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The Entrepreneur · № 11

Referral

Got a customer to bring you a new paying customer without you asking, proof the thing is good enough to recommend.

The idea

You can't ask for a referral. You can only earn one. The signal is a customer mentioning the thing to someone else unprompted. For that to happen your kid has to give the buyer a story worth retelling. A weird detail, a real moment, a thing only they would have done. The story is the marketing. The product is the reason for the story.

Steps
  1. Make the product memorable. One weird detail people will mention to a friend.
  2. Tell customers the story behind it without asking for anything.
  3. Watch for the customer who says "[X] told me about you." That's the milestone.
  4. Thank the original referrer specifically. Referrers refer when they're noticed.
What counts

One customer arrived because another customer told them to, unprompted. A note on who referred whom is plenty.