Graham McGregor: Making your business 'super referable'

9:30 AM Tuesday May 15, 2012

One of the smartest business people I know is Paul Vujnovich who owns Harvey's Real Estate in Te Atatu, Auckland.

Paul has one of the most successful real estate offices in the country and one key to his success is he understands that to do well in any business you have to become 'super referable'. In other words you have to make it very easy for large numbers of people to be able to refer and recommend your business. (Paul and his team are superb at doing this.)

The good news is that there are dozens of simple strategies you can use to make your business 'super referable'. Here are two to get you thinking.

Strategy 1: Make it easy for your customers to do business with you.

Here's a good example:

A few months ago I ran an intensive one day marketing seminar for a small number of my clients. I needed an attractive conference venue in downtown Auckland that would hold up to 20 people classroom style and would provide catering for all participants. I wanted convenient parking and also the ability to have access early in the morning to the conference facility. (I was filming the entire programme and my recording people needed time to set up their equipment.)

Unfortunately many of the conference venues I contacted made it hard to do business with them. Some sent me pages and pages of information about their venue and every possible audio visual equipment and catering option. I was then supposed to read all this information and work out exactly what I wanted. Others made me spend time using a complicated online booking form only to find out that their venue was not available on the date I wanted. Several venues told me I had to decide on everything I wanted in advance and that changes were not possible once I had made the booking.

It was all getting very complicated from my end and then I remembered that I knew a very successful accountant called Peter Taylor from BDS Chartered Accountants. Peter had mentioned a while ago that his firm had purchased the top floor of a downtown Auckland office building for his accounting practice and had built a small conference facility at the same time. I emailed Peter and asked if he could help me and in five minutes it was all sorted. Peter had exactly what I was looking for and I could also change my catering order on the day of the seminar in case my final participant numbers altered. Peter made it very easy to do business with his firm and this made him super referable.

Strategy 2: Collect and use positive testimonials from your delighted clients.

Two super referable chiropractors in Auckland are Thierry and Anne Maser from Spine Centre One of the reasons for their success is the positive testimonials from so many of their clients.

Here is a good example.

"Since going to see Thierry and Anne at Spine Centre every day for 2 months I now have no pain. Before this I could never walk the length of the beach without pain in my lower back. I was out gardening in the weekend and for the first time I didn't have pain when I was done. I used to hardly be able to walk and was bent over like an old lady. It is so good to be able to walk upright and free of pain. I would recommend this firm to anyone who has a back problem."

If you have positive testimonials from your clients make sure you use them in all your marketing. It makes your business very easy to refer.

Is your business super referable?

Action Exercise:
Write down 10 things you could do to make your business super referable.

If you don't care your customers never will.
-Marlene Blaszczyk