Using Third Party Credibility
It's no secret that the best form of advertising is
word of mouth.
Even in today’s information age, where it's nearly impossible to
shield ourselves from the daily blaze of information coming at us through
various media channels, mass marketing communication has pervaded pretty
much all areas of our lives. But, still, it lacks the power of good old
word of mouth.
The direct selling and network marketing industries were built upon this
foundation and both are thriving these days. One of the reasons for this
is that as we are bombarded with mass communication messages, the value
of a more personal message from a trusted source increases. Traditional
companies are starting to pick up on this and are trying to implement
programs to stimulate word of mouth by their existing customers. For many
companies this transition proves to be slightly more difficult than they
anticipated - hardly a surprise to those that have been successful in
that area. The approach to using good word of mouth advertising differs
very much from regular advertising.
Even though there are many differences between regular marketing and word
of mouth, there are also some important similarities. One of them is the
power of the use of a third party. Of course it's nice if you say how
great your company is and how wonderful your products and services are.
But that's kind of like your mother saying you're such a nice person.
It's not that it's not true. It's just that the source isn't considered
to be very objective. A third party is. It doesn't necessarily mean that
the third party is completely objective but at least it's considered to
be at least more objective than your mother, or your company, or you.
In everything we do, we seem to have a natural tendency to follow the
people around us or people we look up to. Since the latter aren't always
present we usually reside to the people around us. Another tendency most
people have is to distrust the seller or at least question the truthfulness
of what they're saying. These two tendencies, combined, lead to a situation
where almost all our purchases are driven largely by what the people around
us say and think about certain products and services. When the selling
party advises you on a certain purchase, he or she usually has an interest
in making a sale and therefore may not be completely objective. When a
neighbour gives you advice, you don't worry about this and therefore you
find it easier to trust him - your neighbour just served as a third party.
We generally tend to like testimonials better than commercials, probably
because they don't involve hard selling, or at least not to the same extent.
The impact of a good testimonial is a lot bigger than that of an advertisement.
Especially when it is delivered by someone we know and respect. So the
point is to find a third party that can endorse you or refer people to
you - preferably someone that has credibility. This point is well understood
by many network marketing companies.
Following decades of aggressive growth, this industry still deals with
something of a credibility issue. Of course to anyone that has done their
due diligence, the validity and opportunity of network marketing should
be crystal clear. Unfortunately for many individuals in the industry,
however, most prospects have not done their due diligence and wouldn't
even know where to begin. That's where the importance of third party credibility
comes in.
Some network marketing companies have earned endorsements from people
that are widely recognized as successful and are using their influence
to boost company growth. They know how people will react to an endorsement
by a world famous millionaire or even billionaire; "If successful
people like that say it's OK, it probably is...” This phenomenon
can be seen in every business, in every country and in every city. The
opinions of the movers and shakers in any area just seem to have more
effect on people. The point is whether you're in network marketing or
in a traditional business, using third party credibility can greatly improve
your results. Unfortunately very few people seem to actively use this
strategy.
If you are in business for yourself you can at least see if you can take
advantage of this. Get some testimonials from your existing customers,
especially from those customers that seem to have some influence in the
community.
Try to find out what kind of person would be good match for your prospective
customers. Determine some characteristics and then search your existing
customer base to see if you can find any people meeting these criteria.
If you do, simply contact them and ask them if they would help you out
by sharing their story. In most cases you won't have to compensate them
for this, but it wouldn't hurt if you did a little extra to make it worth
their while. After all, you're asking them to help you out.
If you can't find a suitable candidate amongst your existing customers,
try the rest of your network. Perhaps you can find some people there that
aren't buying from you yet, but would be happy to become your customer
and endorse you. In this case, you would probably have to do a little
more in the form of compensation to sway them.
Perhaps you could throw in a discount or provide a part or all of your
service free of charge. Yes, this will cost you some money, but it's probably
a lot cheaper than running an ad in the local newspaper... and will probably
generate a lot more business for you in the long-term.
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