ChaChing

We haven’t had an update in a while so this post is simply to say that yes we are still alive!
We are working really hard on software to help make referrals happen!
So please bear with us we will be back in full swing in the coming weeks.

Referral marketing can be the easiest way to connect with new potential customers. Many businesses assume their friends and colleagues will think to refer them lots of new business. So with this assumption why do many referral marketing programs fail?

Firstly businesses need to ask for referrals. If a business is not looking for referrals people can wrongly think they are too busy to take on new work and not actively try and pass them new business. This can happen because businesses make the assumption that people will “just know” they need new customers. Unless you ask for referrals you will not get them.

Many feel that asking for referrals is being pushy, or they feel they have not done enough for the customer yet to be in a position to ask for a referral. If that person is your customer and you have treated them well then you have already done enough to ask for a referral, if you have done your job then your customer will feel that by referring you they will be doing the person whom they refer a favour more so than doing you one. Everybody likes to share a great product or service, especially when they were first to find it. So make sure that people can refer your business with confidence with great products and great service, every customer is a potential sales person.

Always remember WIIFM? –  What’s In It For Me? Its not the best sounding acronym but it is an important one and it helps you look at things from your customers perspective. By going one step further and offering a cash reward to people who make referrals to you, you give a very compelling reason for people to keep you in mind. When you a new find people will happily share details of your service to their friends, however over time you will be less memorable as people think of your product or service as just part of the furniture rather than something new to show their friends. By always offering people a cash reward you will always be in some part of their mind, so make WIIFM work for you and give people who refer you a reward for doing so.

Remember to follow up and thank those who make referrals. Even if the lead turns out to be cold still take the time to respond and thank the person who made the referral, just because this one didn’t work out shouldn’t make you think they next one won’t!

Finally you need to make is easy for people to refer you. A quick overview of your services or your company being close at hand can only help this. Here at ChaChing we allow you to have your referral information published online in a quickly accessible format of www.chaching.ie/<yourbusinessname>, so for example www.chaching.ie/blueface would instantly get you to Blueface’s referral offering. Many companies have referral programs which they either don’t talk about, or if they do they make sure to bury it deep within their website practically hidden.

So remember if you want to get more referrals you need to:

1. Ask for them

2. Make yourself more referable by giving great service

3. Reward those who refer you

4. Always say thank you

5. Make it easy for people to refer you with easily accessible information

If anybody every wondered why there is a need for early adopters and the social proof they provide then check out this video on youtube.

The first two guys really do just go it alone, but the next batch of people, the early adopters, they turn it from two crazy guys dancing to an avalanche. Its a bit like watching a successful product launch, through the medium of dance!

I have had a few discussions with different people about the usefulness of twitter. Alot of people have a negative view of twitter and can’t see any point to it.

Statements such as “I don’t care what somebody has had for breakfast” spring to mind when people give reasons as to why using twitter is pointless.

I have only recently joined twitter and so far have found it pretty useful. Firstly Fort Technologies found ChaChing via twitter and signed up. Secondly I found out about Christiano Ronaldo’s move to Real Madrid, thanks to Tom Doyle of 2bscene – @2bscene.

Without twitter ChaChing would not have a listing from Fort Technologies and I would have never have found out that Ronaldo had gone to Real! (Well maybe the second half of that sentence isn’t entirely true I maight have found out about Ronaldo eventually, considering I don’t live under a rock and all…)

The Alimentary Pharmabiotic Centre, University College Cork, ran a one day event –  ”Entrepreneurship – How to create a technology start-up” which I attended on Tuesday. I didn’t get a chance to post about it earlier, I did mention it on twitter earlier (@chaching_ie). Anyhow, I really enjoyed Chris Horn’s presentation, one thing he showed is just what is possible without any VC funding, and before the existence of Enterprise Ireland, IONA Technologies was started with £3,000 in 1991, with £1000 from each of the founders. They did consultancy in the early years to help pay the bills while growing their business until they could be product focused, a real example of bootstrapping and also of great resourcefulness. Instead of just giving up because they had no funding they just did it. Also Chris pointed out that because of the small and open nature of our economy that technology focused companies need to think globally from the start, which is both an advantage and a disadvantage. IONA were selling into the US well before they had any presence there, also Chris believes that the US are far earlier adopters of new technology and it is a key place for tech start ups to focus. Chris’ presentation is available online at his blog and its well worth taking the time to read.

While there were many good speakers another one that stood out for me was the talk by Dr Carl Jackson, on a personal level I understood alot of where he was coming from. Before forming SensL Carl had his own company working by himself in the company, I had a similar experience and it can sometimes get very lonely, also it really is not scaleable in that form. We both went on to start new ventures leaving the old ventures behind. Hopefully in a few years I can be giving a talk from the point of view of having a successful company just like Chris was!

I also ran into a couple of people I had not seen in a while, one of them was Tim O’Leary that I had not seen in quite a while, Tim is a sales ninja, really! He has a new venture BKD Consulting. Best of luck with it Tim!

I really like the billboards placed around Cork by the Cork Chamber about beating the recession. It beats hearing the usual doom and gloom we get hammered with from the media. Granted it is still an advert all the same, but it has a bit of a call to arms appeal I think. I haven’t seen anything else like it around the country so I think the whole concept is a Cork one. I’ll try and get a picture of one if I remember to bring my camera next time I’m around the city. You can see the details on the Cork Chamber website www.corkchamber.ie

Came across the Starting Today seminar on the examiner website here. I have to say I think its a great idea and well done Joan Mulvihill. I remember somebody telling me a while ago that he believed the only way out of the Irish recession is for individuals to create new successful Irish businesses and that neither government or the unions had the answers. I tend to agree with this thinking and we need more people like Joan Mulvihill, heres a quote from Joan:

“In this recession, people need to take charge of their own world,”

“I am not emigrating again. Don’t ask people who are 35 years old, or people with families and mortgages to go to Australia. Don’t panic. Think about what you want to do. A lot of people set up businesses in the 1980s and 1990s just to avoid emigration. We must ask ourselves ‘what can I make?’ Or ‘what can I do?’”

More information is available on the Starting Today website – www.startingtoday.ie

Donedeal.ie are a finalist for the All Ireland Marketing Awards I have used the website in the past and found it to be really useful! So best of luck to donedeal.ie! For more info click here

This week we would like to welcome System 10 to ChaChing!

System 10 – The Truth About Weight Loss – www.system10.eu

If you know somebody who is serious about getting fit or weight loss then this could be some easy money to make a referral from!

Heres something interesting most people don’t know about System 10, their website was the first Irish website to be developed in the Symfony PHP framework – look here. Symfony is PHP’s answer to Ruby on Rails, and if you already know PHP then you have all the power associated with Ruby on Rails without changing languages.

I was talking with David McDonagh the creator of System 10, he was telling me that he had a similar idea to ChaChing where people would give out advertising flyers and get a commission based on the amount of people who signed up from the flyers given out by them. Obviously there was no argument here on that being a great idea, opening up commissions to the general public to get new customers is a Win/Win situation and is the founding principle of ChaChing!

Another new year has started, best of wishes to you all for 2009!