Buildify on “Word of Mouth Marketing”

Hello and Welcome!  

Thank you for joining us here at the Buildify blog. Welcome to Buildify and The Buildify Method. 

My name is Aaron Keith, and I will be leading the conversation around this this topic. 

First off, I want to welcome you and thank you being a part of the Buildify family.  I know you have a very busy life and I really appreciate your interest in learning and growing as a business owner & entrepreneur!

Before we get into the content of this specific blog topic, I would like to explain why I created Buildify & The Buildify Method.

I created Buildify because this allows me to do what I love to do, which is teach business owners how to better own and operate a successful business. In each blog we will do a deep dive into very specific topics and distinctions that make up The Buildify Method. 

I also created these blogs because I feel it’s very important for business owners to make time to learn tangible skills that they can take back to their companies the very next day!

I believe it’s very important for business owners to be constantly looking for ways to better own and operate their business. And I designed each of these blog topics to do just that.

And those are the reasons why I created Buildify and all the resources under its umbrella! …with that in mind, let’s get to work! 

The topic of this specific blog is on… “Word of Mouth Marketing!”

The intention that we are out to fulfill on in this blog discussion is…“That you leave here with a higher level of confidence & effectiveness in word of mouth marketing.”

Let’s start off by talking about what “Word of Mouth Marketing” is.

Word of Mouth Marketing is a System that is broken out into 4 main parts.

1. Referrals – the system you have for generating referrals from people you know.
2. Past Customers –the system you have for marketing to customers who are not currently buying from you. 
3. Business Alliances –the system you have for establishing and maintaining relationships with other business owners.
4. Networking –any opportunity you have to interact with an individual or a group.

Tonight we are going to work on increasing your effectiveness in each of these areas!

What is the value of incorporating “word of mouth marketing” into your business?

Inexpensive. It’s one of the most effective kinds of marketing you can do! It’s also the foundation to all of the other kinds of marketing you can do.

When you are looking at increasing your effectiveness in Marketing there are 2 areas to look at.

1. Mental Game – the beliefs or thoughts you have as you market.
2. Physical Game – the technique or approach you have when your taking marketing actions.

And sometimes it’s a combination of both our Mental Game & our Physical Game!

As you read this blog, you want to be looking in both of these areas to identify things that can be improved, which would allow you to be more effective in Marketing! 

The first area we are going to work on is the area of Referrals! 

What are your thoughts, feelings or concerns about asking people for referrals?

Now, there may always be some nervousness. Just like when a professional athlete takes the field, they are nervous; their nervous because they have something at stake. However, their nervousness does not stop them or hurt their performance.

It is important to keep that in mind, that there will always be some of that present because you have something at stake when you are having these conversations.

Now when you are asking someone for referrals, what should your attention be on?

If its on you, your going to be nervous because your judging & evaluating yourself, and your in your head.

If its on the person you are talking to; you will still be nervous.

If you want to be confidant when your asking for referrals you want to put your attention on making a difference for others. 

This will shift your Mental Game and will allow you to be more effective in every area of Word of Mouth Marketing!

Making this shift is the most important thing you can do! You want to apply this coaching to each area we talk about tonight!  …its foundational! 

Another reason people get nervous is because they don’t know what exactly to say and they don’t want to bumble over their words and come across sounding silly.

By having a pre created conversation you will be more confidant because you will know what your going to say and you will also know that if you follow your script you will not come off sounding like a used car sales men! 

Here are the Key Points you want to have in any Referral Script. 

• Ask if they have a minute to talk
• Let them know you are now taking on a few new clients. (You can also let them know what type of client you are looking for)
• Ask them if they know anyone who could use your product/service

• Let them think…

• If they think of someone, ask what their name is.
• Ask pointed questions to learn more about that person.
• Let them know that you can indeed help that person.
• Ask if they would be willing to introduce you?
• If yes… sagest that they send an email introducing you both.

And remember to combine the script with your focus on making a difference for another person.

Ok its time to get on the court and practice!

I recommend standing in front of a mirror and delivering your referral script to yourself in the mirror at least 3 times through without stopping.

When you mocking, don’t stop. Once you start you are committed and must go through the whole conversation without breaking character. 

It’s important that you spend time practicing this conversation so you are comfortable with the words and flow of the conversation.

Ok we have covered our 1st area of Word of Mouth Marketing. Now we are going to move on and talk about the next area, which is your Past Customers.

Why is it so important to be able to effectively market to our past customers?

It’s a lot easier and a lot cheaper to reactivate a past customer vs. getting a brand-new customer.

What are some of your thoughts and concerns about contacting your past customers?

Often people have concerns because they are focused on trying to sell someone something. 

You are not trying to sell them anything, its not a sales call … it’s a customer service call. 

A lot of being effective is actually not trying to sell, rather trying to make a difference and just connect with people. Find out what they need and see if there is something, you can do to support them. 

Get over there with them. Get in their world ☺ !

Another big thing that effects our effectiveness is our approach to calling past clients. 

Here is how to approach calling your past customers.

1.  Be prepared before you call… clear, excited, and in a good space.
2. Next, remind yourself that calling your past customers is not a Sales call, they are Customer Service calls!
3. Call and get reconnected with them. Then check in with them to see how things are going for them, and see if there is anything that you can support them with.

Another part to having an effective system for marketing to your Past Customers is your Data-base.

Its very important that you have your Past Customers along with your other contacts organized in a central data-base. 

An organized data-base allows you to accurately tailor & target, your marketing efforts. 

