Your Results
How valuable is your network?
Whether you are focused on achieving your end goals, your means goals or both, having a large network of Know Like & Trust relationships is essential.
Why?
Because anyone can advocate for anyone except themselves!
Yet people still waste so much energy trying to “sell” themselves!
You only need to check most LinkedIn profiles to find that most people can leap tall buildings in a single bound!
Even if they can, no one believes them when it comes as self-promotion.
On the other hand, when you have a large number of people continually advocating for you, huge results are achieved almost effortless.
How much money and cost is wasted on self-promoting marketing and advertising campaigns?
What if some of that effort was instead directed towards building an exponentially growing team of team building advocates?
Would you rather
- A sugar hit of instant transactions (requiring on-going time-consuming marketing campaigns) or
- An ever-increasing pipeline of good quality business generated by many others advocating for you?
Why would others advocate for you?
Simply because you have built trust with them by first advocating for them to your large network of people who know like and trust you.
If you help enough other people to get what they want, you end up getting what you want.
The larger your diverse network of like-minded others, the more you are able to help others and in turn, the more people will advocate for you.
For Business – what does the research tell us?
Following is a great article from Referral Rock (https://referralrock.com/blog/word-of-mouth-marketing-statistics/)
Why word of mouth is powerful
Just to reiterate how powerful word of mouth is you’ll see that many people rely on it as a way to learn about new products, share information, and of course, make things go viral.
- 72% of people get news from friends and family, making word-of-mouth the most popular channel for sharing. (Pew Research Center)
- 61% have recommended a local business to someone they know by word of mouth (BrightLocal)
- Building an online community is most important to brand awareness and word of mouth referrals, with average rankings of 8.87 and 8.52 on a 10 point scale, according to marketers. (Referral Rock)
- The most valued source of information is from personal experience. (Talk Triggers – Chatter Matters)
- 72% of consumers will use a local business if it has a 3-star rating. (BrightLocal)
- 83% of Americans say that word of mouth recommendations from friends or family members make them more likely to purchase that product or service. (Talk Triggers – Chatter Matters)
- Marketers rated the quality of a word of mouth lead to be 4.28 on the 5 point scale. (Referral Rock)
Proof that word of mouth works
We’ve seen why word of mouth is awesome. Now let’s look at some statistics that prove it works. We think you’ll be pleasantly surprised but what you see.
- 74% of consumers identify word-of-mouth as a key influencer in their purchasing decision. (Ogilvy Cannes)
- Word-of-mouth emerged as the leading purchase influencer (top-2 box score) in each category among Millennials. (Marketing Charts)
- 41% of people trust a recommendation from someone they know more than a social media recommendation. (Talk Triggers – Chatter Matters)
- Consumers discuss specific brands casually 90x per week. (HubSpot)
- 63% of social media users believe consumer ratings are #1. (HubSpot)
- Among Boomers, word-of-mouth (WOM) is the top influencer for financial products and big-ticket purchases. (Marketing Charts)
- 71% of people recommend a great experience. (Talk Triggers – Chatter Matters)
- 49% of marketers believe that 20-40% of their leads come from referrals. (Referral Rock)
Who trusts word of mouth
We know you understand that word of mouth works. So let’s reiterate why it works… These word of mouth statistics have to do with it’s trust-factor.
- 88% of people trust online reviews written by other consumers as much as they trust recommendations from personal contacts. (BrightLocal)
- “92% of global consumers trust UGC and WOM more than advertising. (Jay Baer)
- 68% of people trust online opinions from other consumers, which places online opinions as the third most trusted source of product information. (Nielsen)
- 72% of consumers say reading positive customer reviews increase their trust in a business; it takes, on average, 2-6 reviews to get 56% of them to this point. (BrightLocal)
- 92% of users will use a local business if it has a 4-star rating. (BrightLocal)
- 61% of IT buyers reports that colleague recommendations are the most important factor when making a purchase decision. (BtoB Magazine)
- When choosing a restaurant, Millennials are 99% more likely to trust a social media recommendation over other groups. (Talk Triggers – Chatter Matters)
- Millenials are 115% more influenced by word of mouth than traditional advertising. (Talk Triggers – Chatter Matters)
Results from word of mouth
Time to put the cherry on top. Let’s dive into some word of mouth results, aka the reason people plan their marketing campaigns around it!
- 92% of B2B buyers are more likely to purchase after reading a trusted review (G2.com)
- 57% of consumers will visit a local business website after reading a positive review (BrightLocal)
- 81% or marketers said that exceptional service was their method for promoting of mouth to happen. (Referral Rock)
- 72% of consumers will take some sort of action after reading a positive review
- 58% share positive experiences and seek advice from friends and family when they talk about brands on social media (SDL)
- When planning a wedding, word of mouth from friends and family is relied on 331% more than regular advertising. (Talk Triggers – Chatter Matters)
- 60% of marketers track their word of mouth referrals by simply asking how they found out about their business. (Referral Rock)
- 92% of people trust recommendations from friends over other sources. (Nielsen)
Now you know
As you can see, word of mouth plays a huge role in increasing your brand’s trust, and reputation. Though it’s not a new phenomenon, it’s important to realize that this happens because people trust their friend’s point of view, experience, and thoughts of your brand over the thoughts of the business itself.
It’s much easier, not to mention more authentic to here someone you know say something is the ‘best’, over the business proclaiming or stating it’s the best.
This is exactly why many businesses have been learning more towards building channels for word of mouth to occur.
For Professionals – how are most jobs found?
