Graham McGregor: How to get Positive Gossip for your business

Get your customers to spread the good word. Photo / 123RF

In his excellent book Turn Your Customers Into Your Sales Force, author Ross Reck quotes the following startling figures:

"Twenty-five per cent of your success in business is getting a sale from a customer.
Another 25 per cent of your success comes from getting repeat sales from a customer.
A whopping 50 per cent of your business success comes from getting existing customers to recommend and promote you to their friends, associates and colleagues."

In other words, up to 75 per cent of your success in business comes from getting repeat and referral sales.

An easy way to enjoy repeat and referral sales is to get Positive Gossip for your business.

That means getting other people to say positive things about your business to their friends, family and colleagues.

There are many ways to get Positive Gossip for your business.

Here are some suggestions...

Strategy One: Offer Something Unusual

I came across a website recently called Reserve a Spot in Heaven.

This website is offering to hold a spot for you at the pearly gates, and it will even throw in a money-back guarantee.

Reserve a Spot in Heaven sells "travel kits"— complete with boarding passes, certificates and "Heaven 101" booklets — that offer the "chance to enjoy your sin-filled life" without consequence, while lowering the "risk of eternal damnation".

The reservation packages have been a big hit and sales have been brisk since the company launched, according to the creators.

It's a gag gift according the creators of the website.

"We don't want people to take it seriously. It's more of just a fun idea we came up with that we thought we'd turn into a novelty gift," said Edgar Kim, 22, a retailer by day who started the business with his childhood friend Nate Davis, a 23-year-old product designer. "We're not trying to offend anyone or anything like that."

And because it is unusual they are getting a lot of people commenting on what they are doing.

Strategy Two: Offer something Unique

I had the opportunity to interview a fascinating lady called Nicole Faith a while ago.

Nicole runs a business called 10 Carat Creations.

Her target audience is business owners who sell a service and want to be able to travel the world while offering their service.

So what Nicole will do is work with a client and show them how to package their service so it can be easily delivered while they travel the world.

She will then create a website that will allow them to attract premium-priced clients.

And she will do all this in one week.

So in seven days you have a complete business ready to go based around what you are great at doing.

Now, Nicole's services are not cheap at $20,000 for each client she works with.

However, what she offers is something that is very appealing to her target audience and she does well from offering her service.

Strategy Three: Have a memorable way of doing business

There is a doctor in Brooklyn, New York, who is now making house calls. (No doctors make house calls these days.)

This doctor does it through the internet.

Using Skype he puts himself in your house to talk to you and treat you.

He does one office visit to get all your background information but he keeps up with his clients regularly either by walking around Brooklyn and visiting them or doing it through emails and Skype.

And he's doing amazingly well.

There are dozens of ways to enjoy Positive Gossip for your business.

It's a fun way to boost your sales and profits.

'Know what your customers want most and what your company does best. Focus on where those two meet.' - Kevin Stirtz

Action Exercise:

What will you do to start creating Positive Gossip around your own business?

- Graham McGregor is a Marketing Advisor and helps businesses who offer an expensive service to quickly attract ideal new clients. You can download his brand new 106 page marketing guide 'The Expensive Service Marketing Solution' at no charge from www.TheExpensiveServiceMarketingSolution.com