Endorsed Relationships, have been referred to by marketing experts, including Jay Abraham, as the most powerful form of marketing in the world. I totally agree. This brief post, will show you what endorsed relationships are and how you can use them to market your business.
Endorsed relationships: What are they?
An endorsed relationship, in marketing terms, is simply a relationship you form with another person / company / brand, where they endorse (or recommend) you and your services to their clients, customers and contacts. This can come via literally any form of marketing.
The most powerful form of endorsed relationship comes when someone, who already has the trust of a network of people, personally recommends you and your services to them. Unlike a testimonial, which is usually placed on YOUR website or in YOUR marketing, an endorsed relationship sees the endorser recommending you to THEIR clients and friends – People they have a strong, existing relationship with.
This is where the real magic is and why this is such a powerful and effective form of marketing!
I have personally used endorsed relationships for over 20 years, to generate millions of pounds and dollars worth of new business, for my clients. I have OFTEN seen them generate over 50% positive response rates and occasionally, over 80/90%!
Endorsed relationships in action
Here is a quick example:
Bob runs a IT repair business. He encourages his accountant to endorse him, when the accountant next does a mail shot to his 1,000 locally-based clients. So, when the accountant sends his next mailing, he includes a powerful endorsement of Bob’s IT services and recommends his clients call Bob, if they have an IT problem.
Because the accountant is a trusted advisor to these 1,000 businesses, the endorsement of Bob’s services is extremely powerful. With a correctly written letter, Bob could generate more new business from this one, simple exercise, than from 2 years worth of networking or thousands spent on advertising!
Endorsed relationships: Some simple guidelines for marketing success
- Endorsed relationships, like the Joint Ventures I wrote about yesterday, have to be mutually beneficial for them to work. If you want someone to recommend you and your business to their highly valued clients or customers, there needs to be a good reason for them to do so. People will not “just do it” because it’s going to make you rich!
- For instance, I once knew a Bank Manager, who recommended me to all his banks clients, because if they worked with me, their businesses grew and so did their need for more and more of the bank’s services. By recommending me in this way, his clients benefited, he benefited and so did I.
- The relationship between the person endorsing you and their contacts is pivotal to the success of the exercise. Getting a highly respected professional to recommend you to a group of people, who value and trust that person’s judgement is marketing gold dust. Last year, one of my clients generated the equivalent of 25% of her annual turnover in just 12 hours, after a successful endorsed relationship exercise, with a highly respected professional!
- If the person endorsing you is regularly recommending people to their contacts, their recommendation will be of far less value, than one from someone who is more discerning. For example, there are well-known self-help / personal development gurus, who will recommend ANYTHING for a fee. As such, their recommendation means very little. So, align yourself with people, whose word is trusted and respected.
- If you are using written marketing for an endorsed relationship, the wording is extremely important. Because of the potential value to you of the end result, I would STRONGLY recommend you get a copy writer to compose it. It could be one of the best marketing investments you will ever make.
Think first!
In order for your endorsed relationship to work, you will need to plan it out in advance. You will need to hand pick the right people, find a motivating way to reward them. Just as importantly, if you want it to work, you will need to have a process in place, to deal with what is often a massive number of enquiries or leads in a very short period of time.
Although it sounds simple, I strongly recommend you do your homework before diving in. The vast majority of endorsed relationships conducted by non marketing professionals fail, because of poor planning. I have no doubt that some of the people reading this, will already have experienced what happens, when you pick the wrong partner or they use the wrong message when endorsing you.
So, plan ahead, take your time and do it right!
What have your experiences of endorsed relationships been?
Photo: Richkidsunites
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Once again Jim, you give more useful information away for free than most marketing books and programmes I have spent good money on.
THANK YOU
Thanks for that George!
I totally get this, Jim, and on a smaller level, feel this every time one of my clients tells their friends that if they need help with getting their career on track, they should talk to Julie.
And an interesting thing that happens, though I would really hard for all my clients, I work even harder for a referred client. Why? Because I need to live up to the reputation that they were sold on. I need to be the best possible resume writer, coach, job strategist that I can be because I was recommended by someone they trusted.
My new relationship with Rasmussen College brings that to another level. By being the career expert doing resume reviews at their recent career and networking fair and now writing a monthly article in their newsletter, I am earning the trust of the college leaders and the students.
I like this!
Why am I not surprised to find you here today, Julie, given our conversations!!
Jim, the synchronicity of this post with some dialogue Julie and I have been having is scary, but moves the thing to another dimension entirely.
Christine Livingston´s last blog ..The virtual office of self-selected colleagues
Hi Christine. I will have to check out what you and Julie have been discussing, as it seems my ears should have been burning
Hi Julie. It’s super-important to give it 100%. I always try my best to, at least, live up to my reputation.
Jim,
I always find it funny that we have so many forms of marketing, and different style, yet the most powerful is building through relationships. Perhaps, the oldest and simplest form.
Indeed. Relationships are what it’s all about – because relationships are people, and business is people.
I think endorsed relationships are the next natural step for word-of-mouth marketing, mate. If you like something so much, why not recommend it properly with an endorsement?
The only problem is, if that brand suddenly goes down the tube for whatever reason, does that reflect badly on you? Take Tiger Woods as an example – let’s say you endorsed him as a friend to a family values newsletter, and then his indiscretions come up as they did. Does that reflect on your judge of character, and therefore business judgement?
Hmmm…
Danny Brown´s last blog ..Why Simple Works – Free Ebook
Thanks for the feedback Danny,
You make a good point about what “could” happen if someone you endorse turns out to be an unreliable endorsement.
I believe that in essence, this is the very nub of why it’s SO important for us to be extremely careful before we align ourselves with someone or a brand. I actually blogged about this a few weeks ago.
As always, a thought provoking comment. Thanks mate!
I have found a few things…people are reluctant to put their name to a provider. In your example, would the accountant do that when he could have other IT clients? And, there is always the case of commissions which can muddy the waters.
Hello Marketing for accountants
Thanks for the comment.
The example of the accountant was from a practice I know extremely well. I have no idea if they had other IT maintenance clients in their portfolio, who were big enough to service that number of clients. As a forward thinking practice, they would have been unlikely to refuse to offer the IT provider’s services for fear of pissing off another client – especially if the IT provider was able to provide an uncommonly good, highly valuable service; to hundreds of the practice’s clients. This was the case in this example. It was, as they say, a perfect fit.
Commissions only ever muddy the waters, if they have been ill thought-out. Sadly, this is pretty common, as many people have no idea how to compile a simple, reward structure. It baffles me why people in business find it so hard to figure out how a reciprocal reward scheme works.
People eh?
@marketingforaccountants
so, using your logic, an accountant would not use a stationary provider or an electrician to work on his offices, if he had one as a client? Otherwise, they might be offended and leave?
I cant think of any professional businessperson, that would allow that kind of thinking to harm their business.
our accountants (who are brilliant) recommend us to their clients all the time and we are one of a number of electrical contractors on their books. Maybe they recommend others too but I know we get a lot of regular business.
@Jim…I understand, I just don’t think a client of an accountant would appreciate them promoting a competitor because of the unique nature of the relationship .
But, I think this is where blogs can be used as a soft way to promote partners.
@Grant…I think most accountants would avoid using clients just in case the job went wrong!
Is the “firm” of accountants promoting you or is the individual person? I know it can be one and the same but do you have an agreement in place?