Customer Referral Quotes

The farther right you go on the curve, the more you will encounter the clients and customers who may need what you have, but don't necessarily believe what you believe. As clients, they are the ones for whom, no matter how hard you work, it's never enough. Everything usually boils down to price with them. They are rarely loyal. They rarely give referrals and sometimes you may even wonder out loud why you still do business with them. "They just don't get it," our gut tells us. The importance of identifying this group is so that you can avoid doing business with them.

You need to position yourself to your referral sources and your current clients as providing exceptional value and experiences in everything you do

ROADMAP TASK FIVE: CREATE A SYSTEM THAT GENERATES REFERRALS

the sale is not complete until the customer is so happy that he or she confidently makes referrals.

What we offer needs to be a clear and obvious fit for our customers. We need to help others envision exactly what they're buying - in concrete terms.

There is need to focus on selling an emotional experience instead of a mere product or service - the impression you make on others must be lasting and permanent. These experiences have to be positive and worth remembering. This will increase the chances of repeat business and referrals, guaranteeing customer loyalty. And that is what sustains businesses, brands and careers for generations! The principle remains the same for comedians, actors, footballers, musicians, sales executives or any other area of specialty.

Do whatever it takes to make your customers happy and make sure they can’t stop talking about you. That’s how referrals are created.

Initially working out of our home in Northern California, with a garage-based lab, I wrote a one page letter introducing myself and what we had and posted it to the CEOs of twenty-two Fortune 500 companies. Within a couple of weeks, we had received seventeen responses, with invitations to meetings and referrals to heads of engineering departments. I met with those CEOs or their deputies and received an enthusiastic response from almost every individual. There was also strong interest from engineers given the task of interfacing with us. However, support from their senior engineering and product development managers was less forthcoming. We learned that many of the big companies we had approached were no longer manufacturers themselves but assemblers of components or were value-added reseller companies, who put their famous names on systems that other original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) had built. That didn't daunt us, though when helpful VPs of engineering at top-of-the-food-chain companies referred us to their suppliers, we found that many had little or no R & D capacity, were unwilling to take a risk on outside ideas, or had no room in their already stripped-down budgets for innovation. Our designs found nowhere to land. It became clear that we needed to build actual products and create an apples-to-apples comparison before we could interest potential manufacturing customers. Where to start? We created a matrix of the product areas that we believed PAX could impact and identified more than five hundred distinct market sectors-with potentially hundreds of thousands of products that we could improve. We had to focus. After analysis that included the size of the addressable market, ease of access, the cost and time it would take to develop working prototypes, the certifications and metrics of the various industries, the need for energy efficiency in the sector, and so on, we prioritized the list to fans, mixers, pumps, and propellers. We began hand-making prototypes as comparisons to existing, leading products. By this time, we were raising working capital from angel investors. It's important to note that this was during the first half of the last decade. The tragedy of September 11, 2001, and ensuing military actions had the world's attention. Clean tech and green tech were just emerging as terms, and energy efficiency was still more of a slogan than a driver for industry. The dot-com boom had busted. We'd researched venture capital firms in the late 1990s and found only seven in the United States investing in mechanical engineering inventions. These tended to be expansion-stage investors that didn't match our phase of development. Still, we were close to the famous Silicon Valley and had a few comical conversations with venture capitalists who said they'd be interested in investing-if we could turn our technology into a website. Instead, every six months or so, we drew up a budget for the following six months. Via a growing network of forward-thinking private investors who could see the looming need for dramatic changes in energy efficiency and the performance results of our prototypes compared to currently marketed products, we funded the next phase of research and business development.

WHY HABITS ARE GOOD FOR BUSINESS If our programmed behaviors are so influential in guiding our everyday actions, surely harnessing the same power of habits can be a boon for industry. Indeed, for those able to shape them in an effective way, habits can be very good for the bottom line. Habit-forming products change user behavior and create unprompted user engagement. The aim is to influence customers to use your product on their own, again and again, without relying on overt calls to action such as ads or promotions. Once a habit is formed, the user is automatically triggered to use the product during routine events such as wanting to kill time while waiting in line. However, the framework and practices explored in this book are not “one size fits all” and do not apply to every business or industry. Entrepreneurs should evaluate how user habits impact their particular business model and goals. While the viability of some products depends on habit-formation to thrive, that is not always the case. For example, companies selling infrequently bought or used products or services do not require habitual users—at least, not in the sense of everyday engagement. Life insurance companies, for instance, leverage salespeople, advertising, and word-of-mouth referrals and recommendations to prompt consumers to buy policies. Once the policy is bought, there is nothing more the customer needs to do. In this book I refer to products in the context of businesses that require ongoing, unprompted user engagement and therefore need to build user habits. I exclude companies that compel customers to take action through

majority of successful business owners will tell you flat out that obtaining referrals is the most powerful tactic for attracting new customers.

