the term word of mouth in formal marketing. That means that lots of things that  Every year we hear about movies such as the Blair should be considered word of mouth are not properly Witch Project or There’s Something About Mary that identified as such. This inconsistent naming means that are driven by word of mouth. Fifty-three percent of we fail to measure word of mouth accurately. Take moviegoers rely to some extent on a another look at all your sources of new customers. recommendation from someone they know, Rename anything that could be considered customer to according to a study by Maritz Marketing Research. customer. Give word of mouth its due credit to No matter how much money Hollywood pours into understand the real impact it's having on your business. advertising, people frequently consult with each other about what movie to see. Here are some of the hidden names of customer sources that are actually word of mouth.  seventy percent of Americans rely on the advice of others when selecting a new doctor, according to the -From a friend same study. Sixty three percent of women surveyed -From a coworker for Self Magazine cited “friend, family or coworker -From my boss referral” as one of the factors influencing over-the- -From my doctor counter drug purchases. -Online review or article (not an ad that you ran) -Direct mail sent to someone else at my company  Research shows the importance of referrals. -Cross reference on Amazon According to Paul and Sarah Edwards (authors of -Knowing someone who uses it Getting Business to Come to You) up to 45% of most -Other service businesses are chosen by customers based -None of the above on the recommendations of others. -And many, many more.” And yet most of today’s marketing still focuses on how to use advertising and other tools to influence each customer individually, ignoring the fact that purchasing Why word of mouth? many types of products is part of a social process.” “Good marketing is easy. One of the most important And as Mark Hughes points out in his book Buzz things I’ve learned is that word of mouth marketing can Marketing: “Firms like Euro RSCG have documented the be so easy and obvious that everyone misses just how impact of word of mouth: ten times more effective than easy and obvious it is. TV or print advertising. Ten times more effective.”

Or as George Silverman puts it in his brilliant book, The Marketing is what you do, not what you say. The story Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing:“There is a large that will be told by the power of word of mouth is what body of research that shows that people gather really happens underneath all the marketing. If you have information from your marketing materials, including good products and good services, people will say good salespeople and advertising, then talk it over with their things about you. If you fall down on the job, they will friends. They buy in response to what other people say say that, too. about the product. Word of mouth is not just a welcome by-product of good marketing. you talk, people listen. When you are thinking about a new product, what Then they talk it over with their friends, family, and you really should be thinking about is what people will trusted advisors. Then they buy, but not before talking say after they use it-its functionality, its quality, and how about your product. While they are trying your product, you treated them. they talk. After they have committed to your product, they talk some more. Getting people to talk often, favourably, A 2006 study by the Verde Group showed that people to the right people in the right way about your product is who hear about a bad shopping experience are less far and away the most important thing that you can do as likely than people who actually had the bad experience a marketer .The best way to increase profits is to to ever set foot in the store. And when you realize that accelerate favourable product decisions. The best way to someone's who's had an unpleasant encounter with your accelerate product decisions is to make them easier. The stuff is going to tell, on average, five other people, you best way to make decisions easier is to deliver word of

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 4 start to see just how damaging bad word of mouth can o Is unlimited in speed and scope be in the real world. o Can originate from a single source, or a relatively small number of sources Big Idea: Success comes not from what you advertise, o Is extremely dependent on the nature of the source but from what you deliver.” - Word of Mouth Marketing o Can be tremendously time-saving, efficient, and - Andy Sernovitz labour-saving o Is often negative, but the negatives can actually be positive *** o Can be very inexpensive to stimulate, amplify, and sustain.” Or as Mark Hughes points out in Buzz Marketing:

1. “The ad clutter is rising to intolerable levels in Why Word of Mouth? America (a 283 index on the Clutter Curve; see Mark Joyner chapter 10). http://www.simpleology.com/blog/2007/09/ 2. Traditional forms of media are rising in cost, compounding the issue of clutter. There are many marketing truisms. Some of them I agree 3. We’ve been lied to so many times with advertising, it with - some I think are simply wrong. seems like te only message we trust these days comes from regular people like you and me. "The single most powerful force in marketing is word of 4. Technology is accelerating word of mouth.” mouth" is one that just about every marketing expert I know agrees with. I do too, and here's why. *** Let's compare it to some of the other answers given (which were almost all - by the way - quite insightful and Listen closely to George Silverman, author of The well thought out). Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing: Word of Mouth Vs. Great Ad Copy: Word of Mouth - “It's more relevant and complete. Word of mouth is "live," the right kind of Word of Mouth (more on that later) - can not canned like most company communication. When a bypass the copy and go right to the order. friend tells you about a book, movie or other product that she thinks you would like, she is telling you because she If you and your beloved uncle have both been suffering thinks that you--not some anonymous stranger--would from the same kind of back pain for the last 10 years and like it. suddenly he is "cured" - I doubt you'll need to read much ad copy before trying whatever it was that cured him. That's a gross simplification, but you get the idea. The inherent honesty of word of mouth further adds to its credibility. The customer determines who he will talk to, Word of Mouth Vs. Selling to a Thirsty Crowd: Selling what he will ask, or whether he will continue to listen or to a "thirsty crowd" is, in fact, an amazingly powerful way politely change the subject. For instance, if 25 people tell to generate sales. In fact, if you're paying for advertising, 25 people and the process is repeated five more times, it's essential. the number equals approximately the population of the United States. One more iteration and the number equals But to gain access to a thirsty crowd you will always have approximately the population of the entire world! to invest something. Be it time, energy, or money (or all of the above), there is an investment there that you will Word of mouth saves time and money. Another element have to keep paying over and over again. The burden on of word of mouth is that it can be extremely efficient. If you is to make sure you get a "return" on that investment you want to buy a product that you don't know too much each and every time. about, the best way is often to find a few people who have investigated the product, and learn from them what With Word of Mouth, your customers go out and find your they have found out. The product literature gives you only Thirsty Crowd for you. You do have to make Word of promises. Word of mouth gives you reality. Mouth investments (more about what they are later), but the payoff - when you do it right - will grow on itself. o Is the most powerful, influential, persuasive force in the marketplace (the most obvious reason) Some people say "Word of Mouth is Free" but that's not o Is an experience delivery mechanism (the most really true. Yes, you don't have to pay for the referral, but important and overlooked reason) there are other investments you must make in order to o Is independent, therefore credible get that Word of Mouth referral. o Becomes part of the product itself o Is custom-tailored, most relevant, and complete When you find Thirsty Crowds you have a linear o Is self-generating, self-breeding, grows investment-to-payoff (or lack thereof) relationship. exponentially, sometimes explosively

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 5 When you let Word of Mouth find Thirsty Crowds for you, B. If they are, why is their traffic not growing like they the investment keeps paying off again and again - promise yours will? sometimes "exponentially." The answer is easy: the real marketing secret of most Internet Marketing gurus is the product launch. Word of Mouth Part 2: A Quick Exercise Mark Joyner Launches work great. Heck back in the old "Aesop" days http://www.simpleology.com/blog/2007/09/ (my old company), we used these sames tactics all the time. (Since then guys like Jeff Walker, John Reese, (First, if you haven't read Part 1, scroll down and read it Brad Fallon, Andy Jenkins, Frank Kern and Mike Long now. In fact, you really need to start with the post "What have taken these tactics to new levels. Truly impressive.) is the Single Most Powerful Force in Marketing?" Also - we'll be picking the winners here very soon :-) The general idea is pretty simple:

OK, before we get into some real meat here, let's do a Rally the forces of people who own large lists and get little exercise together. them to promote on the same day.

Step 1: Find a website that is offering a viral marketing Poof! tool. Almost any will do. Instant surge in traffic. Instant best-seller. My Prediction: The copy is probably promising that once you use the tool, you'll get a flood of visitors to your site that you can't shut off and that it will keep growing and There's more to it (anticipation, proof, motivation, etc ...), growing and growing. but that's the general idea.

Step 2: Go to Alexa.com and type in that URL. The problem is, launches will bring in a great surge in traffic, but if what is being launched is without substance, no real Word of Mouth will occur. Alexa is a service that estimates web traffic to almost any site. So, the business model of many IM experts (not the guys I mentioned above, by the way) looks something like this My Prediction: You will probably see a graph that looks ... like this. Either that, or you'll see no real traffic to speak of.

They launch a pretty-good product. If the tool these guys are offering creates a steady stream of traffic that keeps growing and growing, then ... The buzz dies down.

A. Why aren't they using it themselves? Move as many people as you can to your list in the process. ... and ...

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 6 Lather. Word of Mouth Part 3: The C-Rate

Rinse. (If you haven't read Parts 1and 2, scroll down and read them now. In fact, you really need to start with the post Repeat. "What is the Single Most Powerful Force in Marketing?")

No offense to these guys - many of them are close So far we've learned that Word of Mouth is in fact the friends of mine and good people. Some of them are bona most powerful force in marketing. fide geniuses. We've also learned that true Word of Mouth doesn't come Now, you can make good money like this. Heck, millions from viral gimmicks, but from "something else." even. We'll be learning what that "something else" is shortly. But with this model, it's like pushing a rock up hill. Every First, let's talk about what I call the C-Rate (short for time you get to the top you have to push it back up again. "Copulation Rate"). (Known as "The Myth of Sisyphus." The king who was damned to an eternity of rock-up-a-hill pushing. Yikes!) This might get a bit heady, so read it 2 or 3 times until it sinks in. It's worth it. Who wants to push a rock up a hill at all? Let alone over and over again ... Here we go ...

Now, take a look at this graph here: The C-Rate is the rate at which a Word of Mouth "virus" generates new "infectees."

AC-Rate of 1 would mean that 100 people "in" would generate 100 out.

Or 100 customers generate 100 new customers.

AC-Rate of 0.5 would generate half as much.

That is, 100 customers would generate 50 new This is the growth of the stock price of Harley Davidson. customers.

This only shows part of the picture as they were Now, it's important to note that this figure is meaningless experiencing true Word of Mouth growth for years before unless it is measured over time. they even went public. So, what we really need to talk about are 10 day C- Because their stock price is a pretty good reflection of the Rates, 20 day C-Rates, and so on ... reality of their sales, they just keep growing. Let's imagine a 10 day C-Rate of 1.1. And the bedrock key to their growth is, without question, genuine organic Word of Mouth Marketing. 100 customers in, and 10 days later, they render 110 new customers. What's the secret? Not bad at all. Well, a great product is part of it, but just that - a part of it. In fact, any C-Rate over 1 is phenomenal and is Since we know there are a great many "amazingly great" something rarely achieved. products that have failed miserably, there must be something more to it. 1.1 is astounding.

There is. Stay tuned closely to this channel over the next But when you get into rates like 1.3 and above, that's few days. when you get into serious "Tipping Point" territory.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 7 Here are two screen shots from my #1 best-selling book customers, then at 20 days another 25, and at 30 days The Irresistible Offer (Wiley 2005) that illustrate this point. another 12.5, and so on ....)

Imagine you start an advertising campaign and you get a negative ROI.

You spend $100 on an ad, and you generate $95 in sales.

That's a negative ROI of $5.

But what if those new customers, through Word of Mouth, generate just a few more customers?

Well, even a modest C-Rate of 0.25 or less might be enough to tip you over the edge and give you a profitable campaign.

But, very few companies can ever make it over 0.25.

Those that do have a decided advantage - no matter what business they are in.

The sad thing is, attaining 0.25 and sustaining it is not that hard. You should be able to do much better than that if you know just a few simple things. (more on that later)

Now, see how crazy it gets around 1.31? So, as you can see, companies don't just wave a magic wand of "buzzworthiness" over their business and watch But actually, 1.1 is pretty crazy, too. the magical numbers start flying in.

See, at Day 10 - those are 10,100 new customers that Word of Mouth is something that must be built, cultivated, came in passively. and improved over time.

None of the gimmicky viral marketing tools can generate The company I'm building right now, Simpleology, is at anything close to these types of results. around 0.8 right now. This is a fete few companies ever achieve, but we will crank it up even higher. It's almost a Most companies have a C-Rate of 0.001 or maybe mathematical certainty. (More about that coming up ...) slightly better. About 80% of our business comes purely through the But here's the reality no one talks about: anything above Word of Mouth of the people who love our products. zero is actually "good." Without advertising, without affiliates (we have some great ones, but they only account for 15% of our sales), and certainly without viral marketing gimmicks. When you get into the 1+ range your company is growing and growing at a steady rate. The higher over 1 you are, the more rapidly you grow. So, how does one cultivate genuine Word of Mouth?

But what if you're at say ... 0.5? There are a lot of buzzwords out there that address this, and they sound good when a speaker says them from the stage, but they won't do much for your bottom line at the Is that a failure? end of the day.

Not by a long shot. I mean, really. Of all you've read about viral marketing, word of mouth, buzz, etc ... How much of it have you If you have a C-Rate of 0.5 it means that your advertising actually been able to apply to your business? goes that much further. (Further than you think - do the math and you'll see that 10 days later it's 50 more

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 8 What if there was an actual plan you could follow that get you to change one of these business relationships. would actually improve your Word of Mouth consistently and steadily - cranking your C-rate up and up? Sam DuVall, who conceives of eating places as theatre, has owned very successful restaurants. The Ritz Café in L.A., and the Elite Café in San Francisco. The Elite Café Referring and Referred was one of the first places in Northern California to serve Customers Are More Loyal New Orleans cuisine. Money was invested in good food and good service and in creating a unique ambiance worth talking about, not in advertising. DuVall neither Here’s something worth pondering. Not only are advertises, nor does any paid promotion in the customers who are referred to you almost always of a conventional sense, yet the Elite Café has been packed higher quality, but the very process of referring makes every night for years. When asked about his success, your existing client more loyal. Read that again: DuVall said, "Nothing works as well as word of mouth. Customers that give referrals become more loyal to you People believe in it." and your business. Once someone stands up and makes a public statement about you, psychologically, they will become more loyal to you and your business. So, the The equally famous and exclusive Los Angeles easier you can make it for your clients to refer business restaurant Ma Maison takes an anti-advertising stand to you and the more they do it, the better a client they will even farther, refusing even to list its phone number in the become. Isn’t that odd and lovely? Yellow Pages and totally depending on personal recommendations to produce customers. The most highly recommended restaurant in the United States, the Let’s also consider why it is that referred clients are French Laundry in Yountville, California, has never better . . . advertised." - Marketing Without Advertising “Customers recruited though scatter-gun advertising techniques such as TV spots, newspaper ads, direct *** mail, contests, unsolicited telephone sales, and internet freebies rarely come back. An example of this phenomenon familiar to most owners of small service But what is it that drives WOM? Why do people refer type businesses comes from the experience of Laura Peck. She wrote to us that she used to advertise her business? assertiveness workshops, but due to financial problems discontinued the ads. Instead, she started cultivating her Well, there’s two answers. own community of friends and acquaintances as clients. Two years later, her business was thriving, and she REASON #1: Because their expectations were exceeded. The business went above and beyond what noted: they expected in the quality of the product and customer service. When you exceed expectations consistently this "When I advertised, I seemed to attract people who came will make people want to talk about you. This is about the because of the discount I offered. These clients often did inner reality of your business. People love being not return, would cancel sessions, and generally were not matchmakers for their friends - they want to be the hero returners. The people who were most enthusiastic, most who finds the next best thing for their group. loyal and continued their sessions were almost always clients who had been personally referred. Had it not been for the economics involved, I would probably not have But this isn’t enough. learned this important lesson: personal recommendation is the best advertising there is." “You need to innovate your company so there’s a reason for people to buy from you. [Many] gurus do a great job of Believing that "advertising works" had lulled her into the teaching you how to do those things, But here’s the false belief that she didn't really have to learn how to run problem: Just because you’ve achieved “WOW!” doesn’t mean that customers will flock to your business. You still a high-quality business. There wasn't much we could tell have to market your business.” - Richard Harshaw, her except "start over, using the solid business Monopolize Your Marketplace. techniques and personal recommendations discussed in this book. REASON #2: It’s easy and compelling to spread the word. Okay - this is an oversimplified answer - but here’s Clearly the customer who is referred comes to you at a the truth - we make it hard for our clients to help us. lower cost than the one who sees an advertisement. In addition, as we will discuss in more detail below, a We’re not the center of their lives - but they want to help customer who is referred to you is more likely to return us. We need to come up with ways to make it easier. and more apt to tell a friend about your business than is a person who responds to an advertisement. Consider your If you’re reading this then my guess is you’re very own habits. You probably tend to patronize the same dry frustrated with marketing. cleaner, hardware store, dentist, and exercise facility. If It can feel like flushing money down the toilet. you're like most people, it takes a substantial nudge to

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 9 not they’re a client of yours. Referrals are a subset of So, I’m going to ask you to not believe what’s written word of mouth. here. Instead read it and think about it. See if it doesn’t make sense. DISTINCTION #3: Attention vs. Clients: this seems so simple, but it’s important. You don’t want attention. You Test it out. want clients. Attention may be an initial step, but it’s not the end of the road. Hours could be spent looking at ad If you’re reading this - then you’ve likely already done two campaigns that got everyone talking and won all sorts of crucial things: you’ve identified a niche market and advertising awards and produced no more customers for you’ve also identified the hubs where you can find them. the business. But, how do you get existing clients to help spread the word? The Three Roles of Marketing: There are really two questions before the house: There are three roles that all of your marketing must play. 1) How can you get your current clients to send you more business? 1. It must get their attention. Most people are walking around in a deep trance. Your marketing needs to 2) How can you attract more business outside of your break through that. It doesn’t matter how brilliantly current client base (and their friends)? written your ad is if no one reads it. For more info on this you can look at the “Ad Writing” Workshop. Fortunately, the process is very similar, but before we get into there’s a few distinctions we need to clarify. 2. It must facilitate the decision making process. Buying is a process. They’re trying to find DISTINCTION #1: Active vs. Passive word of mouth something perfect for them. You’re likely not the only (WOM): A lot of people i talk to say that “word of mouth is one they’re looking at. But, they also likely feel my best form of advertising.” What that means is that confused. After all, they’re not an expert in your they likely have a great product and give great customer industry. They don’t know how to determine value - service but that they don’t to anything to encourage it. is what you’re offering a good deal? How do you They sort of hope it comes. If that’s working for you, fine, stack up? How would they even know if you were? but the question is could you get more clients and better What criteria should they use when making a kinds of clients? Almost certainly. Active word of mouth is decision about where to spend their money. Your where you look at things you can do to foster, encourage marketing must help them in this process and and accelerate WOM. You become an active participant answer those questions. For more info on this you in the process vs. a happless spectator. can look at the “Irresistible Offer” virtual workshop.

“It's widely believed that there are only three ways to “A decent product gets recommended to a friend, but increase sales: increase the number of customers, only passively-usually when they are asked directly increase the dollar amount each customer spends about it: per purchase (higher prices and/or larger orders), or increase the frequency with which the customer “What kind of grill should I buy?” buys. Ask virtually any marketing expert, consult the marketing books, and they will all tell you that this exhausts the possibilities. But the most important way “I’ve got a Weber; its’ pretty good.” of increasing sales and dominating a market has never, to my knowledge, ever been written about: You get much more word of mouth when you make your increase the speed with which decisions are made. products cool. The more you make your product Decision speed is the time it takes your customers to buzzworthy, the more it pushes itself into conversation. go from initial awareness to enthusiastic full use and The special satisfaction that people get from something recommendation of your product or service. This in great is what moves them from being a passive turn is governed by 1. simplicity 2. ease 3. recommender to an active one: sometimes, the fun of the decision process.” - The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, George Silverman “Check this out. My new grill has a Pork-A-Licious Thingamabob. You’ve got to try it!”” - Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz 3. It must lower the risk of taking the first step. You’re probably losing a frightening amount of business just because that first transaction is a little DISTINCTION#2: WOM vs. Referrals: Referrals are too risky. For more info on this you can look at the what happens when your current clients send you their “Wall of Risk” Workshop. friends. WOM is when people talk about you - whether or

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 10 So, your marketing must achieve these three goals. And are looking for solutions to problems. They want no form of marketing does this better than word of mouth. relief from pain. They’re look for a particular result Why? Well, before we answer that . . . that is self serving to them. There is a particular need that they are trying to fulfill. Everything in your 20 LAWS OF WORD OF MOUTH: marketing must be geared around this. To many businesses talk about nothing but themselves - they start of pitches (and end them) with descriptions of These 20 laws can be chunked into four major areas. their products features and benefits. It’s all about them. Me me me. But no one cares. Here’s the sad There are laws surrounding the issues of: truth - no one knows your name and no one’s glad you came. The white hot center of your marketing is 1. Relevance not you and your company but them and their 2. Relationships problems. You should always lead with this. Always 3. Communities speak to their problems not about your products and 4. Strategy services. For more thoughts on this go to “The Deeper Need” virtual workshop. THE LAWS OF RELEVANCE: 5. The Law of Empathy: People don’t care how much 1. The Law of the Niche: Trying to reach everyone is you know until they know how much you care. In old futile. Life becomes easier as you choose a focus. sales, you would spend hours identifying people’s For more info see the Identifying Your Niche virtual problems. In today’s market you need to walk in with workshop. a deep understanding and empathy for the pains they are experiencing and the frustrations that they 2. The Law of One Man’s Junk: This is a corollary of have with your industry. Law #1. One man’s junk is another man’s treasure. What will appeal to one group will not appeal to 6. The Law of Alignment: In order to influence people another. What one group might find offensive you must know what already influences them; you another group might find “edgy”. You will never be must know what is most important to them. And then able to be attractive to everyone, so why try? you must do whatever it takes to make your business a living, breathing expression of those 3. The Law of Overwhelm: You are not the center of values. your niche’s life. You are not the center of your clients life. You are, let’s be honest, likely a very THE LAWS OF RELATIONSHIPS: small part of it. They’ve got a whole, huge, overwhelming life outside of knowing you. They will 7. The Law of 1000 Miles: the conversion of stranger probably bring you up if the topic comes up but they to client is one of many steps. Our dream is, of aren’t going to out of their way to promote you. And course, that people buy what we’re selling on the even if they talk about you, it’s not like they carry spot. Here’s a typical fantasy. You’re at a party and around order forms or book appointments for you. someone asks you what you do. You tell them and They’re not going to sell your products for you. This their jaw drops. “That’s incredible!” the say. “I was means that you need to help them to promote you. just at our office and we were talking about how we needed to buy exactly what you’re selling. What a “Your prospect is practically buried under an avalanche miracle. Can you come by the office tomorrow to of communication, besieged by deadlines, in a sign a contract? Would $200,000 be enough to start downsized corporation or rapidly expanding company (or you off?” But how often does that happen? Never. both), without assistance, worried about being "right- Let it go. It’s a fantasy. In reality, people need to get sized" (fired), or worried about doing the work of six to know you. They need to take their time. There’s a people. This person couldn't care less about listening to you. reason that many successful businesses have some Yes, even you, with just the right product for her. This free products and services, some cheap ones, some person may want a better widget, but she has no interest medium and some high end ones. Andrea Lee, a in a deliberate decision-making process that entails a very successful coach, calls this “pink spoon learning curve. What she really wants is some peace and marketing” after those pink spoons at the ice cream quiet, or anything approaching a feeling of control, or a shop - they give you just enough of a taste to know if little fun.” The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, you like the flavour but not enough to fill you. You George Silverman must think out the steps they will take in advance. You must ask yourself, “how would they want to get 4. The Law of Problems: People will pay a lot more to know me?” And then you must lay out the process attention to you when you speak to their problems. from first meeting to high end. The point - it will be a And they will trust you more. Much more. They’ll process. That’s normal. People don’t just get the spend more money with you. In the prospects mind, idea that they need something and then but it they are not looking for your product or service, they immediately. They think it over, talk to friends, do a bit of research, identify their favorites, make a

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 11 decision and then they still may wait a while to buy. and too much clutter, and too many choices and too One way to think of it The point is not to get them many channels and too much spam, you can't make a into the tip of the funnel where they’re paying the good living by interrupting people over and over again. most money - but to make it risk free and valuable to go as far as they want to - as far as is appropriate or A year ago, Amazon.com announced that they were a fit for them to go. going to stop advertising all together. No more T.V.. No more magazine ads. Instead, the company decided to And there’s something else that’s vital here. You put the money it was spending on ads into free need to know, in your head, what that final step is. shipping instead. When you look at the bottom on the funnel below, where they will pay the most money - you need to Marketers were aghast. The idea of investing your ad ask yourself, “what is this level for me?” You need to dollars into actually making the product better was identify what product or service you offer that is your heresay. Pundits once again proclaimed the death of top end. And then you need to work backwards from Amazon. that. You need to ask yourself . . . After twelve months, the results were in. Sales for the - where are you paid most? year were up 37 percent. International growth was up an - what work is most fun, fulfilling and attractive to astonishing 81 percent. Amazon reported it's first you? quarterly non holiday profit, attributed to growth due to - where are you most effective? the change in marketing tactics.

They reject the idea that they have to interrupt people with ads they don't want to get.” Seth Godin

“Instead of spending a small fortune in advertising, it's far better to spend the same money improving your business and caring for customers. The only approach worth taking is to put your planning, hard work, and money into creating a wonderful business, and to let your customers do your advertising for you.” - Marketing Without Advertising THE LAWS OF COMMUNITIES:

9. The Law of Hubs: Birds of a feather tend to flock together. In a hyper networked world, this is particularly true. We increasingly live in communities of affinity, not geography. Why do the Hells Angels travel in packs? Why do all the black kids sit together in the cafeteria? Why do second grade girls play together? We hang out with like minded people - not our neighbours. This is true of your clients. Your ideal niche spends their time, money and attention in the same places. Like spokes on a wheel they all 8. The Law of Advertising: People don’t trust ads & converge into the center in certain hubs. Identifying pitches. You don’t. I don’t. Nobody does. Not only do and building relationships with these hubs may be we not trust them - we are saturated with them. We the core of your marketing. are bombarded with thousands of them each day. We’ve become desensitized to them. And yet they 10. The Law of Super Hubs: Some birds are bigger become more insistent on ‘interrupting’ us and and sing louder and more beautifully than others. getting our attention. That doesn’t mean that you Some people are more trusted by your niche than can’t write an effective ad. That doesn’t mean that others. We will call these Big Birds ‘hubs’. They are ads don’t work. It just means we need to accept that like the hub of a wheel. They’re the point where all of there is an inherent bias against ads. People the spokes join. They are the center of your community and network. mistrust things that look like advertising or sales pitches. Their defenses go up. The most successful 11. The Law of Gossip. People love to share their marketing will therefore be authentic, genuine opinions and experiences (good and bad) with their endorsements from people they already trust. Word of mouth. friends. More to the point - they do it. Constantly. In fact, I recently heard that 25% of all conversations “What we've learned is this: In an era of too much noise have to do with products and services. So, here’s the

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 12 point - if people like you and like what you do they who hover around them. Long term this is far faster are already talking about you to their friends. The and more effective. Why? These hubs have spent stronger the emotional intensity of their experience years building up a relationship of trust, value and the more often and more intensely they will share relevance to their niche. You might send a mailout to their experience (whether positive or negative). a list and get a 5% response on a good day - but with the right endorsement (i.e. if that letter were to Now, if they meet do business with you and it goes be sent to them from someone they trusted) you well - it makes them feel good that they found a might get a 60% response. By being endorsed great small business that they had a cool experience (either overtly or covertly) you gain incredible with and they want to share their ‘little secret’ (you) positioning. If you show up at a fancy ball with with their friends. Why? They know that they will be Cinderella or Prince Charming on your arm you seen as a hero or someone “in the know”. And when become desirable purely through association. their friends receive great service from you as well, Getting endorsement is slower in the short term but your referring customer will feel as though he was much faster and more powerful in the long term. able to do his friends a great favor. “When a person is deliberating about purchasing a “Even a dentist, however, can do a great deal to product, she reaches a point where she wants to try establish a good friendship network in a hurry. One the product. Ideally, she wants to get low-risk, real- extremely kind and goodhearted dentist we know did world experience using the product. Up until then, just this by following his best instincts. New to a everything in informational, abstract, and somewhat strange town, with few friends and very limited removed from the real world. She has to know how resources, he spent every spare moment visiting old the product will "actually work out in the real world." people's homes and fixing the teeth of the indigent In other words, she needs experience.“ - The residents for free. After a few months, when it was Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing, George apparent that he was sincere, some of the people Silverman who worked at the convalescent homes began to call him for appointments and refer their friends. The local dental society was so proud of his work that established dentists began to refer their overflow. 14. The Law of Hand to Hand: There are things you Within a couple of years, our public-spirited friend can do to support people in talking about you. You had enough patients that he was able to buy the old must create materials (online or offline) that can be Mercedes he had always coveted. To his credit, passed on at the point of conversation. Remember - however, he still drives it over to one or another of they’re already talking about you. The question is - the old people's homes a couple of afternoons a how can you support that process. Conversations month and fixes teeth for free.” - Marketing Without about you don’t always translate into more business Advertising for you. Maybe it’s a gift certificate, or a website URL they can forward or a free invitation to an event. 12. The Law of Discovery: People love discovering cool things, getting excited about them and telling their friends. They love being ‘in the know’ and “Such ideas are embarrassingly simple, but if you’re not having something something cool and useful to giving your customers the tools that make it easy for share. People love finding a product or service that them to spread the word, you’re missing out on is perfect for them. But they hate being sold to. opportunities to create buzz.” Always remember that. - Emmanuel Rosen

“People tell others about a product or service because 15. The Law of Group Adoption: This may be the most they are impressed by it and because it somehow relates compelling reason to think in terms of selling to and to their lives. And . . . my sense is that people don’t like to through hubs vs. individuals. If an individual buys feel that everything is too organized. They talk more from you, it’s pretty easy for him to buy from about something they discover than about something someone else the next week. But if all of his friends everybody can see in a spread in The Wall Street are also buying from you - if doing business with you Journal.” becomes a part of their culture it’s much less likely - Emmanuel Rosen they’ll ever switch - because you’re one of them. There’s a self-reinforcing effect that goes on. 13. The Law of Endorsement: In order to influence Consider how Birkenstocks were adopted by the people you must know who already influences them. hippie scene. Now wearing Birkenstocks is a political And then you must do whatever it takes to get the statement. Imagine if your hub adopted you. endorsement of those people and groups - the Big Birds. You can spend all of your time trying to sell 16. Marketing = community building. At it’s best, each individual little bird, or you can spend that marketing can be a form of community building. It same amount of energy building a relationship with a can bring together like minded people. Pick a niche Big Bird who will endorse you to all of the little birds

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 13 and become a champion of that community, help it to going to prompt and encourage them to take the thrive. Help them solve their problems. next step?

