Meferral Marketing

Holy coined term Batman, today I would like to put my stamp on Meferral Marketing. Simple yet elegant. Ok, so the term is a little dumb but the lesson is magnificent.

Referral marketing is something we all know and love because it is so good to us (small business's). I live and die off of referral marketing, at Metro Contractors our marketing budget so far has equaled roughly ZERO for the life of the company; excluding Starbucks gift cards and thank you notes. But referral marketing and all of the sexy reading that goes along with it can only take us so far. Not so far in that it ends, but so far in that as a small business owner sometimes we sit back and do nothing (as far as marketing) because we are trustafarians living off of our own trust fund of referrals. Here comes Meferral POW!

Meferral Marketing - two Big Boy examples

Starbucks - You go in and get a latte and they get you to buy that devilish blueberry muffin as well. Fine and dandy, that is called a cross sell or upsell and it's wonderful. Then during checkout they hand you a receipt (now colored yellow so it jumps out from all of the other receipts stuffed in the ashtray of my car) that offers a $2 iced beverage after 2pm that day. WHAT! They did not cross sell me, they turned me into two customers. They referred a customer to themselves, MEFERRAL. They turned me from a once a day customer to a twice a day customer, they just created a customer out of thin air and the best part is they can still cross sell and upsell to that new customer (the 2pm me).

For a while this was my only example, then I was reading a Jack Welch book and I came across this.

GE - In a nutshell, GE Power Systems builds and maintains power plants. GE Capital handles money and finances. GE Power Systems realized that power plants were having a heck of a time handling all of their finances and accounting in house, sent them over to GE Capital and WHAMO! GE just created two clients out of one.

These examples are vastly different in that one company had two offerings and got one client to buy them both (again not upselling in my opinion becuase the two are not related whatsoever) the other company has one offering (my daily d.a.b, delicious addicting beverages) and turned a single client into a repeat client (repeat repeat because I already went once a day).

So what about you, do you (individual or small business) offer two totally unrelated things (life coaching and website design) or can you take your current customer and turn them into two? I bet you can and then you can join the ranks of your best referrers (that one is tough to say!) and starting hitting homeruns with Meferral Marketing.

The idea guy loses again

Image Courtesy of: totalAldo


I was reading a blog about getting systems in place to organize my... whatever (life, business, brain, it's all so generalized and boring). Any way, the blog touched on getting a voice recorder so when something came into your mind you could simply get it out and get the river that is thought flow running again. I went out, bought a tape recorder, and let the torrent loose. To my demise, I realized something much worse than the roadblock that was my mind.

Idea guys love the roadblock because clarity brings prioritization and prioritization brings action. But I'm lazy!

Cleaning out the mess that is my mind is like finally having the perfect studio for a painter only to realize that they were more successful fighting the outside world than pulling from the inside world. I read so much crap about organization/productivity/goals/garbage that I realized I felt productive when I read about productivity. This is screwed up people.

So relating back a few days, screw productivity, I'm in search of passion. I'm going to follow what Seth said and his hierarchy of success. Productivity and organization fall somewhere between five and six and I have not cleared up #3 much less approached 1 and 2.

1. Attitude
2. Approach
3. Goals
4. Strategy
5. Tactics
6. Execution

So join me, we will beat the down the feeling of being disorganized by doing, by realizing why we are doing and how we are doing what WE have stated as our goals.

Kill your enthusiasm

Photo Courtesy of: Jeremy 白杰瑞

I'm built out of enthusiasm, it bubbles in my veins and shoots out my orifices like sunshine out of a unicorn. However, even I believe it is a bit too enthusiastic to refer to this economy as a great opportunity for entrepreneurs.
It seems that everything we read and many commenter's (it's a word because I just used it) are basing their thoughts off of this notion that this economy is such a great chance for people to get out and start companies on their own.


I've got an awesome guy working for Metro who was laid off from his job and works for us now trying to get more refined at his trade. His previous job was as a land surveyor and after getting laid off he said he realized that his company was twenty years behind when it comes to technology and the program they were working with.
He went out and spent a few thousands dollars out of his own pocket to buy the newest program and is educating himself so that he can get back in the field.
If people actually commented on this blog they would say things like "He should learn the program and become a freelancer" or "What a great opportunity to get out on his own with his newly acquired skill set".


