Building Your Practice With Word-of-Mouth Marketing
Some Universal Truths
by Karen Cortell Reisman, MS
A book written in 1999 promising to tell the best-known marketing secret?
I hesitated to read anything about marketing that had no discussion of Facebook, LinkedIn, or even email.
However, Ivan Misner and Virginia Devine do present some universal truths about how to market your business in “The World’s Best Known Marketing Secret — Building Your Business with Word-of-Mouth Marketing.”
Perhaps I’ve gotten too brainwashed by social networking in this millennium. My company, Speak For Yourself®, continues to test and blog about Hootsuite, Tweetdeck, Zoom, and other social media tools. Our reaction is mixed at best to all of the Internet savvy of today.
Misner and Devine remind me of the core truths about how to sell yourself. Here they are:
1. Your best marketing is word-of-mouth (WOM) referrals.
2. You get WOM by building a great network and having a great message.
3. Referrals come from those who know you and trust you. You can’t be a cave dweller.
4. It’s not net-sit, or net-eat, or net-drink. It is net-WORK.
5. Good never influences bad to the same degree that bad influences good.
6. Three laws of notable networking:
a) Givers gain,
b) Use networking tools effectively – that includes savvy marketing material on paper and on your website, and
c) Acquire skills.
7. Ask for referrals. Be courageous.
© Karen Cortell Reisman, MS
Karen Cortell. Reisman, author of two books, teaches you how to speak for yourself so that others listen, trust, and buy from you. She has been a visiting faculty presenter at The Pankey Institute, is a speaker at many dental meetings, and is president of Speak For Yourself® for 15 years. To buy Karen’s book or purchase other learning tools, go to www.KarenCortellReisman.com.
