John Jantsch

May 24, 2010

The Referral Engine-Must Reads of 2010

What keeps entrepreneur’s up at night? What is the one thing that makes you sweat and worry.
If you are like most small business people it is the need for a steady flow of good customers and the rewards, both financial and satisfaction that it brings.

I got to know John from his original book Duct Tape Marketing and from his podcast on the Itunes platform. That encouraged me to get to know a bit more about this easily understood, practical marketing pro and to consume more of his useful information. The Referral Engine-Teaching Your Business to Market Itself is his latest work.

I agree with Seth Godin,the marketing guru of our time, when he says on the covernotes “This book will pay for itself in one day”.

John goes through a physiological explanation of why we are hard wired already to make referrals. “We register pleasure in doing good and being recognized for it, and it’s home to the need to belong to something greater than ourselves. This is the social drive for making referrals.”

Why you need this book is simple; while businesses get referrals the majority of them do not have a system for doing it. It is the system and its implementation for referral creation that generates overwhelming success.

John is after all, a systems driven guy himself in how he conducts his own marketing business and it is this simple adherence to marketing systems that will help the reader achieve success.

I am struck throughout the book about how he practices what he preaches with highlights to other successfull marketers and clients that he has come across as a way to highlight his messages. Along this same line he talks to the need to give more than you get and outlines the effectiveness that this has, both short term and ling term.

By choosing your market differentiation as a service or product provider you can stand out and be the source of value for the customer through content,in providing solutions for their needs as well as being their trusted source of information on a regular basis.

The book gives you the basis for referral marketing, and provides building blocks of ideas versus a quick 1,2,3 do this plan. It builds on these building blocks to show you how to create a system that once established cannot be stopped.

If you need to step up your game with your business or practice this would be one of your best reads of the year. It gives you the theory, the practice and paints a clear picture for you. Can’t ask more than that.

Here are a few other views:

Build A Referral Engine Right – That’s from John Jantsch’s new book, The Referral Engine, which is out on the market and available today. John is the world-famous author of Duct Tape Marketing, perhaps the world’s best thinker on marketing in the real world, …
The Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business to Market Itself … – This review explains why you should read the book Referral Engine: Teaching Your Business To market Itself by John Jantsch.
How To Become A Referral Engine | The Rise To The Top – Daily web show & resource for entrepreneurs featuring tips & tricks for building your business smarter, faster, cheaper. Featuring effective marketing strategies for entrepreneurs.