“Sometimes people tell us that they do put offers in THE LAWS OF STRATEGY: their ads, what they term a “call to action”. These offers are for something like a 20% off coupon, or a “buy one, get one free” deal. Sometimes, depending 17. The Law of Irresistible Steps: Having a series of on what you sell, such offers are appropriate. But carefully thought out steps is important but you must those are not the kinds of offers I’m talking about. I’m make each step irresistible. Each step must be low talking about an offer than gives the prospect a low- risk and high value (high R.O.I.) to your niche - and risk way to become further educated about what ideally low cost to you. Remember: people want you’re selling. If your marketing fails to include this solutions to problems and relief from pain - they want kind of offer, then you’re missing out on an you to do it for them, to have it already figured out opportunity to start building a relationship with over and be told what to do, they want you to hold their 90% of your potential customers.” - Richard hand. They don’t want to have to spend years Harshaw educating themselves and read reams of info and listen to hours of audio. What drives sales in this process is not “closing techniques” but “irresistible 19. The Law of Push-Back. Here’s what can kill offers”. Marketing is best woven in from the start - attraction. Here’s what can make your business not plopped on at the end. For more thoughts on absolutely repulsive: Pressure. Pressure is deadly. this, read the “Irresistible Offers” virtual workshop. The entire process - all of the steps you lay out - must be pressure free - the prospect must be 100% “One of the most ingenious of all fair price in control. Remember: People love buying but they techniques we have encountered comes from Tokyo hate being sold to. People really would love to find Hands, a store in Tokyo that sells hobbies, crafts, art something that’s perfect for them. Wouldn’t you? But supplies, gardening tools, auto supplies, and office they hate being pushed or tricked into it. In fact, and bathroom goods, each on a separate floor. A haven’t you walked away from a great deal just customer who buys office supplies on the fifth floor is because the sales person wouldn’t let up? A core given a 20% discount coupon good for that day for premise here is that either it’s a fit or it isn’t. Either any art supplies onto he third floor. If he takes you’re a fit to help them or you aren’t. There’s advantage of the offer, he is given another discount nothing you can do to make yourself a fit if, coupon good that day in a related department. In inherently you aren’t. It’s like attraction. Attraction short, each department gives a different coupon for isn’t a choice. If you’re attracted to someone no another department that a person who patronized amount of logic is going to change your feelings. So, the first would likely be interested in. Of course, one your job is to make it easy for them to determine if reason why this is such a brilliant marketing idea is it’s a fit and to what extent they want to engage with that the customer is already inside the store. Money you. For more thoughts on this go to: spent to encourage customers to buy more when www.unlockthegame.com they are already on the premises is, of course, far more cost-effective than money spent to get them From The Anatomy of Buzz: “Every node in the there in the first place.” - Marketing Without network who decides to try a product ultimately Advertising performs his or her own quality control test and, based on the results, decides whether to pass the 18. The Law of Invitations: You can plan the greatest word further. They act as both hubs and filters. As a party ever but if you don’t send out any invites no marketer, you can’t force anyone to say anything one is going to magically know about it and come. positive about your product, just as you can’t order You can have the greatest store, the greatest people to love you. Even if they say the words, they brochures, the best business card and the best won’t mean them. Buzz is authentic because it’s offers - but if no one knows about them, so what. unrehearsed.” You can do an incredible free intro event - but if you don’t tell people about the next level of cheap things 20. The Law of Small Windows: the conversations that they can buy from you - they won’t. People will rarely your clients and niche have about your business are migrate naturally from one level to the next without going to be very small. These won’t be long, prompting. They’ll rarely meet you and then take all sprawling two hour long conversations. We’re talking of the steps needed to work with you, hire you or buy about 1-5 minutes. Small windows of time. You need from you unless they are given specific invitations to ask yourself what you want to see happen in that and incentives. Give up hoping and get to work. The window and how you can help that to happen. point is this: you need to not only lay out the steps you want them to take but also to concern yourself Central to the practice of WOM is identifying and building with the transitions from step to step. What is it that’s relationships with the hubs in your niche.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 14 But, just who are these hubs? 1) Create a really cool experience. The Irresistible Offer is what gets them in the door (and Where do you even start? maybe telling a few friends) but the Unforgettable Experience is what brings them back and has them Well, lucky for you, there’s really only seven kinds of telling their friends. People like to talk about their hubs. And seven questions you can ask yourself to experiences. They love to gossip. Not just about your identify them. We’ll get into more detail about them later - product but their experience with your product. It’s not butfornow .. . enough to just create a great product, or an innovation. The focus must be kept not only on your product - but the process they go through to get it. Create something remarkable that people will want to talk about. But The Three Basic Steps of Word of remember: Before even thinking about word of mouth tactics to inspire conversations about you - you need to Mouth Marketing: create something conversation worthy. How do you create something that cool?

“So, what is word of mouth marketing? In this book, I It’s important to think about because sometimes the define it as “Giving people a reason to talk about your experience they have with you is your biggest stuff, and making it easier for that conversation to take opportunity. Sometimes there’s not much you can think to place. Whatever business you're in, ask yourself these do to innovate your product or service. questions when you are looking at a customer: “Like everyone I have dealings with a number of companies who are in the same generic business, for example, hardware. I find that the difference between the 1. When she walks out the door, what have I quality of the products in the different businesses is very given her to talk about? small. When I purchase something, say a tin of paint, the quality of that product as I the consumer judge it usually 2. How will he remember to tell his friends? varies by no more than ten per cent.” - Paddi Lund, Building a Happiness Centered Business 3. Could I have made it easier for here to talk to more people about me? Well whatever experience you create needs to meet 4. Was there anything about his experience three criteria: remarkable?” ” - Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz 1. It feels good. This experience must - at the baseline - feel good. It must meet their most important needs. This could mean an experience they directly have Here’s a basic overview of why and how Word of Mouth that feels good - or it could be something they hear works. When you break it down this way - it’s actually about. Is it a story that makes them feel something? pretty simple. When you look at the main themes in WOM stories (e.g. David and Goliath, the outrageous, the taboo, We’ll get into much more detail and lots of specific real- the funny etc.) these are all stories that people both world examples soon - but here’s there bird’s eye view of love to tell and hear. “OMG! Did you about the _____ how it all works. that _____’s. It’s so outrageous!” Those stories are fun to tell. They make the teller look good. And so they will be told more often. 1. Create a really cool experience. This is also true in your advertising and marketing. It’s nice if your ads are funny and outrageous - but 2. Create excuses for people to talk will people even remember what it’s for? “But if you about what you do and mechanisms push this button just for the sake of being outrageous, it will probably work – giving people that facilitate that turning into something to talk about. But what’s the connection business. to your brand or product? There needs to be some connection. What you’ll find with an idea that’s too outrageous is that people might remember the ad 3. Thank people for talking about you. but not the advertiser…unless there’s a connection. (The gerbils probably didn’t do much for *** Beyond.com, even if people remembered and talked about the ad.)”

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 15 o “There’s nothing better than ______for 2. They want to repeat it often. A really good ______. experience, by definition, makes for a good story to ” tell. If the way you run your business isn’t worthy of o “You’re never gonna believe . . .” conversation and story telling later - it’s not that cool an experience. Sorry. There are some experiences There should never be an ‘and’ anywhere near your you’ve had that were a lot of fun and really neat - but topic. Topics don’t work as well when they become lists. once you’ve done it one time . . . You must design (“Try us, because we’re friendly, affordable, experienced, your experience to be something that keeps drawing have great customer service, and give you free ice cream people back. For example: those Japanese while you wait.”) Your topic should be repeatable within a restaurants where they flip the knives in front of you. second or so. (“We give you free ice cream while you Sure that’s fun once. Maybe the second times when wait.”) Otherwise, no one will remember it. you bring your friends. But, how many times do you need to see that? But, imagine if when you come the first time the manager comes out to greet you In many cases, word of mouth marketing isn’t actually personally and treats you to some drinks on the “marketing” at all. It’s about great customer service that house. And then the second time the manager makes people want to tell their friends about you. It’s remembers you and greets your friends warmly while about fantastic products that people can’t resist showing building you up as an incredible person. Now you to everyone. Organic word of mouth is created by might consider coming back. Not for the flashy products that get your customers to love you so much knives (they might get you in the door) but for your that they just can’t shut up.” - Word of Mouth friend the manager. Keys here are: expressing your Marketing - Andy Sernovitz values clearly and consistently, building real, human relationships with people, rewarding long term So, now that we have a sense of what it might sound like relationships. - how do you go about creating that kind of experience? Here’s a few ways . . . 3. They want their friends to have it + are willing to tell them. Aren’t there some things you do that you’d 1. under-promise and over-deliver: Make sure you rather your friends never find out about? Do you see always promise a little less than you know you can the inherent marketing challenge there? (“Hey Frank, do. Give yourself some space. Whether people feel after this round of golf I was thinking of hitting a thrilled or disappointed with you has 100% to do with whore house before the board meeting. Can you that their expectations and hopes were. Manage recommend a good one?”). these carefully. And figure out ways to deliver more than they expect consistently. Let’s take one step backwards and understand what it would sound like if you’d gotten it right. What kinds of 2. make sure the process is cool for you too: part of things might people be saying about you and your making your business irresistible to others is making business? In marketing lingo it’s called “the topic”. What sure that it’s really irresistible to us. Whatever you are they going to say about you? What’s the sound bites love most about your business - do more of that. The they might come up with? things that drain you? Eliminate them if possible.

Whatever it is should be simple. You need a topic that’s 3. address industry frustrations: what annoys or easy to move along. frustrates people about doing business with your industry? “Entrepreneurs are always looking for an elevator pitch, which is a story you can tell an investor while in the 4. eliminate risk: what prevents people from jumping elevator of a 20-story building. That’s way too long for to do business with your company or your industry? word of mouth. are they afraid of being pressured? losing their money? wasting their time? looking pressured? You need the pass-in-the-hall test. Try to fill in the blanks with your stuff: 5. make it easy: identify and eliminate any an all hassle or friction that people experience when You want your clients and friends to say things like: dealing with your product or service. This could mean eliminating things but it could also mean o "Did you hear about the _____ that ______'s?" adding support and education to your process. 6. use their names: so simple. Remember their names o “You know how most ______’s do ______? Well, this one does it ______way instead!” “You and use them often in conversation. When they should try ______, it’s ______.” come into your space - welcome them with genuine warmth and excitement. Help them feel important o “Can you believe ______did ______?” and connected.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 16 7. focus on the process: make doing business with experience to be predictable; they need to know you easy, pressure free and fun. Appeal to all five what to expect. senses. 15. give unexpected levels of education and value 8. make it an experience: what can you add to or for free: At one of my Halifax workshops I had a subtract from the process that would make it more really unusual participant named Bennie who sold memorable and worth talking about? belts at a kiosk in the mall. He was really quiet much of the weekend, but one break we got to talking and I 9. appeal pleasurably to all five senses: make sure jokingly asked him what he thought of my belt. And that your office, product, appearance etc. looks, he said, “Well, it’s not bad. But it won’t last that long sounds, feels, tastes and smells wonderful. Do not because it’s actually made out of two strips of underestimate the impact of this. At the very least something and it’s not real leather it’s just a leather don’t be unappealing to their senses. covering.” I was taken aback. I’d really thought my belt was fully leather. So I asked him to join me at 10. meet their emotional needs: people are buying the front of the room after the break for a ‘belt your products or service to meet their needs. Most of analysis’. We got give people up and I asked him to us don’t really get this and have no idea what comment on the fashion and durability of their belts. emotional needs (e.g. certainty, safety, connection, It ended up being a lot of fun but it pointed fun etc) they’re trying to meet. If you can identify the something out. Most people would be happy to just top three needs - you have much higher likelihood of sit their and wait until someone buys a belt. But what finding a lot more ways to meet them (e.g. if you’re a if while browsing he engaged a conversation with yoga studio and you realize that they’re craving something like, “did you know that the first belt was conscious community - why not hold more social created in 1643?” or something. What if he educated events and parties and workshops and introduce them a bit about quirky facts of belt history and people? etc.) pointed out things about their own belt choices? He could, very quickly, become seen as the belt expert. 11. build a real relationship: know them by name when My friend Joey is another example of taking a venue they come in, chat with them. It’s incredible how most people use passively and making it active. He simple and how powerfully people respond to other used to work the Hemp products booth at the people liking them and being genuinely glad they’re Farmer’s Market. But he didn’t simply sit back there. It will bring people back. People love to feel waiting for people to come up and ask him a important and needed. They love to feel that it question. When people were browsing he’d matters to you personally if they come back or not. immediately engage them in conversation. And then he’d start answering questions. His answers were so 12. be values based: if people understand that you are interesting and educational and his presence so in it for more than just money - they will respect you strong that he drew others in. He would have small more, relax and be more open to enjoying what you crowds stopping to watch the show. He’d tell them have to offer. about Omega 3 and 9 oils and the importance of balancing them. He’d talk about ease of digestion. 13. be consistent with their worldview: every He talked about how critical good fats and oils were community has its own sets of values, beliefs, in your body. And people (who’d had no intentions of frames and perspectives. If they believe the adage buying hemp products when they’d come into the ‘spare the rod and spoil the child’ and you run a day market) found themselves amazed with the benefits care that’s incredibly permissive - the parents will and health giving properties of hemp - and walked feel uncomfortable. The right wing cattle rancher out with several things. might not want to send their kid to a hippie school. And if the parents believe that spanking is wrong and 16. Make your business a happy place to be: This is, you hit their child - watch out. A hippie likely almost certainly, the most important one. As Paddi wouldn’t want to send their child to an all boys Lund points out, “I have noticed that there are some boarding school. Whoever your target market is - indicators that tell me the happiness of people your business (from its colours, to the logo, to the associated with your business. The indicators apply decor in the office) must be an expression of the equally to team members, customers, and suppliers. lifestyle and points of view of your target market. This is of course much easier to do if you’re already o People stay a long time with your business – a member of it. long-term team, customers, and suppliers. o People smile and laugh a lot. 14. a consistent theme: Restaurants often invoke a o People do not complain constantly about their fantasy atmosphere, whether it is Olde England with conditions, money, hours, standard of service, leather benches, wooden beams, and imitation wages, bills, etc. pewter mugs or a Polynesian island with bamboo, o People come early and leave late. They like to fish nets, and tropical paintings -- Having a strong spend time at your place of business. unified theme and identity is critical. YOu want the o People talk with each other in a friendly way.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 17 o People are polite to each other. When it really comes down to it, is there any thing more o People do not gossip and backbite. important in your business than helping your clients o When you ask people about each other their produce outstanding results? comments are complimentary.” Producing Great Clients Results Builds Your Business How do you do this?

First off, make sure you’re happy. identify When you ask the average Independent Professional everything you secretly resent or find unattractive where most of their clients come from, the most common about your business - and eliminate it. Identify answer is "from word of mouth." everything you love about your business - everything you find attractive - and do more of that. Make sure But what generates word-of-mouth? Client Results. that YOU are happy in your business. You’re probably lying to yourself about a lot of things in your business. Your settling and tolerating a lot of things If you can master the art of supporting your clients in because you think you need to. And you may not consistently accelerating their results, marketing won't be need to. Secondly, treat your staff the way you a struggle for you. want them to treat your best clients: “If we want our front line people to nurture and care for their Over his 15-year career as a coach and consultant, customers, we must first create a warm, nurturing Patrick Summar has put his primary focus on this and caring atmosphere in the business family – a question: "How do I produce such outstanding results for team member’s politeness and warmth can appear my clients that they'll tell everyone they know about me?" false to a client unless warmth and politeness are normal in that organization. The team members will The answers he's discovered to that question has tend to treat their customers in the way that they are resulted in a coaching practice full of highly satisfied treated by their boss. It’s like a family. When children clients, who now pay up to $5,000 per month to work with who were abused by their parents reach adulthood him. themselves they often abuse the people that they control. I cringe when I hear powerful people telling This past week I recorded an audio interview with Patrick their subordinates, in loud voice and no uncertain on this topic and I'll summarize his seven main points in terms, that they must care for and be polite to the today's ezine. customers – or else! Anger is something that most human beings and other animals will exhibit around 1. Focusing on Client Results subordinates, but not around superiors. Are you treating your staff like, ‘subordinates’? In business, It's not unusual in working with a client to jump right in to profit comes more easily when the business is full of solve problems and outline action steps. When a client happy people making their customers happy, than hires you, they are often eager to get moving and see when everyone is focused solely on the Bottom Line. results fast. We enjoy buying from happy people (and we don’t enjoy buying from unhappy people!) Customers buy But Patrick points out that this is actually detrimental to when they feel they are liked – and they can tell the producing sustainable results. What's more important is real from the fake. As we looked at how to become spending as much time as it takes to determine where happier in our business we discovered that what the client wants to go and why. made us most unhappy were the little forgotten courtesies and the unkind or thoughtless words or "I point out to them that they have to be very clear about actions. So we become committed to the notion of WHERE they want to go before we go into any providing the continual affirmation of the conversation about HOW they will get there," says importance of people to their peers. When team Patrick. This can take some time but it builds a more members feel safe and valued as people they can solid foundation for bigger gains later on. redirect the energy that would otherwise be used in protecting their self-esteem towards more 2. The Client Is Responsible for Producing Results constructive business efforts.” - Paddi Lund, Building a Happiness Centered Business You need to communicate this clearly to the client early in the process. It's not unusual that a client wants to be "saved" but Patrick points out that "the coach can't play." *** "While I may have ideas, tools or strategies, I might offer Accelerating Client Results or may teach them an idea or concept, they have to use it to play and produce results. I can't do it for them," asserts Robert Middleton Patrick. http://www.actionplan.com/tc/tc_accelerateresults.html "It's going to take multiple baby steps on their part and

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 18 massive action with a lot of mistakes and learning from those mistakes and false starts. Significant change takes This is one of the things many coaches and consultants time. It won't happen if they don't make it happen. They give lip service to. But it can be the key to client success. have to stick with it." If you don't measure the progress from where you were to where you are, it's easy to lose motivation and 3. Make Sure Your Clients Are Passionate About momentum. What They are Working On. Patrick requires clients to rate where they are on a scale It's easy to focus on goals such as increasing income or of one to ten at the beginning of the engagement and producing a particular result. But if there's no passion then tracks progress on the scale as they work together. behind those goals, no underlying motivation to achieve As a result, clients see their movement and stick with the them, they are going to struggle and not know why. process.

If you want to create breakthrough results for your clients, Another tool Patrick uses is a weekly "pre-call checklist." the more you support them on focusing on what they That adds so much to the coaching process," says really want to do, the easier it's going to be to produce Patrick, "It gets them into a weekly process of defining results. and orienting where they are on the map by asking, "Where do I want to go? What's next?" each week at Sometimes it takes several conversations with a client to least, if not every day." become clear about what is most important to them. When that clarity comes, they way opens up and barriers 7. Celebrate Successes to success seem to disappear. Patrick makes the analogy of taking a trip across the 4. Create a Plan and Work the Plan desert: "If the journey is 40 days and 40 nights, you wouldn't wait to drink water until the end of the journey. Patrick says. "I find that you can come up with a more You'd drink water many times a day as you made elegant shortcut to get where you want to go when you progress across the desert. I find that people often wait really get clear about specifically what you want, then until the ultimate goal is reached before they think they brainstorm multiple action plans for getting there. can celebrate."

"It's back to creating the plan. Help them think long term Patrick continued: "With every point between Point A and in terms of Phase 1 and Phase 2. Help them brainstorm Point B, Point B being the goal, you're losing the multiple action plans. Help them focus. That's the whole opportunity to appreciate the process, journey or thing. You can have anything you want, just not experience of your life because you're waiting for Point B everything. before stopping to appreciate it.

"Help them prioritize. Break it down into baby steps. And "I find that to the degree that we as coaches can really then by checking in week to week, finding out what's teach our clients to focus on what progress they've made, working and what's stopping them, you can help them celebrate it, appreciate it and recognize it, it helps to build brainstorm solutions and keep moving." momentum, confidence, optimism and positive expectations. 5. Working with Limiting Beliefs and Fears "All of those things help them produce even more results You can have the best plan in the world and even be and step up to do more, take on more and stretch more." working on your passion and still get tripped up. Limitations and fears stop even the most successful 7.5 - Successful Clients Equals a Growing Business people. Each of these points by themselves are not As a coach or consultant you need to address those groundbreaking. But combined, they are extraordinarily issues. You can't sweep them under the rug. You want to powerful. Patrick centers his work around these encourage clients to focus their awareness on what they principles. His clients consistently get exceptional results, are telling themselves, what their stories are when they stay with him for a long time and pay him substantial get stuck and to inquire into the validity of those stories. fees.

When you realize a story you're telling doesn't hold up * under scrutiny, you are free to construct new stories that support your progress. "I have to do it by myself," can The More Clients Bottom Line: You have one job as a turn into, "When I give away certain tasks, I'm freed up to coach or consultant, to support your clients in achieving focus on my priorities." breakthrough results. The good news is that there are practices you can implement in your business that will 6. Track and Measure Progress help your clients get those results more consistently.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 19 The people who answer the phones, respond to emails * ** and deal with the customers person-to-person they actually control the company's destiny. I use the word The Importance of Frontline Staff destiny deliberately. You see repeat business is absolutely critical to most companies. in Creating a Good Experience www.dankennedy.com There is a substantial cost attached to acquiring each new customer. All of the dollars spent on advertising promotion, publicity, signage and so on to bring the new Here's the big fact ...98% of all dissatisfied customers customer in the door or cause the new customer to call were not dissatisfied because of a quality problem with the first time. In many, many businesses companies the product or service purchased. In 98% of the cases really lose money on the first sale to a new customer. their dissatisfaction was related to their perception of how they were treated by the people they dealt with. The profit that insures the company staying in business and growing its business is in the second, third and fourth One more time... note that I said their perception of how sales to that same customer. Without this repeat they were treated not how they were treated. This is very business most businesses fail and this repeat business significant. It means that in some, maybe many of those has more to do with Customer Service Diplomacy than cases, the employees involved actually treated the with anything else even including the goods or services customers fairly, courteously and tried to do the best they themselves. could. However, what they did is not the issue. It's how the customer perceived what they did that counts. *** Customer service diplomacy has to do with controlling the customer's perception. In other words, being right is 2) Create excuses for people to talk not as important as winning in the relationship with the about what you do and mechanisms customer. This tells us that the #1 reason why that facilitate that turning into business. businesses lose customers is their perception that they were treated discourteously or unfairly by the company's people with whom they interacted. A lot of them. Some times people stress themselves out by thinking that they need to come up with this one perfect word of mouth strategy that’s going to create an This means clearly that if you chose to concentrate on it avalanche of customers. While that is sometimes you can make a big difference in your company's win loss possible - it’s also important to think about a lot of little record of keeping customers. Maybe it's not even things all working together. reasonable but to the customer you are your company. The easiest way to do this is to ask yourself when and At the time of my writing this email, the news media's full of criticism of the airline industry. The industry's where conversations about your business are likely to complaints from passengers have skyrocketed. Everyone take place and then to figure out a way to make sure your traveling is experiencing problems with cancelled or materials are there when the conversations come up. delayed flights, lost luggage and an apparently declining quality of service. “So ask yourself – do you want to send messages out to people, and that’s it? It’ll cost you a lot of money, and you One airline gate agent said to me, "Imagine how difficult it may have very little to show for it. A better solution is getting buzz – devoting every ounce of effort toward is coming to work every morning knowing in advance that getting people to talk about your brand and the media you are going to have to deal with a lot of people who are writing about your brand. The goal of a buzzmarketer angry and frustrated with you." And she went on to say, with every dollar spent is: Spark further word of mouth.” - "Even though it's not our fault to these people... we're the Mark Hughes, Buzz Marketing airline." If those conversations aren’t happening - then you might She's right of course. She, her counterparts and the flight attendants are the airline to the passenger. The need to create spaces and places where they can. The executives are so out of reach that they are not real to point is - you need to give them reasons, spaces, the customer. Many of these airline employees have opportunities, mechanisms and materials that make become tremendous customer service diplomats. They conversations about your business more likely. Identify are saving the airline they work for buying it time to existing opportunities and places they're most likely to happen and create new ones. straighten out its problems without losing its customers in the process. It doesn't matter whether we're looking at the airlines or a retail store or a restaurant or even an “All word of mouth starts with creating a message that online business. will be spread. It doesn't need to be fancy. A special sale, remarkably good service, a cool new feature, a

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 20 unique flavour, a funny name, or a nice package may be Is there some affecting, human drama and inspiring all it takes. The specifics of the message don't matter. story behind your product? Is there some Good topics are portable, clear ideas that one person charismatic leader who can embody it? People find it can repeat successfully.” - Word of Mouth Marketing - easier to talk about people than to talk about Andy Sernovitz ‘companies’.

NOTE: Make it easy and effortless to spread the word o free events: creating free events for people in your and tell others about what you do (e.g. Facebook will target market (whether they’re parties, workshops, send an invitation to anyone you’ve ever emailed before lectures or potlucks) is one of the easiest and with a couple clicks of a button. Easy.). If someone has to simplest ways for people to meet you. open up their database, find the numbers of ten friends, call them and explain your service - they won’t. “You don’t need a convention to make this work for you. Just think about the easiest way to get your o a simple, well thought out story: there is no better talkers together. If you have a store, host a cocktail mechanism than a well constructed story that makes party, live music, or a book reading. It doesn’t people feel good to hear and tell it. Think about the matter what the reason is; just create an excuse to story of Bill Gates starting Microsoft in his garage. invite everyone over. For years I’ve traveled around The story of David and Goliath. People love to tell the country hosting a series of networking dinners good stories and love to hear them. What is the story called the “Feast for Smart Marketers”. There is not of your business or offer? Spend the time on this. much too it-I book a Chinese banquet hall and invite Every other mechanism you can use will be based everyone I know in town. No speaker, no panel on this and used to get people to say this story. Why discussion. Just 200 people and lots of great food. does this work so well? Because people love to tell Pretty much all of my customers and lots of great stories. Why? We get rewarded for it. We get word of mouth come from these simple dinners.” - attention. We get to be ‘in the know’. We look good Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz when we have a good story to tell. o stay in touch marketing: make sure that you’re in “You’ve got to give ‘em something to talk about – touch with your clients often with relevant and because it makes them interesting, and it gives them valuable information. If they buy from you once and currency. Hey Mr. Motorola, Miss Minolta, it’s not about then you never call them or email or write them you…it’s about them! If you don’t create a story that again - they’re very unlikely to think of you - even if a gives them currency…word of mouth will not spread. dear friend is needing what you sell. Stay top of mind Why? Because most of us love to be the centre of by staying in touch. attention; we love to have something interesting, amusing, or novel to talk about, something others will find o focus on your top clients: the truth is that 80% of entertaining, fun to hear…and will remember us for your referrals likely come from 20% of your clients. having brightened their day a little. The crux of Give them extra care and attention. buzzmarketing is that it doesn’t grab buzz currency…it gives buzz currency. . If the story is good enough, it only o support existing hubs: if there’s groups or takes one time to have an impact, while traditional networks where your clients gather - support them. advertising requires multiple attempts to have a prayer of They’re doing the heavy lifting of gathering for you. impact. o create new interactive hubs: if the people in your The Five Most Frequently Written Stories target market have no spaces to hang out and talk with each other - you can create one. A lot of work - Similar in many ways to giving consumers something to but powerful. talk about – you’ve got to give the media something to write about. The media’s appetite for what’s newsworthy o exclusive gifts they can pass on: It’s very powerful is slightly different from the consumer’s. if you give your clients a valuable gift to pass onto their friends that they know their friends would find Year after year, the five most frequently written news valuable. It makes them look like a hero for stories are the following: spreading the word. If they know that the only way their friends will hear about your cool business is by  The David-and-Goliath story them telling you it creates a powerful inner impulse  The unusual or outrageous story for them to talk about you. They start to think to  The controversy story themselves - “If I don’t tell my friends about this deal  The celebrity story - they’ll never bknow.” It feels like a moral obligation  What’s already hot in the media.” on their part if they are the only possible way their friends will find out about them. Plus - it gives people - Mark Hughes, Buzz Marketing this sense of being ‘on the inside’. “Stores can offer a product or add-on that isn’t apparent to regular shoppers. Maybe special gift wrapping, a unique

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 21 flavour, or a delivery service. Let the word spread o ramp up your promotion and use suspense: if that you have this available for people who ask.” - you want to get people talking there’s not much Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz that’s better than a little bit of mystery and suspense. Tease them. Tell them something big is coming - but o make your product more visible: Apple made their don’t tell them what. Then tell them what it is - but Mac’s really colourful - that got people talking. If your don’t give any details. Then give one or two amazing product is invisible - people will often forget about it. details - but don’t tell them how to order it. Then tell Can you alter it to make it more visible? them how to order it - but only make a limited number available. You don’t have to release it all at o do something outrageous: there’s a reason once. publicity stunts work. If you make some crazy offer people will talk. Remember, as Andy Sernovitz says, o group packages that encourage them to bring “Advertising is the price of being boring.” friends or buy for friends (e.g. an improv theatre company I work with invited people to come on slow o samples to give to friends: If you were hosting an nights and bring as many friends as they wanted to evening to showcase your chocolates - wouldn’t you for free for a show once, Author, Seth Godin - “When want to send everyone home with a box or two of I insisted that people buy my last book in twelve- your chocolates (one for them and one for their packs (12 for the price of 3) instead of one book at a friends)? time, I was making it obvious to my readers that they should share the other eleven copies with their “Provide the tools that help your messages move colleagues. Making a product or service or idea farther and faster. An easy to forward email and tell that's easy to share makes it more likely that people a friend button on the order page of your website will share it.” are two incredibly powerful (but simple) online examples. Don't let someone leave your store o package relevant and valuable information and without something to give to a friend, like a menu or offer it for free in a way that’s easy to pass on a coupon. Kiehl's cosmetic stores are famous for (e.g. PDF’s, online audio, online video, books, their free samples. It's always impossible to leave checklists etc.) “Some people worry that giving away without a pocket full of goodies. And they always too much information might undercut the value of give you more than one, so you have something to their products. It never happens. The stuff you share share with a friend. If someone's got a desire to talk proves your expertise and attracts customers. It about you, do everything possible to help them makes them want to talk about you and to you.” - along. Magazine's figured this out a long time ago. Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz. Take Although it looks insane, there is a reason why at look at these quick online videos that are powerful every magazine has a flurry of subscription examples of pink spoon marketing that help to postcards falling all over your house. People share reduce risk, tell a story and facilitate the buying magazines, and those cards are the tools that help process: pass along the subscription offer.” - Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz Natural Child Birth: http://www.lamaze.org/Default.aspx?tabid=612 o be in the center of a hungry crowd for a limited time: A client of mine sells dog bones from a High School Anti Bullying Workshops: Hudderite colony in Northern Alberta. Dogs go crazy http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bCqsd7RdGwQ&e for them. She spent four days at a dog trade show url=http://www.challengeday.org/ and by the end the word had gotten around and she had a huge line up. If you have a product that people Three Marketing “Pink Spoon” Videos from - love and consume quickly, or where the results are http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=getaltitude immediately apparent - then get yourself into an environment where word can spread. Video 1: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k51vFkjtf3g Video 2: “Why does it matter? Because the early growth of a http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9tjgsJk6pE brand is critically dependent on word of mouth. And Video 3: if you plant you marketing seeds in an environment http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=blTOv3oXdbk that fosters word of mouth (e.g. a bar environment), you’re ahead of the game. If you want people to talk about your brand, get as close as possible to a 3) Thank people for talking about you. community that talks a lot of in an environment that talks a lot.” - Buzz Marketing, Mark Hughes Reward people for spreading the word. Again - so simple but so overlooked. You want people to feel like they’re a part of your team - not like they’re your salesperson. You want them feeling like they’re a part of your crew not

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 22 taken for granted. If you don’t acknowledge a referral - special status. Make them look and feel important.” - they’ll often stop referring business. Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz o Track where you get your business from: this is such an absolute must. You simply must start Turning Leads into Appointments: tracking where your clients come from. If you aren’t - -Robert Middleton www.actionplan.com you’re losing so much money. One of the most frequent questions I get is, "How do I o thank you notes. Do it everytime. Everytime turn leads into appointments... how do I connect with or someone signs up on my email list or registers for an follow up with prospective clients and get a meeting with event - I ask them who they heard from. And then I them where they are sincerely interested in exploring send that person a quick thank you email, “John how I can help them?" Smith just signed up for my free intro. And he says you’re responsible for this. I blame you. Thanks!” If you knew the answer to this, marketing would be a whole lot easier, wouldn't it? When you're actually o Surprise rewards: The other day someone enrolled meeting with a prospective client, your marketing has for my Edmonton weekend (and they lived in been successful and the sales process starts. Vancouver). I found out they’d been told about it by a client who’d referred five other people four of For some strange reason, everyone thinks of getting whom had come to my weekend. So, I promptly sent appointments in two ways that are polar opposites: One her an email offering her an hour of my time at no is having a prospect call you because you were referred charge. to them. The other is making a cold call and setting up an appointment. o split rewards for telling friends: in my Word of Mouth virtual workshop I go more into this - but using The truth is, the first one is rather rare and the second a 50/50 split of incentives can work really well. A one is very hard. The good news is that there's an local bus line - Red Arrow - offers anyone I refer to approach in-between that you can do much more them 10% off their first trip (and gives me 10% off frequently and easily with better results. my next trip as a way of saying thank you). Personally, I don’t find 10% off to be that inspiring - The first thing you need to do, is sort out your potential but the principle is good. leads. Not all leads are created equal. Some are warm and some are cold. You want to sort your leads into four invite and use feedback: have you ever given a o categories and then take actions to turn the cold leads business some pretty hard and critical feedback and into warm ones. they actually really listened to you and used it? Wow. Talk about winning people over. The greatest reward The four categories going, from cold to warm are: you can give people sometimes is your respect and Affiliation - Familiarity - Information and Experience. attention. Let me explain how each of these categories works. “It is important to say a special thanks if you can connect Affiliation - These leads are prospects you don't know a talker to a specific piece of new business. Take the time to do something to acknowledge that you appreciate yet, but have some connection with. They know someone what that talker did for you. Web hosting company you know. Or they belong to an organization you belong to. MediaTemple sent me a credit for a month’s free service in exchange for referring a customer. I didn’t even know Familiarity - These are leads you already have some that it was coming, and I never signed up for any sort of familiarity with. They don't know you well but you've had rewards program. The gift was that much more some prior association. Maybe they've met you through appreciated. networking or you've talked on the phone once or twice. Mention your top talkers on your website. Put up a public thank-you page to acknowledge people who have done Information - These prospects know you better. They've you a favour. Put your favorite talkers’ photos on the wall received and read information about you and your and their names on a plaque. Frame all the thank-you business. They've visited your web page, read an article letters that you get. Give thanks in your newsletters. by you, or are subscribers to your newsletter or eZine. On your blog, give prominent links to people who post Experience - These prospects have actually experienced comments or link back to you. The blog culture is all you. You've had a more in-depth conversation, they've about mutual recognition, so your thanks will be paid been long-time subscribers and read more of your back. On your message board, give the talkers a flashy information, or have attended a presentation or teleclass. icon. Find those super-energetic writers and give them They know and like you.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 23 Now who are you most likely to get an appointment with? Ask! Don't wait for them to ask you. Someone who you just have an affiliation with or someone who has experienced you and feels they know With all this information in circulation you're not a you? The answer is obvious. stranger anymore. And if you can focus on increasing your familiarity and information quotient with prospective But what if the best connections you have are only clients, you are warming them up for the next step - affiliations? And maybe you don't even have a lot of experiencing you. those! Where do you start with getting appointments? For those who have information about you, give them an Simple. Your marketing should be focused on moving experience of you by inviting them to an introductory prospects from Affiliation to Familiarity to Information to workshop, a presentation at the chamber, or a teleclass. Experience as fast and as smoothly as possible. You now have a list of real prospects, and you can send an invitation by mail or email (and it won't be regarded as Let's create a scenario... junk or spam).

