Too often, overly nice guys have a tendency to avoid imposing on their customers for the purpose of soliciting referrals. Instead, they'd rather stick their heads in the sand and avoid the situation entirely. In fact, the mere mention of requesting assistance is an encumbrance that no righteously minded nice guy would typically consider. Or is it? In actuality, it is reasonable for nice guys to request some assistance from clients if 1) the relationship is grounded upon a valuable and trusted relationship and 2) the requests are not abused.
Sales people and business owners are notoriously horrible at this effort, despite their very dependence upon incoming leads from a variety of sources. In accordance with our second strategy in Nice Guys Can Get The Corner Office, we recommend that people "Speak-Up" and this is one example when it can have demonstrable results.
However, I recently was approached by serial entrepreneur, Mike Lucciola who explained that this protocol is not necessarily an efficient approach for small and medium businesses (SMB) as the transaction volume is very high and there may not be an opportunity to build a solid rapport with clients.
In Lucciola's case, he saw an opportunity to help these SMB companies in approaching their clients in a different, yet meaningful way. His most recent foray, www.buzzhub.com, is designed to cater to the SMB market specifically for this purpose. As he explained the premise of the business, I thought this is a natural first step for the overly nice guys who are reluctant to request referrals from existing clients. BuzzHub makes it easy for businesses to ask their clients to post reviews on the www.buzzhub.com web site. This site is then used by potential customers as a resource to ascertain feedback on a particular business.
A case in point is 54 Main Bar & Grille in Madison, NJ as the owner, Joe Iossa, pursued this path and in doing so, also discovered exactly how much the Internet can impact the success of his business. In Iossa's case, he recently stopped buying ads in local newspapers, magazines and the Yellow Pages and, instead, shifted all their efforts to Internet Marketing. In addition to revamping their own website, 54 Main started using BuzzHub to help them expand their existing word-of-mouth network and to help them get found on Google. In a "nice fashion", 54 Main now includes, with each bill, a card asking customers to post a review for them on BuzzHub. In return for posting a review, customers receive an incentive or discount on their next meal, which encourages repeat business. Iossa, says "we've had record breaking business recently - even in this economy - and I can only attribute it to our recent focus on Internet Marketing.
From a nice guy perspective, this provides a vehicle for speaking up but does so in an incremental and stepped fashion. It is still recommended that the company's owner or sales people reach out directly; however, this is a starting point that can build the appropriate confidences.
The bottom line is that credible requests, be it direct referrals or attestations to excellent service/excellence are an important and vital part of business. As such, the overly nice guys of the world must learn to embrace this mindset and pursue accordingly as they pursue new client relationships.
Keep your head up and remember to Speak-Up!
Cheers,
Russ