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Out of Sight. Out of Mind.

Christine Merser

I have been doing a number of 2015 Marketing Workshops. Most of you say that you get the bulk of your new business from referrals. I then ask you the following question:

"Why do you think people refer someone to you?"

Your answers vary, but all center around the excellence of your product or service. "They think I do the best job."; "They love our product above all others." And so on. I disagree.

You can have the best of everything right out of the Hammacher Schlemmer Catalog, but if you don't come to the person's mind who is in the position to make a referral, at the moment in which they are being asked, the referral will not come home to mama.

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Someone refers a client to you because your company name or your product name comes to them at the moment when someone asks them if they know what might fill their need. Now, the fact that they like your product or service is important, but the reason they tell the client, "You must buy or call ..." is all about what flashes into their mind in that moment.

Therefore, the best way to ensure that you get all the referrals you deserve is to ensure that you are in the forefront of someone's mind at the moment when they make association between the conversation they are having and the fabulous product or service you offer.

How can we do that in 2015, when our brains are already so saturated with information that they are teetering on the brink of what happens when you plug twenty toaster ovens into one socket? Not a pretty picture.

You must touch your clients with information that educates, engages, and entertains. And you must do it often enough that you are in the frontal lobe, on the tips of their fingers, rolling off their tongues. You get the picture.

Telling them why your product is fabulous is not going to stick with them. Sending out a recipe that uses your product might. Instagramming an image that moves them might. Sending them a thank-you note will, for sure. Dropping off a gift because it's almost summer will also do the trick.

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The most important thing to remember is that what needs to be in the forefront of their minds is not your product or service, but rather something you did that made them feel something. Feelings are always at the forefront of our thoughts. Especially good ones. Then they will think of you, and the rest is referral history.

While there is no scientific data to prove this - we at Blue Shoe have no time for the laboratory work that would entail - we can assure you that we have an enormous amount of anecdotal evidence that it's so.

So, touch your clients and referral pool. Touch them with things of interest to them that relate back to what you are selling.

Have a spectacular Blue Shoe day.

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