Jim's Marketing Blog

One of the foundations of success, is a willingness to go out on a limb. That’s because all meaningful progress is preceded by the decision to take a calculated risk… to go out on a limb. And do something.

Risk, security and progress

Starting a family, starting a business, relocating – all of these life changing decisions require us to go out on a limb. One of the oddities of life, is that even though the decisions that lead to the most progress in our lives are preceded by risk, we tend to opt for certainty instead. The pull of the comfort zone is clearly too strong for most to resist.

The challenge with opting for the mediocre decisions, is that mediocre decisions lead to mediocre results.

In our strive for certainty and security, it’s easy to justify playing it safe. After all…

• If we don’t state our opinions, our opinions can’t be criticised.
• If we don’t start a business, the business can’t fail.
• If we don’t ask that amazing person for a dance, they can’t say no.

Mark Twain and going out on a limb

Yesterday, I discovered a wonderful quote from Mark Twain, which describes the importance of going out on a limb far more eloquently than I can.

Here’s what he said: “Why not go out on a limb? That’s where the fruit is!”

One of the great ironies in business is that playing it safe is the riskiest thing we can do. As a result, the risk averse business owner places an incredibly low ceiling on his or her potential. They reach a plateau with their business, because their safe decisions can only take them so far. One safe decision after another sees them spin their wheels. It’s heartbreaking.

Here’s an interesting fact:

In over 6000 years of recorded human history, no one has ever achieved anything outstanding by playing it safe. No one. The message is clear. You need to either accept the necessity for calculated risks, or settle for way, way less than you deserve.

In short, if you want 2018 to be significantly better than 2017, it’s time to embrace the changes you need to make. Meaningful improvement can’t happen without meaningful change.

There’s much we can learn from successful business owners. Their achievements can both educate and inspire us. However, unsuccessful business owners also have a great deal we can learn from. This is especially true when it comes to marketing.

In what way?

Consider a business owner whose business has failed, is contracting or hasn’t grown much in recent years. Wouldn’t it be extremely useful to find out how they marketed their business, so you know what to avoid?

By uncovering their blueprint for failure, you can save yourself a lot of time, stress and money. You can bypass the mistakes they made. You can learn from their attitude to risk and investment. You can see whether they embraced the edges or stayed in their comfort zone.

Interestingly, if you speak with even a handful of failing business owners, you’ll see they make the same costly marketing mistakes. And it isn’t a coincidence. Marketing success is a choice. It’s always a choice.

Today, I’m going to help you attract massively more, high quality referrals. It’s based on a powerful, 3 step process.

We need to start by accepting a few fundamental truths about word of mouth referrals:

• They don’t happen by accident.
• They’re not the result of luck.
• They are not the result of hard work either. [It’s never about working hard.]

Word of mouth referrals are the natural result of delivering a service, which is worth talking about.

3 steps to attracting word of mouth referrals

I’ve helped thousands of business owners to attract valuable, word of mouth referrals. One of the techniques I use with my clients, is based on the following 3 step process.

Here’s how it works.

1. Think for a moment about some of the products and services you have recommended to people. Write down at least 5 examples. It doesn’t matter what industry the examples come from.
2. Figure out what it was that motivated you to give those recommendations. Go through your experience with that product or service and look for the gold dust. The gold dust is the thing that was so remarkable that you wanted to tell your friends.
3. Look for ways to adapt and apply that gold dust into your own business. Be as open minded as possible. Be brave too, because your best answers will be rare or brand new to your industry. If they were already common in your industry, they wouldn’t be remarkable.

Going through these 3 steps correctly will take a little time. You may need to return to it over a period of a few days or more. However, it’s worth it. If you can find and apply just one, powerful and motivating word of mouth factor to your business, it can dramatically boost your sales or client acquisition numbers.

I hope you find this 3 step process useful. More importantly, I hope you do something with it.

Tip: If you found this useful, you can get my latest ideas delivered direct to your inbox, for free, right here.