A Powerful Referral Marketing Secret: Tell a Testimonial Story

The fuel that drives the referral marketing process is the testimonial story.

Testimonials happen when one person shares with another about the positive experience they’ve had with your company. A good testimonial is worth its weight in gold and is as close as you can get to sure sale from a new prospect. But do you really leverage the full power of testimonials as you work to market your business?

By nature, a testimonial is really a transfer of experience to another person. When one shares their experience they are really telling a story.

Storytelling is part of our human existence. It’s how we communicate at a very basic level. When you go home from a day at work, what usually happens? You tell your spouse or family a story of what occurred in during your day at work.

A good story stimulates the other person’s imagination and helps put them mentally into the situation. When you hear a well told story, you can almost feel like you are the one who experienced it.

In business, we don’t utilize the power of storytelling enough. Typically, most referrals are brief snippets but not the whole story. To become a better referral partner you need to tell more stories to the people you know. Avoid simply giving them the “I know someone” referral. This is only the beginning of the process. Instead, focus on sharing the entire experience you had with the other person.

However, there is a caveat. You must find the right situation to provide a referral story. If you tell boring, unsolicited stories that have no value to the other person, you will come across as annoying. This requires some discretion and utilizing your sales instincts of when to offer the referral story.

Recognizing the opportunity to provide a referral story is a skill that you must be developed. A chance to refer another can come from anywhere. It could be your spouse, your business partner or the guy in front of you at the grocery store. The key is to be ready with your referral story to promote others and they in turn will promote you…the ultimate win-win!

Referrals are the cornerstone of creating relationships - one of the six marketing fundamentals. To learn more about the six marketing fundamentals for winning the marketing game - click here.

To all you marketing victories,

Coach Ron