CHAPTER SEVEN

One of our main goals in sharing these stories is to show you how you can take a more commonsense approach to really understanding the basics of word of mouth (WOM). In essence, figuring out why people talk will allow you to craft some fantastic strategies of your own that truly mirror who you are as an organization. We hope you are starting to think differently about the people you serve and the conversations they want to have with you. As much as you might want your customers to talk about your products' and services' features and benefits, they (like most people!) probably want to talk about themselves, and how your offerings fit into their lives. They want to talk about their passions—specifically, the ones they share with you.

One of our core messages in our last book, and one that remains front and center in the stories we have just shared is this:

It's not about technology; it's about people.

Marketers have long had a tendency to follow the leader, even if the leader is wrong. And then, of course, there's that check-the-box mentality that we shared earlier. Everyone is jumping on the social media train, often using a technology platform as the jumping-off point. But when you claim to need “more Twitter followers, more Facebook fans, a Pinterest strategy,” you are, as Ed Keller says, “starting at the wrong end of the telescope. You're looking in through the wrong direction. So you are not going to see all the opportunities.”

WHAT GETS MEASURED GETS MANUFACTURED

We work in a world where what gets measured gets manufactured—we turn to things like Facebook likes, Twitter followers, and Amazon reviews. We search engine optimize ourselves into next Tuesday. These are all opportunities to see and engage in person-to-person conversations about brands, but marketers often view these, and countless others, simply as success measurements; yet each one can be manufactured. And once a marketer has deemed a result worthy of measuring, someone will devise a way to engineer that result.

Do you really want fake numbers telling you about your business?

ANOTHER THING MARKETERS GET WRONG

Marketers focus intently on getting more customers, often at the expense of communicating with their current customer base. If you focus on passionate users of your products and services, and give them a platform and tools to share their love, they can and will show new customers to your door. And they'll feel loved in the process.

Banks, the auto industry, and cable companies are famous for ignoring their current customers when looking for new ones, so let's pick on them for a moment. We've all seen a great deal for cable that was just for new customers. Why on earth do you flaunt the fact to your reliable current customers that they are paying more than the newbies? Ed told us a story about shopping for a car, with a brand to which he has been loyal for many, many years. The dialogue while he was shopping went something like this:

Hmmm. It's obvious, right?

To get the people business right—to understand how passions connect us—you have to think like people. You have to ask: Is that how we would want to be treated? Is that how we'd treat a friend or someone we love?

You need to work on making the answer a resounding yes—every single time.

We talked about falling in love in the introduction. The stories of Heroes in Recovery, the Fitness Rebellion, Wonderopolis, and The DriVen Class are full of passion, hope, and people falling in love. And as anyone who has experienced it knows—love is amazing. It's a circular transaction. You give love, you get love. It really works just like that. And that fact is a big piece of why finding and unearthing your passion conversation matters so much.

Robbin judged the Word of Mouth Marketing Association's (WOMMA's) WOMMY awards several years back. She remembers a submission from a Fortune 50 company that has done a great job of connecting people who use their technology products to people who make their products. There was a question about return on investment (ROI) that a company representative answered with one simple, bold, all capital-letter sentence:

COMPLETE AND POSITIVE CULTURAL CHANGE WITHIN OUR ORGANIZATION.

That was it. It's stunning, really—and it's the huge opportunity in front of all of us in business today. Geez, that thought makes us tingle. We can and should form close, best-friend-like relationships with those who love us and want to talk with us and advocate on our behalf. We have watched that “complete and positive cultural change” happen within the walls of Foundations Recovery Network (FRN), DeVry, the National Center for Family Literacy (NCFL) and Anytime Fitness.

Chuck Runyon, one of the founders of Anytime Fitness, calls it “return on emotional investment.” Just go hang out in the Anytime Fitness corporate offices and see if you can feel the return they have on emotional investments like the Fitness Rebellion. The energy is electric. Employees are engaged and having fun.

DeVry's goal and the way they are measuring ROI for The DriVen Class is to focus first and foremost on the positivity, support, and goodness, the program generates.

Don't you love that?

By uniting around a mission to break the stigma associated with addiction and mental illness, FRN is connecting with others who feel the same and creating a safe place for “the other 20 million” to step in and seek help.

