Famed business consultant Peter Drucker once said that the purpose of business is to create a customer. Personally I think he was wrong. No disrespect Mr Drucker BUT I think the true purpose of business is to create RAVING FANS.
Firstly what is a Raving Fan?
A Raving Fan to me is someone who is so passionate about your business and the work you do that they feel compelled to tell everyone they know.
As I have a need to measure things I like to put metrics around such concepts. So the way I identify Raving Fans is by the number of direct referrals that turn into paying clients. A true Raving Fan to me then is someone who refers at least one paying client a year to me.
Think about this … Imagine if you have 100 or more Raving Fans out in the market place who each refer you a minimum of 1 new paying client. How different would your business look?
Now I am assuming I do not need to tell you the power of a referral from a Raving Fan. Referred prospects come to you pre-sold generally and ready to use your product or service. Typically referred prospects do not need to be moved through the know you, like you and trust you phases before they will make a positive decision.
So why would someone become a Raving Fan of you and your business?
Well there are many reasons …
Some people will do it for LOVE! They just love what you do and what you stand for. They love to hear about the success you are having with your other clients … and they basically just fall in love with everything you do. These people typically love to spread the love!
Some people will do it because of RESULTS. You have helped them achieve such great results and they naturally want to help others they know to achieve similar results. So they will refer people they know looking for similar results. (Note: Often these people do not need to have used your product or service if they have heard about the results others are getting)
Some people will do it for MONEY. There are some people out there who are Raving Fans but it takes a little incentive like money to motivate these people to tell everyone they know about you. So consider setting up Joint Venture relationships where you pay a percentage of revenue from referrals.
Some people will do it for POSITIONING. A lot of people will refer you on to everyone they know because they want to position themselves amongst their own networks as someone who is well connected, in the know and influential.
Some people will do it to add VALUE. Many people can see the value you add to your clients and will refer you onto their networks or database to add value to them. By doing so their value goes up in the eyes of their database or networks.
Knowing why people would become a Raving Fan of you and your business enables you to develop strategies around creating more Raving Fans.
Is it possible to systematically create Raving Fans?
Yes absolutely …
[Sidenote: In tonights Inner Circle Live Coaching Call we will be talking in depth about how to create Raving Fans in your business]
In fact here are five things you can do starting today to create more Raving Fans in your business:
1/ Communicate a Vision – You are more likley to attract Raving Fans to your business when you have a big VISION for your business and you communicate it often. People will buy into your vision. They will want to support you and do everything they can to help you achieve it. Your business has to be about more than just making money … it has to be about striving to fulfill a big empowering VISION. When you develop this and communicate to people they will naturally want to help you and become more inclined to rave about you to all they know.
2/ Take A Stand – If you want people to rave about you then you need to take a stand in your industry. If you are plain vanila everyday run of the mill in your approach to your business (ie boring) then people will not be that interested in what you do. If there is no interest then there will be few referrals. Instead take a stand. Be unique. Be controversial. Stand out from the crowd. Develop strong opinions and communicate them. When you do two things will happen … some people will give you negative feedback … BUT lots more will love you because there is something different about you.
3/ Make It Easy – You want to make it easy for people to refer you onto others. To do this you can develop a range of referal devices. When we market our seminars for instance as soon as you register you are asked to refer three friends. We also send out printed tickets promoting our seminas with a value of $97. We ask people to pass them on. Having a good quality ticket like this makes it more difficult to throw them in the rubbish and more likley they will pass them on. What referral devices can you create that will make it easy for people to pass them on and thus create referrals for you.
4/ Educate Them – One of the most important things you can do is tell people that you love to get referrals. In fact you want to let them know that a large part of your business is based on referrals and that you would really appreciate it if they can refer new clients to you. If you do not let them know they may not ever think that you want referrals. So educate them.
5/ Reward & Acknowledge – When you receive a referral from a Raving Fan you want to thank them, keep them in the loop of how things are progressing and reward them. It does not take much to pick up the phone and say ‘Thanks!’. Nor does it take a lot of effort to let them know how things are progressing. Another strategy is to publicly acknowledge them for the referral.
If you apply these five strategies to your business you will find that the number of Raving Fans you develop will increase over time. Treat your Raving Fans like GOLD.
Build the right strategy to create Raving Fans and your Raving Fans will build your business!
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