Sources Of Customers, Best To Worst 1st Your existing customers 2nd Referrals from your happy customers 3rd Your company’s existing customers 4th Your competitor’s existing customers. Follow the salesman. (You’re going to love this!) 5th That great customer with an immediate need. Direct mail...cold calling 6th People who buy from your method of selling… in-home, mail, referral. 7th Pretty much the other 94% of the world.

Need a Dental Clinic in Worcester? With hundreds of satisfied customers, our team at Wharf Dental prides itself on the fact that the majority of new clients that join our Worcester based dental practice are through personal referrals from existing clients.

Remember that a core tenet of growth hacking is experimentation all through the customer experience funnel: not just customer awareness and acquisition but also activation, retention, revenue, and referral.

pulseM is The #1 reputation management platform built for home services. Our platform humanizes service interactions to help your business meet the modern homeowner's expectations for "personal service", and, in turn, collect authentic reviews. Online reviews have a direct correlation with how much organic growth your company sees through referrals. Having more reviews than your competitors is an immediate signal of credibility to potential customers who are searching for your services online.

One time he wanted me to research a house he was curious about—in Iowa. Some realtors might find this annoying, or view it as something they “don’t have time to do.” Anytime someone on my team tells me they’re too busy to answer clients, the next day they’re not on the team. Customer service and follow-through are paramount to referral business from clients just like Campbell. So even though I had no idea what houses in Iowa were worth, I was happy to get more information for him.

To acquire customers, Baroo did not invest in traditional paid marketing, such as Facebook ads. Instead, the startup relied on the marketing efforts of apartment building partners and on word-of-mouth referrals from existing customers. Buildings would distribute a welcome gift from Baroo—a chew toy or leash—to new residents who owned pets. The team also hosted quarterly events for residents, such as “yappy hours” and pet Halloween. Finally, building concierge staff would recommend Baroo to residents. In exchange, the startup paid buildings a share of the revenue that it earned from their residents, averaging about 6 percent. Such revenue sharing is standard practice for service providers, like cable TV companies, that want access to residents.

And while seeking out the opinions and perspectives of people like ourselves may lead to a more personal and familiar buying experience, what’s even more amazing is the impact those trusted sources have on conversion rates. B2B sales cycle data from Salesforce demonstrates that, when it comes to lead conversion, the interest that originates from customer and employee referrals converts to deals at rates fifty times higher than email campaigns!9 Furthermore, data from marketing automation giant Marketo indicates that leads originating from referrals convert to opportunities at rates of four times the average, and similar to the next three highest-converting lead sources combined (those being partner, inbound, and marketing-generated).10 My personal experience over the years greatly corroborates these statistics. For example, when I started my own sales practice, Cerebral Selling, I needed to have a logo designed. Around the same time, my friend had recently had a nice logo designed for his business. I asked him who he used, he told me, and I just did the same. No further research or investigation required. A short time later, I wanted to head out of town with my wife for an overnight trip to the beautiful Niagara wine region of Ontario to celebrate our anniversary. I didn’t know where to stay or which restaurant to go to, so instead of sifting through pages of online content and reviews, I asked a friend who runs a vineyard in the region. When he gave me his recommendations, I simply booked the places he told me. No questions asked. Were there better places to stay and eat? Potentially. Were there other creative design shops that could have generated equally if not more spectacular logos? More than likely. Do I care? Absolutely not! I love my logo and had a great anniversary outing, and feel secure in my decisions around both because of the feeling I received by selecting recommendations from people I trust. Both experiences are perfect examples of the prescriptive-led sales cycle we spoke about in chapter 2. This means that when it comes to your selling motion, one of the most unobtrusive, empathetic, and authentic ways to convert prospective buyers is simply to surround them with like-minded customers who love you.

You call Warby Parker, and we want somebody to answer within six seconds. So many e-commerce sites were trying to hide their 1-800 number, and they viewed customer service as a cost center that should be minimized,” explains Blumenthal. “We’ve always viewed it as profit center, as an investment in our brand. Our customers are our biggest driver of traffic and sales because of referrals. We make somebody happy, and it benefits the company.