Just because your screwed and you've got no better options does not make that a great opportunity.
A great opportunity was ten years ago when you could be mediocre, ten (or more) years behind on technology, under trained and still hold down a job for 60k. Newsflash, if working yourself to death and self educating work now they would have worked ten fold in a flourishing economy.
Starting out on your own when you are not even worth your salary to an existing company is not a great opportunity, it may be your only opportunity and I'm glad something got you moving, but come on.


Go out and kill it today, do something great today, but realize that in five or ten years when the economy has turned around and homes are going up in price every year and everyone is a stock investing genius, that is a great opportunity.
Great opportunities are usually surrounded by a bunch of good opportunities, vary rarely does everything fall to pieces leaving you only one option that just happens to be great.
Do what you have to do, but don't settle for good because at that point you are turning down great.

Every kid is smarter than you

image courtesy of jrorci

Sit kids down and have them play a board game and they will all do a number of appalling things. Monopoly as the example, when a child lands on a property and they want to buy it they do not sit their bemoaning how great it would be, how they would finally be able to relax if they had it, how it would solve all of their cash flow problems, they simply pull their wad of money out, count it, look around the board to see if others are jealous, and buy the property. If they don't have the money they don't buy it (gasp!).

Second, ask a kid how to earn money and they will tell you that you either have to go around the board for $200 (this is called a job) or you have to buy properties to collect rent (these are called assets). Done. How many of you have a job which you earn real money to buy assets? Assets earn you money, your car is not an asset, your home is not an asset, your golf clubs are not assets. If you ask a kid the benefit of owning a property so if they land on it they don't have to pay rent they won't care, kids care about earning the cash not faux assets, real assets that put cash under your leg (if you happen to be playing on the floor).

Lastly, if kids lose the game they don't sit on floor crying about how Johnny had such an advantage because he got great rolls and they got screwed or how Susy had so many more purchase opportunities during great markets. They hash out that Berny can't be the banker anymore because he steals and they get back in the game. It's rough out there, maybe you got knocked out of the game. Maybe you had some assets mortgaged so you could pay rent to others. Get back in the game. Do work, for money. Buy assets. And for the love of God enjoy the time you get with others.

How to increase productivity with no organization

So you want to be more productive, you find yourself at the beginning of the day feeling lost and overwhelmed and at the end of every day you make a vow that tomorrow will be better, you are going to use tomorrow to conquer the world. Me too.

I've always viewed this as a productivity problem. Maybe if I had a tape recorder to collect my thoughts. Maybe if I used Outlook. Maybe if I read GTD like everyone else. Maybe... But now I have a new perspective, productivity is simply a product itself. Productivity is not a state of mind but rather a state of energy. Stay close because I'm going to move quickly on this one.

If you run around a crowded city center slapping people for an hour that is extremely productive, towards what end you ask? Doesn't matter. You just slapped a lot of people in a short amount of time, you got a lot done. But why would you do this Ben? You just answered your own productivity issues.

Productivity is not what we are searching for but rather purpose. If you have a reason to do something you will find a way. If you have a deep burning desire to do something you will be very productive.

Two side notes: Productivity does not automatically mean efficiency, this is easily explained by reading The Four Hour Workweek, Secondly, if you are sitting in a gray cubicle moving one step closer to trying to be a poorly functioning robot you exactly who I am talking to.

You are replacable

As an entrepreneur I'm regularly engulfed by my own prowess. I stand back at the end of the day and wonder how I did all that work and surely nobody else could have kept up. I finish a project and believe whole heatedly that nobody could have done it in just that way.

Let's do a quick case study in how replaceable ANYONE is -

Journey was voted in a public opinion pull to be the #5 rock band, ever

Journey has sold 80 million records world wide, the number 26th best selling US band, ever

In a nine year period Journey had SEVEN consecutive multi-platinum albums

In 2007 their lead singer was replaced by a Filipino cover artist who was ten when Journey went multi-platinum

Arnel Pineda had been working in the music industry since 1983 but was eventually discovered because of a Youtube video

Moral of the story, even the unique vocal cords of a platinum winning artist can now be found in a flat world through the wonders of Youtube. Pay attention to how replaceable you are, realize that it is what you do that matters, not how unique you think you are. Realize that even though you may be a middle aged Filipino cover artist, Journey is watching your Youtube videos so start creating your own personal long tail and treat it like it is as important as it will end up being. Lastly, if you are part of an aging rock band that was once the pinacle of the music world but has since lost their lead singer three times over, go find what you need, and keep on moving forward. Journey finished a tour in 2008 that had net proceeds of $35,000,000, not bad for a cover band.