If you have few affiliations to begin with, you create them. And once they attend, they'll be relatively easy to follow You join organizations that your prospects belong to. And up with: you contact friends and associates who know people who may be good prospects. "Hi, this is Roger Morton from Pro-Mark Strategies. Thanks so much for attending the presentation on Now you want to leverage those affiliations into "Strategies for Growing a Professional Firm." Is this a familiarity. You don't want to just call them and try to set good time to talk? Great. I'd be interested in knowing up appointments. Most aren't willing to do so, because which ideas in the presentation you thought would apply you're a stranger to them. This is why cold best to your firm..." calls are, for the most part, frustratingly futile. *** Instead, send an introductory letter followed by an introductory call. Mention your affiliation (organization or NOTE FROM TAD: I very much disagree with Robert’s friend) and your Value Proposition (The Ultimate wording in the follow up - I resonate much more with the Outcome you deliver to your clients): style of Ari Galper from www.unlockthegame.com - He would suggest that you say something more like, “Hey "This is Roger Morton of Pro-Mark Strategies. I'm a new there, this is Tad Hargrave. You just attended my talk member of the Chattanooga Chamber of Commerce. I and checked the box asking me to call, so, here I am. just wanted to introduce myself. I'm a consultant who And I was just wondering what issues you’re dealing with works with professional firms who don't have as much in your marketing? What drew you to the workshop?” The business as they'd like (your Value Proposition). I visited key is to focus on their needs and problems instead of your web site and was impressed by some of the projects launching into a pitch. you've done. Is this a good time to speak for a few minutes?" ***

OK, you've broken the ice. That wasn't so hard was it? And before you know it, you have an appointment with a qualified prospect who was a stranger only a short time Of course, there are other things you can do. Go to ago. And how do you think this sales meeting will go? I meetings of the chamber and meet a lot of people. promise it will go a whole lot better than meeting with Introduce yourself. Find out who's who. Get involved. someone who doesn't know you from Adam. Volunteer for committees. Now you have more than an affiliation - you're building familiarity. The More Clients Bottom Line: You can either sit by your phone and wait for referrals to call you; call Next you want to leverage this familiarity and provide strangers who don't want to hear from you; or you can information to those who are qualified prospects. Do you methodically cultivate your prospects, moving have a good article you can circulate? "Ten Strategies for them from Affiliation to Familiarity to Information to Building a Professional Firm Faster" - five or six pages of Experience to Appointment. It's your move. solid information with case studies that demonstrate how you've applied these strategies to client projects. What creative things are you doing to get appointments with qualified prospects? Please let us know on the More Then make it a game to get this article to as many Clients Blog at: prospects as possible. After making an introductory call, ask if you can send the article. When you meet someone through networking, offer to send a copy. If you have a http://www.actionplan.blogs.com newsletter or eZine, ask if they'd like to get it.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 24 *** o a way of reaching the right prospects o one or more compelling stories that people will want to tell to illustrate your products superiority The Secrets of Word-of-Mouth o evidence: a way to substantiate, prove, back up or otherwise establish that your claims are true Marketing and will work out in the real world George Silverman o a way for people to have a direct, low risk experience with your product, such as a demo “How to spread ideas like the plague- What kinds of or a way of sampling ideas, products and conditions cause this kind of idea o a way of reducing overall risk, such as an replication? ironclad guarantee

The idea must be something intriguing, compelling, what someone would want to try, or something that is in some other way self evidently desirable. The Seven Pillars of Your WOM Strategy: o It must be extremely easy to try o It must be possible to try it immediately o It must be possible to try without risk 1. Support existing hubs. o Just like the spread of any infectious disease, 2. Permanent Discount to Hubs people have to be in close contact, though not 3. Build new, needed hubs. necessarily physically. Just as yo-yos spread easily through the schoolyard because kids are 4. Stay in touch with your current clients in physical proximity, ideas can spread over the 5. Focus on your top clients. internet because people are now in close 6. Individual Advocates communication proximity. Similarly, ideas can spread fast in a national convention because all 7. Give them gifts they can pass onto their of the movers and shakers at right there friends. o the very use of the product exposes new people to not only it's desirability, but also it's The white hot center or referral strategies come down to trial mechanism exceeding their expectations. It comes down to thrilling them so much that they actively want to promote you to What is the implication of your product? everyone they know.

These Seven Pillars are long term, over arching Find a compelling idea o strategies that any business can use. o Make it easy for people to try- or otherwise experience- your product immediately This alone can do the trick - but here’s some additional spread this idea where people are in close o things to maximize their excitement. contact, or at least communication, take advantage of existing communication channels 1. Support existing hubs. Remember - word of mouth make the very act of using the product a way of o relies on people talking to one another. They will creating new triers tend to talk with one another (usually in person, but sometimes virtually or on conference calls). So, We are now ready to construct word of mouth support the folks who bring them together - the campaigns. Every campaign will be unique, depending stronger these hubs and networks are the better for upon the kind of product, the industry, the customers, you. And the more you support them - the more and the kind of competition. In order to succeed with a likely you are to gain their implicit and explicit word of mouth campaign, you need: endorsement. Help them find volunteers. Help them raise money. Help them increase their membership. o a superior product, or a product that is Be of service. Be on their board. superior for a certain kind of person or situation. If you don't have product superiority, you need 2. Build new, needed hubs. I used to do workshops for to create it student councils. The decision makers - and thus my o a way of reaching the key influencers in your target market - were the Student Council Advisors. marketplace You know where they hung out? Nowhere. Years o a cadre of experts who are willing to go to bat ago when I started targeting conscious for you entrepreneurs I asked myself, “where do they hang o and/or a large number of enthusiastic out?” You know where they hung out? Nowhere. customers who can attest how wonderful your Getting referrals or word of mouth anything was product is impossible - none of them knew each other. Now, if

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 25 I’d kept doing it, you can bet your aunt fanny I would Another corollary of this approach is to fire your have created a network for them to come together at worst clients. Let clients go who are draining you - it no cost to them. will free up ocean’s of energy to take care of your best clients. “If at some point your customer isn’t touching another potential customer in the use of the product, then there 6. Individual Advocates – This is related to the hubs mat not be any viral marketing happening at all.” strategy. It’s a very long term focus. Marc Leblanc -Steve Jurvetson calls it “The target 25”. Put together a list of 25 of the most important people in your life (who you 3. Permanent Discount to Hubs: If a main source of already know) who are in a position to impact your business and - more importantly - referrals for your business (review the criteria for a good hub - they yoga clothing store is yoga & fitness instructors - you should be well connected and well respected by their might want to consider giving them an across the hubs and open to endorsing good things to their board 15% discount on your merchandise. If you friends) – and then connect with them every 30 own an organic grocery store why not offer a days. These will always be specific individuals not generous discount to all cooking instructors in town? groups or publications - but the particular people It will get them into the store and allow you to build a within them. Start with however many you have. relationship with them. If you own a boutique pet You already have people who believe in you and supply store - why not offer a discount to all vets, your work. Connect with them via phone, fax, mail, dog walkers or dog trainers in town? And why not email, or personal visits. But - don’t lean into these pass on one time, introductory deals to their clients? people with the expectation of a result. The essence Sure, you’ll lose some money on the front end with of this strategy is neutrality – never ask them for these people - but if they even bring you one or two anything. It is a connection strategy – simple and new people you’ve already made up the difference. creative connections. Create top of mind presence with people who believe in your work and are in a 4. Stay in touch with your clients: be in regular contact position to help you. Don’t go asking. This is the with your clientele - whether or not they’ve ever ultimate relationship strategy. Don’t do it from a spent money with you. Email is - by far - the position of need. This should take you 2-8 hours per cheapest way to do it. But this can also be mail - or month. If it’s taking you more, you may be making it live get togethers. Keep them up to date with what more complicated than it needs to be. Review and you’re doing. It may not be a fit now - but in 6 change this list once per year. Who to put on this months it might be. By staying in touch and list? First ask yourself who’s already in your life continuing to add value to their lives you stay top of who’s well connected, and well respected in your mind with them and increase the likelihood of them niche. Then ask yourself who else you already know mentioning you to their friends when the topic comes who might be in a position to help you now or in the up. future. You might also add key “individual hubs” you’ve met. No more than 25. 5. Focus on your top clients. Being real 20% of your clients will refer 80% of your business. There’s some 7. Give them gifts they can pass onto their friends. clients you have you love and some are like the People love to tell their friends about cool stuff. If “terds that won’t flush”. Some you adore and some they like what you do, they are already spreading the you despise. Most are usually okay. It’s vital to word. You can accelerate this process by giving identify your top clients (i.e. the ones who give you them gifts that they can pass onto their friends that the most money, refer the most, show up on time, induce their friends to do business with you. a few complain the least, you enjoy the most, you respect points here: these should only be given to people the most and who tip the best etc.) and give them who are fans of yours. They should want to help you extra special, personalized attention. Have a way to grow your business as much as they want to help keep track of them. Give them special deals that no their friends. If they just want to help their friends one else gets access to. Some marketing nerds call (and couldn’t care less about you) you’re set up to this finding and developing your ambassadors in the be taken advantage of. If they only love you but not marketplace. Don’t underestimate the power of this the people they’re endorsing it to - they’re likely to strategy. But also - don’t assume that just because come across as ‘pitching something’ which could they’re your best clients means that they’re turn people off. There should be a balance of influential within their community. Just because they affections there. People love giving gifts but they show up on time, pay on time and are a delight to also love the feeling of inclusion and connection they work with - doesn’t mean they’re well positioned to get by helping us to grow our businesses. spread the word for you. It’s still good to focus on them - but don’t confuse network hubs with “thrilled “Such promotions are very easy to test. Next time clients”. However, if you give all of your clients easy, you mail something to your customers, slip in a tell- fun and pressure free opportunities to refer business a-friend offer and monitor its impact. I do want to - you will start to notice who is referring the most and make a couple of points about these promotions. these people should be getting extra attention. Remember, the customer doesn’t owe you anything.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 26 She will pass the word onto her friends if she feels demand before the product is even available. Give that they may benefit from your product, not because them an advanced look to keep them excited and you nag her. Use a friendly voice to remind the enough information to look smart to the people customer that her friends may also be interested. they’re talking to. Pay special attention to the tone you use if you suggest a text that your customers may pass on to Keep it simple. Create an email list for insiders with others. I often receive email messages fromfriends upcoming offers and developments. who point out new web services to me. These messages are frequently written by the creators of the Web service itself. One message I recently Retailers: Offer private shopping hours for your received is an example of how not to do it. The talkers to the night before new products are available message started by complaining to me that I didn’t to the public. Restaurants: Host a preview meal to already have the service. That, if I had the service, it show off your new menu or chef. Car dealers: Invite would make life much simpler for both of us. “So do your talkers in for a test drive of new cars before us both a favor and please get [the service] NOW.” anyone even knows that they have arrived. Talk about making a potential customer feel Software companies: Send prerelease versions of uncomfortable . . . To use these tools successfully as software to anyone active on a related message a marketer, don’t be intrusive. The moment you start board. making your customer feel like they’re supposed to advertise you, they’ll be turned off. Good viral Cell phone companies have started sending new marketing is humble. The companies that use it models not just to the big electronics publications but creatively without being intrusive are the ones that to hundreds of bloggers. That’s a radical change. will win.” -Emmanuel Rosen New models used to be top secret with the manufacturers suing anyone who leaked the design. Now, leaks are a word of mouth motivator. (You 22 Powerful Word of Mouth should send out tester versions of new products to your fans, too.)” - Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Intensifiers: Sernovitz

The Seven Pillars are long term strategies. They are like 3. Outrageous - do something outrageous to launch a the flour, milk, eggs and yeast when making the bread. new product or service. Do something that will get They’re the main ingredients. What follows are a variety media attention or the attention of your industry. Do of smaller ingredients like cinnamon, raisins, parsley or something that will have people talking about your molasses that can be added to your bread. business. Well crafted media stunts can work very well. Remember: There’s really two goals of WOM marketing. One is to get prospects and their friends talking about 4. The Unusual - Anything the differs from the norm you. The second is to get current clients referring will get talked about. The more unusual, the more business to you. In the long term, both are probably people will talk. important. The following tactics offer a mix of both - some geared more towards raising the buzz - and some more 5. The Taboo (sex, lies and bathroom humour) - We towards generating concrete referrals. want to talk about things we shouldn’t talk about.

1. Scarcity - limit access to your products and 6. The Hilarious - Look at youtube. Hilarious videos services. Raise the price. Make it very hard to get get shared virally. Person to person. How many access to (but incredibly valuable when they do). times have you sat someone down at your computer Creating an air of exclusivity and secrecy will do (or been sat down) to watch the funniest new more to get people curious and talking than anything youtube videoo someone just found (from someone you can do. else)?

2. Sneak Previews - before you launch a new product “ . . . we want to be entertained, and we want to entertain or service can you offer a ‘sneak preview’ of it to others. There’s nothing new about this. The playwrights your key clients and hubs? of the ancient Greek comedies understood about entertaining to hold people’s attention; Shakespeare understood it. Buzz and word of mouth are just as “The sneak preview is one of the most reliable word predictable.” - Mark Hughes, Buzz Marketing of mouth tools. The desire to get a preview is directly tied to the desire to talk about what you just saw. 7. The Secrets (both kept and revealed) - If you can tease people that something ‘big’ or ‘new’ is coming Think of talkers as your advance team. Always give but that you can’t tell them what just yet - people will them an early taste of your next, new thing. They will talk. If you’re hosting an event and there’s a ‘secret pay you back by talking to everyone and building guest’ - people will talk and make guesses on who it

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 27 is. If you offer to reveal that secret only to an theme. You can get a lot of conversation going with exclusive inner circle - everyone will be asking them, a creative message. “what’s the secret?” Secrets are the most coveted of buzz to have - they are the fuel of gossip. How DO Keep the word of mouth moving with the sure-thing they get the caramel in the Cadbury bar? What’s tool of exclusivity, or even just the appearance of Colonel Sander’s secret recipe (besides atrocities exclusivity. These days, it’s common to get an email committed to animals)? What’s this new with a “secret” discount coupon supposedly just for breakthrough he came up with that he’s only going to family and friends of employees. Of course, these reveal to 100 people at his one time seminar? are designed to leak out and spread across the web. So create a special offer, put it in an email, and ask “Do you feel an emotional attachment to your your employees to share it with their friends. backpack? JanSport knows that a lot of people do Employees will be happy to be talkers, and they get and offers them a very special lifetime warranty. the status of being able to hook up their friends with You don’t send your bags in for repairs. You send a deal. Word of mouth will take care of the rest.” - them to “Backpack Camp” for a little vacation. You Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz even get a cute postcard from your bag, telling you all about the fun it is having at camp and letting you know when it’s coming home. Silly doesn’t have to 10. Ongoing Events - Can you host regular events that be complicated. For years, I’ve been publishing allow your customers to come back and bring their newsletter with like “Damn, I wish I’d Thought of friends? That” and “You Can Be an Email Marketing Supergenius.” These newsletters are good, but the 11. Celebrity Involvement - We all know that getting names get them noticed and forwarded.” - Word of celebrities involved automatically lifts the appeal of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz an event.

8. Behind the Scenes - as Emmanuel Rosen puts it in “If I were running Hooked-on-Phonics, how would I create his book, “The Anatomy of Buzz”: “Can you show buzz? Pitch Dan Quayle to be my spokesperson, of them how your product is made, who is making it course. If I were running Tylenol, I’d solicit Troy Aikman and why its producers are excited about it? (Even if (or any other concussion-laden quarterback) to pitch my you make a “boring” product, there must be product. If I were marketing Ginsu Knives, pitchman something interesting in the way it’s produced or in John Wayne Bobbitt would surely be my pick. The point? the way you came up with the idea).” You may not need them to actually endorse your product (although it might be worth the money at a fair 9. Special Events - can you stage an event that will price)…but the audacity of conceiving and pitching such excite folks and get them talking about your product? an idea alone is newsworthy enough to capture media The bigger the event is - the less often you should attention. (“Kitchen Knife Company Seeks John Wayne do it. Think in terms of annual or one time only Bobbitt as Spokesman.” Can’t you just see that headline events that have something unusual about them that in mainstream newspapers?).” - Mark Hughes, Buzz people just have to come to experience. Marketing

“Consider the best barbecue in New York City which takes place once a year at an annual church 12. Visibility - can you make your product more visible fundraiser. The scarcity of supply means that then it is? Some products - yoyo’s, cars, suitcases thousands of people come from miles away because with wheels are made to be seen. Consider the if they don't they'll have to wait a whole year for FedEx and UPS salespeople whose vehicles and another shot.” - Seth Godin uniforms announce their presence. Or the iMac computer that looks so different. “The easiest topic you could possibly create is a good sale or special offer. You could put down the 13. The Right Name - One on hand, a name’s a name. book, discount a favorite product, throw a sign up in A rose by any other name would smell as sweet and the window, and someone will tell their friends. It all. On the other hand, the perfect name can make doesn’t take a lot of finesse to bring people in and word of mouth subtly more appealing. get them talking about a sale. Sales are a long- proven word of mouth topic. “This may sound obvious, but sometimes what’s obvious gets overlooked anyway. Pay attention to names and Although sales won’t keep people talking forever; words. Phonetics, rhyme, meter, and alliteration are they create bursts of conversation. amazingly important. Which sounds like more fun to you: Ultimate TV or TiVo? AltaVista or Google? Billpont or Give it a little extra oomph by coming up with an PayPal? Lycos or Yahoo? Gooseberry or Kiwi? March unusual offer. A buy-one, get something-not- playoffs or March Madness? There are certain words that normally-for-sale offer, something crazy, or a catchy are jut fun to say: “Banana” is a fun word. “Kiwi” is a fun

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 28 word. “Google” is a fun word. “Yahoo” is a fun word. So 18. Surprise Rewards - No one likes to feel bribed for what’s the point? When it comes to buzzmarketing – their referrals. But they don’t mind being thanked. getting people to talk about your brand – people are far So, it’s good to give people some quick more likely to talk about your brand if the name is fun to acknowledgement every time they refer - but it can say. Make it easy to say; let it roll off their tongues.” - also be fun (and effective) to give them a big, Mark Hughes, Buzz Marketing surprise reward once in a while? What if you kept track of people’s referrals - and, once you’d gotten five referrals you sent them a gift out of the blue - 14. Build Community - Again from Emmanuel Rosen, thanking them for helping you to grow their “Are you customers talking to one another? (The business? This is a very powerful strategy because more your customers interact, the more involved there’s no expectation around it and they don’t need they will become with your product and the more to feel like they just referred someone to get the they will have to tell others.) Do your customers prize from you. But implicit in the gift is the message share a common interest or bond? Can you find that, “we take care of and reward people who send ways to help them socialize or exchange comments? us business.” But they never know when it’s going to Can your website allow them to talk to one another? come. The key here is that it must seem random to Can you arrange face to face meetings, such as them - otherwise it becomes a bribe - and this can through special events?” turn some people off. They key here is to ensure that they know you deeply value their efforts on your 15. Is there a reason for them to tell their friends? behalf. The gift could also come in the form of a Some products (e.g. myspace, facebook, youtube, menu of options, “Please select the gift you’d most local business networks, local currencies or barter love to receive.” The key here is the attitude that, networks etc.) become more valuable the more “this is just our way of saying thanks.” It’s a humble people there are who use it. If you throw a party and attitude of happy surprise that you’re so lucky to only three people come then it’s not that great a have such wonderful clients who send their friends. party - the more people who come - the better. If that’s true about your product - are you telling 19. Give a gift to their favorite charity. Here’s a people? beautiful way to use an explicit reward with much less chance of triggering the ‘bribe’ switch in them. 16. Over-delivering - The engine that drives WOM is Tell them that it’s against your policy to directly exceeding expectations. So, can you build it into compensate people for their referrals - that you don’t your business systems to constantly under-promise believe that’s ethical - but that you do like to express and over-deliver? Why leave it to chance? Why not your gratitude. So, you’ve made it a policy to give make that a silent standard that you hold in your $10 or $100 (or whatever is appropriate) to the business? Why not make it a policy to always tell charity of their choice for every person they refer. people it will take a bit longer and cost a bit more They can change charities at any point. And the than it will? And then - why not strategize about charity will never need to know who it’s from - unless ways to not only under-promise - but also to over- they want them to know. Plus the charity isn’t deliver in the end? Can you - ironic as it sounds - expecting it - so it’s just icing on the cake for them. systematize the surprises you give people? You know a gift is working when people are energized and excited to give them to people. But where does that energy come from? From the gift “They treat me well” is an awfully powerful word of being relevant, valuable and coming from a credible mouth topic. Nice guys, in this case, finish first. It’s source and offered in a pressure free way. not hard to get noticed when you do something special for your customers, because very few companies bother. With so much little remarkable “... many of the stores that sell stuff on eBay for customer service these days, anything generous, you offer to waive their commissions for local respectful or creative will get talked about.” - Word churches that want to sell donated used goods to of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz raise money. It doesn’t cost the store much-and everybody in the church talks about it. Think abouth 17. Acknowledging referrals consistently - this one is the talkers when you pick a group to partner with. so simple. But every time someone is referred to you Donating to the Red Cross won’t get you a lot of have a human being pick up the phone, write a special attention. It’s too common. An unusual cause handwritten note, or call them (whatever is or a local group may be more excited about the appropriate for the level of referral you’re getting) relationship. You’re well within the bounds of good and say, “Thank you. Joe Smith came into the office taste if you ask a partner to send an announcement today and we heard it was all your fault. We blame about your contribution.” - Word of Mouth you and hold you responsible. Thank you.” If you Marketing - Andy Sernovitz don’t thank people for their referrals consistently - they will stop referring. 20. Be Powerfully Mission Driven: Set a goal that your business wants to help achieve that is big, bold, clear, inspiring and achievable. Maybe it’s to raise a

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 29 certain amount of money for a local group. Maybe face communication. The Net is used to maintain the it’s seeing every human being have clean drinking relationships.” The Anatomy of Buzz - Emmanuel water. And trumpet that goal. Maybe you give 100% Rosen of your profits away - as does www.earthwater.ca 3) Coupons and Gift Certificates: Clients can pass 21. Push Your Industry: Be seen as a leader in your these on to their friends directly. You can offer industry. Be seen as someone who pushed your people discounts for their first transaction with you. industry to have higher environmental, social and ethical standards. And if you create an innovation - 4) Points System: Your clients gain “points” for every share it generously with your “competition”. Show person they refer. Those points, like Air miles, can the marketplace that your first goal is for a cleaner, be redeemed for prizes, products or services. more just and honest world. Show them that you’re not going to withhold an innovation that could make 5) Surprise Rewards: You can send them gifts out of the world better just so you can make a buck. the blue as a way of expressing your gratitude. This Challenge your industry. Host press conferences is a powerful reinforcement and makes it more likely about it. Expose the dirty laundry in your industry they’ll keep doing it. It doesn’t come across as a and challenge it to clean itself up. Admit where you bribe - and it’s not promising anything for the future - fall short but also state your vision clearly. If people but it tells them that you are really paying attention see you as the ‘moral authority’ in your industry - and that you really value their efforts. watch out. 6) Give a deal of premium to your clients for every Seven Main Categories of Referral person they refer. There’s a few key steps to this. First, identify a premium. A premium is a FREE gift Mechanisms: that is a very high perceived value to the clients but a low actual cost to you. A software CD is a great example. The software may cost $1000 but the hard While the Seven Pillars are strategic - these are tactical. cost to you is a few cents to rip a CD. It could also These are all tools and tactics you can weave into your be a beautiful, professionally printed gift certificate overarching strategy - you can use just one or you can that’s good for only certain slower times of the year use all of them for a combined knockout effect. or slow days. You could send them something from another company that they’d give you free or at cost A little later on I’m going to share with you a lot of because it promotes them. It could be a free sample specific, real life, proven examples of good referral of your product. It could be a “Special Report”, video systems. But for now, let’s go over some basic categories or audio that educates them. An e-book. of what your referrals systems might look like. 7) Give a deal or premium to the person who was 1) Ask Them One to One: This is literally you asking referred: “If you refer your friend they get 10% off.” them, “Is there anyone you know who you think is an example. Another way to do this is to send a might benefit from what I offer?” This is letter to your clients telling them anything you’ve uncomfortable for many people, but know that many improved and innovated in your business to make it people have built thriving businesses on this. better and going over the existing value you offer. The thrust of the letter is to tell them that you have 2) Free Events: you can create free, regular, incredibly this FREE gift that you’d be happy to send to any of valuable, and pressure free events to which they can their friends or family who they think might send friends and at which you make irresistible appreciate it. In the letter is a form they can mail, fax offers. The key is to create events that your clients or a link they can go to, to email you the names and will want to send their friends to. Don’t underestimate addresses of their friends. And, of course, “We’d be the power of a free educational event that allows happy to send it in your name, unless you feel people to meet you and get a sense of who you are. uncomfortable with that for some reason.” It makes your client look pretty good if their friend gets a gift in “Companies that speed up buzz go beyond the most their name. A great way to magnify the impact of this expected communication channels as well. Cisco is just to send them the gift along with the letter - as Systems, for examples, serves network a sort of advance thank you. If you have a huge administrators who virtually live on-line, so you’d mailing list and are concerned about the costs on expect Cisco to use on-line methods to spread the this - test it with 10% of your list and track the word about its products. They do. But Cisco doesn’t response. Was it worth it? If it was - role it out to limit itself to the on-line world. The company more. They’re more likely to refer if you give them organizes more than one thousand seminars every something first anyway. year to meet potential customers face to face, they organize networking events for their current For two excellent examples of what this letter could customers, and they attend dozens of trade shows. look like I highly recommend you check out pages Relationships with many customers start via face-to- 258 - 260 of Monopolize Your Marketplace.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 30 everything you don’t want in a trusting relationship.” Six Deadly Holistic Practitioner Marketing Mistakes, A Word About Bribes: Thane Lanz

What is the difference between a gift and a bribe? A gift “Mixing love and money is usually a bad idea. Offering has no strings attached. You get it because the person customers incentives to spread the word about your stuff wants to give it to you. A bribe is given on certain is often a mistake, and here's why: You make them feel conditions. A bribe is essentially paying someone to do dirty if they're paid for it. Some things just shouldn't be something they wouldn’t do without payment. Bribing for sale-friendship, certain kinds of favors, and your someone is essentially acknowledging that there isn’t recommendation. People engaging in word of mouth for enough inherent motivation for them to do it on their own. the reasons mentioned-none of which are about getting paid to do it. When you link a monetary reward (or points Many people try to reinforce referrals by giving people - or miles) to referring your stuff, you taint the person's essentially - a commission for them. There’s nothing motivation for talking about it. It's a kind of bribe. Instead inherently wrong with this. It can work brilliantly in the of being a friend recommending a cool product, the right context. But it’s important to be careful with them. person becomes a spokesperson for the company. Now, to be clear, I'm not saying that incentives or rewards are Why? WOM only works because the source is unethical. I'm saying that they are usually a bad idea that considered to be neutral. may actually reduce your word of mouth. The powerful emotions that create word of mouth, and the resulting “Word of mouth is communication about products and affinity with your brand, are nothing to be trifled with. services between people who are perceived to be You can deeply insult a loyal talker by offering to pay independent of the company providing the product of them for doing it. A lot of companies offer their current service, in a medium perceived to be independent of the customers rewards for signing up their friends. company. But the essential element is that they are from Whenever I get one of these emails or cards from a or among people who are perceived to have little friend, I always think, "Well, that's great. You get $50. commercial vested interest in persuading someone else But what's in it for me?" It turns the friend-to-friend to use the product and therefore no particular incentive to relationship into a salesperson-to-prospect transaction. distort the truth in favour of the product or service. In Even good friends or family members are less believable contrast, advertising is the communication of a message when they're working for rewards. But do you remember that is chosen, designed, and worded by the seller of the the original MCI Friends and Family promotion? It was product or service, in a medium that is owned or rented. all about mutual benefit. When you told a friend about A sales message is a "company line" delivered by a the program, each of you got a reduced phone bill. You representative of the company. On the other hand, word both benefited, equally and together. It kept the motives of mouth is originated by a third party and transmitted pure, it respected altruism, and everyone felt good about spontaneously in a way that is independent of the it. It was all about sharing the savings, not one person producer or seller. In word of mouth, both the message making money off the other. It's still one of the greatest and the medium are independent. Make it clear to the word of mouth programs in history.” - Word of Mouth person being referred what the referrer is getting. In Marketing - Andy Sernovitz general, people don't want to make money off of something that a friend does. People tend to say "if he needed the money, why didn't he ask me?" But if there is a general incentive such as an improved product due to a “First, here are some facts: larger user base, or a greater standardization if one product is accepted or just helped a deserving product 1. According to the U.S. Department of Labor 50% of All succeed, then it tends to be accepted. Also, it is more Business Startups Fail in the First 2 Years persuasive when a friend is making a recommendation without monetary incentive.” The Secrets of Word-of- 2. For "MLM" companies, that figure jumps to 90-96% Mouth Marketing, George Silverman (depending on who you ask - MLM expert Richard Poe says 95%) “If you give referral fees you will undoubtedly run into a situation in which the referrer claims he gave you a Hmmm ... referral and you disagree. Or one of your competitors starts giving referral fees and you feel you need to continually match them causing a referral fee war (I’ve Isn't MLM all about leveraging Word of Mouth? If Word of seen it happen). Another embarrassing situation is when Mouth is so great, then why do 95% of these so-called your customer finds out that a referral fee changed hands "MLM" companies fail? which breaks the trust and confidence in the relationship. It just seems that whenever money enters into the It has to do with the difference between what I call equation and there is no surefire way to track it, trouble is "Incentivized Word of Mouth" and "Inspired Word of on the way. I’ve seen too many good relationships go Mouth." sour because of a referral fee dispute, it breeds

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 31 (Not to be confused, by the way, with the excellent *** "Inspired Marketing" concepts by Joe Vitale and Craig Perrine coming soon ...) As soon as people question the independence of the person giving them the information - as soon as they MLM, affiliate marketing, bribed tell-a-friend forms, and think their might be some covert ‘profit motive’ - it ceases the like are all "incentivized." That's people telling people to be WOM and it turns into a pitch. Worse - it’s a hidden for the promise of some reward. "Tell your friends about pitch. It seems sneaky. And thus it backfires. It seems our new widget and we'll give you a shiny trinket for every unfair. People think, “They were only telling me to get one who buys." some reward. A reward I wasn’t going to get.”

