Catastrophic. I came into my house 2 Fridays ago and found water pooling up under my hardwood floors and in the middle of my kitchen floor. Honestly, I didn’t know what to do. So I called my insurance company and put in a claim the next morning. Then I started calling my family and friends for advice.
- First I asked for a good plumber. And my wife’s grandfather gave me the number of his plumber. ”honest” was how he described them.
- I also needed someone to hang my drywall. So, I called a friend of mine who is in the construction business. And he gave me the number of whom he described as the best dry wall hanger for the money that he knew. He also told me that if I chose someone different, he would look at the estimate and let me know if I was getting hosed.
- Painting- The last person who painted rooms for me was terrible. So, I asked another friend and he suggested a painter he used a few years back.
- Finally, I needed someone to lay the floors. The guy I chose was the same one who did an absolutely great job 3 years ago laying the floors.
The point of this isn’t really about my problem or finding people though. It’s about the ways most of us go in regards to getting solutions to our problems. Search evangelists would like you to believe that people go out and immediately search for an answer to their problems online. The problem is that most people are smart enough to know the internet is one sales pitch after another. And we want to have the security of knowing that who we are dealing with is the best AND safest bet.
In all likelihood, when given the choice, asking someone they trust for direction will be the first place they go though. Just like the pre-internet days.
When You Do Good Work, You Come Pre-sold
One of the hallmarks of a good business is that it grows exponentially when you do good work for the people who buy things from you. It grows because others will recommend you when their friends have a problem and you had the solution for them in past dealings.
And when or if they need a service you provide again, they are going to be likely to call on you again. Because there is a relationship there. And they trust you.
So, if someone tells me that they need a plumber now, who do you think I will recommend?
And if someone is looking for hardwood floors, guess who I am suggesting?
ad infinitum…all the way down to my insurance company that handled the problem.
That’s how sales are made.
No related posts.