Mr. Customer, it’s been such a pleasure working with you. If you know anyone who’s in a similar situation to yourself, we’d love you to give them one of these gift cards which entitles them to $100 off their first consultation with us. One of the reasons we’re able to keep the cost of our service down is because we get a lot of our business through referrals from people like you.

The perfect salesperson will naturally attract prospects, set a polished first impression, keep prospects engaged as well as educate them, follow up with them at just the right time and handle any objections with expert salesmanship, skillfully close the sale while simultaneously looking for upsell opportunities, and get referrals while retaining them as customers for life. Whether your top salesperson is you or someone on your team, that person will inevitably have a bad day, take vacations, and need benefits. The ASP™ takes the perfect version of your sales process and permanently stamps it into a technology system that works for you 24/7/365, never having a bad day, never needing a vacation, and never requiring benefits. The ASP™ is the growth-hacking framework we implement for our clients that range from traditional brick-and-mortar businesses to venture-backed technology start-ups. It’s a framework that can be applied to any type of business, and in the next several chapters, we’ll dive into ASP™ and its six individual components and show you how best to implement them for your business.

four types of content that work. They are: Content that validates—case studies, references, social media sharing Content that educates—customer communities and user forums Content that rewards dedication—MVP programs, referrals, speaking engagements for customer advocates Content that inspires—customer advisory boards, co-creation, and other forms of collaboration

SagaReach Marketing Helps Local Businesses Build Scalable-Predictable-Sustainable-Measurable Compounding Growth By Providing Them Exclusive Referrals And Online Visibility. With Science-Based SEO, We Drive Qualified Traffic at Scale. With Content Marketing, We Provide Value While Driving Conversions. With PPC, We Transform Customer Intent into Profit. With SMM, We Meet Your Customers Where They Live. With CRO, We Unlock Additional Value in Your Funnel.

A Very Effective Path Adam Hyder, Head of Technology at Jobvite, a leader in Talent Acquisition software, analyzed Jobvite’s customer data set. Adam found that while referrals make up only 6% of the applicant pool, they accounted for 39.9% of hires

First: make sure you know with whom you are dealing. The tactics in this situation are determined by where your customer stands in the organization. Are you dealing directly with a decision maker? A pure “D” on the DiSC profile? If so, give her the information she asks for. If you are dealing with a person in the middle of a large organization, you have a much tougher task. The trick is to tease him, showing just enough to demonstrate that you are the best company for the job without giving away valuable information. You can say anything to a client, you can show all kinds of examples of how you have solved your other clients’ problems, and you can demonstrate your sterling reputation by trotting out a list of the important companies that have been your customers—but you must never, ever hand over a written proposal full of specific solutions to their problems. Never give the mid-level buyer anything he can pass on to others. Once he has that, you’re toast. Bob tells us that we should provide specific solutions only after a commitment. A real, solid, irrevocable decision to proceed. A purchase order or a deposit. Get them hooked, and then give them everything they ask for and more. Over-deliver. Bathe them with your love. Show them that choosing your company was the best decision they ever made, and make sure that this is true. Then you can ask for a letter of recommendation and referrals. These are what will get you past the next mid-level buyer.

Mr. Customer, I’m going to do an awesome job for you, but I need your help also. Most of our new business comes through referrals. This means that rather than paying for advertising to get new clients, we pass the cost savings directly to you. We typically get about three referrals from each new customer. When we’re finished working together and you’re 100% satisfied with the work we’ve done, I’d really appreciate it if you could keep in mind three or more other people who we could also help.

What do executives love best about customer delight? The fact that it is highly contagious. Just ask David Vélez, CEO of Brazil’s Nubank, the world’s largest independent digital bank. Nubank gains more than 40,000 customers each day, 80 percent of them through referrals from existing customers.

my services. As a result, I would also want to measure Loyalty, Referrals and Repeat Purchase, which is why many organizations have Loyalty Programme that rewards