"Inspired Word of Mouth" comes from a customer's “Another secret to word of mouth is credibility. When spontaneous desire to tell someone about the product. your friend, a neighbour, a coworker, or a family member That's people telling people because they love the tells you about a great movie, product, or service, you product so much they want others to know. believe them. They’re not being paid to pitch the item and so you give them full credibility. That’s why having a Incentivized Word of Mouth can, and should, be at least a great product matters so much: If you can wow ‘em, part of our marketing arsenal. Affiliate marketing, tell-a- people will tell their friends and neighbours.” - Buzz friend forms (if intelligently used), contests ... These are Marketing, Mark Hughes all great ways to give your business a boost. And people seem to have some deep down wiring about The statistics above, however, would indicate that fairness. There was a study done where they gave making it the centerpiece of your marketing plan is person A $100 and told them they could either keep it all problematic. for themselves or split it between themselves and person B. They could keep $10 and give person B $90 or vice versa or 50/50. They could split it up any way they That is, if the word "problematic" does justice to the wanted to. But then person B had the choice to either staggering 95% failure rate of MLMs. accept the money or decide that neither of them would get it. And what they found what that in around the 70/30 The trouble with Incentivized Word of Mouth is that the to 80/20 area person B preferred to see neither of them recipient knows what's going on. He knows you're only make any money than be involved in a dealing that was telling him because of the bribe. so unfair and benefiting person A so much. If it was divided 50/50 this issue never came up. Isn’t it amazing that they would walk away from $20 just because it was clear that another person was getting more - getting a better end of the deal. They couldn’t stand it. They’ve There are varying degrees of this, but to illustrate the done this same experiment in Africa where $100 is worth worst of it, think back to a time when you were pitched on a month’s money and they got the same results. an MLM. Someone invites you to a "friendly dinner" and suddenly you discover you're being sold something. People can get weird about bribes. Even when they’re subtle. For example: I was talking to my cousin Jillian Ewwww. about this. And she said, “Oh, I know exactly what you mean!” She reached into her purse and pulled out three business cards for her esthetician. Written clearly on the Any mystery as to why most of these companies have to back was her name. The esthetician had put Jillian’s pack up and leave town? name there to track how many people Jillian was sending it. She was probably going to reward her in some way for (No offense meant to anyone here - I used to think it was her efforts. But Jillian looked at them and I was surprised the best thing since sliced bread - and even owned a few when she said, “I’ll never give these out to anyone.” I was MLM companies. Since then I've wised up considerably.) taken aback. Especially since I’d advised some entrepreneur to use similar tactics. I asked her why. Contrast this with Inspired Word of Mouth .... The “Well,” she said. “I feel weird about promoting her to my conversations are natural. They're not forced. Because friends when they know that I saw that signature on the the recommendation is genuine, you want to hear it. back. It feels like I’m selling for her. Like I’m doing it to get some reward from her I’m not telling them about. It feels sneaky.” She went on to clarify how much she Not only do you want to hear it, but the message is loved her esthetician and how much more likely she received so powerfully that it can bypass all skepticism - would have been to give the card out if her own name and almost all other parts of the sales process - and send wasn’t sprawled across the back. I asked her what the people right to the order.” - Mark Joyner, esthetician could have done to encourage referrals. www.simpleology.com Jillian said that she could have given her free sessions to give to her friends. Or a big discount on a group session

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 32 so that she and her friends could go out together. But and saying, “here’s my ethical bribe”. They spell it out in when there was the implicit bribe there - she couldn’t do detail. But what’s interesting is that it’s usually a bribe for it. She felt embarrassed to give it out. It would have made them to ‘act now!’ not a bribe for them to ‘refer friends her look bad in front of her friends. It would have made now!” her look like a salesperson. Ugh. Balance it With Gift to Their Friends: It can be okay to But, if you want to use bribes, the main points to keep in offer a bribe if you’re also giving a gift to the person mind are these: they’re referring something too. I would recommend that if you’re going to give a bribe - give an equal gift to their The incentive should not be the main thing. They friend who enrolls. Make it at least a 50/50 split but if should be referring 95% because it’s a great product that possible a 60/40 in favour of their friend. They need to they think could be relevant and valuable for their friends. know that by referring someone they’re being generous As Emmanuel Rosen says, “When people feel that not greedy. No one wants to see themselves as a taker - they’re “supposed to be excited” about a mediocre people want to see themselves as a giver. But if you say, product, they tend not to be. They might even feel “I’ll give you $90 for every person you refer and they’ll get insulted and say things like, “I don’t sell my friends for a $10 off.” It feels imbalanced and unfair. And what they’ll bit of cash!” People love sharing - but they don’t probably do is five their friends $40 of those dollars to necessarily like promoting and selling. offset their guilt. But if you say, “Every person you refer gets $50 off - just because you referred them - and you “A customer recommends a product because she truly also get a $50 credit on your account as our way of believes in this product. Part of her credibility comes from saying thanks to you.” This will feel much more the fact that she has nothing to gain by recommending comfortable. You may need to experiment to find the the product, which is not the case when she’s selling it. perfect ratio. Ideally you want both. The discount to their Plus, people don’t feel comfortable selling their friends . . friend (or bonus) makes them feel like a giver and the gift . A customer tells her friends about new products she to them helps them feel acknowledged. You need to discovers because it reflects on her as an innovative and speak to both their self interest and their altruism for the forward thinking person. She doesn’t want to sound like best results. someone who’s repeating a company’s propaganda. Nobody does.” Emmanuel Rosen Business to Business: If you’re making an arrangement with another business for them to promote what you do - People might buy a product from their friends out of guilt that’s a joint venture and a referral or finders fee is or obligation in the short term. But in the long term it absolutely appropriate. Very few people will bat an eye at causes them to distance themselves from that person that. It’s when it’s business to customer that you run into because they’re getting pitched all the time. And if your trouble. It’s okay to make deals with and ‘bribe’ other client’s friends starting avoiding them - it’s not long until businesses to promote you - that’s part of doing they start avoiding you. business, it’s a part of the business culture - but it becomes slightly more suspect when you’re ‘bribing’ a The reward should be appropriate. If you give a huge client to tell their friends about you. reward for a small effort - they will feel uncomfortable. ** * Permission. If you’re asking people to give the contact info of their friends - without their friend’s knowledge, So, let’s assume that you’ve identified some solid hubs permission or consent - that’s a huge risk for people. and they’re ready, excited even, to endorse you to their They’re going to be nervous that their friends are going to list. get roped into a high pressure sales process. You must help them understand what will happen to their friends. That’s only the first step. You need to spell out the process that’s going to happen. Even better, you should create ways for them to connect All this does is get you in front of your niche. It gets your their friends with you in ways that are easy, convenient, foot in the door. comfortable and pressure free. This is why free info events can be so powerful. But then you need to have a plan.

Comfort: They key is to thank and acknowledge clients It will likely look something like this funnel. You need to for their support without making them uncomfortable. lay out the steps for people. There’s no right or wrong way to do it - comfort is the key. But right now, we want to look at the top of the funnel. Ask Your Clients: This is the bottom line. Ask your clients what they think about any ‘bribes’ you’re thinking The Free Gift. of offering.

Be Upfront About It: I’ve seen many marketing gurus Remember: There are three roles that all of your effectively use bribes by being very blatant about them marketing must play.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 33 1. It must get their attention.

2. It must facilitate the decision making process.

3. It must lower the risk of taking the first step.

And WOM achieves this beautifully.

Why?

Well, let’s look at them one at a time.

1. It must get their attention: who is more likely to get the attention of your prospects - you or their friends? Their friends. Why? They already have their attention. They’re hanging out already. They’re talking. Your niche is very open to the recommendations of their friends.

2. It must facilitate the decision making process. The process we’re talking about puts the prospect in the drivers seat. They’re in control. This process realizes that the buying process is a ‘journey of 100 steps’ and strategizes on how to make each step high value and low risk. This process is based What could this be for you? heavily on education - letting the prospect sell themselves. And what is the purpose of the free gift? It has several . . . 3. It must lower the risk of taking the first step. The fact that the endorsement is coming from their  to get their contact information and permission to friends lowers the risk far more dramatically than you market to them now and in the future might think. But additionally, we start looking for  to help them understand that what you have to offer ways that people in your niche can interact with you is relevant to them in a way that they would like to. Maybe that’s your  to help them see that you are qualified to offer them website, maybe it’s your blog, a free report, an intro help evening, a talk you’re giving, a DVD, a workshop etc.  to help them see that what you have to offer is The key with the first step (and every step afterwards valuable really) low risk and high value. You must treat their  to induce reciprocation attention like money. In fact, let’s explore this a little  to add value to their life by giving them a taste of more deeply . . . what you have to offer  to get them excited to work with you Lowering the Risk of the First Step: FREE RESOURCE: Go and watch video. . . This is the first step, the most important part of the process. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e9tjgsJk6pE &mode=related&search= When you look at the funnel below you notice that the entry point is wide, open and free.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 34 16 Free, High-Low (high impact, low Here’s a listing of 21 potential events cost) steps you could offer the target to you can host: strongly establish your relevance, credibility and value. 1. movie nights: Stillpoint Healing Center hosted a screening of the movie “Conversations with God” and had a great response. 1. A blog 2. free workshops 2. a very informative & content rich website (check out 3. a lecture you lead www.sitesell.com to learn how to create a site that 4. a lecture from a guest sells) 5. a potluck 3. free hour or two hour talk or workshop 6. a networking night 4. free tele-seminar 7. an anniversary party 5. sign up for a free newsletter 8. an annual seasonal party (e.g. Halloween) 6. free trial of your product or service 9. a games night 7. live demo 10. a talent show 8. talks at conferences 11. an open mic night 9. informal ‘cocktails’ event at a bar 12. a simple conversation at a cafe or lounge 10. a free ‘buyers guide’ 13. a free intro event 11. a free ‘company comparison checklist’ for your 14. singles nights industry and region 15. big old weekend conference 12. a free report about the issue you address 16. an annual retreat 13. a free & useful diagnostic tool: 17. lunch and learns: IPAM www.lowimpactliving.com 18. an ongoing lecture series on a relevant topic 14. a free session with you 19. hosting a concert from an artist your niche loves 15. thirty days free trial with your product 20. sharing circle 16. free sample of your product (pink spoon marketing) 21. a dance 22. awards nights Free or Cheap Events: Free and cheap events seem too simple to work. But Notes: Some people find that charging a small amount they do. What follows is a list of events you can throw for (from $5 - $15) can actually increase the attendance your niche. You might do some annually and others because it seems a bit more serious. You can donate all monthly. A good free event must meet the following the money to a favorite charity if you want or let some criteria: people come on “scholarships” or a sliding scale.

1. it must help to establish or deepen your relevance, What makes many of these events appealing is the fun credibility and value in their life variety of them. If you try to hold them too often you won’t get much response. 2. it must be a no pressure event. It’s not a pitch - it’s a conversation. Also: any event you do will either be mostly community building or mostly business building. It’s good to know 3. it must give them the chance (and a reason) to give which is which. All events will do some of both, but it’s you their contact info best if you know why you’re doing the event.

4. it should build community and help to make your Emails: Make sure you give everyone at least one niche stronger and better connected - after all, the chance to sign up on your email list. This must be done bigger and tighter it is, the more business you’ll get. religiously and consistently. Registration is the easiest place to do this and make sure it happens. But you can By hosting these kinds of events you position yourself as also make an announcement at the end and pass around a Super Hub. People start to see you as the ‘go to’ a clipboard, you can have people wandering around person in this arena. asking. As people register, you can don’t say, “Wanna give us your email?” you say something like, “If you’d like In thinking about the following events - here’s something to learn when more events like this are happening we’ve to consider: 80% of your new clients will likely come from got an email list. You’ll get an email maybe once every 20% of your existing clients. There’s likely a core group two weeks and you’ll also get deals that no one else gets of existing clients who are sending you the most on our products and services. Plus we’ll often give you a business. As you look at the list, also consider what heads up on other events happening that we aren’t events you could host for them. Events that are more hosting.” You’ve got to give them reasons why they exclusive. would want to sign up on your email list. Lastly: once you’ve picked the best kinds of events for your situation - don’t stop there. You’ve got to ask

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 35 yourself: how can we make this event irresistible? How know if you like the flavour or not, but hardly enough to can we make it hot? Put a lot of thought into what would satisfy. You want to do the same thing with these offers. make the event so appealing that buzz would spread around. So, why would anyone want to pass stuff on?

Well, there’s three short answers here: How to help your clients spread First: Give them an incredible experience in working the word: with you. Blow their minds. Exceed their expectations. Under-promise and over-deliver. Thrill them. People love At this point, you’ve gotten some new people in the door. to hook up their friends with cool stuff. If they have an But what about referrals? Your clients are already thrilled amazing experience - that’s the foundation. If they loved with what you do, so how can you support them in it, they will want to share it with others. spreading the word? Second: Give them something cool to pass on so There’s a few steps here. they look like the hero for giving their friends a great gift. It’s got to be genuinely valuable enough that they STEP ONE: Ask yourself, “When, where and how want to pass it on. would they word of mouth about your product or service happen?” Third: Reward them for passing it on. This reward can be an explicitly stated, ethical bribe or a surprise reward  in a bar? that they didn’t realize they were getting that is ‘just our  at the water cooler? way of saying thanks for sending us business’.  in their living room?  over email? A simple, shining example:  in the doctor’s office?  at the concierge’s desk in a hotel? The Tamarack Wellness Center in Eugene, Oregon gives  on the bus? out these postcard sized “prescription pads” to holistic  in their kitchen? practitioners in the community. These pads have a space  at a conference? for the name of the practitioner, their client’s name, the  from your best clients? date and a box to check for a free swim in their 92  from key hubs? degree salt water pool or a free yoga class.  at a networking event? So, at the end of a session, the practitioner might take  on a certain email list? this out and give it to them to test out. This client shows This is where the notion of tracking comes heavily into up at the Tamarack Wellness Center with the prescription play. Do you know where (and from whom) you clients form. They are warmly welcomed and given a ‘welcome heard about you? Do you ask them? Do you take note of package’ which contains and low cost, but really, really that and record it? good deal on a series of ten yoga classes/pool visits they can sign up for if they like it. This question is just some common sense. It’s not meant to be an exact science. Just ask yourself: “now, where do Then they are entered into a simple spreadsheet with the these conversation tend to happen?” name of the practioner beside them.

STEP TWO: What gifts could you give your clients Tamarack immediately sends a quick thank you email to and friends to offer to their friends cause the the practitioner saying, ‘Bob Jones just came in to check conversation to arise and generate interest? out our pool. Thanks so much for taking the time to send him our way.’ The key here is not to simply expect your clients to carry They also send a “welcome package” to the person who around your brochures and sell for you. 99% of them won’t. signed up for the package which has a few unexpected, surprise bonuses. So, you need to ask yourself: what would they want to pass on? What would cause them to want to get their Once that practitioner has sent five referrals they get a friends in touch with me? surprise gift that’s really nice.

This is what’s known as ‘Pink Spoon Marketing’ (and I recommend that you check out www.pinkspoonmarketing.com). At ice cream shops they will give you a taste of the ice cream - it’s enough to

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 36 The Five Steps: can pass on. And it’s useful to give them some basics of what to say. 1. Your clients pass on a gift from you to their friends. 10 Examples of Good Word of 2. These friends connect with you (when they come in Mouth Materials: for the workshop, free session etc.) The right materials can help this happen. a) You get their contact info b) You note who sent them 1. a special URL (website address) c) You send the person who referred them a quick thank you note. 2. a brochure 3. You make them an irresistible, pressure free offer to 3. an emailable and really valuable top-ten list or take the next step. article on a relevant topic 4. You send them a surprise welcome, thank you gift when they sign up. You exceed their expectations 4. a blog and delight them. 5. a newsletter they can forward in email or give a hard copy of 5. They are given the same kind of gift to give to their friends. 6. a fridge magnet (if they conversation is likely to happen in their kitchen then a fridge magnet is ideal) STEP THREE: What materials would strengthen the WOM and help them get to Step 2 (Permission)? 7. a business card sized brochure with relevant, It’s not enough to tell people that you have this special valuable and interesting information on it. offer they can pass onto their friends - you need to give them a tangible way to do it. You don’t want to say, ‘could 8. a sample of your product or service you help spread the word? Here’s some brochures to carry around’ You want to say, ‘we’ve got this incredible 9. A DVD they can pass onto their friends. workshop coming up next month. There’s only 20 free spaces. Here’s ten really gorgeous invites for you to give 10. A prescription pad they can fill out an give to their to your friends. But it’s first come, first served. After that, clients. everyone pays $85.’

This step is crucial. Think about it. Even your best clients don’t have a fraction of the info they need to sell your 3 Criteria of a Good Gift: products and services. It’s an unfair role to expect them to play. Whatever gifts you give to promote your business must fit But, by giving them the right materials they can play the three core criteria.Theymust be .. . role they want to play - matchmaker. This is important: They don’t want to be a salesperson, they want to 1) Irresistibly attractive to your niche. play matchmaker. What you want is for them to have two or three equally balanced motivations for passing on 2) Strategic your materials: 3) Irresistibly attractive to you.

1. to help you Here’s your goal: your client passes this gift onto their 2. to help their friends friend and their friend feels delighted because they just 3. to help themselves received a perfect, tailor made gift for them. They can’t believe their luck. “This is exactly what I need!” they If they want to help their friends and don’t care about you think. And of course, all of these criteria are about - they might misuse the free gifts (e.g. ‘Go to this free creating something that works for your niche. What works thing, but when it comes to buy I know someone better.’). for your niche may be totally inappropriate for someone If they just want to help you and don’t care about their else’s niche. When we talk about designing a gift with friends they might pitch you too hard and turn people off. “high perceived value” we’re not talking in abstract, These three motivations should be balanced. general or generic terms - we’re speaking about making it valuable to your niche. You’ve got to give them the props, the materials that will justify them bringing up your business. Something they But, it’s important to remember: it’s not the gift that does it - it’s the experience they had with you that matters

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 37 most. The incredible expectation exceeding experience some hidden and invisible risk to them. This can be they had with you is the engine that drives this whole even worse than a risk they can clearly see. Better process. Before giving them the means to spread the the devil you know that the devil you don’t. word - they must actively want to spread the word. The gifts are merely the vehicle - they way they do it. 3. Easy and Convenient to Pass On: The key here is to consider where the conversations are likely to So, to break this down a bit more, here’s a checklist you happen and how your clients would want to spread can use to see how good your gifts are ... the word. What method would fit into their lifestyle? Irresistibly Attractive to 4. Logical: This one may seem a bit odd - but follow me. You don’t the gift to seem “too good to be true”. Your Niche They should understand why you are offering it. They should understand how you hope to benefit 1. High Perceived Value & Relevance to your Niche: from it. Be open, honest and upfront about why obviously they should be - in fact - high value. But you’re doing it. You want them to know that you’re it’s not enough that it’s great quality in reality. It hoping the gift will inspire them to work with you but needs to be immediately evident that it’s high quality. that there’s no pressure about that. And you might They need to see and understand the value. as well admit it - everyone knows anyway. Being Perception is key. The gift should directly address honest about your self-interest actually reduces the problems they are experiencing - it should be pressure in the situation. If there are some ‘catches’ relevant to some need that they have. This is by far to the gift - make sure they are clear and make the most important criteria. There must be a high sense. For example: if you give out certificates for a R.O.I. It can’t simply be an invitation to attend your free massage they might come with the caveat that sales presentation. Even though it’s a free gift, they they are only good during your ‘off hours’ or ‘slow are paying you with their time, permission and times’. Otherwise, they’re only good for 50% off. attention. You must learn to treat people’s attention People will understand this and respect you more for like money and give incredible value for it. If you your honesty and boundaries. create something really valuable that your clients can give to their friends - your clients will feel like 5. A Bit Exclusive: I think it’s really important that you heroes. Let them take the credit. They should feel highlight exclusivity, scarcity and urgency where it’s like they’ve got some insider access for their friends relevant. If you have a particular target market you’re and they’re getting their friends a ‘great deal’. wanting to work with, you can make it clear that this They’re the hookup. An important note here: when’s gift is only for people who fit certain criteria (or at the last time you passed on a 10% off coupon for least that this is who it’s intended for). If it’s an some other business to a friend? Likely not so invitation to an event - it’s good to let people know recently. 10% off may not be that exciting. Be how many spaces are available - there’s never generous. Your gift should have genuine value - infinite spaces. And if it’s coming up soon - that’s don’t give away anything as a gift that you wouldn’t good to highlight. If the offer ends soon - highlight otherwise sell. that.

2. Low Risk to your Niche: The gift should require 6. Attractive to your Niche: If you’re creating a gift little or no effort, risk or commitment from the person certificate, invitation, web page with a gift etc. I think getting it. You don’t want them to be afraid that it’s it’s important that they are visually appealing. If going to turn into a sales pitch, that they will be you’re meeting in a cocktail lounge - make sure it’s trapped in a room, or have to say ‘no’ to someone. an attractive one (i.e. appeals to all five senses). If Do whatever it takes to remove any and all sense of your invitation is on crappy paper and printed on a pressure from the situation. The condo realtor who dot-matrix printer with clip art images - people will does “Condos over Cocktails” is a great example. He feel less inspired to pass them on. If it looks beautiful just invites people into a public place (so they can and inspiring people will actually feel really excited leave easily) and gives them free advice. His closing about passing it on. If it’s a gift - make sure it looks ratio is around 70%. A key to low risk is to make sure like a gift. they have a plausible escape route that allows them to leave without feeling guilty. When I do Pay What 7. An Indirect Compliment: This is important. And You Can trainings, if someone doesn’t get much subtle. The gift should seem empathic and value out of the training they’re still going to feel fine appreciative, not scolding. For example, if you paying me less because, as far as I know, they’re wanted to promote a conflict resolution weekend broke and it’s all they could afford. If they feel intensive and decided to do a few free two hour uncomfortable giving me direct negative feedback, evening workshops about it - that would be great. they don’t have to. Note: sometimes if the offer And then you decide to give people some invitations seems “too good to be true” that can actually create to pass onto their friends to come to the evening suspicion. People start wondering, “What’s the intro. But the invite says, ”A Free Workshop on How catch?” They start imagining that there must be You Can Stop Being Such an Insensitive Asshole”.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 38 Would anyone give that to their friends? Even if the strategy beyond, ‘free massages sounded like a friend was a really, really big asshole? Of course not. great idea’ they may win some more business - but No one wants to pass on a gift that suggests that the likely they’ve just lot not only the potential back-end recipient is somehow flawed, bad or wrong (even if but they also didn’t make any money on the front- that’s what they really think about them). The gift end either. If someone takes advantage of your free should instead focus on being relevant to some offer then you want to have a next step, another painful symptom they are experiencing (see The irresistible offer set and ready to offer them. So, the Deeper Need workshop for an explanation of the massage therapist might offer a package of three at distinction between symptoms and signs). So, a reasonable discount. Plan out the steps for them to instead the invite might say, “A Free Workshop on take and make sure you give them compelling and How You Can Deal with Difficult People (even direct invitations to take those steps. Make it insensitive assholes).” or “Do you have a hard time irresistible. saying no?” You’ll see another example of this with the Green Restaurant Association in a few pages. 9. Trackable: If your gift is an invite to a free event, Here’s another way to look at it. If it’s a gift that then, when people come with their tickets there you’re passing onto your favorite clients - then make should be a way to know who gave them the ticket. sure you tell them that and tell them why they are Sometimes that can be as simple as having your your favorite clients. If you do this, they’re not only clients write their name on the back, or they’re getting a gift from you to pass onto their friends - numbered and you know which people had which they’re also getting appreciated by you for all of their numbers or you simply ask them at the registration wonderful qualities. It should feel like not only a gift desk. but a compliment on being a particular kind of person. When I worked in the personal growth 10. Put You In Touch and Get Their Contact Info: seminar business - this was the crux of the problem: Ideally, the gift should put you in touch with your how could people invite their friends without clients friends. Why do you want that? So they have sounding like, “you know? You really need this a chance to add themselves to your list so you can workshop . . .” Any invitation tended to sound like it be in touch with them directly - and with their was a slight - like you were implying that they were - permission. This is why free samples can in some way - inadequate or ‘not empowered sometimes suck. People don’t value them and may enough.’ You may need to put a lot of thought into just use it until it’s done and then go and buy a this. If I could go back - I’d probably throw a lot of cheaper and inferior brand from your competitors at parties at the seminar company so that people could the store. So, if it’s a free sample, it should ideally invite their friends. It would be explicitly spelled out have another gift attached - a next step or offer if you that ‘no selling is allowed at these parties.” The focus will - that they need to contact you directly to get. Or would be just about getting them comfortable in the maybe it’s a coupon for 10% off your product at the space and having them meet and humanize the store. The gift should have a built in, easy to take owners of the business in a casual environment. And next step. And it should give them the chance to then, they’d all be offered a free ticket to an intro add their name to your list - it should create the workshop coming up in a low pressure way. space for them to give you permission to market to them.

strategic 11. Give You a Chance to Shine: The gift should give you a chance to prove yourself. It should give you a 8. Part of a Bigger Plan: Giving away free samples chance to build your relevance, credibility and value can be wasteful - unless they’re going to the right in their eyes. The point of the gift isn’t to lock them people. This one is so important it should probably into a long term buying relationship with you. It’s be the first. So read it carefully. You don’t want to really not. The point of it is to lower the risk of taking just give out free gifts willy nilly with no plan. You the first step in building a relationship. The point of must think of these gifts as a ‘first step’ not the only the gift is to help you both figure out if it’s a fit to step. In business there are two words that too few work with each other. entrepreneurs understand: front-end and back-end. The front-end is the money you make on the first transaction. The back-end is everything you make irresistibly attractive to you after that. Someone pays $70 for their first massage. That $70 is the front end. But if they come back four 12. An Underpromise: The gift should seem great - but times a year for three years - well, that’s going to be in reality it should be better. The gift should promise $840. That $840 is the back-end. They key point is them something but then overdeliver on that that the back-end is always larger than the front-end. promise. Luckily, this is where people’s skepticism A lot larger. But just because someone takes the first works in your favour. Think about it, if someone gets step doesn’t mean they will take the second or third invited to an event, they’re really expecting it to be a step. Here’s the point: if that massage therapist damned sales pitch with lots of hype and pressure simply gives away free massages without any and they’re not expecting to like the speaker. So,

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 39 their expectations are often low. But you need to be Their positioning (from their website): clear about what you are promising and how you can surprise them by over delivering. Rainforest Café has something for everyone! Our menu includes a variety of specialty items from seafood, beef, 13. Low Cost to You: Ideally, this gift should be a very and chicken, to pastas and pizza. Younger guests can small hard cost to you. Or at least - the cost should enjoy items from our exciting new kids menu! Plus, where be small compared to what you know the return will else can you eat a VOLCANO?! Not an ordinary desert, be. Examples of this are above. our very own Sparkling VOLCANO lights up any meal! After your dining safari, pick up that special souvenir gift 14. Make Sense for You: Sometimes you are going to from your visit to the Rainforest Café. Our Retail Village want to conditionalize your gifts. For example, if you offers a WILD variety of items for the entire family. run a yoga studio and your Monday night classes are Rainforest Café. A Wild Place To Shop and Eat. always packed while your Wednesday night classes are always empty - you might want to make the “free yoga class” pass work like this: it doesn’t work for Every time I visit I notice some brilliant methods Monday nights, it’s half off any other classes but they use to extract maximum cash Wednesday classes are free. If you have busy times, from parents’ pockets. you can people to come in at slower times. If you have a product that isn’t moving - you can make the Brilliant marketing strategy #1: You have to walk offer for that. The point is, make sure that whatever through the gift shop to get to the restaurant entrance. you’re offering is going to work for you and feel There is a side path to avoid the gift shop, but it is attractive and exciting for you. If you find yourself conspicuously hidden, to make you think the gift shop dreading giving out the gift: stop. Drop it and roll onto route is the correct one. something else. So, not only do they get you coming in with your kids, but they also get you coming out, after you have eaten and Why I love the Rainforest Cafe they have thought about what they (also) want you to buy for them. They get you buying gifts twice, plus the as a business model … restaurant food – I love it! Three times the money with a - Troy White simple change to the way you visit their business.

The selection is exceptional in the gift shop as well. From (Note from Tad: Consider how much more powerful the following case study would be if they also added in a simple pencil cases, to clothing, to games, to learning powerful ‘values proposition’. What if they gave 10% of materials to electronic knick-knacks – from $1 items to $300+ take-homes. They have it covered. their profits to a particular tribe in the rainforest? What if they were also a ‘green restaurant’ with no paper napkins and using tree free paper for their menus? What if the Questions for you: Are you making it easier for them to toys they sold were all sustainable or fair trade vs. crap buy? Give them more opportunities to view and buy your made in China? As you read this consider the power of products and services. Upsell them at every opportunity. combining a strong value and values proposition and how much more excited you’d be to talk about it with both). Brilliant marketing strategy #2: One of my favorite parts of the gift shop … the floor to ceiling cylindrical fish *** tank. A monstrous thing (I would guess it to be 3,000 gallons) hosts some amazing coral and exquisite fish. “Daaaaaaaaad – let’s go! Let’s go!” Definitely the centerpiece to the entire store, and a major conversation piece.

That is the all too familiar sound that would emit from my Why is it that so few retail stores have a conversation daughters’ mouths anytime we were remotely close (to piece? It has been proven many times over that a simple them, that means within a 2 hour drive!) to the Rainforest unique object or design can bring people in droves. Once Cafe in Phoenix, Arizona. They absolutely love the Cafe, you have them there, you can then sell to them. But if as do I … even though it costs me a small fortune every time we visit. they don’t enter the store, you can’t sell them a thing!

