Word of Mouth Referrals are NOT a Business Strategy (+what to do instead)
Cat’s out of the bag. I said it.
I am sticking a flag on the unpopular side of the business bandwagon when I say this, but I mean it with everything I’ve got:
Relying ONLY on word of mouth referrals is NOT a business strategy.
It’s not sustainable or intentional and it’s entirely passive. If you are a business who is relying SOLELY on word of mouth referrals, one day you will wake up to some harsh realities. It may not be now, or even next year, but one day, you’ll wake up and….
We want to be proactive, not reactive in business. That doesn’t mean that we need to be intense, or in sales mode 24/7, or slimy in any way. It means that we DO have to be intentional. We have to be driving the ship and not lose focus on the goals we set for our future while making strides every day towards making them a reality.
This post is inspired by two things.
One: This is a pain point I see all the time in our clients journey- “where did everyone go!?”. The word of mouth referrals dry up and they don’t know where to start to build a marketing plan.
Two: A brilliant woman I met with last week: Celina Guerrero. Based in California, Celina is an amazing woman to speak with–super inspirational and insightful when it comes to sales + LinkedIn among many other things. One of the points we discussed was the business who builds it all on word of mouth referrals. I’ll let her run the summary as she did it with such aplomb in her recent LinkedIn post that I can’t hope to do it better:
“When you rely on referrals, you rely on others to grow your business.
I love referrals! I want referrals.
But...
When you put in the effort to do more coordinated marketing and 1:1 outreach -- what I like to call a "Make Yourself Known" strategy, you:
1. Increase control by...cultivating more opportunities -- which allows you to only accept right-fit / high-profit clients
2. Increase growth by...Attracting and serving more clients thereby, increasing total revenue
Making Yourself Known - thorough marketing and active relationship building takes effort (and sometimes discomfort) -- but it makes ALL the difference.” - Celina Guerrero
Nailed it, Celina.
You can’t rely on others to grow your business. Because what inevitably happens, is that when the well runs dry, you low key panic, then really panic, and then try to throw every marketing tactic you read about or thought might work, or mayyybe has the best ROI? at the wall in the hopes that something will bring back your leads.
It’s not sustainable and I don’t want that for you! I bet you don’t either but might not have a clear picture of how to begin doing things differently.
So what can we do to break the cycle of referral reliance? I’ve got a few places to start to boost your marketing efforts and sales outreach.
Start With a Strategy
Build a solid marketing plan. This foundational piece of your “getting found” plan is an invaluable tool that you can’t afford to skip.
Focus on your ideal clients, their burning pain, and the way you overcome those in your business in everything. Build content that supports this and sprinkle it where they hang out and spend the majority of your time. Get eyeballs on your content!
Then Focus on the Vehicles of Delivery
Will you blog? Is social your strong suit? What channels are active and are ones that you can deliver on CONSISTENTLY? Now Venn Diagram this with the places that your people actually are (see above)- that place is where you need content and reach. Start there.
Whatever you do MUST, MUST be consistent. You can’t have a blip or power outage with your delivery. You’ll be rewarded for staying steady from the Google gods and from your clients and prospects. This boosts trust, authority AND SEO if it’s on your website. It matters.
Execute on these with Intention & Focus
You can’t run ads, do social and maybe throw in a podcast and be any good at most of it, or any of it, really. Stay focused and start in one place, get really good, then expand.
Put the blinders on. I don’t care if the world is telling you you need to do Reels, you DON’T need to if your people are not on IG (see above). Stay true to what you know, what your strategy and goals are for your business, and stay the course (within reason).
Rinse and Repeat with Tracking.
Once one channel is up and running and optimized, start another. Remember slow and steady wins the race, but you must market yourself. You cannot rely on others to do the work for you. If you aren’t assertively marketing your business, you have accidental success-and that can run out at any time. You are the ultimate inertia in your business. Overcome the urge to stagnate!
You’re tracking your data right? You can’t possibly know if your money is being well spent, if your ads are working, or if your contractor is worth their weight in gold or in cotton balls. You need a baseline and without data tracking the lights are literally out in your business. Start today!
Start with the tip at the top of the list and keep going. All too often we think that “sales” and “marketing” are only one thing. They 100% are not. They can be executed in whatever way that is true to your unique business and your style of being a human and on YOUR schedule AND still work really, really well. Much better than the boom or bust referral cycle, every time. I promise.
Need help with this stuff? Let us know and we’d be happy to help you expand your reach authentically with proven tools and methods that work.