Wonderopolis is inspiring both adults and children to wonder again—and showing tired, overworked parents and teachers that learning with their kids can be fun and rewarding.

Perhaps the most classic example of supporting the passion conversation is the Fiskateers, an often-discussed and studied community of passionate scrap-bookers. We were proud to feature them in our last book, and honored to help develop the concept. Based in Finland, Fiskars is one of the oldest companies on the planet (they invented the plow). They make beautiful orange handled scissors; you most likely have used or even owned a pair at some point in your life. They are so well designed that they are featured in the Museum of Modern Art. Fiskars makes other crafting tools as well, and while people aren't likely to talk about these tools’ features, they will talk about what they do with those products—scrapbooking and sharing memories of their lives with their friends and family. Seven years after the Fiskateers community began, they are still talking and sharing about the things they love to do with Fiskars tools. They have become a part of everything the company does, and it's completely changed the way Fiskars develops tools—and how they see the work they do in the world.

OPEN HEARTS CAN HAPPEN TO YOU

The same thing can happen at your organization. By opening their hearts and reframing the work they do in the world, your employees naturally become more engaged. They become more innovative when they have close and daily contact with the people who use their products, buy their services, or support their causes. They wake up every day with a sense of purpose—and trust us, that feels good. They begin to think differently. Honestly, our customers are downright protective of their customers. They think about how their decisions might make their customers feel. It's wonderful to see.

AND GUESS WHAT—YOU CAN DO IT, TOO

You can. It takes a while, but being human is not rocket science. You were born with the natural skills you need to do this job.

Zappos is a great example that we marketers love to talk about and study. It's a company that's been cited so often that you might even be sick of hearing about it, but bear with us. We're going to look into it for the role the passion conversation plays in their organization.

Zappos delivers shoes and clothing to people all over the world. By tapping into a very real and basic human emotion, they struck an emotional chord, and empowered an army of customer service reps to simply “Deliver Happiness.” That's something many of us wish to do every day. It's at the core of being human. Think about it: We are born to deliver happiness, and want others to deliver it to us. Babies learn at a very early age that giving happiness leads to feeling happy. I'm sure you've seen a grownup melt at a sweet baby's laughter. It's called bonding. So how brilliant of Zappos to unearth and empower a company and its customers with this simple shared passion! Delivering happiness creates the kind of remarkable and emotional experiences that we long to share with others.

The simple two word mantra “Delivering Happiness” also does something else that makes people talk about it: It disrupts our normal assumptions about “delivery.” Usually, delivery is just that: getting a package from A to B. Zappos doesn't make anything themselves. So they took a boring process like delivering a package and added an emotion we all want more of—happiness—to it. And it continues to grow from there. The following comes from the Zappos website www.deliveringhappiness.com:

We love hearing about this journey of a passion conversation. Not only did it grow a company; it ignited a conversation that is sparking a movement.

CAN EVERY ORGANIZATION FIND THE PASSION CONVERSATION?

People often ask us this question, and the answer is a resounding yes! And sometimes the key is to under-think it. Quit trying so hard to solve a marketing problem, and instead start thinking about inspiring awe and wonder (or even happiness) in the people you serve.

So let's say you're embracing all this talk about love and passion and are starting to believe that emotionally investing in your customers can lead to advocacy—the ultimate goal of WOM marketing, of sparking your passion conversation. You're convinced you're in the people business now. You want to make a positive and lasting impact on your organization's culture, and lead with your values to grow your business. You're committed to tackling the assignments we've shared. You are abandoning your hope that technology and social media are some kind of magic bullet. You will not buy more books titled Solve All Your Business Problems Today by Pin-Tweeting Your Faceblog on Instagramblr. You want to find your true passion conversation. You want to help and celebrate the people you serve and the things that matter to them.

HERE'S SOMETHING YOU MUST BE WILLING TO HEAR

Sparking and supporting passion conversations is a long-term commitment. Love, when done right, is an enduring thing. Word of mouth marketing is not about running marketing or social media campaigns; it's a growing, evolving process. As we said earlier, smart companies like Whole Foods and Starbucks spark love and word of mouth like second nature. Technology, traditional advertising, and point of purchase might play a role. Email, blogs, or content strategies might have a place. You will certainly need ways to communicate with the people you love—the people who love you.

WANT TO KNOW A SECRET TO LONG-TERM SUCCESS?