Questions for you: What is your most talked about First, it IS a kid restaurant – not a quiet spot, nor the feature in your business? What do your present clients place for a serious business meeting. As long as you go praise you the most on? How can you turn that into a there with that understanding, there are ample business standard attention attractor? What could you, should you lessons to be found within the lush vegetation that adorns be showing off more? its ceilings.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 40 Brilliant marketing strategy #3: Once you have passed with one of these works of art – every kid in the place through the gift shop, you enter the restaurant. Tropical starts salivating. They have steam coming from the top, rainforest is a closer description than restaurant … but chocolate dripping down the sides, and sparklers lighting they do serve food so, technically, they are right. up the top with some super surprises inside the mouth of the Volcano. Masterful. You walk in and notice the lush vegetation lining the ceilings, floors and walls. Many of the walls have some Question for you: What one thing are you offering your form of display in them – a large animatronic elephant clients that they will NOT find anywhere else? If you don’t display with 4 large robotic elephants that sing Merry have an exclusive offer yet – what could it be? Can you Christmas (when we were last there it was bundle a number of products or services into one highly Christmastime). unique one? Could you repackage them? Should you design a new product from scratch? (There is a spa that The large exotic birds hanging from the ceiling squawk just opened up in Calgary for men only. They are the quite a bit, monkeys swing from the vines above your Renovation Spa and they bundle things unlike any other head. place I have seen. They have the Handyman Special, the Complete Overhaul, the Weekend Fixer-Upper – all perfectly targeted at the male buyers. Great idea!) Even the spotted leopard growls and snarls as you walk underneath him on your way to the bathroom. As an added bonus, the leopard swipes his paw at you as you Brilliant marketing strategy #6: Constant change. Each walk through the tunnel passing below his perch. time we have been there, some amazing new additions were always front and center. It seems that they constantly change the large displays … even the number, Question for you: Is there any method you are using to size and colors of the parrots flying through the rooftop get your clients and prospects interacting more with your vegetation. We live in a very busy world – and you need business, with your staff or your environment? Surveys, to constantly be giving your clients reason to come back contests, strange and unusual celebrations you host? over and over again. Constant change needs to become Find ways to give them something to talk about! a motto and mantra of your business.

Brilliant marketing strategy #4: The Safari Membership Question for you: When was the last time you offered club. Yes! I love membership clubs – and personally think something new? Or mixed in a teleseminar? Or sent that every business in existence can find a way to them a postcard? Maybe a mailing piece with some form incorporate membership programs into their offerings. of grabber? Make 2008 the year you overwhelm them with exciting, new things … and see how they respond. The Rainforest Safari Club is designed to get you back People say they hate change – but they love change with your credit card in hand. when it comes to buying!

You get 10% off food, off merchandise, you get special Brilliant marketing strategy #7: Great staff. Young, birthday and anniversary coupons, you get special spunky and great with kids. They must have an seating privileges (best seat in the house!), members- exceptional training program as these kids seem to defy only newsletters and products – along with the collection the usual customer “service” I have found with other of points for every purchase you make. service people that are under 30 (the sad state of customer service is something we will discuss more Combined … this is the formula for a winning later). Their staff knows how to talk to kids – and to get membership program in a restaurant type of service them to laugh. They know how to give fast service (key business. EVERY business can find a way to use a when you are feeding kids – get them the food quickly!) membership model. From spas, to food delivery, to And they have an exceptional service for getting you in, publishers, to realtors, to new parents, etc …. there is no fed, and back to the gift shop. Well done. excuse to not try this in your business. Question for you: Have you ever mystery shopped your Question for you: Have you ever researched what others business, especially when acting as one of your typical are doing in your industry for membership programs? It’s clients would? You may be very surprised with what you simple: go to Google and type in find. If you are selling to baby boomers, does your staff membership – see what search results are found. It is a serve them with 45 different things pierced through their very easy tool to implement, and, based on the millions of face and a couple neck tattoos as decoration? Not good membership programs out there, it will make a big if they do – Boomers feel that is disrespectful and will not difference to your customer loyalty. Try it – I promise you buy from you again. Is your staff delivering a quality will like it. experience? If you are selling to teens – is your staff close in age? Teens want to deal with people who “get them”, not someone older than their parents. You must Brilliant marketing strategy #5: Volcano Ice Creams with dried ice and sparklers. When the servers walk by

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 41 match your staff to your clients – and then train and They are the social center of clubs. If they could get incent them so they provide the service levels you want. the DJ’s drinking red bull . . . So, here’s what they did. They held a big DJ summit and flew in 4 of the Overall, Rainforest Café has perfected most respected DJ’s in the world and invited DJ’s many excellent systems for their market. from around the United States to come and learn from them. There was a huge response. After all, the event itself was free. Everyone had a wicked time. I hope you see the value in what they have done, and And when they were leaving to go home the Red how you can use these kinds of ideas in your business. Bull people, who were now their friends, gave them a big box of Red Bull to take home. ‘What a nice gift’ By the way, if you did not pick up your FREE gift from the they thought. So, for the next two weeks they were Christmas edition, please go here to pick up your copy of drinking their Red Bull. Their friends would say, “hey the 2008 Marketing and Promotional Calendar (no man, where were you at last week?” and they’d say, options required to get your gift). “Oh man, I was at this DJ thing hosted by Red Bull - you want one?’ Please let me know your thoughts, and if you have any further topics on this you would like to see discussed. 3. My friend Dominic Canterbury worked with one massage therapist and helped her to identify her five best clients. The one’s she really loved. The To your success, one’s she wished all of her clients could be like (for more on how to do this - look at the “Ideal Client” virtual workshop). Once they’d found them they carefully crafted an email that told these people that they were her favorite clients and why they were. It Troy White told them, “here’s why you’re an ideal client for me. I Editor, Small Business Mastery want all of my clients to be just like you.” And then it Supplement to THE TOTAL PACKAGE™ offered them unlimited free, 60 minute massage sessions to give out to their friends. She had twenty new people book within two weeks - many of whom came back. It also included a template email that they could send to friends (that templated email is 115 More Real World Word of the ‘pass on materials’ we’re talking about). Mouth Examples: 4. I’ve never tried this one but I bet it would work great. Have you ever been at someone’s house and seen a 1. a print shop in Seattle that targeted traveling painting or piece of art that really floored you? You business men realized that most of these business commented on it, didn’t you? And that started a men had no idea which local print shop to go to and conversation which lasted maybe a minute. Can you that they would go to the concierge of their hotel and remember the name of the artist? Did you even find ask them where they should go. So, they asked the out? Did you then go and buy a piece of art from concierge if they could leave some brochures. The them? Unlikely. But imagine this: you go to buy a concierge said that would be fine but explained that painting and the artist or gallery owner says to you, he never carried brochures with him as they were “You know, most of our business comes from word too big. They frowned and asked him how he of mouth. Our most frequent exposure happens in remembered all of the businesses. He pulled out a living rooms all around this city. Often times, people small leather business card holding booklet. He had express interest in our paintings but we can’t be a few cards for each local business he there to answer their questions or show them others. recommended. They frowned again. A business card If you’d be willing to let us place this small, tasteful was so small and it would be hard to distinguish and totally invisible business card holder behind the themselves based on so little info as they could fit on painting - no one will ever see it - we’d love to take a card. Here’s what they did: they created a fold out off $50 from the painting as our way of saying business card that was a ‘mini brochure’ and had all thanks. The cards have a special offer on it for those the guarantees they offered and info that would be who express interest in it. They basically say, “Thank relevant for a traveling business person to know. you so much for expressing interest in one of our This empowered the concierge to talk them up in paintings. As our way of thanking you for your ways he couldn’t have if he’d had to rely on his interest, we’d like to offer you three free 2’x2’ full memory. colour prints. Come to our Gallery/website and you can choose them yourself. There’s no pressure to 2. red bull giving out drinks: red bull wanted to target buy anything - it’s just a chance to take them home the night club scene of 20 something hipsters. They and try putting them up in different places to see if knew that the hubs were obviously night clubs. But what we have to offer is a fit for your home. If not, they knew that the SUPER HUBS were the DJ’s. feel free to pass the prints onto your friends.” Would

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 42 you be willing to do that?” Most people won’t mind at the manager: 3) a blank place where either myself all. After all, they get to give their friends a gift. The (or maybe even the waiter) could sign for tracking last card is a reminder to call and get more plus a purposes, 4) if a restaurant called you and said, bonus gift for having passed our all the cards as a "Tad" was the name of the person and they thanks. It’s a surprise when they call. If it’s a website, eventually became a client - you would give $100 to the prints are shipped in poster tube @ no charge the charity of my choice. I'd have a "file". I think, and with a sheet of tips on lighting, placement and colour this may sound silly, I think if that were the case, coordination (or a DVD) or online videos. There’s then I would have been more likely to put them down also something that tells a story about the artist to on the table. Also - a funny thought - i found myself build a relationship. I’ve asked a few people if they at loss of what to say to the server. if you gave some would pass out the cards to people who expressed ideas on what to say or how to broach the subject interest and the answer has been an unequivocal that would make me sound gracious and smooth that ‘yes!’. Most tell me they wouldn’t even need or want would be wonderful and make it more likely that i'd the discount. do it (and others i'd reckon).” Written with headline to restaurant owners: space to write my name and if 5. Utilikilts.com - I wear a utilikilt. It’s a plain black, they sign up it’s $100 to the charity of my choice canvass kilt. It gets lots of comments. In a way the kilt is the pass on material. It generates the 7. Greenfest - I speak at the Green Festivals all conversation and their website - www.utilikilts.com around North America - it’s the world’s largest green is easy to remember and every time someone asks business expo and so a perfect place for me to find me about it I tell them to go to the website. It’s a new clients. When I speak, I put postcards on their conversation piece. But when I first got it, in the back chairs with a special offer on it that’s good for them pocket were a bunch of Utilikilt business cards. I and their friends. There’s more postcards on the gave them all out. Here’s what they could have done stage if they want them afterwards to pass onto their to make it even better: they could have mailed me 20 friends. new cards every year with a letter updating me on what’s happening with them. I would have handed 8. This is a non business example but it’s a good them out. And, if those cards had a special offer on example. In Calgary, a bunch of crisis counselors them (e.g. free tshirt, wrist band, fake tattoo) - and were growing increasingly concerned about how what if they’d asked me to write my name on the many elderly folk were slipping through the cracks. cards (or they’d already put a tracking number on it So, they asked themselves, essntially, what were with a message saying, “If someone calls in from their hubs? Where would the elderly be? Who might one of the cards you hand out and they buy see them. And then they did a campaign where they something then we will give 3% of the profit on that educated bus drivers, banktellers, paper delivery purchase to the charity of your choice.” Make sense? people to see signs of elderly folks in trouble and gave them a number to call. So, a paper boy might 6. The Green Restaurant Association (GRA): The call the number and a crisis counsellor would visits GRA helps restaurants go through a 12 step process the elderly person to make sure they were okay. to green themselves. It was founded by my friend Michael Oshman. Last time I saw him in San Diego 9. Cisco: “Companies that speed up buzz go beyond he gave me a bunch of dollar bill sized promo the most expected communication channels as well. pieces. He asked me to leave them with my bill when Cisco Systems, for example, serves network i pay. I agreed to do it but then I didn’t. Not that I administration who virtually live on-line, so you’d didn’t want to, I just never seemed to. I noticed that I expect Cisco to use on-line methods to spread the was feeling a bit awkward about doing it. It seemed word about its products. They do. But Cisco doesn’t like a weird thing to leave in some unspoken way. I limit itself to the on-line world. The company felt vaguely uncomfortable. I sent him this email: organizes more than one thousand seminars every “Hey Michael, here's something I noticed. You sent year to meet potential customers face to face, they me those GRA bills to leave with payment at organize networking events for their current restaurants. I put them in my wallet. I had them with customers, and they attend dozens of trade shows.” me every time I went to pay the bill. And yet I never The Anatomy of Buzz - Emmanuel Rosen did. I either forgot or I actually felt a bit embarrassed like "are they going to wonder why I'm leaving this 10. “Record Companies routinely give sneak previews and look at me funny next time I come in? are they to DJs, record stores, radio stations, and other going to take it as an insult?" strange but true. I was recognized expert hubs in order to promote new wondering the other day - what would have made it records. In a classic marketing experiment, however, more likely for myself and others to leave it. Here's researchers obtained the names of social leaders in what I came up with (knowing that I was likely not high school in several cities. Class presidents, sports the only one having troubles with this): 1) do captains, and cheerleaders were invited to join a coupons in full colour (soy inks, recycled paper and select “expert panel” that would evaluate rock and all that but BEAUTIFUL looking) 2) a strong headline roll records. (The researchers found later that most focused on the problems your work addresses for of these students owned very few records, which

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 43 means that they would not have been classified as in the early eighties, they promoted it through radio expert network hubs as far as the music industry stations around the country. “In New York there was was concerned.) The participants received free a guy on the radio who loved to ask trivia questions,” records in the mall and were asked to identify recalled Linda Pezzano, the PR manager behind the potential hits, They were then encouraged to discuss introduction of the game. “So I thought he was a their choices with friends. Joseph Mancuso, natural guy to do a promotion with. And then I describing the experiment in the journal of thought; “Well, there must be guys like that in every Marketing, says, “The total cost of the experiment market.” Pezzano had a student intern call radio was less than five thousand dollars. In turn, several stations around the country to find their local “trivia records reached the top ten charts in the trial cities. maven.” It didn’t take long before radio stations These hit records did not make the top ten selections started to broadcast trivia questions from the game. in any other cities. Thus, without contacting any More than a hundred stations were running the radio stations or any record stores, a rock and roll promotion, and each one of them was giving away record was pulled through the channels of copies of the game to listeners who answered trivia distributors and made into a hit” The buzz created by questions correctly. This simple tactic created a letting these social network hubs discover these double effect: The radio personalities broadcast songs made them hits before they became hits information to thousands of people, and people who anywhere else.” The Anatomy of Buzz - Emmanuel won the game began bombarding those around Rosen them with questions like “What woman was Time’s Man of the Year fir 1952?” “What was World War I 11. Jeep - “Buzz needs ammunition. How many times known as before World War II?” or “What does the can you tell your friends that you now drive a Jeep? J&B stand for on the scotch?” (Queen Elizabeth II. But if you come back from a two-day, action-packed The Great War. Justerini & Brooks.) To seed the Jeep Jamboree, you’ll have a lot to talk about. product in additional networks, the makers of the What’s a Jeep Jamboree? This is an off-road game distributed sample cards in popular spring weekend trip designed for Jeep Owners only. break hangouts , organized Trivial Pursuit parties in Although this activity is not designed exclusively for bars, and, as I mentioned earlier, mailed games to network hubs, it is likely to attract them. The Jeep celebrities mentioned in the questions. “The celebrity Jamboree tradition goes all the way back to 1953, mailing turned on a lot of opinion leaders to the when the first fifty-five Jeep vehicles took on the game, and they loved it,” says Pezzano. The Rubicon Trail --driving from Georgetown, California campaign generated unprecedented buzz in the to Lake Tahoe. The 155 passengers and drivers who invisible networks. During 1984, 20 million games participated hand something to tell everyone back were sold with almost no advertising. Notice the two home --the nine-mile trail took about nine hours to levels that the seeding campaign targeted: the complete! Since then, thousands of Jeep owners media (radio personalities and celebrities), and the have crossed the Rubicon and many other trails grassroots (radio station listeners, students on spring established by Mark. A. Smith, who acts as break, people in bars). Both of these levels are very consultant to the Jeep division of DaimlerChrysler. important, but it’s grassroots level that has been “A Jamboree makes for good cocktail talk. That just generally underutilized. Almost all companies have reinforces the Jeep name, “ Ed Brust, a done some seeding at one point or another, but the DaimlerChrysler executive, told Brandweek.” The vast majority of seeding programs are PR Anatomy of Buzz - Emmanuel Rosen campaigns that target the media.” The Anatomy of Buzz - Emmanuel Rosen 12. Sunglasses - “Luxottica Group uses this concept by placing its sunglasses with mega-hubs in the 14. “Sun Microsystems used a similar approach in it’s entertainment industry. In 1988, when Luxottica early days. Marleen McDaniel, who was responsible introduced the Armani Line, most glasses in the for Sun’s academic market at the time, explained market were housed in large plastic frames. The how they seeded the market. “I went to the most Armani glasses were compact annd made out of influential engineering campuses first: Stanford, metal. “People thought they were weird looking,” Berkeley, MIT, Carnegie Mellon, Caltech,” says says Steve Hollander, vice president of marketing for McDaniel. At each campus McDaniel and her staff the company. Luxottica used a Hollywood placement identified a seed customer, usually a professor in the agency to have celebrities like John Travolta, Billy computer science department. Allowing the Crystal, and Robin Williams wear the glasses in professor to use one of the company’s workstations numerous movies. “They wear them in their personal helped create discussion about Sun’s Hardware, first like as well, so you get the publicity of the movie, but within one department, then in other departments, they’re also in People magazine and Variety and and ultimately in the whole school. One day in the seen on the street,” Hollander says.” The Anatomy mid-1980s Sun got an order for a thousand of Buzz - Emmanuel Rosen workstations from UC Berkeley. At the time that was the largest single order the company has ever 13. Trivial Pursuit - “As I mentioned earlier, when the received. “But you started with one professor,“ says makers of Trivial Pursuit introduced the game back McDaniel. The ideal seed customer shouldn’t be shy.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 44 People who called radio stations to win a free Trivial Everything about the place exudes a slightly cheesy Pursuit game weren’t shy almost by definition. Sun positive energy. chose influential professors on each campus. This is important, because you need your seed customers 19. Chocolate Maker: Imagine you want to spread the to do one thing: talk.” The Anatomy of Buzz - word about your chocolate making company. You Emmanuel Rosen could make brochures, business cards and other boring things that people like to throw out. Or you 15. “BMG Music Services usually offers customers free could do what ChocoSol from Toronto did. ChocoSol CDs when they bring a friend into the club, and has is a socially just chocolate maker. The use organiz found this to be an effective way to reach new and fair trade cocao beans. They would go to fairs customers.” The Anatomy of Buzz - Emmanuel (they kind of fairs they might find socially conscious Rosen people at) and Farmer’s Markets where people would see one of their staff riding on a bike to power 16. “Dove Soap: Brand promotion agency Einson the grinding of the beans and while someone else Freeman created an original promotion for Dove was rolling them out Mayan style on a stone slab. It’s called “Share a Secret.” A free-standing insert was such an elaborate productions and so rare to be able run in Sunday newspapers offering two free bars of to see behind the scenes of how chocolate is made Dove soap to customers who recommended the that people remember it and tell their friends about it names of three friends, and each of these friends later. And what if they let YOU ride the bike and try would receive a gift-wrapped bar of soap as well. grinding the beans on the stone slab? Don’t you The campaign, aimed at women between the ages think that would give you a great story to go and tell of twenty-two and forty-four, even allowed the your friends later? customer to write a personal note to her friends. When the friends received the gift-wrapped sample 20. Theme Park: A client of mine in Toronto told me at their homes, the initiator’s name was prominently about his experience at “Canada’s Wonderland” - a printed on the outside sleeve of the mailer. Suddenly national theme park with rides. Apparently, if it’s 12 it wasn’t a sample from a soap company but a gift degrees Celcius or less and raining as you leave from a friend. Something you open immediately. they give you a pass for a full day in June worth $50 Dove’s market share increased more than 10 (how can they afford this? first it’s a soft cost, percent over the base period, according to Jeff second, they know they’ll be getting more money McElnea, chairman and CEO of Einson Freeman.” from you on food and other things when you come The Anatomy of Buzz - Emmanuel Rosen back). They don’t promote the fact. And most people had a good time anyway. So, when they get this free 17. Busline: There’s bus line that goes from Boston to pass with an explanation on the way out they’re New York a friend told me about. Their main happily surprised. And tell everyone they know about clientele were business people. So during the hours it. “Do you know what they did? Wasn’t the so nice of on the bus they were unable to work. And if they had them? That was really smart!” to do the commute frequently this something meant more lost time than they were wanting. So the 21. Lululemon – The Lululemon store in Yorkville used busline decided to make the experience the principle of “Outrageousness” to good effect. extraordinary for their clients. First - they dropped all One sunny day they held a huge free class in a park. their other routes and decided to only do this one. But not just anywhere in the park, on this huge rock They raised their rates a bit to $89 (a bit more than in the park. So as people walked through the park the average bus) but they equipped every seat with they saw all these ‘yoga’ clad people were in all the electrical outlets for people’s laptops, on-bus se funny angles covering this massive boulder. doing wireless, a free snack bar, a first class, immaculate yoga on big rock in Yorkville. What do think these comfortable bathroom and a back of the bus = people were talking about for the rest of their day? meeting space you could book to hold a meeting On a less outrageous note they also offer free while you traveled. classes every Sunday at their store. And do people love to talk about their secret hook up on free stuff to 18. Cafe Gratitude: In the Bay area there’s a restaurant their friends? called “Cafe Gratitude.” It’s a raw, vegan restaurant. Everything the sell is made from raw plant food. The 22. Holistic Practitioners - a number of holistic decor and ambience is this cool, eclectic funky mix practitioners (HP’s) use this following technique to designed perfectly for the Bay Area new agey wonderful effect. Most HP’s I know have more than community. The seating is designed that they will one modality they offer. They don’t only do massage often seat you with people you didn’t know before - they also do cranio-sacral work. Or reiki. Or you came - so every time you eat there is an shiatsu. Or all of the above. And many of them keep experience. Everything on the menu is an affirmation learning. But clients can be resistant to booking a full (e.g. to order the raw lasagna you’d have to say the session of a new therapy they’ve never tried. So, affirmation, “I am bountiful.” to your waitress). many therapists will offer a free 15 minute taster of it in the middle of a session. Almost every client will

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 45 say ‘yes’. And if they like it, they might come back an Mountain is for you. It’s located out of the way in extra time for the full meal deal. rural Nova Scotia and has a few unusual features that have people talking about it for years 23. Jewelry - Why do people wear jewelry? Sure, to afterwards. First of all, everyone is seated together look beautiful. But what are they secretly looking for? in benches - so you end up sitting with people you’ve Compliments. They want comments about it. Well never met. The staff are incredibly warm, friendly my friend Dylan www.electronic-ouroborous.com and chatty. The space looks like a huge log cabin makes jewelry that gets comments. Each piece is with a big roaring fire. It’s a very welcoming made out of brass wiring and recycled computer environment. They operate on a slow food parts around a central crystal. They’re really philosophy. Nothing’s rushed - but the experience is stunning and almost never fail ro start conversations. so rich that no one minds waiting. That’s a wonderful feeling for the person wearing it - but it’s even better for Dylan who makes them. After 26. Employee retention - My friend Jamey in Nova all, those conversations are all about him. But he Scotia made me laugh out loud with this example. It does one more thing that makes his jewelry even turns out that one company was looking at ways to more visible and therefore more likely to attract reduce it’s turnover of employees. They did some attention and generate conversation. Each circular research and found that their employees #1 issue silver necklace has a battery and led light in it. The with the company was the amount of time away from battery is tastefully inset into the jewelry so it blends family it required. They were craving more quality is as part of it. The glow different colours. Glowing time at home. So, they decided to offer their staff a crystal jewelry. The more visible your product can be maid service. They said, “Look, when you’re at home the more conversation it will create. But here’s his with family, we want you to be able to be with them - challenge - how do people find him? What’s the not trying to catch up on the work of doing chores at mechanism that people use to spread the word home. Let the maid do that. We’ll pay for them to about his jewelry? In his case (and 99% of cases) come by once a week.” This was apparently his clients aren’t going to carry around his business incredibly well received. card. And he has no storefront. That basically leaves us with his website. Take a look at it again: 27. Artist - Deb Wiles a client of mine in Toronto does www.electronic-ouroborous.com. Would you ever art classes for children. How does she spread the remember that? If you did, you think you’d spell it word beyond flyering? Firstly, she offers free first right everytime? No and no. The mechanism must classes for kids. But she also, and I think this is be easy. What if he had a website: brilliant, hosts ‘dinner socials’ for parents to meet www.glowingcrystaljewelry.com? What if this was her. The parents are welcome to come and bring a secret website that only people who’d bought from their kids who can play with the arts stuff, meet Deb him ever heard about where his wares were sold at a and see if they like her and trust her (critical!) and discount or with crazy bonuses? Do you think you watch how Deb interacts with their kids all in a no- might feel more inspired to pass on a website if if pressure context, they get free food and at the end gave your friends a killer deal? they know if it’s a fit.

24. Open Mic at Cafe - On the verge, a 28. MCI - “In 1991 MCI took this concept to its next level. restaurant/bar/cafe in Wolfville, Nova Scotia runs If you were an MCI customer back then, you may their open mics very differently than most places. In remember receiving a letter that announced their most places you really take your chances. You’re “Friends &”Family” program. It offered a 20-percent likely to see everyone from the most to the least discount on calls made to a number of preselected talented. Some is incredible and some is painfully locations. “All you have to do is tell us the friends bad. And it’s equally sketchy for the musicians. They and family members whom you’d like to include in show up and hope they get on the list and have time your calling circle,” the letter said. “We’ll check to to play. And when they do play they only get to do see if they’re already MCI customers. If so, they’ll one or two songs at most and they’re off. At On the automatically become part of your calling circle and Verge, they handpick the musicians who they know your savings will begin soon. If not, we’ll invite them are good and stagger the shows with 15min sets for to become MCI customers and to start their own the intermediate level performers followed by 30 Family & Friends Calling Circle so they can get their minute sets for the advanced level performers. It’s all own 20% bonus discount.” The letter asked the booked in advance so the musicians know for sure customer to make a list of up to twelve people they how much time they’ll be getting and the audience is would like to call at a discount (MCI later increased guaranteed a good show. Notice how they looked at the circle limit to twenty). The invisible networks the industry frustrations and addressed them to starting working for MCI right away. People signed create a better experience for everyone involved. up their mothers, uncles, friends, and cousins. A few weeks later the customers who responded received 25. Sugar Mountain - If you’re looking for a huge a confirming letter (in the shape of a family tree) that breakfast of delicious pancakes, waffles and listed the people whom they could call at a 20- sausages slathered in pure Maple syrup - Sugar percent discount. In addition, the letter listed those

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 46 friends who “needed encouragement” --those who impressions and had 120,000 customers participate had chosen not to join. The company suggested that in the experience. In the 1998 tour these numbers customers make a (free) call to invite these into their went up to 50 million and 200,000 respectively. We calling circle. While some customers were not can only guess how many conversations were enthusiastic about having to give a company the generated by participants. People tend to share names of their relatives and friends, raising concerns pictures with their relatives and friends, and each over privacy issues, overall the campaign was a participant got to keep half of the pictures for him or tremendous success and is believed to have caused herself.” The Anatomy of Buzz - Emmanuel Rosen 10 million residential customers to switch to MCI in less than 2 years. Rather than focusing on a 30. Power Bar - “To stimulate word of mouth in other stimulant that would cause a comment from parts of the country, the company sent a letter to its Customer A to Customer B, the effort in the MCI existing customers offering to send five PowerBars program was on locking whole cliques and clusters. on their behalf to anyone in the United States for just Len Short, former president of Ross Roy Direct, the three dollars to cover shipping costs. "We would agency that produced this promotion, points out how even put a note in, [such as] 'To Charlie from Amy in this helped in customer retention. One of the San Francisco," Maxwell says. When Charlie in problems faced by both MCI and AT&T with other Boston got that package, he would usually call Amy promotions was constant switching between in San Francisco to find out more about the bars. discount programs. Now when a customer got an Again--excellent response resulted with additional offer from AT&T, she would say to herself, “Well, word of mouth in new clusters.” The Anatomy of yeah, that’s very nice, but what about my calls to my Buzz - Emmanuel Rosen mother? I’m not going to switch to AT&T because we’ve got this Friends & Family program,” Short 31. Author, Seth Godin - “When I insisted that people explains. Arthur Hughes, vice president at M/S buy my last book in twelve-packs (12 for the price of Database Marketing in Los Angeles, says, “That is 3) instead of one book at a time, I was making it certainly considered to be the most outstanding obvious to my readers that they should share the example of a referral program that there is.” Hughes, other eleven copies with their colleagues. Making a who wasn’t an MCI customer at the time, remembers product or service or idea that's easy to share makes receiving a letter from the company saying that his it more likely that people will share it.” son-in-law had mentioned him as a potential MCI customer. “That is very personal, very direct, and 32. Netflix - puts a coupon in every order, a coupon very powerful,” he says.” The Anatomy of Buzz - that's worth giving to a friend to encourage them to Emmanuel Rosen become a customer.

