Word of Mouth: Pure gold or just legends told at sales meetings?

We talk to manufacturers, a lot. Almost everyone tells us their best source of leads is word of mouth. Great…until we ask a few questions.

Normally the conversation sounds like this:

Manufacturer: Our main source of leads is word of mouth

: Great, how many do you get?

Manufacturer: A few a month…

: Excellent, how many do you want?

Manufacturer: 1,000!

: OK, what is your strategy?

Manufacturer: Um, well, hmmm. We really do not have a strategy.

Sound familiar? This is often how this conversation plays out. Interesting, yes; frustrating? Certainly.

The reality is almost no one is tracking these leads. And, as you have read here before, if it is not measured, it doesn’t get done. Word of mouth is great, if it really exists. Sure, we all believe that our customers are sharing their experience. We feel, rightly so, that a high trust built with our customer, that they must be the source of our leads.

Here are a few easy ways to measure word of mouth and translate the data into leads. Is your customer reading and interacting with your blog? Commenting on your LinkedIn articles? Using the chat feature on your website?

If you have evidence of word of mouth, do you know:  Who (persona) is talking? What they are saying? Why are they saying it? Again, measurement is important. Measurement is easy with a CRM, if done right. See these articles:

Why CRM for Manufacturing Lead Generation Doesn’t Work

The Most Common Mistakes Manufacturers Make When Implementing Inbound Marketing

We’re happy to discuss how to take your sales leads to the next level. Interested in how this works for manufactures? Contact us today.