Forbes magazine said positive word of mouth is without question the most powerful factor in buying decisions today.
The old number used to be that a satisfied customer will tell four or five people. A dissatisfied customer will tell up to 20. You can change the math on that now because a satisfied customer may tell 1,000 people. A dissatisfied customer might tell 2,000 people, given the advent of social media.
So, how do you grow your company? What is the key to attracting customers to your business?
Join me today on the podcast as a discuss with Joe Calloway, author of the book Magnetic, the art of attracting business.
What is the key or keys to attracting customers to a business?
The single biggest factor in your marketing, your sales, in the growth of your business without question is the quality of the experience that you create for your customers. Whether it’s a good experience or a bad experience, now more than ever before they’re going to talk about it.
What people tend to do is they say how can I manipulate social media in my favor or in my defense and they’re missing the point. You don’t manipulate social media. You create an experience that causes positive word of mouth. That’s the key.
People aren’t really interested in what you say about yourself. People are interested in what other people say about you.
So the question becomes then, how does the Internet impact a customers buying decision?
Here’s the formula that I think most people would agree with, People go on social media and talk about what they like, what they don’t like, what was fun, what was awful. I think it used to be in fairly recent history, that marketing consisted of, when it comes to the Internet, I need to get people to go on the internet and talk about me.
You really don’t have to worry about that. They’re going to talk about you whether you like it or not. Let’s pull back to the source of their conversation, which is their experience. You inherently control the narrative with the quality of your work.
80% of your time and effort and energy should go into product quality and improvement. That is marketing, because if you do good enough work, there’s no way you can keep people from talking about it, and that is what brings in more work.
You need to have a win-win strategy.
You’ve got to make sure the other guy wins. I don’t mean this in some let’s all hold hands and sing kumbaya. No, folks, I’m saying this is the way the real world works.
If you make someone lose, they’ll go on the internet and tell everybody you made them lose. Not only that, they will stop giving you their money and they’ll take it somewhere else.
The people that I do business with, the companies that I am loyal to, are the ones that make sure that I win. Its’ the simplest, most powerful, and often most misunderstood idea in the world.
I read one time a computer consulting company had this as kind of a motto. They said buzzers and bells wear off. Quality never does.
Rule #1: Do great work. Rule #2: Have fun. Rule #3: Make money. Rule #4, and this is the one I love: Don’t work with people you can’t stand!
IN WHAT WAYS ARE YOU ATTRACTING MORE BUSINESS?
PODCAST DETAILS: Click here to download the transcript of this week’s episode.
