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Four Ways To Use Key Influencers To Generate Word Of Mouth Advertising

This article is more than 2 years old.

If you want to attract high-paying clients, you do not need to have a multimillion-dollar marketing budget. Spend time helping your key influencers understand the value of your solution and watch the word spread like wildfire.

That’s the view of Sande Golgart, president of Zonez, who took the company from survive to thrive during the pandemic. Golgart is often quoted on real estate issues and trends affecting businesses from start-ups to the Global 1000. He has been featured on Fox Business News, ABC News, and various other media outlets.

As a small service business whose primary focus is helping companies create highly productive office environments, the lockdown of March 2020 felt like a death sentence. “We knew the world would forever be changed,” said Golgart. “We had to take action quickly if we were going to survive—let alone thrive.”

He immediately launched a research effort to understand the biggest issues companies would need to address when they returned to the office. The research was clear and consistent: companies would need to find a way to separate people and clean the air in the workplace.

“We went to work with our engineers and staff and created the world’s only blocking and air filtration system that captures and filters the air at the source where it is exhaled, coughed, or sneezed into a shared environment,” said Golgart. “We spent countless hours problem solving until we had developed a viable solution to the problem we uncovered. In July 2020, we launched our new brand, Clean Zonez.”

Here are four tips from Golgart on how to leverage key influencers:

Tip #1: Focus on what you have. Do not get consumed with what you do not have.

“We had no budget and no extra money to invest in expensive advertising. Additionally, we did not have a big team that could knock on doors and tell our story. What we did have were strong relationships built over time and a reputation for delivering high-quality, well-engineered products. We decided that our best option was to invest in the relationships with those who had the most credibility and experience, with the largest spheres of influence.”

Tip #2: Take inventory of the potential influence you can create.

“Make a list of your trusted relationships with businesses and connections that have the largest degree of influence. Quantify the degree of influence each trusted relationship has and create a priority list. Influence can be the number of years someone has been in business (credibility). It can also be the number of customers or contacts they have. “

Tip #3: Invest your time and effort where you are likely to see the biggest returns.

“Time is limited. No one has time to do things that are not impactful. You must have the discipline to invest only in people and activities that can generate the biggest returns. For us, we turned to key influencers, such as Gibson Office Products, which has locations in New York, New Jersey, and Florida and more than 75 years of experience selling commercial office furnishings to the largest companies in their markets. Gibson executives were able to make introductions to Prologis, the largest industrial real estate company in the world. As of December 31, 2019, the company owned 3,840 buildings, comprising 814 million square feet in 19 countries. Prologis is now offering the Clean Zonez solutions to all of its tenants. Next, we turned to Connection Resource in the [San Francisco] Bay Area, which has a stellar reputation for helping the Bay Area’s largest corporations, such as Google, Facebook, and Apple. Additionally, we spent time educating IWG executives on the benefits of Clean Zonez; IWG operates the world’s largest shared office network, serving over 2.5 million individual companies.”

Tip #4: Help your key influencers understand the impact they can make.

“Invest quality time with these key relationships, ensuring they understand the full value of the solution and what it can mean for their business. Once these key influencers understood how uniquely impactful the Clean Zonez product was, they quickly shared the information with their networks.”

The bottom line: In a matter of weeks, his new product was known by the largest customers, accompanied by the endorsements of trusted influencers. Never underestimate the power of word-of-mouth advertising. And never assume it just happens on its own.

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