The Referral Engine

Teaching Your Business to Market Itself

Portfolio, 2010

15 min read

10 take-aways

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What's inside?

Marketing guru John Jantsch tells businesses how to get crucial referrals. Step one: Ask for them.

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Recommendation

People love to recommend the purchases they make to their friends, relatives and colleagues; in fact, referring something you like to someone else is instinctual. Smart companies can leverage this natural tendency to earn more business and make more sales. In this book, respected marketing authority John Jantsch shows you how to develop a referral system that will pay off. You can use his ideas to sell your products or services without an expensive marketing budget. getAbstract recommends this savvy book to small-business owners, entrepreneurs, solo practitioners, professional partnerships, and any other commercial or professional entity that wants to make better use of referrals for future business, professional engagements, and profit. Now, make the most of this referral and tell your friends about this book.

Summary

Crackers to Fiji

FreshBooks is a Canadian online service that tracks work time and creates invoices. The company’s founder, Mike McDerment, recently used the firm’s blog to write about how much he likes Triscuit-brand crackers and their “tasty new flavors.” A FreshBooks customer posted a lighthearted comment that McDerment shouldn’t write about the crackers because they are unavailable in Fiji, the customer’s home. “I am right now dying to try cracked pepper and olive oil Triscuits,” the customer wrote. “I am seriously considering canceling my FreshBooks account because of this irresponsible posting. Have a heart.”

When FreshBooks staffers saw this note, signed “Jonathan,” they quickly bought a few boxes of cracked pepper and olive oil Triscuits and mailed them to Fiji. When the Triscuits unexpectedly showed up 8,000 miles across the planet, Jonathan immediately went to his blog and began writing about the wonderful thing FreshBooks had done for him.

From such a small seed, plentiful referrals can grow. FreshBooks did not send the Triscuits to Jonathan to curry favor or solicit a favorable blog entry. The employees who saw Jonathan’s posting just wanted to do...

About the Author

John Jantsch is a social media publisher and business coach in digital technology and marketing. He wrote Duct Tape Marketing, a marketing manual for small businesses.

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V. A. 1 decade ago

I was so looking forward to reading this abstract and I'm totally disappointed with this Book Abstract. Nothing new here! Summary: How can I serve my clients? How can I leverage their appreciation (i.e., goodwill)? Add some marketing generalities and there you have it.
J. S. 1 decade ago

if you think about it, it is quite a simply concept and has been there for ages - I guess. however, you just need to remember. also the range between helpful and "buying your referrals with gifts and incentives" may be small. probably not the best idea to go to far with this kind of strategy.
J. S. 1 decade ago

good summary

John Jantsch