We absolutely love when our clients tell us, “We're on to something. I'm not sure where this is going, but we are on to something powerful.” At some point, they all heave a trusting sigh and have a certain a-ha! moment.

So, if you are accepting our claims about love and the passion conversation, then you are buying in to long-term strategy. We think it's important to also remember that you need to find some short-term wins to celebrate so you can keep justifying the long-term efforts.

We're realists. We do live in the real world, and we know that everyone is accountable for the dollars we spend to help grow businesses or causes. We have done this well sometimes, and could have done better others—and it is something we are constantly trying to improve. So ask yourself out loud and often: What will our short-term wins be? How will we measure them?

Like Lee Pepper from Heroes in Recovery (from Chapter 3) explains, “determine your answers to the questions before they are asked.” When you go beyond traditional marketing measurements, there's no limit to the return you will find. For instance, will you decrease employee turnover or increase happiness within your company? Think of measuring things that go beyond sales and marketing.

If you are in a large corporation, you might want to find a way to build a community while staying slightly under the radar. Yes, we are actually saying that out loud and in print, because this is the truth:

Community needs time to gain momentum.

Fiskateers has been around for over seven years; when they started, Facebook wasn't a household word yet. It took way longer than a fiscal year to discover the full impact of the community.

If you are signing up for understanding, sparking, and sustaining love and passion, you are signing up for the long haul. And frankly, don't you want a sustainable business/marketing/people strategy that keeps you sustainable as well?

Don't we all want that?

WHAT DO YOU DO WHEN YOU'RE “ON TO SOMETHING POWERFUL”?

What do you do to keep close relationships with your customers—and between your employees and your customers—once you get that momentum flowing?

How do you sustain that love?

1. Tend to it. You pay attention to the little things; feed and fuel it every day. Communities need inspirational leadership, as well as someone to hold that inspirational leadership accountable in a loving way. Because community leaders are often not paid—at least, not in strict monetary terms—the reward is engagement. The reward is love. Sometimes we manage the community for our customers, maybe just for a while before turning it over to an internal team. Sometimes we make an internal hiring recommendation. We do what makes the most sense for each individual community, but someone has to be responsible for noticing and responding. You probably noticed that we call the Community Managers at Brains on Fire Community Shepherds. They aren't really managing; they're gently guiding and urging people to stay engaged. They become a seamless part of the community. We don't hire for social media skills, because that's something we can teach. We hire for passion. Since we're in the business of inspiring others, we ask a crucial question whenever we hire anyone to work at Brains on Fire: We ask them what they like to do with their spare time. We love seeing eyes light up as we learn how people paint dog portraits or arrange flowers or volunteer to read to children. People who get passionate can inspire passion in others.
2. Focus on the early engagers. They fell in love with you first. DeVry student Dave, who you met in Chapter 5, is the fifteenth person to join The DriVen Class. We adore him. He tells everyone that The DriVen Class is what gave him the will to continue on and get his degree, even after losing his job. That's a win for DeVry, from a dollar and cents point of view, and a big win for Dave as well. Always remember: Energy flows where energy goes. You have to hold a lot of hands to get that early momentum. You have to notice every hand-raiser and every little everything they do and say. And you have to show them you truly appreciate it.
3. Keep it exciting. You must keep your advocates coming back. You might decide, as Wonderopolis did, to “just do one thing really, really well.” Whatever it is you choose to do, keep it fun. Share stories often to keep your internal team engaged. Try new things. We love that FRN is open and excited to host surf competitions under the banner of Heroes in Recovery. They are more than willing to jump out and try new things that their community suggests.
4. Go out on dates. Get together face-to-face as often as you can, like Heroes does with their 6Ks. Running, or some form of exercise, is often a part of the recovery process. Heroes will show up. Where do your loyal customers already go? How can you show up at their parties? We loved hearing the story of Costa del Mar sunglasses, a company that targets most of its marketing efforts on serious fisherman. Over time, the company noticed its brand had become popular with the college fraternity crowd. Instead of blowing a good thing by marketing at these groups—and potentially making themselves un-cool—they started going around to frat parties bringing in some great live music acts and handing out free sunglasses as a way to say thank you. It's hard work to coordinate that effort, but showing that gratitude felt right.
5. Show kindness, respect, and admiration. Always. You must begin to see comments on a website or via social media as a gift. Do you surprise and delight people who go out of their way to advocate for you? Simple things go a long way to sustaining love and passion.
6. Live and learn. Be willing to zig and zag and change your mind. If you are getting traction somewhere unexpected, go there. Be adventurous. Goodness knows the people who love you have innovative and smart ideas that are easier to execute than you might imagine. Remember those whiteboards at the Anytime Fitness in Seattle? Or Sean's recovery road trip? The next great idea could be anywhere! Ask yourself, “What are we learning?” around every corner.
7. Renew your vows to each other. Call up some members of the community or your leaders and just talk. Maybe even record it and listen to it as a team. You will find amazing nuggets hidden (and sometimes not so hidden) in those conversations. Just like we found while conducting interviews for this book, you will uncover new stories. You will renew your energy. You will grow.
8. Remember that you aren't in this alone. No solitary person can accomplish a passion conversation, nor can a marketing agency, a brand, or even the consumer. It takes both the brand and the consumer to come together. The passion inside has to match the passion on the outside. If one person has this passion and the other person lacks it, the relationship is going to end sooner or later.
9. Look for and appreciate diversity. When we look for people to lead a community, we purposely seek out different kinds of people. Think of the 25 Fitness Rebels. Trust us—all of them were unique, as were The DriVen Class ambassadors. Diversity keeps the conversations rolling. It makes it easy for all kinds of people to step in and join you. Robbin tells the following story about a lesson she learned in college about how even people who seem to have very little in common can form a strong and lasting bond through shared passions.

