Joe, cousin of Joe the Plumber & Joe Six-Pack, is a senior vice president for a supply chain consulting firm. He has 20 years of experience in the industry and, with those that know him, is widely regarded as a top expert and practitioner in his field. On Monday, his assistant told him that his business development team had set up two sales meetings for him for the week, one on Tuesday and one on Wednesday.
Joe’s meeting on Tuesday was with Joyce, the vice president of operations at a large commercial shipping company, and was set up by Audrey, one of his company’s top business developers. Here’s how the meeting went:
Joe: Nice to meet you Joyce. I’m glad to be here.
Joyce: Nice to have you here. Over the last several years it’s been great getting to know about you and your firm. I’ve read your white paper on emerging supply chain management technologies as well as listened to you deliver a webinar on strategies for global sourcing in my industry.
Joe: That’s great to hear. I hope you enjoyed the presentation. Might I ask, how did you hear about the webinar?
Joyce: Well, I have been meaning to come to one of your events for a long time, ever since Audrey called me back four years ago to introduce you all. She mentioned that she’d put me on your company’s communications list.
For one reason or another, the events either didn’t work with my schedule or they didn’t fit into what was on my plate at the time. But I’ve been getting the event invitations and brochures in the mail along with the research briefs you send out with them and put in your newsletters as well. So I’ve followed along.
Now that dealing with supply chain technology is square on the middle of my plate, when Audrey sent me the email to view your on-demand presentation on your capabilities in the area I put it on my to-do list to call her. Of course, she called me first so I was more than happy to set up this conversation. I’m ready to dive in with you to see how you might help…
Joe's meeting on Wednesday was with Eric, the vice president of operations at a large steel company set up by Sarah, another business developer at his firm. The meeting kicked off a bit differently:
Joe: Nice to meet you, Eric. I’m glad to be here.
Eric: Good to have you here as well. Now, Sarah’s done a good job over the last few years of trying to get in touch with me, so I figured I’d let her good persistence pay off and we could, at her request, get together to meet. Supply chain technology is, after all, on my plate these days.
Joe: Great. I’m glad Sarah’s done such a good job in the last few years keeping you up to date. I’m assuming you know about our firm and what we do since Sarah must have sent you our newsletter and event invitations. Have you ever attended one of our webinars or seminars?
Eric: Actually, Joe, I don’t know anything about you or your firm. You have newsletters and webinars? I’ll be sure to check them out in the future. Meanwhile, can you tell me a bit about you, your firm, and your areas of focus?
Joe: Ah, sure. Let’s start there, then.
Of course, we’d all rather have the conversations that go like the one with Joyce than the one with Eric. The difference was that the company’s marketing reached Joyce but didn’t reach Eric.
Because Joyce received the company’s marketing, she:
- Knew about the company.
- Could likely articulate how the company helped people like her solve problems like hers.
- Remembered the company during her elusive time of need and planned to call.
- Felt an affinity and preference for the company before ever interacting with an individual from the company personally due to the education she received from the company’s marketing efforts.
To that last point, it’s likely that, even though Joyce didn’t have any historical experience working with the company she built up a level of affinity for, and initial trust, with them. This is what often happens with a referral: trust transferred from the referral giver to the service provider.
Marketing, when done right, can have a similar effect of trust. Instead of receiving the transferred trust that comes from the referral source, the company builds up the trust themselves over time through their marketing activities. Is it the same kind of trust that comes after having worked with a company, and having gone through thick and thin for several years? Of course not; but it’s enough trust and affinity to make the sales process go that much more smoothly and have that much more chance of winning the client.
This may be a bit of an oversimplification. A referral typically comes from an existing source of trust for the customer. It generally carries more weight for opening the door to a meeting than marketing self-assertions. In other words, it is far more likely that someone will accept your call and invite you in for a meeting if someone they trust and respect referred you than if that person was familiar with your company from your marketing materials.Sarah, in your example, is not a source of trust for the customer, so she is not a "typical referral". Instead, she is an extension of your sales and marketing operations.
Thanks for your comment. I'm not suggesting Sarah is a referral source. Merely making the analogy between marketing done in a particular way creates a feeling of comfort in the buyer that is not dissimilar to the feeling created by a referral.