Comments on: Custom Leads from People Who Already Know You

By: articlescreen

articlescreen — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 07:03:01 +0000

Nice and clean blog always attracts me and not only that the way you discussed about business ideas is really helpful too.Good job.

By: chatlivehelp

chatlivehelp — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 09:53:53 +0000

Ya I think best one is to make a customer satisfied with your work.That will help a lot…

By: zen

zen — Sun, 30 Aug 2009 08:30:49 +0000

I have the same opinion that the small business owners spend a lot energy to expend on courting new clients and the best way I think is the referral marketing and business networking.And also think that if you can make a customer happy he will refer others to you.Though these are all time consuming

By: Chris O.

Chris O. — Wed, 13 May 2009 18:38:17 +0000

Beth,

I suppose the results of the study should be obvious to a seasoned referral networker but you would be surprised how much energy small business owners expend on courting new clients before they’ve fully leveraged their current client-base.

I see this amongst web-oriented businesses the most. For example, some web designers pay fees to post to dozens of cities on Craigslist. Not only does the money add up but it can be very time consuming to monitor dozens of ads, responses, and postings.

It’s no surprise that all of this effort may results in low quality leads which rarely result in sales. Anyone can go out and try to court strangers on a website, which inherently neutralizes any competitive edge.

I view an existing network of trusted clients and colleagues as the greatest barrier-to-entry.
best,
Chris
Referral Key

By: Beth Bridges

Beth Bridges — Wed, 13 May 2009 02:53:47 +0000

I read the article. Sorry, but the results of this study seem a little obvious to me…anyone else? I had to speculate in my own blog post on the study: http://bethbridges.blogspot.com/2009/05/wharton-studies-network-based-marketing.html Would be interested in your thoughts…

By: Beth Bridges

Beth Bridges — Tue, 12 May 2009 04:49:29 +0000

I haven’t read the article yet, but I look forward to learning more about the study. It seems like a pretty basic point, but sometimes in our need to keep growing and expanding, we focus on looking “outside”, rather than “inside.” Seems like our very happy customers would be the best source of referrals, but we’ve got to help them do it. Not everyone knows that it’s okay to refer or how to do it. Especially if your customers aren’t experienced business people. I’ve actually had people ask me if it’s okay for them to refer others to me!