29. Polaroid - “Throw a Polaroid camera into any social 33. March of Dimes - “One of my favorite examples is network and you’re guaranteed to get conversations the March of Dimes. They've captured the attention started. The people at Polaroid understand that. of millions by tapping into the network in a new way: When Polaroid decided to renew interest in instant they fund-raise by putting community leaders in photography among younger people, the company "prison". Now, these local luminaries have to call all took its cameras on a road tour. The campaign their friends to bail them out by soliciting donations vehicle parked outside the Exploratorium is a to the charity. Not surprisingly, the response rate is conversation piece in itself --a long motor home, huge. March of Dimes has changed its sales force completely wrapped in a colourful original design from tele-marketers and direct mail to influential created especially for the tour. The vehicle parks in community leaders calling their friends.”- Seth towns en route, and people who stop by are lent a Godin Polaroid camera for a few hours. The first year Polaroid attempted this, in 1996, people were asked 34. “Peace Frogs. This successful line of clothing to bring back a picture that showed their town; they (focused on, not surprisingly, frogs, world peace and were told the picture might eventually be selected as quality) is now sold out of refurbished VW vans, part of an art piece entitled “America: An Instant parked in high traffic locations such as shopping Self-Portrait.” More than 30,000 instant photographs malls.” - Seth Godin were collected from people around the country, and the event became part of tens of thousands of 35. “Tilley Endurables makes the super-sturdy, conversations. In 1997 the company used the squashable, rain- and mildew-resistant, wide- promotion to reach college students during spring brimmed cotton duck hat that floats and comes with break. As you might expect, the camera became the a forever guarantee--"Put it in your will." It also center of thousands of social interactions on the sports a "Brag Tag" in the crown of the hat for the street, at parties, and on the beach. The focus of the owner to give people who inquire about the hat.” - 1998 and 1999 tours was on preparing a time Marketing Without Advertising capsule with pictures that would describe life at the end of the millennium to future generations. The 36. “Osmosis, the enzyme bath and massage 1996 campaign generate 40 million media business mentioned in Chapter 7, gives a birthday

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 47 card that you present within 30 days of your birthday websites become useful to the extent that they’re for you and your guests to receive 20% off all used by a lot of people. That’s a powerful motivation. treatments.” - Marketing Without Advertising And the more I commit to it and use it, the more powerful this motivation becomes. Sure I could 37. House Cleaner: “The House Cleaners of Memphis, create profiles on 20 different networking sites so Tennessee, specializes in cleaning apartments when that I could be sure to be in touch with all my friends tenants vacate. When its employees finish, they but - that’s way too much work for me. I’d rather leave a detailed checklist for the landlord, marking have everyone in one place. So, facebook.com off such items as "cleaned venetian blinds," "oiled (which I use) has me motivated by the inherent hinges," and "cleaned refrigerator coils." Many structure of their business. But, whether or not I landlords who would never think of cleaning some of spread the word depends on how easy, or how hard, these items still feel very good to learn about what they make it for me. If I had to sit there and type out they see as an extra service.” - Marketing Without an individual email to each friend I wanted to invite, it Advertising would never happen. If I had to sit there and even just type in the emails of all my friends, I’d do maybe 38. “One of the most important things proprietors of a few and then lose interest. But what they’ve done small businesses can do is to get together, informally is brilliant: with a click of a button it will show me the and regularly, with peers. It not only provides a great photos and names of everyone with whom I’ve ever source of both moral support and tangible exchanged emails in my hotmail and gmail (and assistance, but is also a superior way to explain your other) accounts. And then I choose which ones of business to people who can refer customers to you. them I want to make my friends (and it emails them Paul Terry, a small business consultant, has a for me). With another click it will check my Microsoft number of peers whom he takes for breakfast or Outlook database. No joke. It’s so easy for me that it lunch on a regular basis to stay in touch and to make actually becomes an exciting process. I have done it sure that they know what direction his business is ten times so far and often find new people. taking. Paul understands that these business friends are an important part of his referral base.” - 41. Hippie Clothes: Just went on a walk in the Marketing Without Advertising Edmonton river valley with a cute girl who’d just been to the Shambhalla Festival. She gave me a 39. Noir - Restaurant in Montreal: A friend of mine was great example of how to use the principles of recently in Montreal, Quebec. She loved her time visibility and curiousity to stimulate a lot of word of there and while catching up told me about a mouth. Picture this: hundreds, if not thousands, of restaurant she’d been to. Ask yourself how often you hippies descend on a central location where they go out of your way to tell friends - unasked - about camp, attend workshops, buy cool products from restaurants you’ve been to. Likely not that often. hippie vendors and do lots of drugs and dance to After all, what is there to report? Not much. Most electronic music for days. So my friend buys a shirt restaurants aren’t remarkable - that is they aren’t from this fellow Basil. He gives her a card to stick in worthy of remark. But, I think you’ll agree, this one is. her hat. And he gives them out to everyone who “First of all, you come into like a waiting room and comes to his booth. He just sticks it somewhere they take your orders. Then you lock up your bags in visible on them. It’s not a business card. Nothing so lockers and enter into this restaurant where it’s pitch crass. It’s a business card sized piece with a picture black. You can’t see your hand in front of your face. - an artistic outline really - of a beetle. That’s it. I was You are led to your table by your waiter - who is confused as I listened. A beetle? What? Was this blind - and you sit down. They bring you your food - dude crazy? Maybe. But crazy like a fox because, as which i tried to eat with my utensils but ended up the festival progressed, everyone started noticing using my hands. When you want your waiter you call people sporting these beetles. “What is this about?” them by name and they come. But you can’t see they’d ask stranger. “I’m seeing them everywhere!” what you’re eating! And you have to feel around the And the person would respond, “Oh, I got this from table really carefully for your glass of wine. It was so Basil.” And they’d point over to his booth. If they cool.” Oh, and the food - when I asked her - was wanted a beetle, or to meet him, or to check out his really good. But the food isn’t what got her talking. clothes - they’d have to trundle over to see for What made her tell me about it was the incredibly themselves. Simple. And bloody effective. Notice - unique experience she had and the story of the he’s not asking people to carry around his logo. He’s restaurant. Does your business have something like not asking them to carry around business cards. He this that gets people talking? Don’t be afraid to do knows they’ll all be in the same place for days. He’s things differently. not even telling them anything - he’s just putting these beetles on people where they can be seen. 40. Facebook: One of the most powerful incentives for people to spread the word is when it’s in their self 42. Urban Mortgage: This Calgary based mortgage firm interest. Social networking sites (e.g. friendster.com, does a brilliant little piece of word of mouth myspace.com and facebook.com are like that). After marketing. It’s so cheap and easy, but so effective. all, it’s no fun if no one you know is on it. These Once every two months, their best clients receive a

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 48 box of a dozen cupcakes at their office or place of comment on their blogs, etc. But then, one day, they work. Everyone in the office watches as a courier would all receive a beautifully designed invitation in comes in with a stylishly designed box the mail inviting them to come to an hour long (www.instabox.com) and delivers it to their workshop on raw food followed by a gourmet, raw colleague. Of course, people ask who it’s from. And food dinner featuring his raw chocolates for dessert. of course, since the client isn’t able to eat 12 of By invitation only - they’re each allowed to bring one these rich and delicious cupcakes (made by friend only. When they arrive, everything is super Calgary’s hottest cupcake and cake shop - “Crave”) high class and funky. The workshop is incredibly they are put in a position to share them with their informative and educational. They’re gifted with a friends. “Who is this from?” people ask. “Oh, my surprise package of books and audio CD”s about mortgage company.” They reply. “Your mortgage raw food in a classy bag (made from recycled company sends you cupcakes? Oh my God!” With materials). Then they experience dinner. Each dish little cost, a little effort, Urban Mortgage starts is explained and they can pick up a stylishly conversations about their company every couple of designed recipe card that explains how to make it months. Then, they also host a big Christmas party (with his website on it - or a link to a video of him downtown for their clients where they can hang out making it). And perhaps they’re made to eat the and deepen their relationships/ chocolate slowly while blindfolded and told to “focus on the taste as you let it slowly melt in your mouth.” 43. Boston Pizza’s Magic Birthday Parties: My good It’s not just a meal - it’s an extraordinary experience. friend - and brilliant street magician - Jimbo And perhaps this is followed by a classy band or (www.fuzzyhair.net) used to work for Boston Pizza musician. As they leave - they’re gifted with a doing close up magic for the tables. But he also got classy/funky box of raw chocolates to share with hired for kids Birthdays through Boston Pizza. As a their friends - including the recipe of how to make it. part of the package - all the kids oat the party would Of course, if all goes well, they leave amazed. They get a gift bag to take home - taking that burden off tell all their friends about this amazing meal - but the shoulders of the harried and overwhelmed they’re absolutely at loss to describe it. They share parents. Stapled to the top of the gift bag (which the the chocolates. Maybe they’re given coupons for half kids would get at the end of the show) was a mini off a box of chocolates to give to their friends. This advertisement for a kids party at Boston Pizza could become an annual event. Perhaps non-hubs (where there would be entertainment provided and would pay for the meal and super hubs wouldn’t. It’s no need to clean up for the parents). The kids of a loss leader - he’d lose money on the front end - but course, either couldn’t or didn’t read it and couldn’t if he was strategic - and knew what his backend was have cared less. They were into the goodies and and set up steps for some permission based follow prizes inside. But the kids would come home and up - he could stand to build his reputation over night. rave about this magic show they saw and the parents would see the advert for the party they could 45. “Green Tourist Inn” - In Baddeck, Nova Scotia is have at Boston Pizza. The kids carried the word of the Chanterelle Inn. It’s a very ‘green’ type building mouth marketing message without even knowing it. and most of the food they serve is from local farmers. But one of the nice touches they added to 44. Gourmet Raw Food Invite Only Dinner: Malcolm the menu was how many miles the food traveled to Saunders (www.superfoodfamily.com) is a gourmet get to the inn (e.g. vegetables and greens - Mountain raw food chef. He makes raw, artisian and hand Meadow Farms - 2miles, apples and pears - made, organic, fair trade chocolates that you Annapolis Valley, NS - 225 miles, Mussels - foraged wouldn’t believe. Of course, the most powerful way from St. Ann’s Harbour - 2 miles etc.) Remember - of promoting what he does is to get people to taste it’s not enough to do cool things - you have to tell and experience what it is that he does. Words can people. Marketing is about establishing the value only go so far. But he can’t just give away free beyond the immediately apparent. It’s about lifting up samples all the time. Food has a high real cost and cool things you do so they can see them. People talk low profit margin. What’s a poor fellow to do? Well, about these kinds of little touches. here’s what we came up with during a training in www.chanterelleinn.com Calgary. It’s untested, but I bet it would work great. First off, he would identify all of the potential hubs in his community. People who were well connected and Examples from “Word of Mouth well respected in the new age, health conscious, Marketing” - Andy Sernovitz holistic scene. This could include: holistic practitioners, naturopaths, open minded doctors, 46. Barbershop: “I love Mario’s Barbershop in Chicago. vegetarian authors and chefs. Because he focuses When I go in with my two-year old son, they offer me on decadent, creamy, raw but 100% healthy a cocktail. They offer him a toy car. It’s a guy place. chocolates he might want to invite leaders in the Nobody ever accepts their drinks, but it’s a blast conscious, new age, women’s empowerment scene hanging out with Mario, Zoran, and Bobby. Those too. He would build up a list of people. He might get drinks are a reason to talk. I tell the other dads at to know some of them - invite them to lunch, daycare. It comes up at parties. It’s the first thing that

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 49 comes to mind when someone mentions a haircut. design. You'll have a horde of satisfied shoppers The result: A line of dads and toddlers out the door walking around, showing you off everywhere you every Saturday. (A supercuts on the same block is go. People will see the bags, and conversations will deserted).” start. (Bloomingdale's invented this trick with their "Big Brown Bag." Shoppers like them so much that 47. Restaurants: When I was single, there was no they actually pay for the bags.) Every shopper better date restaurant than Otello’s in Washington, becomes a potential word of mouth talker when they DC. When I showed up with a woman, the owner have a conversation in their hands. would come out before the meal with a big “It is soooo good to see you again. We are sooooo happy 53. Restaurant: Here's an easy one if you have you are here.” (Of course, he had no idea who I a restaurant: Give away free food while people are was.) After dinner, he’d produce two glasses of waiting for a table. Every city has a restaurant that cheap wine, on the house. This guy knew how to does it. Lou Mitchell's in Chicago gives you fresh make sure you looked like a high roller. You can only doughnut holes and Milk Duds. Everybody knows guess how many word of mouth recommendations about it, and everyone talks about it. No one is he got. saying, "Hey, you've got to get the turkey sandwich at Lou Mitchell's." But the doughnuts and Duds are 48. Movie Theatre: Right after our son was born, my the first thing anyone mentions when you ask for a wife and I saw an ad for a weekly show at our local restaurant recommendation in that neighbourhood. movie theatre where you were encouraged to bring infants. Now featuring screaming and pooping right 54. Non Profit: One of the best examples of an in the theatre! What a great idea! Any parent of a organization finding its talkers is The Prostate Net, a newborn knows that you’re probably not going to see non-profit committed to educating minority men another movie together until the kid gets old enough about the risks of prostate cancer and the to be embarrassed to be seen with you. What was importance of getting exams. (A awkward the first thing we did? We called every other parent conversation, to say the least.) They created a word in our apartment building and brought them with us. of mouth program called the 'Barbershop Network." The promotion that we saw was traditional Barbers are the opinion leaders in many marketing. The 12 conversations we had with other communities, and they have the time to talk to their parents was word of mouth marketing at its best. clients-and they're perfect talkers. The group reached out to 50,000 barbers taught them how to 49. Cell Phone Company: I pay a little more than I talk to their clients about the issue, and provided should to do business with my cell phone company educational resources to pass along. They put the and my web-hosting company, because they answer five T's of word of mouth marketing into practice. my calls on the first ring and they usually solve my They identified the talkers (barbers); the topic (the problems on the first call. Of course, I also tell importance of prostate exams); the tool everyone who asks that they’d be crazy to work with (informational brochures and other educational anyone else. resources); took part (establishing a dialogue with the barbers); and tracked the results (frequency of 50. Shoeshine Stand: There are probably hundreds of prostate exams). This solid talker program is so shoeshine stands in New York City. But everybody’s much better than what a traditional ad agency would goes to Eddie’s in Grand Central station. And they have to come up with-probably some cheesy public tell their friends to make a special trip to go there service announcements. (passing plenty of other good shoeshine stands on the way). Why? Eddie’s has huge, comfy, old-school, 55. Theatre: The off-Broadway hit musical Altar Boyz red leather easy chairs to sit in. You feel like a king emails a thank you note to its audience members when you sit back and enjoy a few minutes of peace after each show. The message also has a special in those chairs at the end of the day. coupon for the talkers to share, giving them the chance to look good to their friends. The email links 51. Fast Food: We all love White Castle (in that Rolaids them to a website full of goodies to talk about. kind of way). And White Castle gets decent word of Photos, downloads, fun postings from the audience, mouth. People talk about it, even make movies newsletters, and all the usual stuff. The more about it. But it’s not part of day to day conversation. information you give the talkers, the more they will So what did White Castle do? It announced that you talk. could make reservations at White Castle on Valentine’s Day. What a silly idea. What a wacky 56. Computer: All sorts of things can be good topics: dinner date. What a great reason to talk. The cow-decorated boxes that hold Gateway computers, a fabulous freebie, a moment of great 52. Retail: Here's an easy one if you've got a retail customer service, a special dessert, or an unusual store: Get some great shopping bags. The kind of advertisement. bag that people will save and use over and over again. Print them with your logo-and some cool, bold

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 50 57. Shoes: Zappos, an online shoe store, provides a no- pretty cool, too. They baked chocolate-chip cookies questions-asked, 365-day return policy. Yep, you on board every flight. And really, who doesn’t like can keep the shoes for a year before returning them. being treated like a first-class flyer? Who doesn’t like I doubt anyone returns their shoes that late, but it is fresh-baked cookies? People loved it, talked about it, a fantastic reason to talk. and started to opt for an extra stop in Milwaukee (Midwest’s hub) just to get on board. Then Midwest 58. Online Gift Catalogue: RedEnvelope is an online launched its Saver Service, offering clients coach gift catalogue. They have nice stuff but not seating and lower fares. No leather, no china, only necessarily nicer than any other good catalogue. occasional cookies. Customers who wanted to pay Their motto “RedEnvelope’s mission is to make gift more for all the previously standard bells and giving, no matter what the occasion or whistles could still do so. But, of course, people circumstances, simple and fun.” That’s fine, but wanting to pay more for first-class treatment can do nobody is going to repeat it. But they have a killer that with any airline. Midwest found a way to cut topic: Every item comes gift wrapped in the most costs, and they cut out the topic that was the basis gorgeous, elegant, impressive red box with a giant for their stellar word-of-mouth. No one is talking bow. People who receive gifts from them can’t help about them anymore. but talk about the wrapping. (They talk about the wrapping more than the gifts.) The wrapping is a 62. Handyman: The handyman who takes his shoes off perfect word of mouth topic. It makes people want to every time he enters your house or the delivery talk, and it’s easy to talk about. When most people people who willingly dispose of your old stuff get get a gift from a catalogue, they rarely remember the extra credit for themselves and generate solid word catalogue, just the item and who sent it. of mouth for their companies. You’re more likely to RedEnvelope’s box creates instant word of mouth. refer your friends to movers who deliver extra boxes When one of those boxes is opened at a party or a to you, to self storage places that offer a free loaner baby shower, a whole roomful of people are talking truck. about it. 63. LensCrafters fixes glasses for free, even if they 59. Hotels: A few hotels have begun to figure this out. were bought somewhere else. Headsets.com, a 30$ The Hotel Monaco chain wants to be thought of as million online store, sends a thank-you email after cool and fun. So they offer each guest an in-room each order-with the direct phone number and email goldfish. That’s something you tell a friend, Westin for the CEO. Sears lets you return or exchange did years of research to create the Heavenly Bed, a major appliances, no questions asked, within 90 bed so nice that you’ll talk about it the next day. days. That’s a big deal if the refrigerator that looked (Every other chain has copied them, so they need a great in the store looks terrible in your kitchen. new topic.) Quiznos is giving Subway a run for its money with the idea of hot, toasty subs. Even though 64. PrintingforLess.com has become one of the most Subway always had them, Quiznos pulled it to the popular printing companies in America through front as topic of conversation. extraordinary customer service. I recently ordered a small batch of brochures. They actually went to my 60. Duct Tape: If people are talking about something website and noticed that the logo on the brochure unexpected, it’s not wrong-it’s an opportunity. Did was a slightly different colour than the one on my you know that kids are making prom dresses and website. They called to make sure it was okay. Then tuxedos out of duct tape? This is a great word of they fixed it for free. All that service for an order mouth topic that was totally unexpected. Duct Tape worth less $500. As you can imagine, they get a ton brand duct tape spotted the fad and encouraged it. of word of mouth from my team. They now have an annual “Stuck at Prom” contest to award college scholarships to the most creative 65. Jones Soda doesn’t have the resources to out- couples. More than 250 couples entered the contest advertise Coke and Pepsi, but they know how to in 2005, representing thousands of hours of work generate a word of mouth. One Thanksgiving, they and an immense amount of word of mouth. Check created a whole series of nasty, awful soda flavours, out the winners at www.stuckatprom.com - and see including Brussel Sprout with Prosciutto, Broccoli how many people you tell. Casserole, and Smoked Salmon Pate. Undrinkable. But talkable. 61. Airline: How much do you like the Milwaukee airport? Would you stop there even if you didn’t have 66. Target showed up in Manhattan on a sweltering day to? Midwest Airlines had a good thing going with two with a truckload of 99$ air conditioners. They didn’t strong topics and a devoted following because of even have a store there, but everyone was talking them. The airline provided first-class style seating at about them. coach fares. Every person on board was treated like a high-status passenger, from the amazing meals 67. Crayola’s R&D geniuses invented magic markers served on china to the cushy, two-across, big leather that only work on special paper-and not on walls or seats throughout the cabin. Topic number two was children. This is so good, it practically speaks for

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 51 itself. Every parent who tries them is on the phone immediately, telling every one of his or her friends. 74. Conferences: Before my organization’s annual conference, we sent a message to every one of our 68. Outdoors Store: Adventure outfitter REI lets you members, asking them to email their clients and test climbing gear on in-store, three story climbing associates about the conference. We also asked walls and test shoes on simulated mountain trails. them to post a reminder to their blogs and They teach classes on how to use their gadgets and newsletters. Each recipient was given a unique how to master a variety of outdoor activities. ‘secret’ discount code, which made them look good when they passed it along. The codes were fun, 69. Dentist: Laura told Julie who told Andy who told which encouraged sharing. (Company XYZ’s secret Karen about…a dentist. The husband and wife team code was “weloveXYZ.”) at Delaware Dental, in Chicago, have turned their practice into something special by creating a “dental 75. Costco sometimes offers a free membership for a lounge”. The office is decorated in funky, modern friend when a current member renews. It’s a great colours. Instead of the pan-flute version of the idea. The current member gets the status of setting Beatle’s greatest hits, they ask about your musical up her friend with a great deal, and she spreads taste on your patient information form. The topic: A word of mouth while she is looking for someone to unique atmosphere that makes a routine visit give it to. Costco makes up the cost on the renewal remarkable. of the friend the next year (and then she brings a friend, too) 70. Insurance: There are a lot of ways to buy insurance on the internet. Progressive Insurance helps its 76. The Week magazine sent me a subscription card customers by providing the price quotes from its that offered a free subscription for a friend if we competitors, even when the competitors prices are signed up at the same time. I’d been meaning to better. That’s a topic worth talking about. They built subscribe, so the offer gave me the impetus I an entire company around a word of mouth concept, needed to do it, plus a real reason to talk about The with no real risk, because buyers are checking prices Week to my friends. I talked to four people in the anyways. The entire concept of the company is office before one took the freebie. The magazine got woven into the word of mouth topic. good word of mouth and at least two new subscribers. 71. Best Buy’s computer repair service is perfect for word of mouth: it’s called the Geek Squad. The staff 77. Packing: The package that you ship is a great word wear nerdy uniforms. They drive special of mouth opportunity-and you can put plenty in there Geekmobiles that are usually parked on the sidewalk without adding any postage expense. Think of all the in front of the store where everyone can see them. cool things you could throw in that might get your Every bit of the concept makes you want to talk customers talking about you. about it, even when you don’t need computer repair. And you’ll remember them when you do. 78. Shipping: At the very least, put the following in every package that you ship: three coupons to share 72. Photo Lab: You can make a company word-of with friends, three catalogues or flyers and three mouth ready by choosing customers who are also samples of something. Put the tools to make a talkers. My parents once owned a one-hour photo referral right in the customer’s hands. It’s a great lab. Their customers were random shoppers off the time to do it. They are excited about having just street, and were hard to reach without big received their new product, and they are probably advertising. So they sold it, and opened a specialty primed to become talkers. Even better, surprise photo lab that catered to professional photographers them with something fun. A handwritten thank-you and advertising agencies. Those are communities of will blow them away. Include a nice case for the tightly connected talkers who know each other and product. When I buy laminating supplies by mail, I talk to each other. It worked so well that they didn’t find a bag of M&M’s in every order. It’s just unusual even need a storefront with expensive rent-they enough that I tell people about it, and the office moved into the fourth floor of a non-descript building. interns tell their friends at other companies. (after People knew where they were through word of stealing my candy.) Remember those brand-new mouth. customers who may be your most prolific (but short term) talkers? You need a fast-acting tool to turn 73. Postcards: Tools don’t have to be complicated. One them on before they fade away. Capture that new- of the lost word of mouth classics is the free customer enthusiasm during the honey-moon period postcards that used to be in every hotel room. A by creating a honeymoon kit that gives them postcard is just a little advertisement for your hotel. everything they need to start talking. Fill it with the Sending that postcard home used to be a ritual. It same pass-along items mentioned above. Hand was a great tool, a simple way to make it easier for them an envelope with a welcome letter and some people to tell their friends. A postcard is word of coupons to share. mouth perfection.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 52 79. Networking: I’ve taken every business card that I’ve down and it looks, let's say rustic now. I hung it up in received in the past ten years, glued my logo to the the office and put wall words above it that say: back, used a laminator to turn it into a luggage tag, "Dreams are the windows to the world" So my clients and mailed it back to the person I just met. There are come to see me with old patterns or habits they want probably 10,000 people with my logo on their to change and be freed from. Weather that be briefcase or suitcase. When they meet each other, smoking or over eating, nail biting or deep fears of they talk about my company. That’s a lot of word of something...it's a challenge and scary for them at mouth. times. The window frame still has the glass in it, which I use to write positive suggestions 80. Gmail: It works with any kind of status. When manifestations on. Such as "Energy grows where Google launched Gmail, its free email service, it attention goes" or "If I want to be free I need to be made the product entirely word of mouth driven. In me" I get my clients to write their goals on it to focus fact, the company made it a privilege to be allowed on. So my old window frame became the window to to share the product. The only way to get an account the new, the future the hopes and dreams. Looking was if a friend invited you. First, you would receive through the window of tomorrow. Once that which is an invitation from a friend (you feel special!). Once on the window glass is achieved they are wiped off you were signed up, you got a limited number of and new dreams, goals, hopes and wishes are invitations to send to your friends (now you’re written on it and those again wiped down once those important). In fact, after more than two years, you are reached. What I am excited about with this idea, still can’t sign up for the service unless you get a is that the clients actively take referral from a friend. What a great way to lock in the part and in the Hypnosis itself I use guided imagery exclusivity topic. to walk them though to the other side of a door or window which represents their future and where 81. Bible Study: Lifeway Christian Resources was they can see, feel, imagine and experience selling a new Bible-study course online. It wanted to themselves having achieved their desired changes motivate and recognize its talkers. It created a and goals. This exercise really anchors their desires fantastic tell-a-friend page that let you send an ecard and is very effective to reach them.” Christine to friends. Senders also entered the country where Connell, Certified Hypnotherapist, 902-402-9577 their friends lived. Each sender was given a web www.peace-of-mind.ca page with a map of the world-with a pin in the map for each country where they sent an ecard. Here’s 85. Herbalist - “On a couple of occasions when friends where it gets cool: when recipients sent ecards to came for a consult (in the summer, of course) for their friends, the original got more pins on their minor health problems we sat outside on my deck. maps. Senders could literally see how they were This was in my old place, before I moved. The deck spreading the word around the world. This clever overlooks the lake and is covered with a trellis with a tool gave great recognition to the original senders, huge grapevine growing over it. As the grapevine gave them a clear sense of the impact of their word branches hang down, it forms a lovely green "cave". of mouth, and was good fun. As you can imagine, I also had a garden alongside the deck. It is a many talkers became extremely active, trying to find wonderfully pleasant and peaceful place to be. I new ways to get more pins in their maps. believe that most dis-ease begins with our dis- connect with nature, and that healing will begin as 82. Retail: When someone in a store shows we re-connect with nature and become more in enthusiasm, ask if you can put her on a VIP list. harmony with the natural world. So I intend to plan Offer a coupon or some other special if you need to. for these types of consults, when it seems When someone writes about you online, ask him if appropriate, in my new place. It seems so he’d like to get insider news in the future. appropriate to my type of healing, rather than always being inside four walls, away from the sun, the fresh 83. Commerce Bank is a very friendly, convenient air, and the sounds of birds. I think also, that with bank, and their motto is "America's Most Convenient certain clients, we could walk through the garden Bank." Sort of generic. But their word of mouth and talk for part of the consult. I had a client once topic? A free change-counting machine in the lobby who came with a huge gash in his arm (already called the Penny Arcade. Everyone talks about the stitched up at emergency) that was beginning to look only bank around that will let anyone (even non- infected. We stepped outside my clinic and gathered customers) turn change into bills, when most banks some fresh herb from my yard and then I showed won't do it at all. him how to chop and apply it as a poultice. I showed him the plant so he could identify it for himself, and 84. Hypnotherapy: “So I have a window in my office sent him off with the poultice on his arm, and a bag and then I have a fake one too, but its special...I full of the fresh herb so he could make a fresh found an old window frame one day by a house poultice for the next day. His arm healed quite completely falling apart and for some reason I nicely.” Jeanette Poirier , stopped the car and picked it up. The "old" inspired [email protected] (902)531-3828, South me to the "new". I stripped the paint off it, sanded it Shore region, in Blockhouse, Nova Scotia.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 53 come all over AB and there were many trailers set 86. “A family-owned florist based in Chicago put on a up for them to camp there over the long weekend. stunt that was picked up by local media. On a busy street, they gave out bouquets containing five roses On day one, by the time noon hour hit, the sun was to curious onlookers. Each bouquet came with a hitting my cartilages, so I had to move my table back printed coupon that read: "Share the love!" and into my tent and at the back to get them out of the asked that each rose be shared with five other sun. Everyone else table were right out front at the people to "make new friends and share goodwill to border of the tent. I thought to myself "oh no, now neighbors.” http://www.marketing-mentor.com nobody is going to see me and I won't sell anything", but over time during the afternoon, I noticed people 87. “In the late 90's, Ken Hakuta (of Wacky Wall Walker were curious sticking their heads around the corner fame), started an Internet site called AllHerb.com, into my tent or stopping right in front looking in and which was basically another me-too vitamin site. wondering "what's in there?" and then before I knew AllHerb.com sought to differentiate itself by it, I had a lot of people in the tent. I would tell them positioning itself as "the most authentic resource for what I had and eye brows would rise "Buffalo?? herbal medicine available today." So they hired an wow! ya, I'll take one". Basically that was it the first unusual and captivating spokesman -- a shaman, day. tribal healer and herbalist from the Amazon rain forest of Peru -- to share his ancient wisdom and By the second day, people were coming into my tent interact with visitors at the site. They gave him a and saying things like "Barb camping next to me said computer and he answered email from people all that she bought some buffalo from you and I noticed over. As you can imagine, this created an enormous how much her dog loved them, I'll buy some too for amount of buzz about the ecommerce site, not to mine". Then there were these two women and one mention the traffic it drove to the site.” said "oh my dog loved them, I've brought my friend http://www.marketing-mentor.com with me and we're going to buy more", between the two of them they bought 14 buffalo (7 each). With all 88. “LaserMonks (www.lasermonks.com) is an office- of this going on, other people that had not heard supply company run by monks. There's nothing before was hearing these people and then they unique about the product — printer cartridges, for started looking into it and buying too. There was now — but they have capitalized on their unique and even this approximately 10yr old girl that had taken charming story to create strong word of mouth and her grandfather, and said "there they are grandpa get a lot of PR, too. (You can read their story on their they're in there". Web site.) In addition, the experience they provide to the customer is worth talking about: The monks pray The third and forth day, I barely had my tent opened for all their customers, handwritten thank-you notes and they were in my tent, my cash box still in its box are sometimes slipped into shipments, and when with lock on and here are approximately 3 people callers are put on hold, they hear a Gregorian chant. standing there with cash in one hand and with the So far the strategy has paid off — satisfied other hand sorting out which cartilages they wanted customers have been telling friends and colleagues, and bagging them. I had to tell them "hold on I need and the media has picked up the story and spread it to get my cash box out first". Darford cookies were even further.” http://www.marketing-mentor.com right next door to me and they would be right out front to the point I could see them and they were 89. A real estate broker friend in Dallas, Scott Park, is juggling cookies in their hands. She visited me in my very successful in the resident market. One of his booth and said "wow everyone is walking right by us approaches is to fill the house he is showing with and everyone else and going into your booth!!!" I fragrant fresh flowers and to bake an apple pie in the was surprised to hear that because I was right in the oven at a very low temperature for the four to six back of the tent, so I couldn't see what was hours that a house is typically shown. happening out front. A man and this woman were walking by and saw my sign, because I was right 90. Taxi drivers who drive outrageous classic cars, sell inside they got curious too of what I was selling and models of their vehicle, and offer photos of the walked into my tent. When he found out he got very passenger sitting in the driver's seat, properly attired. excited, he was an owner of a pet store in Van. and wanted to be the first to carry this buffalo product. 91. Dog Treats: Here’s a little story from my friend Denise is Calgary www.spiritspetproducts.com. “It He placed an order for 30lbs. Actually they was a hot 4 day run, which ran over the Aug. long appeared either the 2nd or 3rd day. Oh ya and also weekend at Shouldice Park with the Alberta Kennel on the 3rd day a man that lives in the neighborhood Club Dog Show. There were other vendors there, came by to check things out and ran into me. He people showing their dogs for competition and fellow said he didn't have any money not expecting to buy dog owners/lovers. I was also a vendor and I was anything, but he really wanted to purchase a selling smoked buffalo cartilages with meat still on cartilage from me for his dog. He said he would be them. People (dog owners showing their dogs) had back tomorrow and could I reserve a cartilage for

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 54 him. I said sure that will be fine, I will put one aside The comedians had no problem making people laugh – for you and he returned the next day with the money office workers, cabbies, teenagers, tourists, gays, and he got his cartilage.” straights, hot chicks, metrosexuals, old ladies, cops, and suits…they all stopped, listened, and laughed. Along The key thing to pull from this story is to notice how with a product sample to eat, the punch line was “Potato powerfully word of mouth works when you have a Sticks…they’re back!” product people love. If you have a product that produces immediate results like hers does - then you Combined with two weeks of appearances all over want to get yourself into the middle of your target Boston, and a Web site with riddles to guess the next market and just hang out there - let them talk to each Boston location, these comedians gave out twelve other. Do you see how much more powerful this thousand packages of Potato Sticks. strategy is for her than mail order? Or an email campaign? Since this was a test, Reckitt Benckiser wanted to measure awareness results as well as sales. They spent Nine More Examples from Buzz $15,000 on the awareness study, and to be honest, we Marketing by Mark Hughes were nervous about the results of the study even though we were confident the plan would work. We were pushing the hilarious button, it was planned extremely Potato Sticks: The positioning in the grocery aisle was carefully and deliberately, with locations chosen to cross- awful, too. Right next to Pringles, but low down on the pollinate throughout the Boston metro area. shelf. Hard to see, hard to find, more competitors from the Doritos family arriving. A recipe for disaster, but it was a small cash cow. I lurked in the aisle and asked Before our campaign, unaided awareness of French’s everyone who walked by if they knew about Potato Sticks Potato Sticks tallied a mere 10 percent. With three (making clear I was a marketing and PR person, not a comedians and twelve thousand packs of Potato Sticks - wacko). Nearly every person paused, squinted, and unaided awareness in the Boston metro area more than seemed to reach into the recesses of their brain and said, doubled from 10 percent to 21 percent. “Yeah, I used to have them as a kid.” Bingo. If you know anything about awareness statistics, they are It wasn’t so bad after all. All it took was a prompt…a like glaciers. It takes eons to move them. What we had conversation …and people remembered. done was start conversations and make connections. We pushed the hilarious button to do it. Humour isn’t easy, but when it works, it works well. We weren’t just The next day we called to take on the project. I didn’t getting exposure and impressions. We made people know what we were going to do, but I knew if we could laugh. They took pictures of our comedians, and our spark some word-of-mouth conversation, it would be comedians took pictures of them. The entire purpose easy to recall a brand people knew when they were kids. was not to sell, but to give. Give people something to We later presented a two-week, intensive campaign that laugh about…and a ready-made story to talk about. focused on nostalgia and comedy. Selling Brakes: How do you make auto parts worth We would literally bring Potato Sticks to life – with talking about, among people who ordinarily wouldn’t? comedians. We recruited amateur comedians and gave When I ran marketing and advertising for Pep Boys, we them the exposure and the prayers (long shot) of getting looked at all the categories that moved the needle in our on The Ellen DeGeneres Show or The Tonight Show. business and picked a few “leader” categories to Each day, we would have three comedians show up in promote. One of these categories was brakes. Whether Potato Sticks costumes that looked like your eight-year- you’re a do-it-yourselfer or prefer to have a mechanic fix old made them. Talk about rough around the edges, your brakes, you need reliable brakes. Everybody does. these were made from U-Haul cardboard boxes and spray paint. When passersby saw these people in costumes, they couldn’t help but stop, approach, laugh, So how do you create advertising about brakes that and ask, “what the heck…?” starts conversations and gets people remarking on brakes? First, we had a creative team at our ad agency, DDB, that produced a great commercial. It opened up Purposefully, we designed the costumes to look with two guys driving back from a weekend in the homemade rather than corporate. The costume begged mountains clad in plaid shirts. They’re driving their Ford inquiry. They were out conversation openers. But once Explorer along a winding mountain road as country music you start a conversation, you’ve got to continue it, make plays on the radio. They pass a moose-crossing people laugh (in this case) and give them a ready-made sign…then another sign labeled REALLY BIG ONES. story to take away with them and talk to other people Looking at each other bemused, they continue driving. about. They pass another moose crossing sign labeled NO KIDDING. They now look at each other confused, then immediately jam on the brakes – stopping just short of a

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 55 huge moose, standing twelve inches in front of their crazy thing is...it’s a lousy e-mail account (yes, it does vehicle. The moose calmly looks at the drivers…and have one gig of storage…perhaps enough for twenty begins to speak. years of one person’s e-mail archives). But you can get e-mail accounts anywhere. “Hey, did you get them brakes at Pep Boys?” says the moose. Although it’s standard practice in the world of technology to create a very small list of beta test users, Gmail was The camera cuts to the two guys – shocked by the talking kept a secret. It became exclusive to have an address moose. The driver responds in bewilderment, “Yeah…I like [email protected]. Limit supply, create exclusivity, did.” know the secret, and more people want to know also. They get interested in what they can’t readily have, and people talk. Shhh…push the secret button. The unscathed moose then responds, “I appreciate it,” followed by a closing promotion on brakes at an attractive price point. Schlitz Beer: It turned out that Schlitz Light wasn’t popular in Anderson because it was heavily advertised; it wasn’t heavily advertised. The reason was quite The commercial itself was very good and bordered on the different: The brew had become the number-three beer in type of marketing that people would talk about. But we town because it was born in the right word-of-mouth needed a boost. So to enhance the word of mouth and environment – a bar. Restaurants and bars in Anderson get people remarking on it, we created an in-store accounted for 75 percent of beer consumption in the campaign with the moose. Tapes of the moose town; in the rest of the United States, it was the commercial were sent to all the stores, and the opposite. Nationwide, restaurants and bars accounted employees loved it. for only 25 percent.

