Brian Tracy explains the importance and mechanics of generating customer referrals and the outsized impact of word-of-mouth—both positive and negative. He cites statistics about dissatisfied customers (90% won't return; each tells ~9 others, amplifying to ~45 affected people) to emphasize risk, then offers tactical guidance: actively ask for referrals (aim for 2–3 per sale), request them when a customer is emotionally positive (closing), follow up within one day with a thank-you note or email, call to report results, and send a gift scaled to the referral-sized sale (example: for a $1,000 sale send a $20–$50 gift). The video ends with a channel subscription prompt.
Chapters
One of the most powerful determinants of the future success of your business is the little understood phenomenon of word of mouth communication. Fully 90% of dissatisfied customers will not do business again with a company that fails to meet their expectations. The same study also concluded that on average, each dissatisfied customer will share his or her dissatisfaction with at least nine other people. What this means is that the dissatisfaction of just one disgruntled customer ends up poisoning the minds of 45 other people. And today it's even worse because people can get onto the email and put complaints on. Email that can go to thousands or millions of people and you didn't even know what happened. Referrals do not just happen. Waiting for the phone to ring is a lousy marketing strategy. If you want to build a pipeline of referrals, you must create it yourself. This means that you must ask for them. That's right, ask. And your most productive source of referrals to start with is your existing customer or prospect list. The closing of a sale is often accompanied by an emotional high for your new customer, and this is a wonderful time to ask for referrals. With each step that your customer takes with you, your new customer becomes more and more involved in the process and subconsciously more committed to actually helping you. Your goal should be to leave with two or three referrals from each sale, and if you're selling online, it should be to ask for referrals and give bonuses and prizes. Do everything possible to get people to to send it to a friend who will have the same tastes and interest and income who might buy it as well. Do everything possible to make every sale and sales offer go viral. If you've done a good job of servicing your customer after the sale, you could be confident that you now have a satisfied customer, one who will buy from you again and who represents a potential source of excellent referrals. Contact your satisfied customer and begin the conversation by inquiring if they are happy with their purchase and if there is anything more that you can do for them. If they make a request, then treat this as a customer service call. If not, say to them, I am so pleased that you are enjoying our new product or service. Can you put me in touch with anyone else who would appreciate the same experience that you are enjoying using it today? The wonderful thing about a highly satisfied customer is that they often want their relatives and friends and associates to share their experience, but they won't think to do it unless you ask them to. Within one day of receiving the referral, drop a quick note or an email to your customer, thanking them for their recommendation and again reassuring them that you will treat their friend with respect and care. This is an important part of cementing your relationships and will pay tremendous dividends in the future in the form of repeat business and further referrals. After you have followed up with this referral, be sure to call your customer again, thank them for the introduction and report your results. Remember, the referral is someone who is meaningful to your customer, so they will naturally be interested in what happens. A further way you can express your gratitude for a referral and to reinforce your relationship with your customer is to send them a gift after you've closed a sale with a referral that they provided. Your gift should be appropriate to the size of the sale. For example, if you close a thousand dollar sale, send a 20 30, $50 gift one of the things we started doing many years ago is we send gift baskets to our customers and to the source of those customers. Over the years we've received hundreds, if not thousands, thousands of letters and emails from people who were so delighted with the gift basket and they remembered it for years and it led to recommendation and referral and resale after resale. I hope you enjoyed watching this video. If you did, please subscribe to my channel by clicking on the button that appears on the screen.
