Print This Post

Word of Mouth & Client Referrals: Top Sources of New Customers

The folks at SalesConx.com sent me the results of the survey they conducted last year. They surveyed 700 small business owners to see how entrepreneurs look at client relationships, to determine the lead generation strategies and how to grow the business using the Internet’s networking features.

Some of the findings of their survey are:

• Referral and word of mouth account for nearly 50% of all new business for surveyed small business owners, however, only 9% are using online lead generation.
• While Facebook has 50 million users and LinkedIn has 14 million users, only 11% of survey respondents noted that they belong to either of these communities. 79% of the participants belong to no social or professional network.
• While 22% of respondents note that they are adding 1 to 3 new clients annually, it is surprising that 11% of small business owners are adding more than 100 new clients per year. This statistic indicates that while lead generation and new client acquisition is NOT a priority of almost one third of small business owners, it is very much a factor for approximately 20% of small business owners who add at least 50 new clients annually.

The main finding of the survey is that “most small business owners rely on new business to drive revenue, but shy away from trying new marketing tactics.” I’m not surprised about the finding as I see it all the time. Many small business owners are reticient in shaking up their marketing strategies, even if they see that the strategy is not working as well.