Marketing is more art than science and, as such, provides marketers a lot of latitude in what they can do. In all cases, however, what’s important is focusing resources on those things that will effectively support the sales process and help create greater corporate success.

Traditional marketing approaches are, well, obvious, and many non-traditional approaches have been tried and discarded for good reason. Other innovative approaches have failed to win popularity because they are either too new or too complex for successful implementation. One of these too-complicated approaches warrants another look.

Because people know that every form of corporate marketing communications is biased, they have a natural reluctance to readily accept its messages. It is well-documented that product claims achieve a higher level of creditability when delivered not as “pitches,” but rather as endorsements from trusted corporate spokespeople. The success of this approach has spawned a highly lucrative market for high profile endorsers.

If celebrity endorsements can trigger financial product or service adoption, then the question becomes: Can that same kind of creditability factor be attained in a better, readily accessible and much more cost-effective way? We believe that a powerful third-party endorsement can be found by turning a company’s cadre of satisfied clients into a latent and powerful “salesforce” through a focused referral program. Properly schooled and incented, satisfied clients can provide the impetus to accelerate prospect adoption time and produce significant incremental business. However, implementing a truly effective referral program can be a complex and rather involved process.

Influencing Decision-Making
The crux of a properly implemented referral program is to transfer the feeling of positive experience of a satisfied client and help shorten the decision process for the prospect. Logically, in order to successfully influence decision-making one must first understand the decision process. Therefore, the initial step is to conduct focused market research to:

Developing An Effective Referral Structure
The subsequent challenge is to arm the referral network with a disciplined approach that will provide the appropriate motivation to effectively endorse your offerings and create incremental sales. Successful programs require easy-to-use referral tools that communicate compelling claims, creditable promises and benefits that resonate with the target markets.

It is important to equip endorsers with material—whether based on word of mouth and/or word of mouse—that is designed specifically to facilitate communications with their colleagues. Effectiveness for every marketing vehicle lies in the unique way it delivers its messages to prospects. For example:

The “story” is one of the key elements of a referral program. Research findings should be analyzed to determine, among other things, what arguments will successfully overcome marketplace objections and where prospects encounter obstacles in the decision-making process. Importantly, the story must be short, and interesting in order for endorsers to communicate it easily and convincingly. Above all, since—as with every other aspect of good marketing—success follows truth, expectations must be appropriately managed.