PayPal’s big challenge was to get new customers. They tried advertising. It was too expensive. They tried BD [business development] deals with big banks. Bureaucratic hilarity ensued. … the PayPal team reached an important conclusion: BD didn’t work. They needed organic, viral growth. They needed to give people money. So that’s what they did. New customers got $10 for signing up, and existing ones got $10 for referrals. Growth went exponential, and PayPal wound up paying $20 for each new customer. It felt like things were working and not working at the same time; 7 to 10 percent daily growth and 100 million users was good. No revenues and an exponentially growing cost structure were not. Things felt a little unstable. PayPal needed buzz so it could raise more capital and continue on. (Ultimately, this worked out. That does not mean it’s the best way to run a company. Indeed, it probably isn’t.)2

Relocating internationally can be a thrilling adventure, but it’s not without its challenges. The logistics involved in international moving are more complex than domestic moves, requiring careful planning and execution. To ensure a smooth transition to your new home, here are ten essential tips for international moving. 1. Start Early Begin the planning process well in advance. International moves involve extensive paperwork, visa applications, and scheduling with international moving companies. Start at least six months before your intended move date. 2. Declutter and Organize Before packing, declutter your belongings. Dispose of items you no longer need or use. This not only reduces the cost of moving but also helps you start fresh in your new home. 3. Research International Moving Companies Select a reputable international moving company with experience in your destination country. Read reviews, ask for referrals, and obtain quotes from multiple companies. Choose one that offers comprehensive services and competitive rates. 4. Understand Customs Regulations Familiarize yourself with the customs regulations of your destination country. Different countries have varying rules about what you can bring with you. Be prepared to fill out detailed customs forms. 5. Documentation Ensure all your important documents are in order. This includes passports, visas, medical records, and any necessary permits. Keep physical copies as well as digital backups. 6. Packing Strategy Use sturdy, high-quality packing materials to protect your belongings during transit. Label boxes clearly and create an inventory list. Pack essential items separately for easy access upon arrival. 7. Insurance Consider purchasing international moving insurance to protect your possessions during the move. Verify what is covered and ensure it meets your needs. 8. Currency and Banking Set up a bank account in your new country before you move. Also, consider having some local currency on hand for immediate expenses upon arrival. 9. Learn About Your New Home Research your destination thoroughly. Understand the local culture, language, and basic laws. Knowing what to expect can ease the transition. 10. Stay Organized Keep all your moving-related paperwork, receipts, and contact information in one place. This will be invaluable if any issues arise during your international move. Bonus Tip: Stay Positive! Moving internationally can be stressful, but maintaining a positive attitude can make a world of difference. Embrace the adventure and view it as an opportunity for personal growth and exploration. Conclusion International moving is a significant undertaking that requires careful planning and thorough research.

Mr. Customer, I’m going to do an awesome job for you, but I need your help also. Most of our new business comes through referrals. This means that rather than paying for advertising to get new clients, we pass the cost savings directly to you. We typically get about three referrals from each new customer. When we’re finished working together and you’re 100% satisfied with the work we’ve done, I’d really appreciate it if you could keep in mind three or more other people who we could also help. Again, breaking it down, we are: Letting them know that they’re going to get a great result Showing them a direct benefit that they’re going to be, or already are, deriving by referring to us Creating an expectation of a certain number of referrals (without being too pushy) so that they can start thinking ahead of time about who would be suitable Leaving the power with them by telling them that their referral is subject to us doing a great job for them

After all, “The devil I know is better than the one I don’t know.

People don’t change providers because of lower prices. They change because the new provider offers a better relationship.

Dealing with Rejection Of course, success won’t always be so immediate when you use direct preselling to validate—in fact, you’ll get rejected a whole lot—and this is another instance where the technique shines. That’s because every rejection is an opportunity; you can use it to take a deep dive into customer problems. Remember the Rejection Goals from chapter 2. Rejections are TREASURE. When I get shot down while validating, I have a simple four-question script that flips the no into new knowledge, new ideas, and maybe even new customers. “Why not?” It’s really easy to get scared from attacking this one head-on, because what happens if their criticism is right? But that’s exactly what you want to know! “Who is one person you know who would really like this?” Always, always, always ask for a referral! Be specific about what kind of referral and use a number; this makes it highly effective. “What would make this a no-brainer for you?” If they don’t want your product, maybe they’d want something related to it. If they don’t want to pay for your dog care app, what about dog walking? A dog hotel? Dog dating? “What would you pay for that?” One of the hardest things in a startup is setting prices. Getting potential customers to say what they’d pay is pure gold!

