Referrals are 60% of new business. Nobody has ever asked for one.

The cheapest acquisition channel in most businesses is also the only one with no owner, no forecast method, and no way to turn up the volume.

By Steve 5 min read
Abstract bridge artwork for Referrals are 60% of new business. Nobody has ever asked for one.

In most service businesses, and a surprising number of product ones, the largest single source of new customers is recommendation. It arrives with the shortest sales cycle, the highest close rate, the least price resistance and the lowest acquisition cost of anything in the mix. It is also, almost universally, the only channel with no owner, no forecast, no diagnostic and no dial. It appears twice in the average management pack: once in a slide celebrating how little the business spends on marketing, and once, unnamed, as the gap between…

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