Part time jobs which paid squat, led me to thousands of dollars.

[GordonJ]

The SECRET, espoused by every known marketing guru ever...is REFERRALS.

J. Abe. called them hidden assets. D. Kenn. had them as secrets, etc., etc., etc., etc., and on and on and on.

Your SATISFIED customers are the absolute, no argument, hands down, undisputed BEST source of new business.

I'm glad you share that. One note, and this goes back some time when Bob Blagg was writing his JUST ONE IDEA report, I encouraged him to include the exact example, and he did. Sales letters, all the things he would send out to prospects.

We may KNOW that referrals contain a big solution for new business, THE HOW TO GET THEM, and the ways and means, including letters, emails, scripts, etc. would fetch some nice coin in the market.

HOW do I ask my customers for referrals, how to do it in such a way that makes it comfortable, easy, and non threatening?

And I believe this will be an Evergreen product for as long as ever is green.

Thanks for sharing.

Gordon



In answer to your question on having to get gigs fast....

First, I'd contact everyone I did a show for and ask for referrals, giving them a FREE show for every referral that turned into a show. This isn't a risk for me because I know that every show I perform turns into at LEAST 4 other shows throughout the year.

Second, if I have to use social media, I would use copy that sold my shows and see if I could book some shows that way.

Thirdly, still using social media, I would offer a FREE show, with directions to contact me for information. I would make sure that the school getting the FREE show would allow me to mail a snail mail letter to all their friends at other schools AFTER I gave them a great show.

I may have mentioned this before, I did the exact thing with a pre-school director and booked an ENTIRE summer of shows this way.

No reason that a variation of this couldn't work today.

Perhaps someone could offer to do a FREE analysis of a business and then ask for 3 referrals. I seem to remember Paddi Lund, the highly successful Australian dentist, asked for 3 referrals BEFORE he actually started work on a patient.[/quote]