It is much more expensive to acquire a new customer than to keep an old one. Yet many businesses will never recognize and change the things that cause them to lose their customers. They only focus on tactics to bring the new customer in the door to make enough profit for that month. I cannot stress enough the importance of focusing on retaining customers, which directly correlates to incredible growth and profits for the business. Providing exceptional customer service dramatically increases retention, which leads to increased referrals, which leads to dramatically increased profits and income.

First Choice provides quick, professional and reliable service. We generate a lot of repeat customers and referrals base on the superiority and specialized of our service and our technicians.

PayPal’s big challenge was to get new customers. They tried advertising. It was too expensive. They tried BD [business development] deals with big banks. Bureaucratic hilarity ensued. … the PayPal team reached an important conclusion: BD didn’t work. They needed organic, viral growth. They needed to give people money. So that’s what they did. New customers got $10 for signing up, and existing ones got $10 for referrals. Growth went exponential, and PayPal wound up paying $20 for each new customer. It felt like things were working and not working at the same time; 7 to 10 percent daily growth and 100 million users was good. No revenues and an exponentially growing cost structure were not. Things felt a little unstable. PayPal needed buzz so it could raise more capital and continue on. (Ultimately, this worked out. That does not mean it’s the best way to run a company. Indeed, it probably isn’t.)2 Thiel’s account captures both the desperation of those early days and the almost random experimentation the company resorted to in an effort to get PayPal off the ground. But in the end, the strategy worked. PayPal dramatically increased its base of consumers by incentivizing new sign-ups. Most important, the PayPal team realized that getting users to sign up wasn’t enough; they needed them to try the payment service, recognize its value to them, and become regular users. In other words, user commitment was more important than user acquisition. So PayPal designed the incentives to tip new customers into the ranks of active users. Not only did the incentive payments make joining PayPal feel riskless and attractive, they also virtually guaranteed that new users would start participating in transactions—if only to spend the $10 they’d been gifted in their accounts. PayPal’s explosive growth triggered a number of positive feedback loops. Once users experienced the convenience of PayPal, they often insisted on paying by this method when shopping online, thereby encouraging sellers to sign up. New users spread the word further, recommending PayPal to their friends. Sellers, in turn, began displaying PayPal logos on their product pages to inform buyers that they were prepared to honor this method of online payment. The sight of those logos informed more buyers of PayPal’s existence and encouraged them to sign up. PayPal also introduced a referral fee for sellers, incentivizing them to bring in still more sellers and buyers. Through these feedback loops, the PayPal network went to work on its own behalf—it served the needs of users (buyers and sellers) while spurring its own growth.

This method enabled me to expand my territory and create a strong network of loyal customers for referrals and repeat business. Make active listening a deliberate part of your business plan and success strategy. You will not only grow your business, but also make wonderful friends along the way.

At a Chamber of Commerce networking breakfast, two of my friends and I were standing in a circle talking. A stranger approached, interrupted our little reunion, and gave each of us her card. She then began talking about herself and her business without a hint of social awareness, or care about her interruption. She even had the tactless gall to ask us for referrals. When she left our small circle, we looked at each other and laughed, “What was that?

I spend a great deal of time on airplanes traveling from one speaking engagement to the next. There have been times when I have sat for hours next to strangers with whom I never made eye contact or uttered a word. But then I have also met people with whom I engaged in such delightful conversation that it resulted in new business and referrals. The main difference was whether or not I took initiative to begin a conversation.

The ripple effect of their new attitude transferred to their customer interactions, improving the customers’ experience with the company, increasing repeat and referral business, which increased everyone’s pride. That simple change over the period of eighteen months did a complete 180 on the company culture. Net profits grew by more than 30 percent during that time, utilizing the same staff and zero additional investment in marketing.

If you’re solely relying on free traffic, referrals, joint ventures, or other channels like these, then you don’t have a predictable and dependable way to grow your business.

Clearly, these giants of investing are not relying on referrals to average a 20% annual rate of return or more. They are putting in $1 and getting $1.20 or $1.30 back on a predictable, billion-dollar scale.

To make these loops actionable for product teams, you can break them down into more granular steps, and A/B test them. For example, Uber’s viral loop for drivers involved a referral program that was exposed during the onboarding process. There were a dozen or so screens on the app that a driver moved through during the sign-up process—entering their phone number creating a password, uploading their driver’s license, etc. Each of these steps could be optimized so that more users would pass through. Then, drivers would be presented with an explanation on how to refer their friends, and what type of bonus they’d get for doing so. This could be improved as well—should the message offer $100 to sign up, or $300? If you invite five people should you get a bonus? Should an invite mention the name of the inviter, or just focus on Uber, as an app? On the sign-up page, should you ask for a driver’s email or their phone number, or both? A product team can brainstorm hundreds of these ideas and systematically try them, measuring for conversion rates and the number of invites sent. Optimizing each of these steps with A/B tests might only boost each step’s conversion by 5 percent here or 10 percent there, but it’s a compounding effect. Hundreds of A/B tests later, the millions of dollars you might be spending on acquiring customers is made substantially more efficient.

