Global Marketing Plus

A common myth about business is that if you do a good job with your product or service, the referrals will come automatically.  Usually a self-sustaining business is a result of focused effort to build referral momentum.   Work at your marketing efforts long enough and hard enough, and the referral business will begin to flow.

Even after producing excellent results year after year, you still may get very few referrals unless you are in a high-demand business.  If you concentrate on ways to bring in referrals, you can speed up or even jump-start the referral process.  Once small business owners learn how to develop and generate referrals, they begin coming in.  The product or service is still the same.  What is changed is how these people go about turning the business they have into more business.

Another common myth is that once your business becomes self-sustaining, it will remain so.  However, many  things can interrupt a well-established, steady flow of customers.

• The market can change, making what you offer in less demand.
• Your client base can change, and clients begin seeking features you don’t provide.
• Technology can change, rendering your service obsolete.
• Key personnel who purchase from you may leave the company.
• Your competition may undercut your prices.

Keeping a steady referral-generating effort underway will enable you to pick up on such changes quickly.  By responding to them immediately with necessary adjustments and additional marketing activities, you can often short-circuit any drastic drop in your business.  In fact, as a  small business owner, the ease and quickness you can respond to keep pace with the marketplace is one of your strongest assets.

In short, you must jump-start your referrals to receive them consistently.  Then you must always work at keeping them coming!