Most of the WOM about WOM tends to be in the B2C arena. Interesting therefore to see research that suggests that it is more influential in the B2B arena. Jack Morton, who conducted the study, found that B2B WOM was 2x more influential on brand choice than either advertising, direct mail or email. For those of us in the agency business this will come of no surprise …. we’ve long known that peer-to-peer referral is one of the best sources of new business.
Totally agree – and always good that a survey re-enforces what you feel – any idea on next steps?
Thanks for your comment David. At the most basic level B2B Brands need to surprise and delight. The research I did with Paul Marsden at the end of last year showed that 70% of advocacy correlates to brands doing something that exceeds expectatons (surprises and delights).
I totally agree with this.
I often look at some agency websites and wonder why some of them have such terrible websites. The answer? They don’t need a good website as all the business they get comes from WOM.
I once met a guy who worked at a design agency that I had never heard of which was suprising as they had done some fantastic work for some really big clients. He told me that they do no new business development yet thier phone rings off the hook with people asking them to work for them. They get so many calls for new business that they have to turn the ones least right for the agency down.
This goes to show that good work is a coversation starter as it has suprised and delighted the client. Also, would you rather work with someone you KNOW is good, or someone who COULD be good. No brainer really