I recently finished reading John Jantsch‘s new book, The Referral Engine – Teaching Your Business to Market Itself. Jantsch provided so much great marketing advice in his previous book, Duct Tape Marketing, and has followed it up with another goldmine of information.
As someone who firmly believes in word-of-mouth marketing, I found myself nodding my head on just about every page of this book. The great thing that Jantsch does in The Referral Engine is give examples and actionable steps you can take to generate and build your own business referrals. It is essential reading for any small or medium-sized business, especially today when many marketing and advertising budgets have been slashed to the bone.
I think this is one of those books I’ll read three or four times, simply to remind myself of the power of referrals and the best ideas to create more of them. The last two chapters of the book were my favorite; Jantsch offered up real-world examples and suggestions for specific types of businesses and then wrote a Workshop chapter that outlines and guides you through all of the actionable ideas in the book. The last chapter alone is worth buying this book. Make sure you pick up a copy and share it with your business.
Win a Free Copy Right Here!
John was nice enough to provide me with an advance copy of this book, and I’d like to share a copy with you too.
Leave a comment and tell me your favorite referral story. I’ll pick a winner and send you a copy of The Referral Engine for free (sorry, US residents only).
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Tim – Thanks for the nice review, I really appreciate it. It's funny but many people are pointing to those last chapters, including the workshop approach as their favorites. My publisher questioned whether they added any value – glad I pushed to include them.
Hi Tim,
You've convinced me…this is a book that I'll be adding to my library based on your compelling review. I am a firm believer in word of mouth marketing, to the point that I believe it is one of the few types of marketing that leads to loyal, long term consumers (as long as the business delivers on it's promises and creates memorable experiences that usually leads to more word of mouth marketing).
Recently, I was delivering a service training and coaching skills for a client. The training was three days long, with the same participants attending each day. An employee not attending the training was responsible for ordering our lunches and delivering them to the training room. She went above and beyond, ensuring everyone was satisfied, went out of her way to accommodate special requests and kept a great attitude despite what I thought to be excessive complaining and requests by several of the participants. I found out later that she had a limited budget and was told where to order the food. However, on the final day, because of several participant complaints she made an “executive decision” and met their needs by changing the order to meet their needs. Again, no one knew all the effort she was putting in behind the scenes, all the while acting as though this was her full-time job and she was dedicated to ensure the satisfaction of the participants. I found out this was a task assigned to her at the last minute, and she has what most would consider an immense work load as it is. Her attitude, willingness to go above and beyond and her flexibility let me know that there were certain employees within this organization that understood, lived and breathed excellent service. She is a shining example of how to receive word of mouth marketing…if only the business can get everyone on board!
I realize this is a different take on your request for a referral story, yet it has resonated with me ever since that training. If businesses want word of mouth marketing, their leadership has to expect and describe excellent service expectations, their coaching team has to communicate the expectations and hold employees accountable, and their employees have to deliver it.
Thank you for your book recommendation…I look forward to reading it and suggesting it to clients.
All the best,
Jen
If your publisher questioned it, then you should have known they'd be the best part of the book!
Thanks for the comment and great story Jen. I always love hearing stories about people willing to go the extra mile and do something in the name of remarkable service.
Thanks again!
Sounds like a must read! I particularly liked that you mentioned it on twitter which brought me to this review. Seems like John's referral engine is going strong. I enjoyed his last book and I'm sure this will be a great one too.
Sounds like a must read! I particularly liked that you mentioned it on twitter which brought me to this review. Seems like John's referral engine is going strong. I enjoyed his last book and I'm sure this will be a great one too.
Sounds like a must read! I particularly liked that you mentioned it on twitter which brought me to this review. Seems like John's referral engine is going strong. I enjoyed his last book and I'm sure this will be a great one too.
Sounds like a must read! I particularly liked that you mentioned it on twitter which brought me to this review. Seems like John's referral engine is going strong. I enjoyed his last book and I'm sure this will be a great one too.
Sounds like a must read! I particularly liked that you mentioned it on twitter which brought me to this review. Seems like John's referral engine is going strong. I enjoyed his last book and I'm sure this will be a great one too.