Today, we continue in our series of articles called “Rethinking Referrals.” If you haven’t read the first two articles, you can do so by clicking here (Introduction) and here (The Limitations). In this article, I want to deal with a major “problem” of referrals.
When you are relying on referrals as your primary business plan, then you are literally surrendering all control. You no longer have any choice as to whether or not your business succeeds. The fate of your business lies in the hands of others. I don’t know about you, but that doesn’t sound appealing to me.
Let me illustrate this on a massive scale. There is a little company called the Walt Disney Company. You may have heard of them. Aside from their movies, merchandise, restaurants, TV Channel, and resorts, they have multiple theme parks throughout the world. One of their parks in Walt Disney World, Magic Kingdom, averages over 53,000 guests per day.
In fact, Disney is the strongest brand in the world. Certainly, Disney has no need to advertise. In fact, I dare say that Disney realizes the power of referrals and word of mouth so much that if you were to ask them how they stay on top their competition, their reply would be something to the effect of, “Oh, you know, just word of mouth and stuff. We don’t really have a plan. We just hope enough people like us and refer us” [Insert sarcasm here].
On the contrary, in 2018 Disney spent over 2.8 billion on advertising alone. You don’t get to be the world’s strongest and most powerful brand by word of mouth. You certainly do not stay the world’s strongest and most powerful brand by word of mouth. You must have a plan. Even Disney understands that referrals from their die-hard fans and loyal customers are not enough to maintain the level of success needed. Now, if a company like Disney realizes that relying on word of mouth and referrals isn’t a business plan, then what does that tell us? You guessed it...it's probably not a great business plan!
So, in this article, the point I wish to really hit home is the importance of taking control of your business and/or your sales. You cannot do that if you believe “getting referrals” equates to a business plan. Please, do not fail because someone didn’t refer you enough. Don’t be that person who has bought into the referral lie. Take control of your business now. Don’t sit around and wait for somebody to make your dreams come true. Walt Disney famously said, "If you can dream it, you can do it." Make your own dreams a reality.
Next week we will continue our series on "Rethinking Referrals," as we look at more problems with relying on referrals as your primary business plan.
- Kevin Pendergrass
www.pendergrasspromos.com
kevin@pendergrasspromos.com