You've read American sales theory that emphasises getting referrals out of everyone. And you know how lame that is in Australian culture: we don't dob our mates in to pushy sales people.

Yet referrals remain the core building block of word-of-mouth, and word-of-mouth remains the most powerful form of promotion, way ahead of advertising and websites.

So how do we do this?

Our experience is that Australian culture allows and even supports referrals when:

• there is at least equal mutual benefit (or greater benefit to the person being referred)
• referral is via a pass-on (information, extra-value voucher) that benefits the recipient and requires them to complete the contact

The timing of a referral is important. People are most likely to give a referral (or an endorsement):

• immediately after purchase
• immediately after delivery of the product or service

An effective Aussie referral strategy therefore involves:

• a mutual-benefit proposition
• tools a customer can use to pass on information (helpful or amusing video, web-link to information about the product, printed purchase guide, article or white paper, extra-value voucher – all with low-key sales contact details for the salesperson who served the referee)
• a system that swings into action concurrent with the sale and with delivery (it might for example be triggered by an internet warranty registration or logging in to watch a "how to assemble" movie)

Call Glide Strategic for help in putting together a strategy and a system that will keep on rolling and producing results.

See also Enouraging word of mouth