An irresistible USP!
(Unique Selling point)

I recently spoke to a web design company that was selling websites but didn’t have one themselves!

This seems strange on so many levels. Yet it made me think. I started to look at companies that help people to get new business, for example advertising agencies, web design companies, SEO and social media specialists, internet marketers and sales training companies.

What I found out astonished me! The majority (of those who tracked where new business came from- so many don’t) don’t actually get much new business through the medium they are selling to their clients. How can that be?*@!

Can you believe…

• Many advertising agencies don’t advertise their own services through the means they propose to their clients.

• The majority get on average 70-90% of new business by ______________? Yes, you guessed it – referral (word-of-mouth).

This I realized is a really cool USP for any referral / networking trainer because it means that we can work with any other business development company. If they get most of their business through word-of-mouth/referral marketing, we can help them to generate more of that business and show them how to make it predictable rather than by chance.

The challenge is… we just need to find one that will value such a system! My experience, unfortunately, is the opposite. Most of these companies blindly refuse to accept or believe in referral marketing. More often than not, they haven’t even thought about it and sometimes feel threatened by referral marketing companies, thinking that we are their competitor.

If only they realized… a company you see as your “competitor” can end up being your best referral source. Let’s face it – we all need advertising, websites, social media, etc. in order to be successful. But if your company gets 60% and above via word-of-mouth, doesn’t it make sense to add word-of-mouth /referral marketing to your marketing mix??

How sad that very few companies are allocating their marketing spend according to the methods that bring them the most business.

What do you think? I would love to hear your feedback.