The Word Of Mouth Mirage

The other day I was speaking with a new client about her business and where it was coming from.

Like many entrepreneurs, she told me that business was pretty steady at this point and was all coming from "word of mouth" at which point I said something a little controversial.

Word of mouth can be dangerous to a new business.

Naturally, she asked me why I would say such a thing when there is so much praise for the power of word of mouth and so much emphasis on how you need to build it for your business, etc.

But here's the thing.

Word of mouth puts your business ENTIRELY in someone else's control.

Good word of mouth could mean more introductions to business but you're not the one doing the speaking.

You have to depend on someone else to think about you, then talk about you, and eventually give you a referral or say enough things to make someone curious to work with you.

Many entrepreneurs including myself have been caught up in what I like to call the Word of Mouth Mirage where you see business coming in as a result of word of mouth so you work towards more ways to keep people talking about you and you wait for the business to come rolling in.

And in some cases, you land some very big press or get a high profile endorsement and the business does flow, but it doesn't flow forever.

Eventually, people will find something else to be more worthy of the words coming out of their mouth and a healthy-looking business can dry up pretty quickly.

So what did I suggest as opposed to just relying on that word of mouth?

Being Proactive.

When you know who you do your best work for, there is no shortage of organizations, gatherings, and platforms where those people are, so you can create content for them, share expertise, do interviews, etc. and then the CONTENT will be the thing that gets them to ask about you.

Which means you aren't relying on someone else to talk about you to get the business.

Word of mouth can be really helpful at various stages in a business, but it is a flimsy foundation to build a business on.

Focus on proactive activities and you are much more likely to have a booming business even when the mouths go silent.

And that's something worth talking about.

Excelsior!

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