   In short: Strong communities embrace diversity.

We hope you can feel our customers' and our own collective passion coming through in these pages, and we hope that even a little bit of those feelings are contagious. Life is better when you embrace loving your customers and employees, and supporting their passions. Life is better when your customers love you back. Life is better when you move from the marketing business to the business of inspiring people.

Geno recently told the Heroes in Recovery story to a marketing group in New York. Afterwards, someone in the audience of about 500 people came up with tears in his eyes and told Geno his remarkable 11-year story of recovery. They instantly connected through a shared understanding. We've all been touched by recovery. Robbin was traveling recently and sat next to woman in a restaurant while working at her laptop. When the woman asked about what she was working on, Robbin told her about the book and the stories in it. When she got to Heroes in Recovery, the lady was wide-eyed and almost startled—she had been in recovery for 25 years and ran the Heroes 6K race in Colorado the previous year! And with FRN looking to open more facilities and grow their business in the coming years, you can bet that touching encounters like these will become more and more common.

The DriVen Class is also getting some new energy and an updated new website. Their goal was to have a certain number of engaged new members in a month when it launched in early May. We're one week in as we write this, and we're halfway there already. Communities seem to incubate (a Geno term) for a while, then something just tips.

And those are the moments that fuel our fire!

That's when we know the work we are a part of is something that matters. It's when we know we are touching lives, and that's worth all the time and effort we and our customers put into it.

HERE'S ONE LAST MOMENT OF TRUTH TELLING

We've shared a lot of smart research that has been helpful to us. We hope it will help you, too. We shared our processes and stories, and our customers' accounts as well as our own.

But you have to know this:

The last thing we want you to think is that there's some “secret formula” for igniting and sustaining word of mouth marketing.

Just as there is no formula for sparking and sustaining passion and love, there is no formula for sparking and sustaining word of mouth. That's because human beings are so intricately involved. And human beings are all unique. Every tribe is different.

Marketers tend to want formulas, but there are no formulas now. You can learn lessons from others, like the ones we have shared here. However, you have to stay faithful to who you are, and that simply means that there are no easy answers—just inspiration.

When it comes to connecting humans through shared passions, you have to look to your own people, your own tribe—customers, employees, and advocates—for your own magical and unique inspiration. Passion is very, very personal. Organizations can create moments that remind us of our humanity and make us feel good about ourselves, but if you try to copy what someone else is doing, people will notice. They can spot a fake a mile away.

When we first began talking about The Passion Conversation, Greg joked and wondered aloud: What if we just have a bunch of blank pages and two sentences:

Do unto others as you'd like to have done unto you.

Now talk among yourselves.

If you're the kind of person who just skims business books and then looks at the last few sentences of the last chapter … maybe you just got lucky.