Robbin Phillips - The Passion Conversation: Understanding, Sparking, and Sustaining Word of Mouth Marketing

Contents

Cover image: Nathan Spainhour

Cover design: Eric B. Whitlock and Rachel G. Bass

Copyright 2013 by Brains on Fire, Inc. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.

Published simultaneously in Canada.

NPS, Net Promoter & Net Promoter Score are registered trademarks of Satmetrix Systems, Inc., Bain & Company, and Fred Reichheld.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, (978) 750-8400, fax (978) 646-8600, or on the web at www.copyright.com . Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, (201) 748-6011, fax (201) 748-6008, or online at www.wiley.com/go/permissions .

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with the respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Neither the publisher nor the author shall be liable for damages arising herefrom.

For general information about our other products and services, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at (800) 762-2974, outside the United States at (317) 572-3993 or fax (317) 572-4002.

Wiley publishes in a variety of print and electronic formats and by print-on-demand. Some material included with standard print versions of this book may not be included in e-books or in print-on-demand. If this book refers to media such as a CD or DVD that is not included in the version you purchased, you may download this material at http://booksupport.wiley.com . For more information about Wiley products, visit www.wiley.com .

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data:

Phillips, Robbin.

The passion conversation : understanding, sparking, and sustaining word of mouth marketing / Robbin Phillips, Greg Cordell, Geno Church and John Moore.

pages cm

Includes index.

ISBN 978-1-118-53333-8 (cloth); ISBN 978-1-118-76794-8 (ebk);

ISBN 978-1-118-76830-3 (ebk)

1. Word-of-mouth advertising. 2. Business referrals. 3. Marketing. I. Title.

HF5827.95.P45 2013

658.872dc23

20130194

PRAISE FOR THE PASSION CONVERSATION

Its a fast read, a fun read, a smart read. Short sentences, huge heart. Read it. Why? To absorb an important truth from the masters of word of mouth movements: Conversations spring from passions, not products.

Dan Heath, co-author of Decisive, Switch, and Made to Stick

Have you ever gotten teary-eyed over a business book? Better yet, over your own business? Prepare yourself for The Passion Conversation , where the folks at Brains on Fire tell how their business connected them with people in very moving and powerful ways, redefining words like marketing, sales, and success. Read this book to move your perspective from business to people, and experience the incredible effect it will have on your life and work.

Jon Mueller, General Manager of 800-CEO-READ

Love is the missing ingredient in developing loyalty with customers. In The Passion Conversation , the smart folks at Brains on Fire expertly explain how to develop deeper connections with customers who in turn sing your praises to everyone they know.

Jackie Huba, author of Monster Loyalty: How Lady Gaga Turns Followers into Fanatics

Ive had my eye on Brains on Fire for a while. Their humanity makes them quite distinctive, and The Passion Conversation captures that unique voice.

Peter Sims, author of Little Bets , and founder of The BLK SHP Enterprises

Join the conversation at brainsonfire.com/blog .

This book is dedicated to the heroes, the driven, the wonderers, the rebels, to those who answer a callingto those who wear their hearts on their sleeves and 146 on their hearts. You remind us that becoming more human is the journey to greatness for any brand. Because ultimately, the best brands, the brands we love most, are the ones that never let us forget how it feels to be good people.

Preface

We wont lie. This was a hard book to write.

You see, at Brains on Fire, we believe that we owe it to our courageous customers to spend most of our time and efforts finding and sharing their passion conversation and growing their tribes. As people who practice word of mouth marketing, just finding time to write this book was a really, really big deal.

We burned some serious late-night oil .

But it was worth it because we learned so much along the way. And we grew even closer to our customers. We had someone ask us the other day, Arent you afraid youre giving away your secrets? We smiled and said, Nope. See, we dont believe there are any marketing secrets. Weve learned that sharing and connecting with other like-minded people in the world is whats magical these days. By sharing knowledge with others, weve learned good things will happen .

Our first book, Brains on Fire: Igniting Powerful, Sustainable, Word of Mouth Movements (yes, Brains on Fire is the name of our company and our first book) was a really remarkable ride. It connected us with some super-cool people. Some of those people have become our friends and kindred spirits. Some of them knocked on our door and joined our tribe. Some were honored to call our customers and advocates. Youll get to meet a lot of them in the following pages.

Consider this book a continuation of the lessons we shared in our first book. Heres a quick review:

We love hearing people recite these lessons back to us. We love it when they let us know how they have applied some of them to their own businesses. And youll absolutely see the lessons from our last book brought to life throughout these pages. Still, we knew we had learned more in the three years since our first book was published, and we wanted to spend some time digging deeper. We felt that we owed it to our readers, our customers, and ourselves.