Everything about realty nyc for you In case real estate nyc is what you are searching for, then Bogatov Luxury Real estate is for you. You could wish to purchase a home or offer it off, but it constantly helps to have professionals do it for you. If it is luxury condominiums you are searching for in Brooklyn, Queens, Bronx or Manchester, then these are the people you have to go to. Simply select the city that you want and the Bogatov team will assist you get the condominium you are searching for. All this ends up being possible as the group at Bogatov are concentrated on comprehending the customer's requirements and making all efforts to meet them. This is professionalism at its finest and it leads to customers returning once more and again. Not only this, it results in exemplary referrals and that has actually caused the development and nourishment of their business. Purchasing real estate nyc is not simply about getting any home. It is all a reflection of your way of life. This is why the Bogatov team makes a lot effort in understanding your desires in order to purchase that perfect home for you. When you utilize their services, you would continuously be returning for more. Even they think in long term relationships with their clients. In case you are attempting to sell your home, then Bogatov group will do so in just the type of luxury that it deserves. In order to get access to the various homes in estate new york provided on their site, you would have to register with them. Just inspect them out to know the most current properties, their floor plans, amenities, costs and anything else that you would want to understand about them. As soon as you are with Bogatov Luxury Real estate, you would understand that they keep you updated with the latest in real estate information too. So you would understand all about the most recent State paws on home, any brand-new developments in realty. With Bogatov Luxury Real estate, inspect out the very best places to stay in, the home mortgage rates in various areas, the way the need and supply chart is moving and so on. Thus being with the Bogatov group serves more functions than one as you get a lot more than exactly what you planned on. Simply pick out the city that you desire and the Bogatov team will assist you get the condo you are looking for. All this becomes possible as the group at Bogatov are concentrated on comprehending the client's requirements and making all efforts to fulfill them. Purchasing actual estate nyc is not just about getting any property. This is why the Bogatov group makes so much effort in understanding your desires in order to purchase that best home for you. http://bogatovrealty.com/new-york/real

In 2013, Hertz Global Rental took a 20 percent stake in China’s biggest car-rental firm, privately owned China Auto Rental. Overnight, the U.S. company’s presence in China expanded from 5 outlets to 700. China Auto Rental got access to Hertz’s customer referrals, one of the main sources of business for car rentals. This sector will only grow in importance as China’s car-rental market grows from $4 billion to $20 billion—equaling America’s.

LONDON MOVERS is a professional moving company that provides experienced movers with Low moving rates and fast service! With over 10 years of service to the community, our experienced movers have moved over 67,500 customers in the metropolitan area and are proud to have the highest repeat business and referral ratings in the industry and the fact that we are one of the oldest moving companies in the area, we work very hard to make sure you have a great experience when it comes in moving.

The same thing is true of referrals. You have to be very specific in your requests for referrals; this significantly increases the odds that they’ll happen.

5.  Create a System That Generates Referrals.

Let’s take a step-by-step look at what it takes to create an effective referral system.

To win, you have to be clear about your superpower, and you make that differentiation clear to your customers. Otherwise, you remain part of the noise.

This is what happened when I cofounded LinkedIn. The key business model innovations for LinkedIn, including the two-way nature of the relationships and filling professionals’ need for a business-oriented online identity, didn’t just happen organically. They were the result of much thought and reflection, and I drew on the experiences I had when founding SocialNet, one of the first online social networks, nearly a decade before the creation of LinkedIn. But life isn’t always so neat. Many companies, even famous and successful ones, have to develop their business model innovation after they have already commenced operations. PayPal didn’t have a business model when it began operations (I was a key member of the PayPal executive team). We were growing exponentially, at 5 percent per day, and we were losing money on every single transaction we processed. The funny thing is that some of our critics called us insane for paying customers bonuses to refer their friends. Those referral bonuses were actually brilliant, because their cost was so much lower than the standard cost of acquiring new financial services customers via advertising. (We’ll discuss the power and importance of this kind of viral marketing later on.) The insanity, in fact, was that we were allowing our users to accept credit card payments, sticking PayPal with the cost of paying 3 percent of each transaction to the credit card processors, while charging our users nothing. I remember once telling my old college friend and PayPal cofounder/ CEO Peter Thiel, “Peter, if you and I were standing on the roof of our office and throwing stacks of hundred-dollar bills off the edge as fast as our arms could go, we still wouldn’t be losing money as quickly as we are right now.” We ended up solving the problem by charging businesses to accept payments, much as the credit card processors did, but funding those payments using automated clearinghouse (ACH) bank transactions, which cost a fraction of the charges associated with the credit card networks. But if we had waited until we had solved this problem before blitzscaling, I suspect we wouldn’t have become the market leader.