We then had employees in every store wear a round A bar by its nature is a social environment. When you button with a picture of the moose saying, “Ask me about order a light beer in a bar, other people hear you ordering Raybestos brakes.” And guess what? When a customer it. People ask. It can start a whole conversation. And sees a moose button on your shirt with an “Ask me people sitting in a bar often drink together for a few about…” they remark “What’s up with the moose?” It hours. There is a lot of time for talking about a variety of started conversations between customers and the sales things. When you go into a liquor store or supermarket to associates. buy a six-pack, on the other hand, you’re unlikely to strike up a friendly conversation with other purchasers. At a It also started a conversation among employees. They store, you come in, you buy, you leave. talked about the commercial, and they also talked about the new line of Raybestos brakes promoted on the Essentially, light beer was born in a social environment of button. So when customers asked about the brakes, heavy beer drinkers, an environment that lent itself to employees knew the features and benefits and were word of mouth – which, again, is the key ingredient of prepared to make the sale. buzz.

Based on the expected trend of sales from the prior year, Chiropractor: On graduating from Chiropractic College, brakes showed a double-digit new increase. The Jeff Greenfield moved from Los Angeles to the suburban commercial itself was very good. But what pushed it over Boston hometown of his newlywed wife. He had no the edge was the in-store campaign causing employees experience setting up his own practice. He had not and customers to talk about this crazy moose. We clients. He had no office. created a campaign that would push people’s buttons and start conversations. (Tad’s notes: What could they have done to make it even better? What if they’d Like most entrepreneurs, Jeff set up business in his partnered with a wildlife group and given 10 % of profits house, and Jeff Greenfield Family Chiropractic was born on the brakes to them? What if they’d also educated with a shingle and a phone. The customers would have people about stats on road kill in the local area? What if to come. That’s always the hard part. they’d educated staff on the issue? Bring in the ‘values’ conversation instantly makes it more conversation worthy In general, dentists, chiropractors, and doctors of all and makes it seem less like a ‘promotion’). kinds are fairly successful. So naturally, one would look at the existing marketing model for industry and simply … duplicate it. Convention, right? Makes sense, right? It’s working for everybody else, why do anything different – right? Gmail.com: While not intentional, Google’s Gmail created secrecy and exclusivity in its Gmail account. At one point, people were paying $200 on eBay for an If you want average results, this is your ticket. But Jeff account (I admit I paid for one on eBay myself). But the never followed convention. Most chiropractors in the

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 56 Boston area had two ways of building their business: Dr. Jeff, however, didn’t give a hoot about the industry, yellow pages, and the “crooked spine” pens with the he cared about the patient. Treating patients once a doctor’s name and telephone number. The problem with week was the common practice. But Jeff wanted to cure this method, however, is that every chiropractor in Boston people much faster. He prescribed a schedule based on does virtually the same thing. Pens are cute. They can the patient, and getting that patient healed as quickly as be ordered easily, and a yellow pages ad can be places possible – which is of course what every patient wants. in ten minutes. It wasn’t unusual for Dr. Jeff to see the same patient six What’s easy is often what’s done the most. What’s done days a week for two or three months. Constant, the most gets cluttered. What’s cluttered doesn’t grab consistent, intense care to cure the trauma of an accident attention. And if you can’t grab attention, you can’t grow or years of pent-up, chronic pain. your business. What happened? Exactly what Dr. Jeff expected: Because of Jeff’s background in magic, he knew that Patients got well fast. Amazingly well, and amazingly once he got attention, he could deliver an experience that fast. It was not what his patients expected – to them, it would exceed people’s expectations, just as when he was nothing short of a miracle. For the first time years, was mystifying an audience. they could walk without pain in every step.

So rather than follow the crowd, he took the path less The Two Demands traveled.

At first he attracted the patients no one wanted. All the The unconventional treatment schedule that the patient competing chiropractors turned away people without had to agree to was the first piece in creating buzz: Give health insurance, people able to afford only a fraction of ‘em something to talk (or rave) about; (remember this what an insured patient’s average would pay. His from our First Secret: Push the Six Buttons of Buzz). philosophy was treatment first. He never turned away anyone who needed treatment. From some patients, he So while Dr. Jeff would accept anyone, the person had to got paid nothing, and from others, he got paid whatever agree to these two conditions. He would look the person the patient could afford. straight in the eye and tell them he would make them feel the best they had ever felt physically and mentally in their One woman came to his practice who was homeless. entire life. But only if they would commit to his two She lived in her car, had no money, but was in extreme conditions, 1. “Stick to the schedule. You can’t get better pain. Though Jeff turned no one away, he did charge in if you don’t show up.” And, he would heal them, but only the form of word of mouth. That’s how he built his if 2. they told every single friend, family member, and business with nonpaying patients: he got them to pay coworker about him and what benefit they were getting. with something they could afford. And not just tell people, “Hey, I’m seeing this great chiropractor, check him out.” No, Dr. Jeff wanted them to First, most of his empty-pocket patients were in severely gush with zeal about “the man that’s changing my entire bad shape. A typical chiropractor might view this as a life.” To everyone. To anyone. This was the word-of- problem, but it was Dr. Jeff’s dream. He wanted the mouth promise. patients no one else could cure, because when he succeeded with them, he would be viewed as the miracle And Dr. Jeff gave them a tool for this promise. Every worker. Patients would tell their friends, bosses, relative, week, he gave his patients four business cars – very coworkers – anyone who knew them well enough to nontraditional cards. On one side it read, “This entitles notice the dramatic difference. The patient would you to a free exam at Greenfield Family Chiropractic.” delightedly spread the glowing word about the amazing But on the other side, the card had an inspirational doctor, Jeff Greenfield. That’s buzz at word. saying.

He Didn’t Care Whether a Patient Who Came Through Dr. Jeff preprinted a six-month supply of these cards with the Door Was a Millionaire Living in a Mansion on a hundreds of different thoughtful messages. Hilltop or a Homeless Person Living in His Car. One of the secrets of great marketing is not only to get Besides the word-of-mouth promise, he had one other people talking but to make your marketing so valuable demand, an unconventional treatment schedule that went that people collect your marketing pieces and admire against all norms. The insurance industry essentially them; a strategy brilliantly used by Absolut vodka, whose created a weekly schedule for patients. Every Tuesday print ads have been considered collectibles for many or Thursday or whatever, you’d go in to see Dr. X. Why? years. Dropping by his suburban Boston bank once, Dr. Because that’s what the insurance companies were Jeff noticed the teller had push-pinned one of the willing to pay for. inspirational cards to the wall. You know buzz is working

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 57 when it appears unexpectedly…and when your understood their assumptions. He accessed these customers are marketing for you assumptions, erased many myths associated with these assumptions, and replaced certain fictions with facts. He Dr. Jeff’s practice explodes…and what happens next called this his Access, Erase, Replace approach. He becomes both an asset and a problem. He’s been would speak and then offer a free tour of his new facility. seeing patients in his house, so, unlike 99 percent of Ninety-five percent of people who showed up scheduled chiropractors in the Boston suburbs, he has no patient a tour, and 70 percent of those who toured became waiting room and no patient examination rooms. He also patients. doesn’t have the financial resources for a “real” doctor’s office. And 70 percent of those patients recruited family, friends, neighbours, or coworkers as new patients through word But the problem with patient rooms and waiting rooms in of mouth. Over and over again, Dr. Jeff invited eighty nearly every doctor’s office is just that. There’s a hell of a prospects to dinner and ended up with ninety-three total lot of waiting…and a hell of a lot of patience required by customers. Almost unheard of in the world of marketing. the patient. You wait thirty or forty-five minutes after arriving on time. Here’s the math:

So Dr. Jeff set up a system in his home office where the o 950 leads = 80 prospects invited treatment tables were sitting right next to each other. No o 80 prospects x 95 percent scheduling free tour = walls. The tables were three feet apart, lined up like a 76 factory. Patients lay ready for Dr. Jeff, but waited no o 76 leads take free tour x 70 percent conversion more than five minutes. Dr. Jeff also knew many of his to customer = 53 patients worked during the day, so he kept office hours o 53 customers, 70 percent recruit average of one as late as 9 P.M. friend = 40 o 53 + 40 = 93 total customers While the typical chiropractic office was seeing thirty o 950 leads/93 total customers = 10 percent patients a day per chiropractor, Dr. Jeff was seeing 125 response rate to 150 patients a day. And when you see 125 to 150 patients a day, six days a week, fifty-two weeks a year, A 10 percent response rate. How did he get those people all of whom are spreading the word of mouth the way Dr. to show up in the first place? Here’s how. Jeff’s patients were…your business grows exponentially. Small businesses by nature are local. Dr. Jeff personally He decided to perform for people, just as he had done in selected local businesses and lunch restaurants in his his Los Angeles days. But this time, he would perform a area. He created a form and provided a Lucite collection different kind of magic. He began booking people for a box at each place. What was advertised was “A free free dinner at a local restaurant in exchange for a chance dinner & speech on stress, sources of mental and to tell them about his practice. Why dinner? He was physical pain, chronic fatigue.” The headline was a used to this environment. But most important, Dr. Jeff grabber: “What we have to say about your health may knew something about attention. He knew that in order change your life.” A killer headline (see more on the to get people’s attention for an involved decision, he had value of a headline in chapter 14) and a handy response to get their attention while they were relaxed, receptive, mechanism got leads flowing. and rewarded. And he had to give them something before asking for something. The catch is…unconventional thinking and hard work. Yes, it sucks to ask four hundred local businesses to Free dinner at an upscale restaurant along with a drink of place a Lucite box by their cash register, and have only their choice got people relaxed, receptive, and rewarded. one hundred agree. And, yes, it’s not easy to coordinate With a subject of interest, he grabbed 100 percent of their weekly pick-up and processing of the forms. It’s also not attention. No distractions, no competing media. easy to make sure your telemarketers get their act Undivided attention. together to contact the selected people, call them up, fill forty seats a night twice a week, and coordinate dinners And every week, Dr. Jeff would have forty people on for all those people, fifty weeks a year. It’s nowhere as Monday night and another forty on Tuesday night, easy as ordering crooked spine pens, or yellow page listening to him talk about stress, sources of mental and ads. physical pain, chronic fatigue, and solutions that included his chiropractic service, holistic health, and physiological Ask most marketing agencies today for an evaluation of knowledge. this plan (without telling them the amazing results) and most would tell you they would prefer to do something Every Monday and Tuesday night, Dr. Jeff would else, something with more proven results. But getting perform. As a magician, he understood people, he buzz is about breaking through the clutter, following the path less traveled, getting attention, and getting people to

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 58 talk about your business. No one ever said it would be finding enough customers to do only about five a month. easy. If it’s easy, it probably won’t get attention. If it’s So he decided to try some marketing. easy, it’ll probably get conventional results. He walked into a radio station, bought some AM radio That’s not what Dr. Jeff did, and his results were time, and made his own commercial. A month after his amazing. He succeeded in phase two of the radio campaign, he went from selling five computers a entrepreneur’s journey: taking on more overhead and month to forty-eight computers a month. taking the business to the next level. Getting past phase one is often difficult enough, but succeeding in phase two But this wasn’t your everyday radio commercial. In fact, is even more difficult. it didn’t sound like a radio commercial at all. It just sounded like a guy talking about weird stuff…and that’s American Idol: The show itself cultivated a built-in what it was. He’s never stopped. You hear one of his audience before it even aired – not by using mass-market radio commercials, and he’s talking about life. Or he’s ads, but by connecting one-on-one with thousands of talking about family values, marriage, and God. He people auditioning, and also by going on the air in the borders on the outrageous. In one of his radio summer when fewer new shows are launched so that commercials, he’s even French-kissing his dog! they had less competition for viewers. The French-kiss commercial astounded radio listeners They gathered a built-in audience of ten thousand fans and prompted a flood of complaints. But guess what? across six cities, people who had turned up for the That week was also his best in sales. He creates buzz. auditions and now were anxious to watch the show. He also talks about the competition. Making remarks Although ten thousand people doesn’t sound like a wide about business ethics, he’ll mention how Circuit City reach in the world of marketing and advertising, these ten charges a huge re-stocking fee if you’re not satisfied with thousand people who auditioned had waited in line for a computer purchase. How Bill Gates doesn’t love his hours, and some had even slept in line for days. These customers the way that Dell Schanze does. He trashes were people who had no idea whether the show would Dell and Gateway because he bench tests his product ever be successful enough to draw an audience beyond against theirs and has the data to prove that his the contestants’ friends and families. But they had been computer is far superior. (Dell and Gateway have both willing to give hours and days of their time in the hope of sent legal notices, but haven’t been able to muzzle him.) making their dreams come true. He’s so confident in the quality of his product that he Only thirty of those ten thousand made it onto the air, and offers $1,000 to anyone who can show him bench-test despite how dejected and frustrated the other 9,970 results proving there’s a better PC out there than Totally people were, sure as nuts, they would watch the Awesome’s. premiere of American Idol. Sure as nuts, those 9,970 people would also tell every friend and family member: “I But many advertising experts claim that Totally Awesome was this close to making it onto American Idol.” This is has it all wrong. Dell Schanze doesn’t know what what I call face-to-face attention. It’s in-person, and it’s advertising is. He doesn’t know what branding is. He’s buzz in its purest form. making it up as he goes along.

Jay Leno: The power of attention – face-to-face Yes, he is. But it works. attention. Ask Jay Leno. Leno stops to shake just about every hand and sign every autograph. Why? Because he knows the power of face-to-face attention. He Why? First, his advertising doesn’t sound like subscribes to a mantra of Lyndon Johnson’s “One advertising. Usually when people hear commercials, handshake is worth 250 votes.” In order to maintain his they stop listening. But people who write him letters 44 percent rating lead over the next closest late night claim they look forward to every new commercial of his competitor, Leno operates on a marketing diet of hard (there’s a new set every week), and that it’s inspirational. work and as much face-to-face as he can squeeze in, For Dell Schanze, the purpose of his advertising is not to doing more than a hundred live appearances a year sell stuff – it’s to have fun. outside of The Tonight Show. If you ever shake Jay’s hand, you’ll probably tell all your friends and family, and His marketing philosophy is contrarian but simple. The you can imagine them telling their friends and family, more you shout, “Buy stuff from us, buy stuff from us!” adding up to Lyndon Johnson’s 250 people quite quickly. the more people push their big Ignore button. They stop paying attention to your advertising. Selling Custom Made Computers: In 1996, a man named Dell Schanze sold a computer that he had built Innocently enough, the real secret is that he’s not himself. He began building and selling more but was creating advertising, he’s creating content.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 59 He’s come a long way from that first-month advertising the industry leader and a lightning rod for Hollywood’s on radio, when he spent $900 and sold forty-eight wrath, bearing the legal costs for the industry almost computers. Now he spends $54,000 a month on entirely on his company’s shoulders. advertising and sells $2 million to $3 million worth of computers. Yet even with such an increase in Aho chose the latter. Yes, it would be expensive. Yes advertising, his biggest source of customers is still word they would have to withstand bolts of legal lightning from of mouth. Three-quarters of his customers come from Hollywood lawyers. But it was also an opportunity to get word of mouth. And word-of-mouth marketing is the most people talking about the ClearPlay brand, and get the powerful form of marketing on earth. media writing about the ClearPlay brand. Just like Apple in 1984, it was time to take risks – a financial risk, a People want honesty in advertising, people want personal risk. Aho saw the opportunity and consciously entertainment, and people want creative content. made the decision to take the lead role and fight the entire entertainment industry. ClearPlay: Bill Aho started a company called Clear Play. Our entertainment today comes loaded with images and Imagine proposing a marketing budget devoted entirely language that used to be for the locker room and the to legal fees. That’s what ClearPlay went for: a barroom – and unacceptable anywhere else. And while marketing budget not devoted to advertising but to many people take it all in stride, many others don’t – not keeping its attorneys in cigars and caviar. just as a matter of protecting the young’uns. They Unconventional and risky, yes. Most executives would themselves feel assaulted by what to them is too much be fired. swearing, sex, and violence, and choose to live in a more pure world. For a lot of folks, though, this presents a But a funny common denominator to buzz is this: In dilemma: They miss seeing many highly praised films foresight, it’s viewed as ludicrous. In hindsight, it’s that everybody else is talking about. It just doesn’t seem viewed as brilliant. fair. ClearPlay offers a solution: a ClearPlay-enabled DVD player can be programmed by the user so the family can watch movies in a whole new way. Offering a variety Start messing with constitutional rights and Americans of options, it allows the user to filter out any combination get ornery. And ClearPlay capitalized on this. They of graphic violence, full nudity, partial nudity, crude started pointing the finger at guys driving $200,000 cars language, explicit drug use, ethnic and social slurs, and as the ones trying to take away your constitutional rights. so on – in all, offering fourteen different filtering Make a claim like that and the media starts writing! categories to choose from. ClearPlay hired a PR firm to push this message and the press paid attention. As the PR firm leveraged this message again and again, it gained ink in the Wall Street Steven Spielberg, Martin Scorsese, and twelve other Journal, Forbes, USA Today, and Time, and rode the directors – the entertainment industry’s movie director airwaves of four hundred TV reports in outlets like Fox elite, represented by the Hollywood-based Director’s News, plus Jay Leno’s monologue on The Tonight Guild of America (DGA) – were about to sue every player Show. The David-and-Goliath story never gets old. in the filtering industry for copyright infringement. In essence they were saying, “Alter our movies in any way and you’re tampering with artistic integrity, and we’ll Imagine proposing to operate a business with a come after you with a vengeance.” And that’s exactly marketing budget comprised almost entirely of legal, PR, what they were doing. lobbying fees, and pushing buttons. One hundred percent devoted to capturing media attention but completely ad-less – and with no familiar marketing. Bill Aho knew he had an opportunity. Most CEOs would You’d be laughed at. Buzzmarketing is a practice. When cringe at the thought of being sued by eight movie studios and wealthy directors like Steven Spielberg, a done well, buzz works. man who makes more in three months than Aho had made in his entire life. But Aho understood the fundamentals of buzz.

Controversy makes a good new story. Every reporter 15 More Quick Examples from “The loves a ripe David-vs.-Goliath brouhaha (as we saw in Secrets of Word-of-Mouth Marketing” by “The Second Secret – Capture Media”). He knew he had George Silverman: the ingredients of buzz and innately understood that buzz was a much better way to launch a brand than with advertising. 1. Lexus Automobiles: Lexus regularly conducts open houses of its customers. During a recall, they contacted each customer individually and arranged A fork in the road. CEO Aho faced two choices: Avoid to fix the car in the customer's driveway or the the controversy, play it low-key, and keep legal costs to a parking lot of the customer's business. Lexus has an minimum. Or go from an unrecognized industry player to extraordinary customer-satisfaction program that

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 60 directly causes word of mouth. It includes sending hear each other's reactions. He posted a copy of his multipage questionnaires to its customers, which not game on a freeware Web site on May 3, 1999. He only assess customer satisfaction, but also lead invited people to try it for free, and then forward it to customers to the awareness of how satisfied they as many friends as possible so they could all play are. But the word of mouth that I've been hearing together. This triggered a speed of light chain lately is that their dealers re undoing much of what reaction. In 24 hours the program was downloaded the company has created. I got rid of my Lexus by 2,800 people in 46 countries from mostly because of dealer dissatisfaction. If you think www.rogerwilco.com. In 30 days, it spread to that only a high profit, luxury car company can afford 100,000 people. At that rate it could spread to a such a customer satisfaction program, then how do million people in a matter of months. Presumably, a you explain Saturn? substantial fraction of these people can be converted 2. The Saturn Car company: Saturn has a car club, into paying customers eventually. and the way the company has built its customers into 8. Geocities (bought by Yahoo! for $4 billion in stock) a "family" is nothing short of miraculous. Saturn even has home page for more than 4 million users conducts a nationwide barbecue for all its 9. The eBay auction site requires both buyers and customers, some of whom drive thousands of miles sellers. If you are a seller, it's in your interest to get not to miss it. What do they talk about? Among other as many people interested as possible. One of the things, how much they love their cars. Let’s look at reasons that people tell others about eBay is that one of the great mysteries of the modern age. In they want to have the maximum number of people 1999, why did 60,000 people drive their plain Saturn participating. sedans to Spring Hill, Tennessee to meet the people 10. Instant messaging software is a perfect example who made them? What car could possibly be less of viral marketing, since your friends or colleagues interesting than a Saturn? The annual Saturn have to be on the same software. Examples are AOL Homecoming was a great word of mouth marketing instant messenger, ICQ (reportedly used by more strategy. But it wouldn’t have worked if people didn’t than 35 million people, bought by AOL for $400 trust and respect Saturn. People really liked the million) and Microsoft's MSN Messenger service. company. They liked its attitude. They felt taken care 11. Napster, a way of networking people's hard drives of by the nice salespeople and the company’s no- so that they can share music has spread so fast in haggle concept. They were amazed when they got a only a few months that it has threatened the entire friendly note twice a year with instructions on how to recording industry and appeared on the cover of adjust their car’s clock for daylight savings time. So Newsweek. they told their friends. They went the extra mile. 12. Third Voice gives away a program that lets people They supported the company that supported them. attach the equivalent of sticky notes onto web pages, 3. Harley-Davidson: Harley conducts events around so that other users of the program can see them so the country, often with the company's top executives that other users of the program can see them. This attending, of course on their own "Hogs." lets people attach comments, criticisms, wisecracks, 4. Celestial Seasonings Herbal Tea: During its first and other messages to other people's websites, years, the company's president, Mo Siegel, enclosed much to the consternation of the web sites. But you a note in each box of tea. His message was that it have to have the software to read the comments. was a small company that could not afford to 13. Gizmoz, from something called the Viral Casting advertise. He asked that people tell their friends Network gives little animated mini-presentations that about his wonderful herbal teas or, better yet, to people can paste onto their websites, email to serve it to their friends. He said, "We have spent all friends, put on greeting cards, etc. They are catching kinds of money on fancy advertising, but all of our on like wildfire, but they're difficult to describe. Look marketing research shows that the most important at them on gizmoz.com driver of our business is word of mouth, particularly 14. There are multiple free fax services that attach an word of mouth about our packaging." ad at the bottom of the fax. Some of the services are 5. The Internet: The Internet is probably the most ifax.com, efax.com and jfax.com. important communications advance in human 15. There are numerous e-greeting card companies history--arguably even more important than the springing up. Every time someone gets one, he is printing press, whose products (books) could be likely to get hooked and send one on to someone used only by the elite until relatively recent times. else, with just one click. The Internet took off almost entirely on its own through word of mouth. It is a truly democratic phenomenon, owned and controlled by no one Case Study: Ski Store entity. It took off with no marketing, just people telling people, telling people. Put principles into action - Let's take the ski store 6. Viral Marketing on the Internet mentioned previously as a case study. Regard the 7. Roger Wilco: Adam Frankl invented a game called example as allegorical. It applies not only to all types of Roger Wilco, which is a fighter pilot game that can retail establishments, but also to any type of business be played across the Internet with others around the that deals with large numbers of people. It even applies world. Users can link up into conference calls and to whole product lines. Use it to stretch your thinking.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 61 The object of a word of mouth campaign is to get people An important note on free gifts: who do talking about what a wonderful "shop" you have. Here is you select to give freebies to?: what a word of mouth program might look like: o An affiliation program - Form a ski club or  again: people who are equally balanced between otherwise make people a member of an inner circle you and people who would be receiving the freebie. of preferred customers. Issue cards or stickers and if you have a weak connection with them then they’ll give people member benefits mostly centered give it out just to help friends - if you have a strong around WOM referrals. Memberships would entitle connection with them, they’re likely to find people them to discounts and various events. that are a great fit. You want to give them to people o Events - Hold a seminar on how to ski better. Use who want to see you succeed as much as they want video showings, speakers, and demos in the store to help their friends. People who you trust genuinely and on the slopes. Give priority to word of mouth have your best interests at heart. referrals.  People who can speak with authority on what you do o A specific WOM appeal in every communication.  If you’re not as close to the person - you might only Put handouts into bags and pass out flyers that give maybe 5 freebies to them. mention the kind of store you have, what you stand for and why you are different from other stores. Make a direct appeal to tell a friend. Offer special to Give Them a Taste tell friends such as a discount for both the members and the friend. Robert Middleton o Testimonials - Use endorsements from well known www.actionplan.com skiers. o Internet - set up a site with a discussion group and an ask the expert (you) Q and A session. This eZine is the fourth in the series of steps that make o Empowerment - Empower employees to do over- up the marketing process. Experience is the step that the top things, especially to turn around a follows Familiarity and Information. However, first let's dissatisfied customer. review all the steps: o Advisory group - Form an advisory group of particularly plugged in people. Meet with them for a When you start marketing, every prospect is a Stranger. half hour to an hour by conference call every month or two. They can advise you about what new Your first marketing task is to create Affiliations with products they have seen or what promotions you can Strangers through groups and associations. Your next run. job is to get their Attention through a focused marketing o Network - Use your own word of mouth to network message. Then you need to develop Familiarity with your with other ski store owners on a regular basis. Set prospects so they feel comfortable with you. And the up a regular conference call or internet discussion next-to-last step is providing Information that educates group with non-competetive, forward thinking people. your prospects about what you do and how you can help You can tell each other what new products are hot, them. or brainstorm ideas for bringing in new customers. Don't underestimate your own peer word of mouth The purpose of all these marketing activities is to get o Special sales - Run sales that are for preferred prospects up to "Second Base," where they are ready to customers only, but allow those customers to bring a meet with you and explore doing business with you. friend. Therefore the entire sale is by word of mouth Often just getting them to Familiarity or Information is referral only. enough. But not always. o Referrals - Ask for referrals. Ask people for the names of their friends to add to their mailing list. Giving prospects more of an Experience or taste of what Base the appeal on the notion that by telling them you do and what it means to them, is often necessary. about limited special offers not generally advertised, With this Experience, a prospect is often ready to take they are doing their friend a favor. the next step and engage in the selling process. o Random Give Aways: A restaurant gives away all food during the main dinner hour on a random It's important to realize that a prospect doesn't usually get Monday, it's the slowest day. But no one knows very interested, let alone excited, about using your which Monday! (or to translate it to another business services, until they have a deeper sense of who you are - Why not cut $200 off your budget and give away a and what you can do for them. Giving them an random set of skis every month?) Experience accomplishes this.

What kind of Experience am I talking about?