One commonly hears professionals complain about not being able to achieve success despite having all the necessary hard skills. While hard skills are necessary to get an opportunity, soft skills are critical to making it big in any career.
The reason is that the world has become globalised and businesses thrive on network building. And the ability to communicate, establish trust, and build relationships allows us to expand our networks and get ahead despite the cut-throat competition.
Just for interest, Google “How are most jobs found”
Following is an extract from the first article that appears in the search (from payscale.com). The other articles confirm what we already know – the simple answer is through networking
HOW MANY JOBS ARE FOUND THROUGH NETWORKING, REALLY?
As a member of modern society, you’re well aware that networking is one potential route to finding work. But, did you know it might actually be the best way to get the job done? (The job of finding a new job, that is.) Some estimate that upwards of 85 percent of open positions are filled through networking. If you’re looking for work, it might be better to put your time into building your professional network rather than pouring through all those listings online. Could networking actually the best way to find a new job?
THE MOST COMMON WAY TO FIND WORK
The benefits and the overall impact of networking have received a lot of study in recent years. The results of these reports vary to some extent, but all agree that it’s definitely a popular way to get a job. Some experts say that 70 percent of people ended up in their current position thanks to networking. Others say it’s more like 80 percent or even 85 percent.
Even when figures are broken down into different categories of job seekers and people are asked how they landed their current job, networking tops every list. In one survey, conducted by LinkedIn and the Adler Group, “active candidates” were separated out from “tiptoers” and “passive candidates,” those who looked for work in more casual ways. Regardless of the individual attitudes and approaches job seekers brought to the table, networking was the most popular way to get a job. For “tiptoers” it won out 3 to 1, and for even more casual job seekers, dubbed “passive candidates,” networking dominated other job-search methods on a scale of 7 to 1.
THERE ARE A LOT OF HIDDEN JOBS OUT THERE
One of the major reasons that networking is such an effective way to get a job is that there is something of a hidden job market out there. Some estimate that as much as 80 percent of new jobs are never listed but are instead filled internally or via networking.
In fact, getting a referral for a job opening from someone who’s already working with the company could give you pretty impressive odds. Only 7 percent of job applicants get this kind of referral, yet referrals make up 40 percent of new hires. Clearly, networking isn’t just one potential route to finding a new job — it’s actually the most effective path.
“At least 70 percent, if not 80 percent, of jobs are not published, ” Matt Youngquist, president of Career Horizons told NPR. “And yet most people – they are spending 70 or 80 percent of their time surfing the net versus getting out there, talking to employers, taking some chances [and] realizing that the vast majoring of hiring is friends and acquaintances hiring other trusted friends and acquaintances.”At Least 70 Percent Of Job Openings Aren’t Even Listed. To Get Them, You Need To Network.
Your Future?
How secure is your income?
Following is an extract from the McKinsey Global Institute
“Working nine to five for a single employer bears little resemblance to the way a substantial share of the workforce makes a living today. Millions of people assemble various income streams and work independently, rather than in structured payroll jobs.”
There is little point if delving into this because if you are reading this, the chances are you already realise
- There is no such thing as job security any more
- There are likely to be substantial periods when you have no income
- You may need to take whatever job you can get to keep income coming in
- You are facing more competition – in many cases this will be global competition
- The 50 years plus age group find it increasingly difficult to find employment
- Those below 25 often report that they have a “full-time job applying for full-time jobs”
How difficult is it to produce Asset-based income?
Good Questions
How much income do you earn from money deposited in the bank?
How long will it take for you to save (after-tax) enough money to acquire enough real estate to produce a comfortable income?
Will the industry you are currently in exist in 10 years?
Will you need to spend savings to live in times of unemployment?
What other alternatives are there?
The Good News?
Network first Ideas second!
Even if you currently have what you think is a safe secure job
- You have probably seen enough happen to others who thought the same to know it’s wise to “dig the well before you need the water”
- You may find yourself working for a new boss that you don’t like
- You working environment can easily turn toxic
- You may want to do more to set up a better future
- You know finding another great job can be challenging
- You know it makes sense to start an enterprise on the side and ease into it while still maintaining full-time employment.
If you are already in business
- You need to be adaptable – to have other options available
- You need to strengthen you strategic partnerships to win better quality business
- You know it is wise to develop multiple sources of income
Decide to become good at building your network first rather than generating great ideas first
What is worth the most:
A great idea or an exponentially growing network of others who will advocate for you?
In the process of building a large team of team building advocates
- You will discover better ideas
- Ideas that are more scalable (which means increasing income with decreasing amount of your personal time investment)
- Ideas that may excite you more than any of your current ideas
- Why start with the pressure of having to come up with a new idea which may or may not work?
- We have all seen really great ideas that fail simply because they do not have the connections and good execution to make them work
- Equally we have all seem mediocre ideas which have flourished and we wonder why.
- When you focus on building your network first you have many benefits:
- You have the opportunity to evaluate many ideas before deciding to commit to any of them
- You have the opportunity of seeking advice about potential your new ideas from those with a great deal of experience in business who are keen to help you discover something great (ticks all the boxes) rather than something that is just good
- As you build your network, you have the opportunity to start thinking differently (different thinking often leads to better results).
- While you are evaluating different ideas, you are simultaneously building your most valuable asset (your network of trusted relationships) and these relationships will support you when you do come up with some great ideas you want to run with
- In other words, once you have found one or more great ideas, you won’t need to make “cold calls” or undertake expensive marketing campaigns! Because your network will open the doors for you. Even better they will proactively advocate for you.
What’s a Partnership worth?
What if you became good at finding good connections and advocating for others?
Missing one critical ingredient – more good quality business sales