I hate being “bought”. I feel both devalued and trivialized when that sort of thing is proposed. It actually turns me off when I am offered $5 to complete a survey. When I read opinion survey results, I often wonder how tainted the results are. How many of the responders were compensated? Do they always tell us that the results are derived via compensation?
Bottom line, true referrers, people that really CARE about your product, don’t want, or need, to be bought. When bought, referrals are neither heartfelt nor meaningful.
When you are seeking B2B Marcom referrals, testimonials, and references for your products and/or services:
- Aim for much less quantity and much higher (meaningful, useable, specific) quality.
- Seek individuals who you’ve really moved.
- Seek people to whom you truly matter.
- Seek people who are ALREADY talking about you.
- Seek referrals with huge amounts of traction.
- Seek sales leads that will be pitched to by a passionate 3rd party (the person recommending you).
Go that route and you will chase fewer leads, score more repeatedly, and proceed more dependably.
BONUS: You'll also learn the TRUTH about yourself.
I agree with your thesis, but I'm not comfortable with even "seeking" people to provide referrals. Testimonials yes, referrals no. Even asking someone to provide a referral (rather than compensating them for it) instead of letting that referral develop on its own is a form of referral solicitation. Which taints that referral's credibility level.
We receive referrals consistently (I know because I source our incoming new customers.) I think we receive these because of our overall value package of good customer service, high product quality, reasonable production times and competitive pricing. Those to me are the most valuable referrals - the ones that come from providing consistent value as a company, not from solicitation.
Just my .02. Thanks for your good marketing blog.
Thanks for sharing your wisdom.