Jay Baer is President of Convince and Convert, a consulting firm that works with some of the world’s most iconic brands gain and keep more customers. He is a 7th generation entrepreneur, a recent inductee into the Professional Speaking Hall of Fame, and the best-selling author of six books, the newest of which is Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth.

Takeaway Quote:

“Being a good business helps you keep customers, but being a good business doesn’t create stories.”

Show Timeline:  

2:08 An introduction to Jay’s new book and the concept of the talk trigger
8:49 Real-world examples of businesses who have differentiated themselves with this method
12:20 Why talk triggers work and a “surprise and delight” strategy does not
15:29 The different types of talk triggers
19:08 Going deeper on ‘useful’ talk triggers and how one professional got more referrals than ever by giving his advice away
23:30 The 6 steps involved in creating meaningful talk triggers
28:09 How talk triggers take the stress or discomfort out of referrals
34:30 The importance of having a word of mouth strategy

Links:

Websites:            talktriggers.com, convinceandconvert.com
Book:                  Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth
LinkedIn:            https://www.linkedin.com/in/jaybaer/
Twitter:               https://twitter.com/jaybaer

Want more?

Stephen Wershing: www.TheClientDrivenPractice.com/checklistblog
Julie Littlechild: www.absoluteengagement.com/blog

Episode Transcript:

Julie Littlechild:    
Welcome to another episode of Becoming Referable. Steve and I are with Jay Baer today to discuss real strategies that will get your clients talking about you, but in a good way. Jay is a six time author. His most recent book, Talk Triggers, was just released and it is, I believe, a must read for financial advisors. He is a popular speaker, one of very few who are in the Professional Speakers Hall of Fame. In his spare time, he’s the Founder of Convince & Convert, a firm that focuses on digital strategy consulting that drives true growth.

Now if you are not familiar with Jay, I think you’ll fall in love with him just a little bit in this interview. He’s funny. He’s smart. And he’s an incredible storyteller. The stories that he shares get to the heart of effective word of mouth marketing. We talk to Jay about what characterizes a talk trigger, how they’re different from the typical strategy we see of surprise and delight, and why talk triggers are so critical to referrals.

He breaks down a step-by-step action plan to create your own talk triggers. What really makes the talk trigger strategy so powerful and so different is that it’s not just a way to get some clients talking about you some of the time, but it’s about operationalizing a strategy that gets most clients talking a lot of the time. It’s absolutely worth a listen. I hope you’ll enjoy the interview as much as we did. With that, let’s get straight into the conversation.

Well Jay, welcome to Becoming Referable. We’re absolutely thrilled to have you here today.

Steve Wershing:   
Welcome Jay.

Jay Baer:         
Thank you so much Julie. Thanks Steve. I appreciate your time and the opportunity to become referable.

Julie Littlechild:     
Indeed. Well we’re going to learn-

Steve Wershing:             
And it’ll happen right here on this program. Right here.

Julie Littlechild:    
Right here, folks. Watch this space.

Steve Wershing:       
Right in front of your eyes.

Julie Littlechild:      
Look Jay, we really wanted to talk to you for a lot of reasons but in particular because of your new book, Talk Triggers. We’ll dive into that but there’s an obvious burning question to kick things off. Clearly, that’s why there’s two llamas on the cover. Can you tell us why that is?

Steve Wershing:      
Julie, Julie they’re alpacas.

Julie Littlechild:         
Oh. Sorry. Why are there two alpacas on the cover?

Steve Wershing:  
And I only know that, by the way, because my wife is wild about alpacas-

Julie Littlechild:     
Oh dear.

Steve Wershing:   
So thank you Jay for putting that on. It’s a marketing book. I’ll be able to get her or read it for that reason.

Jay Baer:    
I love it. I’m glad that you recognized that. You know, it’s a bit of a story. The original cover that Daniel Lemon, and my co-author were presented was not good. It was just not very-

Julie Littlechild:    
There were no alpacas to start.

Jay Baer:    
There were not, for sure. He and I said, you know, if we’re going to write a book about word of mouth maybe the book should be a little different than your typical perfunctory business book. We were just messing around and Daniel found that image of the one alpaca seeming to whisper to the other one. He mocked up that cover and he sent it to me. I thought, well that’s awesome. I love it. But there’s no way Penguin’s going to approve that. It’s too crazy. He was like, “Well maybe.” I’m like, “No.” He’s like, “Well maybe.” I think people were on vacation or something, and so I sent it over there and they’re like, “Sure.”

Julie Littlechild:    
Sure.

Jay Baer:       
They’re like, “Yeah? Yeah, yeah.” And there you have it. So we kind of snuck it past the goalie somehow.

Julie Littlechild:     
Awesome.

Steve Wershing:    
You needed something you could spin a yarn about.

Julie Littlechild:     
Exactly.

Jay Baer:        
That’s right. That’s right. Whoa, well done. Nicely done, yes. Well the byproduct of all that, of having a book with alpacas on the cover, is since the book came out which has been what, five weeks now or something like that, I have received no fewer than 30 alpaca themed gifts or acknowledgments from friends.

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