The Power of Word of Mouth, and How it Affects Your Sales Process

People are more likely to buy when referred by a friend, it’s a fact we all know -- but how many of us actually remember that when trying to make a sales pitch? In 2015, over 80 percent of respondents said they completely or somewhat trust the recommendations of friends and family. (Read more about it here)

This shows that things haven’t changed that much over the years (cue the Nielsen study they did in 2012, which showed about 92% of people trust recommendations from friends and family.)

Humans Buy From Humans - And Humans Leave Reviews

Your potential buyers are still making a choice after seeking advice from their friends and family. We are all human and we buy from humans, even if we use technology to improve our lives. Technology should be used to give your customers the best experience possible and word of mouth should be your secret weapon to expand your business.

A dissatisfied customer will tell between 9 to 15 people about their negative experience, and around 13% of dissatisfied customers tell more than 20 people.

What salespeople forget when they read these sort of statistics is that whoever is in that dissatisfied customer’s network is a potential buyer. They may share the same views, likes and wishes with that client. This is why it’s so crucial to lean on your happy customers to share referrals with other potential customers. In the age of digital selling, “word of mouth” (WOM) is one of the tactics that you can use to make sure that positive word spreads about your business.

Here’s how word of mouth can affect your sales process:

It can create a breach between sales teams and buyers.

"It takes 20 years to build a reputation and five minutes to ruin it. If you think about that, you'll do things differently.", said Warren Buffett. And I couldn’t agree more! This is just one of the studies that prove that. For every customer has a negative experience with your business, you will get a few more that will why away from a conversation with the sales reps.

Give your buyers the proper tools to send their feedback and train your sales reps to deal in a professional way with difficult situations. Try to anticipate potential issues and miscommunication between sales teams and buyers.

It can boost your reputation as a responsive company

Precisely because word of mouth is so far-reaching, I advocate treating every negative review as an opportunity, rather than a problem. By dealing with your customer’s feedback properly, identifying the issues and have your sales team reach out, you are leveraging WOM to increase the reputation of your business. 

It can be used for referral programs.

You can have a massive impact online with a proper hashtag on Instagram or a relatable and personalized way of responding on social media. You can offer discounts to customers who leave positive reviews or referrals. Just allowing people to get a reward with a purchase if they tag a friend on Facebook and your business name can get more eyeballs to your company.

It can be leveraged with influencers.

We’ve all heard the story of the influencer who got turned away from a hotel because she asked for a free stay. I’m not saying you need to turn your business into a revolving door for just anyone, but I have a feeling that it was not the end of that influencer’s career. They had a million friends to complain to!

For every business that turns away an influencer, there is another who decides to use them. If your industry has potential to produce content that makes it viral on social networks, it would be stupid not to take advantage of this marketing strategy.

It can be used to generate content.

User-generated content is all the hype these days, and that’s because it works. If you make sure to take a “before” and “after” photo of your service or product, if you offer rewards and discounts to make sure your customers share the word, you can reap the benefits. That content can be re-purposed as testimonials for your sales team.

Don’t be afraid of reaching out, try to understand your buyers complaints, make sure your employees give them the best client journey possible and let “word of mouth” do its magic!

Do you use all of these strategies after you've closed a customer?

Or are you just sitting around waiting for marketing to steal your thunder?

How are you leveraging word of mouth to make your business more successful?