Overcoming the Word-of-Mouth Flaw!

Greetings!

Word of Mouth is flawed! 

I was flabbergasted when I first heard this point of view about of word-of-mouth. Tom Gay, a business development and business growth expert brought this to my attention. 

Tom is an entrepreneurial guru who heads a forward thinking internet company called 22Touch. 22Touch is a powerful system that gives its users the tools to build successful and productive relationships. 22Touch helps build relationships that not only last, but also transforms those relationships into successful networks through referrals. Here is a link to 22Touch.

Click this link to go to 22Touch

So what am I talking about? You may be thinking that word-of-mouth is the best advertising vehicle in any marketplace. 

By way of an explanation, consider the following.

Rod is talking to Mike. Rod tells Mike, 'You know you really should sign-up for Andy's Saturday one day course on Marketing. I took the course and it was excellent.' 

Mike replies, 'I think I'll do that, I've been looking for a course like that. Thanks for the information.'

This is an abbreviated version of a classic word-of-mouth conversation. Conversations like this happen almost daily in our lives. But what's missing? 

Here is the missing link. I'm Andy and even though I stand to benefit from the word-of-mouth encounter of the two friends, I'm out of the loop. I have a great chance for a new customer and I don't even know it! 

I appreciate's Rod's efforts but I'm missing one vital piece of the puzzle. I'm missing Mike's contact information. 

I need to train the people in my network how to give back to me. It sounds a bit self centered. But it is a necessary step to help make my referrals really count. 

So how do you do this? It is very simple. When the people in your network refer someone to you, ask them to provide you the name, phone number and email address of the person they referred.

Now the referral is in your hands and you can follow-up. You can now take action and increase the chances of gaining a new customer or in the case of your job search, add another viable contact.

Good contacts are like gold in a job search and you want to do everything possible to build your network. After all, odds are that you'll find your next job through your network!

Thanks for visiting,
Andy