There are different marketing strategies for different types of customers. 

Active customer:

Someone who is currently buying from you.

Strategy – cross sell them on your other products/services. 

Non-Active customer:

Someone who has bought from you in the last 12 months. 

Strategy – you want to simply do a customer service call to see how they are doing and keep up the relationship.

Old Customer:

Someone who has not bought from you in over 12 months or longer. 

Strategy – you will need to have a reason to contact them. Intention is to build back up the relationship and to inform them or reintroduce them to you and your company. 

Example:

A new product/service or piece of information that applies to them or a special.

The 3^rd area we are going to focus on is the area of Business Alliance’s.

What do you think a Business Alliance is?

A Business Alliance is a mutually beneficial relationship between two businesses that both work with the same type of ideal customer.  

So how can a relationship be mutually beneficial?

• Refer each other customers 
• Give a referral fee
• Become a resources to each other 

What are some of your concerns about approaching and establishing business alliances?

As you are establishing your Business Alliances, here are a few things to watch out for…

If you have a relationship with another business but they are not taking care of you back, then that is not a “mutually beneficial relationship”, hence they are not a Business Alliance. It needs to be mutually beneficial. 

Also, this can’t be a “what’s in it for me” relationship. The relationship needs to be a win-win and then the relationship will last for years. A “what’s in it for me” will not last long at all.

Not sending one of your clients to another professional because you are afraid of losing them to that other professorial is you engaging in a “scarcity conversation” and creates a block in your business. 

When you are building out your Business Alliances its important to identify the industries that would make a good Alliance for you.

You want to ask yourself if that industry works with your “Ideal Client”. 

Please pull out a sheet of paper.

Take a few minutes and identify a minimum of 4 industries that would make a good business alliance for you.

Now that you have identified the “Industries” that would make a good business alliance for you, now you want to get out there and start getting those Business Alliances set up and established!

I see some many people who meet a potential business alliance once, but that is it. They just don’t put in the time or the effort to talk with them and building a lasting relationship with them. 

Make sure you put in the time and the interest with your business alliances or you will never truly have business alliances!

An important System that supports the effectiveness of your Referrals from not only your Customers, but also from your Business Alliances is a Referral Program.

What is the purpose of a Referral Program?

A Referral Program is a way for thanking people for taking the Time and Energy to introduce you to someone they know.

Its important that your Customers & your Business Alliances are all clear on what your Referral Program is. 

If you don’t have a referral program in place, I strongly recommend that you create one and let everyone know about it!

We have now covered 3 out of the 4, Word of Mouth Marketing areas.

Now let’s talk about the 4^th area of Word of Mouth Marketing which is… Networking!

Remember…“Networking, is any opportunity you have to interact with an individual or a group.” 

What are your thoughts, feelings and concerns when you are networking with people?

Often business owners are not as effective as they could be when they are networking because they are nervous and not present because they don’t know what to say.

It’s up to you to create an opening in a conversation and turn that conversation into an opportunity for business. In a matter of seconds, a person that you are talking with will either become interested; or they will move on with their day. How that interaction goes is entirely up to you!

You only get a short amount of time to create interest with someone. So to be effective at networking you want to be able to say what you do in a way that is clean, clear, and effective.

Now the best way to improve your effectiveness in this area is to practice telling saying what you do for a living!

Let’s Practice!

Again, the best way to practice is to stand in front of a mirror and practice saying what you do into the mirror 3 times. 

The reason I took you through this exercise is so you can see that often people can’t say what they do in a way that is clear, concise and effective.

So remember… keep it interesting and keep it under 15 seconds! 

And Practice…Practice…Practice!

Assignment:

I would like you each to craft your 15 second statement. Then I want you to practice it 10 times in the mirror!

Now lets talk about some other things that will improve your effectiveness in networking.

What have you done wrong or what has someone done wrong with you while you were networking?

Remember, networking is something that is just critical to the success of any business. 

In business we have a short opportunity to build interest and keep that door open. If you train yourself after tonight this will be invaluable to the success of your business and will allow you to bring in a lot more clients and create a lot more opportunities for you and your business.

Here is a quick side bar on social media and other online marketing…

Social Media and Online Marketing is now a large part of many business owners marketing plans. 

Here is what most small business owners don’t know…To be effective at social media and online marketing, You first must be effective at Word of Mouth Marketing because Social or Online Marketing is way harder to do properly. 

Here is why I say it’s harder;  

Most small business owners are not consistently effective at marketing while they are standing in front of another person or while on the phone with another person. So if its difficult to be effective when someone is live in front of them, how are you going to be effective when all your talking to is a computer screen!? 

There is no feedback-mechanism on a computer like there is when someone is live with you. 

Therefore, as you get better with these verbal marketing conversations it will help you be more effective when you market online. 

To learn more about this topic, you can go to the Seminars Page and you can watch the full seminar on “Word of Mouth Marketing”.

Website link:  https://www.buildifysystems.com/seminars/

If your business could benefit from having the kind of seamless experience that only the Buildify Systems suite provides, log in now and start Buildifying your systems! 

At Buildify, we are committed to empowering business owners by giving them powerful tools right at their fingertips. 

In the Buildify Systems platform, we have made creating and implementing key system easier and more efficient for you. We are committed to providing your with all the foundational business systems you need in order to grow and scale. Aaron Keith, our founder and master business coach, has masterminded our dynamic systems with his more than 20 years in business and having worked with more than 10,000 companies over that time. 

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