Wharton Studies Network-based Marketing

Thank you to my friends at Referral Key for posting about a study published by Wharton University.

It was conducted for a telecommunications company. They found that the strongest indicator of whether or not someone adopted a new Internet service was if they had a "network neighbor" (someone they were in communication with) who was already using the service. Other demographic similarities were not as big an influence on the adoption of the product.

In other words, people who know people who already had the service were more likely to buy. To corporate marketing departments, this means selling to the friends of your existing customers is a powerful tool.

Seems to me like those of us who are faithful, devoted in-person and on-line networkers already know this.

Perhaps the most interesting part is that the study wasn't able to pinpoint the reason for the "network neighbor" effect. It speculates that they might be talking to each other (although in the study the consumers' conversations weren't monitored), or that they might be like-minded and therefore purchasing similar products, or that they have some deeper connection that is alluded to by the fact that the communicate with each other.

If you're a major telecommunications company, I guess you'd want the study to engage in this kind of introspection. For the rest of us, isn't it enough to know that our work on building referrals is validated?

More Thoughts from the Ambassador Rally

I'm always a little taken aback when I'm at events like an Ambassador Rally and someone at the event uses really poor networking skills. I expect Ambassadors to be some of the most skillful networkers around. (Ambassadors are volunteers who help their Chambers of Commerce with membership retention, recruitment and events.)

Here are a couple of examples that surprised me the most. During the lunch hour, one person was walking around to each table and announcing "I'm collecting business cards." No attempt at conversation, no self-introduction, just pure ol' list-building, I guess. I haven't heard from him yet, but I certainly expect to. I tossed his business card away - he won't remember anything about me.

I received my first follow-up email this morning, which was terrific. The problem is that the email included a sales pitch for their service "as you requested." Now I know this was a form email - I didn't request more information. I was sorry to see this - the person who sent it was very interesting. We talked a little bit and I enjoyed meeting them. But now I have received a sales email and no discussion of the person-to-person conversation we had. Unless I very specifically told you I needed your sales information, please don't send it to me!

See, even those who should know better occasionally let their sales and prospecting sides take over, when they should have stuck to the networking. It's a cautionary tale to the rest of us, to remain ever vigilant.