A live presentation, an executive briefing, a telephone

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 62 consultation, a teleclass, a video, or an audio recording are all effective mediums for providing this Experience. I've simply expanded my reach with email and this eZine. I now offer one or two teleclasses a month to those who The Experience step provides that last missing piece already have Information and are ready for an between Information and Second Base. And one reason Experience. Those who attend are the ones who is because it gives more of an emotional connection purchase my products and programs. between you and your prospect. As they say, it's not rocket science! Note that most of these Experience-oriented marketing activities are interactive, not static. They are deeper and Are you stopping your marketing before you get to the less superficial; they are dynamic, not one-dimensional. Experience step? Big mistake. Build the Experience step When a prospect has an authentic Experience of you, into all your marketing and I predict you will attract more they are drawn towards you. They are more willing to clients with a lot less effort. take the next step. Next week: How to use The Follow-Up step to convert In many cases, you need to create a multi-step marketing even more prospects to clients. process that includes all the steps above, culminating in an Experience-based marketing activity. And then you The More Clients Bottom Line: To get the best results simply follow-up with those who show interest in taking from marketing, you need to follow a process that moves the next step. In other cases, you already have many prospects from Stranger to Experience. If you adhere to prospects who are further along the process, such as this path faithfully, you'll find marketing easier and whole long-term prospects, past and existing clients. For these, lot more productive. you can create an Experience-based marketing activity and get results almost immediately. What Experience-based marketing activities have you found effective in your business? Please share on the In the first situation, a scenario might go something like More Clients Blog. this: Meet through networking, discuss your business, connect regularly, provide information, add to your mailing list, send an invite to a presentation or teleclass. How to Stimulate Word of Mouth In the second situation, all you need to do is send the invitation to prospects who are already at the Information Advertising step. Over the years, I've seen this work amazingly well. www.dankennedy.com

Two clients I worked with were introducing new services. Just to refresh your memory, we're talking about stimulating business by using word of mouth strategies For the first, we put together an introductory workshop in and in your previous Success Marketing Strategy I spoke their conference room. They mailed an invite and did about one method to accomplish this, which is called follow-up calls. They filled two events in a matter of days "Slice of Life." and converted many attendees into clients for the new service. Far better though is real word of mouth advertising and there is a single, basic secret to stimulating a high rate of The second client, an established management word-of-mouth advertising. I first discovered the secret consultant, had been certified in a new program. Simply from studying the Disney Companies. by calling past clients and meeting with them to introduce this service, he had more business than he could handle Word-of-mouth marketing is taught there as "find ways to in a just few weeks. do what you do so well and so uniquely that your customers cannot resist telling lots of other people about The mistake I see all too often is that we get prospects you." At the Disney Parks this principle is implemented in up to Information, put them on an eZine or newsletter list the forms of cleanliness and authenticity. and then wait for them to call us. Great if they do, but by adding that Experience step, you can convert a larger When first time visitors to Disneyland and Disney World percentage of prospects into clients much faster. are surveyed and asked what sticks in their mind most about their visit the overwhelming number one answer is I've been doing this for years - even before the Internet. the cleanliness of the parks. The number two answer is I developed a list of Independent Professionals through the authenticity of the environments. my contacts with the chamber of commerce and other networking. I mailed a newsletter twice monthly and sent Disney marketing pros then understand how this monthly postcards inviting people to introductory events. translates into real life. Harry and Marge go back to Those who attended were the ones I followed up with Dubuque and tell their friends, "You can't believe how and turned into clients. clean the parks were." Then four more families from

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 63 Dubuque pile money into motor homes and bring the money to the mouse. Merilyn enters followed by the man you’ve come to see, presumably Dr Paddi Lund. Because they understand this, the Disney people think of park cleanliness as marketing, not just maintenance. They use this to stimulate referrals. Any business can “ Theodore Please meet Dr Lund.” also find ways to stimulate referrals. To stimulate word- of-mouth advertising often by doing things that should be “Hi, Theodore” he says, looking you in the eye and done anyway. extending his hand as you stand from your chair, “Please call me Paddi…” (Performance Standard) In a retail type business excellence and creativity in the store environment and in customer service are most And after a brief exchange, “May I please sit down?” asks likely to stimulate referrals. I know a dentist, for example, Paddi. (Performance Standard) who ten timesed his practice in just twenty-four months without increasing his external ad budget by even a “Yes, of course!” you return immediately, thinking how dollar. He identified seven hundred different things to polite and considerate everyone is. change in the office environment and in patient communications and those changes were responsible for And after another brief exchange, Paddi points to your developing a very high level of word-of-mouth silver service and tea or coffee. advertising. “Oohh, that looks nice. Can I please share a cup of tea Now this brings up a vitally important theme that should with you?” he asks quite genuinely. (This too is a be behind all your marketing efforts which I'll reveal in Performance Standard that Paddi uses with most new just a few days in your next Success Marketing Strategy. clients – it’s a good thing he really likes tea!)

“Yes, I’d be happy to,” you reply.

Paddi quickly slides out of his chair before you have a How Am Australian Dentist chance to pour him some tea. He gets down on one knee Creates An Extraordinary in front of you (Performance Standard) while he picks up the third cup that Merilyn brought in on the silver tray Experience: (Performance Standard).

“Why don’t I go and find Dr Lund, then?” Merilyn says As he’s pouring his cup, he asks would you like a top up. standing. (She’s referred to “Dr Lund” a few times during (Or another if you’re out – also, if the tea isn’t hot, or has your talk. been sitting too long, or isn’t full enough, he’ll ask Merilyn for a fresh pot of tea. Merilyn has been busying herself You’ve been talking with Merilyn for about 20 minutes just outside the door with that in mind.) now, getting to know each other in your very first visit to Patrick Lund Dental Happiness. If it’s your first visit, normally your first chat with Paddi is only a brief one – just long enough for you to share food “Please enjoy your tea and Dental Buns and I’ll be back and drink and to get to know him as personable and in a moment,” she continues walking out the door. human. Curiously, Merilyn closed the door on her way out, but left it cracked open about an inch. (That’s one of their Only when he sees that you are comfortable and feel in Performance Standards – more on that in a moment – control does he talk dentistry or suggest you go through nothing is left to chance in Paddi’s practice.) to the surgery area.

As you sit in the lounge, you notice a puzzle on the table ~ The Significance of What Just Happened ~ next to you – not a picture puzzle, but a brain teasing one with wooden parts that slide and colours you have to The exchange and sequence of events described above match up. You pick it up and try your hand. (Paddi has is repeated with little variation for pretty much every new deliberately placed a variety of different puzzles like this client at Paddi’s practice. I can’t stress its importance one around the practice. Clients don’t “wait” in Paddi’s enough. practice … ever. They are always occupied with something.) This part of Paddi’s customer experience has been so perfectly choreographed for very good reason, so I After a few moments, there’s a knock at your door. thought it wise to take a moment to explain some of the (Another Performance Standard) depth of Paddi’s thinking.

“Come in…” you instinctively say. (That’s why they As you’ve already read, Trust is vital for Paddi. So almost knock, so that you say those words.) everything he does – referrals, Welcome Book, Care

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 64 Nurses, Tea, Lounges, and this sequence – is designed few of them and how they impact the customer to build strong bonds of trust very quickly. When people experience in Paddi’s practice. are educated about what you do, trust you, and feel in control, they tend to make buying decisions more easily Now, before I do, I really should say that Paddi doesn't and will stick to their bargains. like talking about the dental-specific aspects of his practice very much. Dentists tend to hold on very strong In Paddi’s sequence above, the trust building inflection to their personal views and clinical preferences. Paddi points and Performance Standards are, would much rather talk about business philosophy and serving customers. He finds that so much more exciting. o Leaving the door cracked (so that you don’t feel locked in) So Paddi has given me permission to tell you about some o Knocking on the door till you say, “Come in.” of the clinical aspects of his business, but please o Paddi looking you in the eye, saying your name consider them as just one dentist’s view and not as a and shaking your hand warmly. prompt to enter into any clinical debates. o Paddi saying right off the bat, “Please call me Paddi,” (after Merilyn constantly referred to "Dr A peak inside Paddi’s Treatment Rooms Lund") thereby raising your status to equal that of his own. They’re a bit hard to miss, the TV’s hanging from the o Sharing your Tea or Coffee and Dental Buns. ceiling directly above the patient area. And of course that, o On one knee in front of you serving your tea. too, is by design, in keeping with Paddi’s penchant for choreographing the customer experience.

Now, before you pass these steps off as hokey or Entertaining patients during treatment is somewhat contrived, please understand that they are a natural part commonplace now, but when Paddi first installed 15in of your experience and they don’t feel “put on” at all. TV’s on his ceiling some 25 years ago (quite an Clients respond to this dialogue very well, in large part engineering feat at the time) it was revolutionary! It also because the Referral System and Welcome Book System made for a fabulous story for customers to tell – one of have already prepared them to expect something Paddi’s first Super CNes. completely different. The second thing that strikes you about the surgery area Paddi has discovered there are distinct principles is there’s no dental chair. Well, at least the piece of involved in building trust in a commercial environment – furniture in its place doesn’t look like the high-tech, eight of them in fact. Paddi calls these principles the motorised, adjust-in-36-ways dental chair gismos you’ve "Foundation Stones of the Tower of Trust". Paddi seen before discusses the "Tower of Trust" in detail in the Advanced . Manual, “The Secret World of Customers Who Love to “Have a lay down here Theodore and let’s get you Pay”, but you can see a quick preview of these principles comfortable,” says Merilyn gesturing toward what Paddi at: calls his Dental Bed. http://www.solutionspress.com.au/page.asp?nid=dyzltpp &name=TowerTrust Sidebar on typical dental capital costs

With that, I’ll sign off for this issue. However, in the next few days you might have a think about how your Now most people ask, “What the heck is a Dental Bed?” customers are introduced to your business. How quickly so I should probably explain. do you generate strong bonds of trust? Or do you at all? The dental chairs and surgery equipment you typically If you don’t recognise that as a common trait, you might see in dental practices around the world are quite explore how systematising trust (like Paddi has) can expensive to setup. It’s not uncommon for dentists to shorten your sales cycles and build stronger bonds with spend up to $150,000 or more when you take into customers. account furniture, equipment, instruments, plumbing, installation, etc. And that’s just for one surgery. Some *** practices have several per dentist.

The first thing you notice walking into one of Paddi’s But when Paddi first started out in dentistry, he didn’t dental surgeries (treatment areas) for the first time is that have any money, and with parents who grew up in the it’s different from anything you’ve ever seen before. Depression, he didn’t believe in borrowing! (Surprised?) Today he has a lovely building, but when Paddi started Not that you wouldn’t recognise it as a treatment area, his practice during the mid ‘70s it was in the bottom floor but there are a hundred subtle differences that would of a converted house on a main road in a working class stand out to the observant eye. I’d like to tell you about a

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 65 suburb of Brisbane. (Did I say the house was as cheap slightly so that you’re positioned just where Paddi has the as they came, or was that obvious?) best access to your mouth, with the back of your neck Paddi invited his parents to live upstairs, and Paddi’s resting on the lovely and warm pre-heated wheat bag father, Vic, (who had power tools!) helped Paddi with all pillow. the construction, plumbing and electrical. In those early heady days when there was no money in the bank, it And that’s when you start to look around the room, past wasn’t uncommon for Paddi and Vic to be at the practice the TV on the ceiling, to see and experience a host of by 5am hammering, drilling and sawing till the first other Critical Non-Essentials, a level of care and attention patients arrived at 8am, only for Paddi to start on the to detail that you never before thought possible in a tools again after the last patient left at 7pm to sneak in dental business. another 5hrs or so of construction before collapsing into bed – oh, the vigour of youth! In the next issue of the Paddi Pages I’ll describe the important ones in full detail. Until then, you might As a consequence, when it came time to setting up the consider how Paddi’s experience relates to your original dental treatment areas, Paddi was both business. financially desperate and just handy enough with the tools to consider different alternatives to the traditional, Does your industry have a convention like the “dental expensive, dental setup. chair” – an expensive piece of capital equipment that everyone seems to have but that might not be as Thus, the Dental Bed was an invention born of necessity important to your customers as it in that environment. is to your colleagues?

To describe it simply, it’s a narrow steel frame bed Perhaps there’s a “dental bed” alternative hiding there for (cushioned and upholstered) on which patients simply lay you, too? If you have any stories of a striking paradigm down flat. It’s permanently reclined. It doesn’t move, shift away from industry norms that dramatically changed adjust, raise or lower. It has no moving parts. All told, the basis of your business, I’d love to hear about it. Paddi paid a local cabinet maker about $500 each to weld the frames together – a fraction of the costs of So you’re laying comfortably on the Dental Bed, the normal dental chairs, even back in 1980! warm pre-heated wheat bag pillow comforting under your neck, and as Merilyn and Paddi prepare to get started, To this day Paddi has never had a customer complain you notice more Critical Non-Essentials and a level of that he didn’t have a traditional dental chair. They often care and attention to detail you’ve never before thought give the dental bed a second look, but once they’ve lain possible in a dental business. down it’s of no consequence. As you look around the surgery, you see… But that’s not the important part of the story. o The TV just above your head is already playing At the time, the dental bed wasn’t Paddi’s preference, – it’s an old cartoon, yes, an episode of “Felix more a matter of financial necessity. But some very the Cat” if you remember correctly. interesting things cascaded from Paddi’s solution to this o More bouquets of fresh flowers on a shelf on the pecuniary problem. wall. o More tasteful original paintings on the walls – As a consequence of the bed and hence the patient Mrs Lund was prolific! being stationary, so too was everything else in the o A lovely wooden hand mirror – Paddi gets you surgery (light, instruments, associated furniture, etc). It involved in the treatment later. dramatically simplified the surgery setup. o Paddi has put on a plastic mask – yea, no bad breath like other places. And as a result of that, the capital costs associated with o Plus he’s wearing what looks like little the surgeries in Paddi’s new building were considerably microscopes on his eyes – he explains they’re less than what other dentists had to endure – roughly called ‘loops’ and help him to see very closely 20% of the costs associated with traditional treatment into your teeth. rooms. And that of course made a huge difference to Paddi’s cost base and financial overheads. Merilyn positions the light to illuminate your mouth but not enough to shine directly in your eyes. Still, Not that Paddi is advocating Dental Beds to anyone Merilyn then asks, these days – for all the money he saved, making the beds was a lot of mucking around. They still work well for “We have sunglasses to help keep the light and any him and his patients, and make great business sense. moisture out of your eyes during treatment, which would you prefer?” showing you a sports style and a Back to the Dental Surgery designer style, putting on your choice of sunglasses for you. As you lay down, Merilyn asks you to move up the bed

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 66 Instantly Merilyn has something else in her hand. “Check,” responds Paddi.

“I have some special cream here for your lips so they And just like pilots in a commercial jet aircraft, don’t get dry or cracked. Can I put some on for you?” Merilyn and Paddi run down a list of some 20 or more items. It’s a deliberate show of theatre. Most How can you say no? dentists check for many these things in a passing glance, but Paddi created this and the other Critical Then Merilyn hands you a little grey box with a big Non-essentials in the treatment room to help red button on top that she positions under your demonstrate that he really is good at what he does – thumb. the dentistry.

“This is a Control Box,” she explains. “If ever you are The Complete Examination Checklist is a great uncomfortable or in pain, press the button and Paddi system (and CNe) that lets people know Paddi’s will stop immediately.” checking everything, and not surprisingly patients are often very interested in the answers Paddi gives. The Control Box is one of Paddi's more unusual and effective ideas. Most everyone presses it once for When Merilyn asks, “Do any teeth need root canal fun and to see what will happen, and then doesn't treatment?” really need it anymore. Paddi’s aim has been achieved. The customer feels at ease and in At this point most customers interject to offer their complete control. It builds more trust, makes the best clinical opinion, “No, no, no. Please, no!!!” customer more relaxed, and therefore makes the dentistry go much more smoothly and quickly. And the Complete Examination continues. By the end, you can imagine you might be wondering The Control Box (formerly known as the Stress whether your previous dentists were as thorough as Beeper) usually finds its way into the stories clients Paddi! tell their friends – it’s a great Super CNe! At the end of your Complete Examination (and ~~~~~~~~~~~~ Finally some Dentistry – and assuming you don’t have any immediate problems another great CNe ~~~~~~~~~~~~ that need solving in your first visit) Paddi invites you back to your Personal Lounge to discuss your Now that everyone is set to go, you see Merilyn pick treatment. up a pen and clip board while Paddi now takes over. “Merilyn, would you please see Theodore back to the “ Theodore I wonder if you’d mind if I had a look in personal lounge. Then, Theodore, why don’t we your mouth?” have another cup of tea, shall we?”

You open your mouth, then Paddi waits for a few At which point Merilyn hands you a small rolled hand moments, just having a look. With your comfort in towel. mind, Paddi goes very slowly and tentatively at first. “Here’s a hot towel to clean up and refresh, then As it’s your first visit and this is your initial Complete when you're ready we'll go back to your Personal Examination, that’s exactly what Paddi and Merilyn Lounge.” do. You know you’re having a Complete Examination because you hear the exchange between Paddi and As you unroll the towel, you notice it’s magically Merilyn. warm – not too hot, not too cool – and has a wonderful fresh smell. (It’s been moistened, sprayed “Merilyn, would you run through the Complete with relaxing essential oils and heated for a precise Examination Checklist please,” asks Paddi. time in the microwave in the kitchen.)

“Certainly, Paddi. Jaw Joint?” prompts Merilyn. (Yes, After you’ve freshened up, you follow Merilyn back to they make a point of being this polite.) the Personal Lounge. On the whole, even though you knew to expect something different from your “Looks good,” he says. referring friend, the attention to detail in everything you’ve seen so far has made quite an impression. “Skin and Mucosa?” Plus, Paddi was so careful and attentive during the actual dentistry. “In good shape,” he replies. To say you’re blown away by the level of service and “Lymph Nodes?” attention to detail would be an understatement.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 67 the Lounge, sharing food and drink, and enjoying But then, just when you though you’d seen it all, each other's company. there’s one more room left to see that will surprise you again. After years of studying and thinking about the process of dentistry, Paddi concluded that in its Next issue we’ll take you there and describe its convention form, Dentistry was very much akin to importance in detail. torture!

Until then, think about this: Now, that’s a bold statement, but consider the scene: What do you do when with a customer that sets you apart from your competition? The unfortunate patient (victim!) is in a defenceless prone position in a small closed room (where no one Do you just get in and do the business, or perhaps can see their suffering or hear their screams!), with are there opportunities for a bit of deliberate theatre harsh lights and sharp metal instruments menacingly that will help demonstrate your skill in the core areas present, while a man in a mask inflicts physical of your expertise? damage with motorised drills (or worse!) and, if you’re lucky, long scary needles! *** All the while the dentist (torturer) is cutting and You’ve had your Complete Examination, and at the hacking away, the poor patient can’t talk, can’t end of it Paddi invited you back to your personal communicate. Most bear the pain without even lounge for another cup of tea. screaming, not that anyone would come to their aid if they did! Even worse, patients know in advance Straight away, Paddi maintains the focus on what’s coming and have some time to get worked Dentistry… into a cold sweat with fear.

“So how did you feel about the things that I showed If that’s not like torture, I don’t know what is! you?” he asks, referring back to your Complete Examination. Paddi decided that if his goal were to sell his clients Dental Happiness (remember, he changed his As Paddi discovered things in your mouth he told business name and everything) then he had to find a you about them and quite often put the Hand Mirror way to make the dentistry more pleasant. The TV, in your grasp so that you could see what he was Control Box, CNes, Checklist and other devices talking about. (This is one of Paddi’s interpretations helped, but it wasn’t enough. of a concept called co-discovery that Dr Robert Barkley pioneered in the 70’s. Paddi makes a point So that’s when Paddi decide to take as much focus of involving patients in other ways, too. Involvement off the dentistry as possible; hence the tea, coffee, helps people to feel in control – a vital ingredient in dental buns and Royal Doulton fine bone china on a buying decisions!) silver tray with a silver teaspoon and strainer. At the last count we had 23 kinds of tea to offer. What ensues between you and Paddi is a general discussion of your dental health and a proposed plan But Paddi also discovered that conversations about for how Paddi can address any areas of concern. treatment plans didn’t go all that well in the dental surgery. Oh sure, clients would nod their heads and I won’t go into too much detail about what Paddi agree with almost anything Paddi proposed, but says in that conversation yet. What’s more important wouldn’t you if the person you’re negotiating with has for now is ... why didn’t Paddi talk to you in the a #12 scalpel in their hand!!! surgery like most dentists do??? No, Paddi found that his clients were less likely to To answer that question, you must understand that stick to their bargains if he talked about treatment in in most dental practices... the surgery room, and they were less likely to honour their financial commitments or follow through with ~~~~~ Dentistry is a lot like Torture! ~~~~~ the work. Paddi reasoned that most complaints or bad debts probably had more than a little to do with Do I have your attention? Because this is an clients feeling 'coerced' into treatment in this important point of distinction. intimidating environment.

Paddi never talks to you about your dental health or So, “Communicate in Private, Treat in Public” any future treatment while you’re laying down on the became Paddi’s mantra. “Communicate in Private,” dental bed. He waits till you’re comfortably seated in so that people felt comfortable and in control and were more likely to make good buying decisions.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 68 And “Treat in Public” (in Paddi’s surgery, you can Just when you thought you’d seen it all in Paddi’s see through and around partitions so it feels fairly practice, suddenly you feel an urge that just can’t be open) so that patients don’t feel isolated or alone ignored. And answering that call reveals something and are more relaxed during treatment. else you never thought you’d see at the dentist.

~~~~~ Back to the Personal Lounge ~~~~~ “Excuse me Merilyn. Just before we go back into the Treatment Room ...” you begin a bit tentatively. Your conversation with Paddi is going well. (You’ll remember you’ve had your Complete “And about your back teeth…” begins Paddi. Examination and Paddi has just presented his summary and treatment plan, to which you’ve You interrupt and finish the sentence for him, “Yes, agreed - like the majority of Paddi’s clients in their we’ll need to use gold back there because it is a first visit - and you’re starting that same day.) longer lasting material, it bounces a little when I bite, and it isn't abrasive, so it is much kinder to my “Yes, Theodore, would you like a No-Pain Guarantee opposing teeth.” Card?” (Yes, Paddi has them and mentions them in the Welcome Book, but only 1 person in 10yrs has You know this, of course, because it was in your asked for one!) Welcome Book which you read in detail, anxious to learn about Paddi's unusual practice before your first “Ah, no actually. It’s just that I’ve been here a while visit. now and ... and I wonder if you would show me where the toilets are, please?” "My, you know a lot about dentistry!" Paddi observes! As Merilyn does with all new clients, she advised you to set aside 90mins for your first visit. You’ve been Paddi really likes it when his informed customers tell there a while now, and with all the tea or coffee, it’s him why long-term preventative dentistry is the best no surprise you’ve felt the call of nature. Nearly option. everyone does. That’s somewhat deliberate. You’ll soon see why. For more on how you can educate your clients and predispose them to want what you have to offer, you “Yes of course, Theodore, they’re just down this really must consider Paddi’s “Welcome Book way...” Merilyn gestures down the hall as she guides Construction Kit” where you receive a copy of you towards the wall mural, or trompe l'oiel (French Paddi’s own Welcome Book to help you make a for “to trick the eye”), of a cottage garden – some start. Just follow this link to learn more… clients have tried walking through that wall before! http://www.solutionspress.com.au/page.asp?nid=ggz It’s another one of Elizabeth Lund’s, Paddi’s mum’s, ltpp&name=PracticalKits_WelcomeBookConstruction original works. You recognise the painting because Kit it’s on the front cover of Paddi’s Welcome Book.

Interestingly, because Paddi’s patients are so well At the end of the hall Merilyn guides you to the left filtered, educated and cared for, more than 90% of into what Paddi calls the Gold Bathroom. the customers he asks buy comprehensive treatment in their first visit (and 60% start right then and there)! Here you see more CNe’s (Critical Non-Essentials) in action… That’s a far cry from the time when less than 40% of customers accepted Paddi’s comprehensive (Perhaps you’re beginning to understand just how treatment plans, and it often took weeks or months vital the Critical Non-Essentials are to Paddi’s to start the work. service experience, and why he loves the concept so much!) In the next issue we’ll wrap up your visit to Paddi’s practice and talk a little bit about some of the great o The sign on the door is in lovely script, a lovely stories you’ll have to tell your friends in the coming frame and surrounded by tasteful pressed dried weeks. flowers. o As you walk into the bathroom, on your left you Until then, consider what you can do to make the notice a shower with clean folded towels – a bit experience of your core product or service more strange, but many years ago Paddi offered enjoyable. Are their any ‘sacred cows’ in your clients full body massages to help relax them profession like communicating in the dental chair before major treatment along with track suits to seems to be in dentistry? wear so they wouldn’t crease their clothing! o Like the rest of the building, the colours are *** tasteful and cool, and the incandescent spot lights cast a warm ambient light.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 69 o To your right is the toilet area. It’s simple yet Kind regards, obviously very clean. o There is another trompe l'oiel on the wall – this Fletcher Potanin picture is as if you’re looking out a window on a Managing Director country lane, the frame itself even looks like a window frame. It’s great attention to detail. Solutions Press Business Publishing o In front of you is the basin and wash area. It www.PaddiLund.com too is immaculately clean and gleaming porcelain and gold. INVITATION: Please feel free to share the Paddi o There are more fresh flowers on a dust free Pages with your friends and colleagues by glass shelf above the sink. forwarding this e-mail or telling them about o There are no hand blow dryers or paper towels www.PaddiLund.com where they can subscribe. here ... there are only fresh cloth hand towels – very like the steaming hand towel you had to freshen up after your Complete Examination – rolled up and stacked in a creative way at the side. o And most dramatically, on the glass shelf next to the flowers, are 6 or so bottles of perfume! The good stuff. Some $1500 of expensive French names you recognise. The sign next to them reads, “Please feel free to use the toiletries ... they’re here for you!)

Now, as far as toilets go, this one is not as flash as they come – certainly in the fanciest hotels in the city centre you might find nicer. However, for a service business in a distinctly working class suburb, this one goes way beyond your expectations.

And of course, as you probably realise, that’s just how Paddi designed it. So that you can observe his incredible attention to detail in an area that you do understand (the bathrooms – they’re a universal, you see them everywhere) on the understanding that you will naturally associate that level of care and attention to detail with his professional dental work, of which you probably have very little understanding of quality skill and technical accuracy.

You might wonder at the perfume, though. Why take the risk with such expensive perfume which would be so easy for any of Paddi’s clients to simply slip into their pocket or handbag?

Well, do you remember Paddi’s belief in the power of trust in the buying process? Do you remember the Tower of Trust from Paddi Pages Issue #12 when you first met Paddi? One of the foundation stones is “Demonstrate Trusting”? This is one of the key ways Paddi demonstrates his trust of clients and in return builds their trust in him.

Funnily, we had one client report back that the first thing he did was put expensive perfume in the bathroom ... and it was flogged within the week!!! But then he admitted he realised he need to change lots of things about his practice before his clients were ready to reciprocate that trust!

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 70 Could you use any of these?

17 Free, High-Low (high How would you do this? 1st Steps? impact, low cost) steps you could offer the target to strongly establish your relevance, credibility and value. a very informative & content rich website (check out www.sitesell.com to learn how to create a site that sells) free tele-seminar (telphone based classes that usually last 60 minutes with a lecture or interview featuring an expert speaker followed by a Q&A session) www.freeconferencecall.com www.teleseminarsecrets.com/

live demo

a free ‘buyers guide’

a free & useful diagnostic tool: www.lowimpactliving.com

free sample of your product (pink spoon marketing)

free 1-2 hour workshop

talks at conferences

a free ‘company comparison checklist’ for your industry and region

a free session with you

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 71 free trial of your service

informal ‘cocktails’ event at a bar

a free “special report” or whitepaper about the issue you address (usually 1-20 pages on a highly focused topic)

a blog

an ebook (usually 20-200 pages covering a particular topic in detail)

e-courses (a series of instructional emails on a particular topic - this is often used when people initially sign up for your e-newsletter)

a free e-zine (electronic newsletter - very brief including one or more articles on your topic)

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 72 What are your levels in interaction?

Level What Price Point Free and anonymous (posters on store windows or on walls, free talks, column in paper or magazines, blog, website, youtube video clips).

Free gift that gets permission (do a draw where they write their name, phone and email and there’s a box they can check saying, “add me to your email list”)

Low cost a book, a CD, an e- book, a sample of your product, a package, a free trial

Medium cost

High cost

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 73 How to help your clients spread the word: STEP ONE: STEP TWO: STEP THREE: Ask yourself, “When, What gifts could you give What materials would strengthen the where and how would your clients and friends WOM at the point of conversation they word of mouth to offer to their friends and help you get permission to about your product or cause the conversation to market to them? a special URL (website service happen?” in a bar? arise and generate address), a brochure, an emailable and really valuable top-ten list or article on a relevant topic, a blog, a at the water cooler? in their living interest? time sensitive? limited newsletter they can forward in email or give a hard room? over email? in the doctor’s amount? a free gift? an invitation to a copy of, a fridge magnet (if they conversation is likely office? at the concierge’s desk in a free and very valuable event? to happen in their kitchen then a fridge magnet is hotel? on the bus? in their kitchen? ideal), a business card sized brochure with relevant, valuable and interesting information on it, a sample of your product or service, A DVD they can pass onto their friends

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 74 14 Criteria of a Good Gift: How do your gifts stack up?

GIFT #1: GIFT #2: GIFT #3:

High Perceived Value & Relevance

Low Risk

Easy and Convenient to Pass On

Logical

A Bit Exclusive

Attractive

An Indirect Compliment

Trackable

Underpromise & Overdeliver

Low Cost to You

Put You In Touch

Give You a Chance to Shine

Be Part of a Bigger Plan

Be Attractive and Make Sense to You

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 75 “The Word of Mouth Marketing Manifesto”: by Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz

1. Happy Customers are your best advertising. Make people happy.

2. Marketing is easy. Earn the respect and recommendation of your customers. They will do your marketing for you, for free. 3. Ethics and good service come first.

4. UR the UE; You are the user experience(not what your ads say you are)

5. Negative word of mouth is an opportunity. Listen and learn. 6. People are already talking. Your only option is to join the conversation. 7. Be interesting, or be invisible. 8. If it's not worth talking about, it's not worth doing.

9. Make the story of your company a good one. 10. It is more fun to work at a company that people want to talk about. 11. Use the power of word of mouth to make business treat people better. 12. Honest marketing makes more money.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 76 From: Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz

Step What to Do Examples Your Plan Fans, volunteers, Find people who will talk customers, bloggers, Talkers about you. influencers Special offer, great Give people a reason to service, cool product, Topics talk. silliness, neat ad, new feature Tell-a-friend form, viral Help the message spread email, blogs, handouts, Tools faster and further. samples, message boards, online communities Let staff surf and reply to comments, post on blogs, Taking part Join the conversation join discussions, answer email, offer personal service Search blogs, read Tracking Measure and understand message boards, listen to what people are saying feedback, use advanced measurement tools

THE THREE REASONS PEOPLE TALK ABOUT YOU

The Stuff Feeling Good Feeling Connected

It’s About YOU: The Marketer and It’s About ME: the talker It’s About US: The group of products enthusiasts

They love you (and your stuff) They feel smart They are part of your brand family

They hate you They feel important They are part of a team

You’ve given them something to They want to help people They are insiders talk about

You’ve made it easy for them to talk They want to express themselves about you

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 77 THE FOUR RULES OF WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING - Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz

RULE #1 BE INTERESTING

Nobody talks about boring companies, boring products or boring ads. If you want people to talk about you, you’ve got to do something special. Anything. If you are boring, you’ll never get a moment of conversation. Your word of mouth will fall flat on its face. (Actually, it will just fade away, unnoticed.)

RULE #2 MAKE PEOPLE HAPPY

Happy customers are your greatest advertisers. Thrill them. Create amazing products. Provide excellent service. Go the extra mile. Make the experience remarkable. Fix problems. Make sure the work you do gets people energized, excited and eager to tell a friend.

RULE #3: EARN TRUST AND RESPECT

If you don’t have respect, you don’t get good word of mouth. Nobody talks positively about a company that they don’t trust or like. Nobody puts their name on the line for a company that will embarrass them in front of their friends.

Always be an honorable company. Make ethics part of everything you do. Be good to your customers. Talk to them. Fulfill their needs.

RULE #4: MAKE IT EASY

Word of mouth is easy. You’ve got to help it along if you expect it to go anywhere.

You need to do two things: Find a super-simple message, and help people share it.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 78 Crafting Your WOM Message: o "Did you hear about the ______that ______'s?" o “You know how most ______’s do ______? Well, this one does it ______way instead!” o “You should try ______, it’s ______.” o “Can you believe ______did ______?” o “There’s nothing better than ______for ______.” o “You won’t believe ______.”

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 79 SIXTEEN SURE-THING, MUST-DO, AWFULLY EASY WORD OF MOUTH MARKETING TECHNIQUES Word of Mouth Marketing - Andy Sernovitz

1. Look on the web for people talking about you.

2. Decide who will join those conversations. Start today. 3. Create a blog. 4. Make a new rule: Ask “Is this buzzworthy?” in every meeting.

5. Come up with one buzzworthy topic. Keep it simple. 6. Put something by your front door that will remind people to talk to a friend. 7. Let your talkers sign up for a private newsletter. 8. Pick one easy way to track word of mouth.

9. Put a tell-a-friend form on every page of your website. 10. Put a special offer in an easily forwardable email.

11. Add a small gift and a word of mouth tool to every package you sell.

12. Have a private sale for your talkers. 13. Apologize for mistakes and solve problems fast. 14. Partner with a charity.

15. Do something unexpected. 16. Be nice.

Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 80 Word of Mouth Strategy Workshop - Radical Business Intensive - www.tadhargrave.com 81