100% Novelty is when nobody you mention it to has ever heard of it before. If half the people you told had never heard of the product it would be a score of 50%. 100% Utility means everyone you mention it to has a use for it. Not that everyone has a need or use for it but everyone you mention it to knows someone who has a need or use for it. 100% Dependability means it works as promised or expected every time. It it works as expected half the time that would be 50%. 100% Economy means that it is always recognized as a better value.... As you can see the total possible score is 400%. All you really need for viral behavior, for very, very high referral activity is 315%... A typical score for a lot of businesses or products would be about 300%. The resulting output behavior is about 0.15 referrals per customer. In other words, for every 6 or 7 customers you would get 1 referral. When you get it up to 315% you might expect one referral for every customer. So an added 15% gives you 600% difference in terms of performance and referrals. For some businesses it would be simple to arrive at a close approximation of their N.U.D.E. scores by calculating it from the results-end. What I mean is you will look at how many referrals you are getting and compare that to the known outcome from a given N.U.D.E. score. Referral rate 0.15; NUDE score 300%; 1 referral for every 6-7 existing customers. Referral rate 0.10. NUDE score 290%; 1 referral for every 10 existing customers. Referral rate 0.05; NUDE score 250%; 1 referral for every 20 existing customers.

Breakthrough products and services, in order to be perceived as credible desperately need a handicap in order to offset the too-good-to-be-true Toxic Novelty... It is something that is just noticed out of the corner of their eye, not really hidden, but unnoticed by the casual observer. Ideally, all early customers will believe that they are the only ones to have noticed this subtle flaw. We are now naturally situated for high referrals. "Almost too good to be true." Managing the "almost" part of that is the critical secret...

This is a hard thing for most creative people to get, but most of their customers are not buying creativity, per se. What they are actually buying is the way they feel about being involved in the creative process. The Dependability comes in knowing they will get that feeling.

In a word-of-mouth and word-of-mouse led world, the process of researching and buying is decidedly non-linear... (p. 8) What if we've got it all wrong? Take the marketing and sales funnels, for example. These tools were designed to sift through an inordinate number of suspects and prospects to extract the gold nuggets (customers) from the dirt (everyone else) by gently guiding (or sometimes forcing) them through a linear progression from awareness through action. But what if, instead of ending with the purchase action by the converted customer, we began with this action and, in doing so, focused on achieving three distinct goals: 1. Building solid, ongoing, and authentic bonds or relationships with our customers (customer service and experience); 2. Transforming customers into returning clients and ultimately advocates (customer relationship management); 3. Harnessing the unstoppable power of referrals, recommendations, and word of mouth for outreach to other potential customers (social networking or even a new kind of affiliate marketing). What if, by following these rules, we were able to essentially flip the funnel and reverse engineer future growth from a platform or foundtion of current growth? From the few come the many: That's the mantra of the flipped funnel.

Getting your message in front of the right people in the right place at the right time using the right channels is the right thing to do. But what if the real optimization that needs to take place is from acquisition-led efforts to retention-led ones [retention, consolidation, and referrals]? p. 18

one of the best ways to get referrals is by straight out asking for them from customers for whom you’ve delivered a good result.

Asking for Referrals. Not every product can have word of mouth baked into the product, but every founder can—and should—be proactive about asking for referrals. When you see that trials are converting well and customers are happy with your product, set up an automated email that goes out around the 60- or 90-day mark. Say something like, “So much of our business is based on referrals. If you’re enjoying our product, could you please pass the word along?” The automated email works well when you have a pretty hands-off, low-touch sales process. However, for products with higher ACVs and a more intensive sales process, it’s better to ask for referrals in person.