Evan Carmichael explains that referrals come from overdelivering on customer experience, not just having a good product. He uses Toronto Dance Salsa as an example: the school adds music, mentorship, social events, and a family atmosphere to classes, turning students into enthusiastic referrers without aggressive marketing.
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If you want customers to refer business to you, you have to overdeliver like crazy. Because your customers are busy people, just like you are, and you are not on top of their mind. If you do not overdeliver like crazy, they're going to forget about you. Hi, I'm Evan Carmichael. I believe that hungry entrepreneurs deserve help, and today I'm answering a question from one of my newsletter readers, Christian, who wrote in saying, "Hi Evan, "I set up a business. Your newsletter has really assisted me." Great to hear. Thanks, Christian. "I want rapid growth." Awesome. "I find it difficult to penetrate my customers and get more referrals. How do I solve this?" Christian, you have to give them a better experience. You have to overdeliver like crazy so they can't help but talk about you. And it's not good enough to just be good. You know, I believe that whatever you're selling is good. I'm assuming that, okay? If you're selling something crappy, then you gotta get out of business and do something else. I'm assuming you're good at what you do and you're selling a quality product, but that's not enough. You have to overdeliver. You have to wow them. Your customers are busy people. They have a million things going on in their lives just like you do. So you have to think about something that's gonna break through all that clutter and really make them say Wow, Christian really is amazing. Give them a story that they can't help go and tell their friends about. Here's a quick example. I'm an investor in a dance company here in Toronto. We'll teach 5,000 to 6,000 people a year how to dance salsa. It's a lot of fun. Anyway, coming to Toronto Dance Salsa, that's the name of the company, if you take a class, you're not just signing up for a dance class. It's an experience. And that's why it's become one of the largest dance schools, maybe the largest for salsa in North America. When you come to class, you're going to get an amazing class. You're going to get the best class you've ever signed up for, for dancing. We're going to make you feel comfortable. You're going to have fun. You're going to get the moves. You're going to release your stress. You're going to feel active. You're going to love it. But that's not enough. We don't just offer great classes. We'll help you with music that you can dance to. We'll help you find your shoes. We'll help answer any questions you have. We'll give you guidance. We'll have socials. We'll have outings to help you come out and practice. We have our advanced students come out and help out and assist in the classes to give you advice and feedback, as well as the instructors who walk around. You become part of the family. Signing up for a class with Toronto Dance Salsa becomes an experience. You're not just taking a salsa class, and people love it. And they can't help but go home and tell their friends about it and tell their families about it and say, "You should sign up for this class." We don't have to do a lot of aggressive marketing. We don't have to convince people or do a sales pitch because our customers are the best source of referrals and traffic for you. And that's what you want, right? Entrepreneurs, we don't have huge budgets. If you got a million dollars to go out and spend on advertising, then go ahead. But for everybody else, you need your customers to talk about you, spread the word, and for them to do that, you have to give them a reason. And it comes from overdelivering like crazy on the service. Wow them with your service and they'll tell your story for you and they'll bring people to your company. Whatever dollars you're going to put into your marketing, put it into the service experience. You have to be way above, better, and different than your closest competition. That'll make you stand out. That'll get people talking about you. Good luck, Christian. For those of you watching, if you like the video, please give it a thumbs up below. I love seeing those come in. And hey, if you have a question about this video or a comment or a question about your own business, I'd love to hear from you. I always check those comments every morning when I'm eating my breakfast. I love seeing them come in. So please leave a comment below. Thank you guys so much, and I'll see you on the next episode.
