Referrals are a hot topic. And they should be. Many businesses rely more on referrals than any other source of new business.

But many people get it wrong when they think about referrals. They see referrals as something they can “get” or produce. They try to build systems and plans to generate referrals.

The reality though is different. Referrals are an outcome of doing things well. When you take care of your customers and you do it better than anyone else, referrals should come your way.

A few weeks ago I renamed my marketing formula and talked about the first element, “Awareness”.

A= (T * E² * M)

(Remember, “A” equals Awareness which means people know about our business and are likely to become customers.)

Today we’re going to talk about the next element that makes the Smart Marketing Formula work: “Time”.

A while ago, I wrote about something I called the “Magic Marketing Formula”.

Here it is in a slightly different format (a.k.a, easier to read and remember). Also, I have changed the name to reflect the true nature of the formula.

A= (T * E² * M)

From this point on, this marketing formula will now be called:

The Smart Marketing Formula

It seems whenever we talk about finding and targeting our customers, we focus on who they are. Are they young, old or middle aged? Are they educated or not? Rich, poor or middle-class? Tall, short, skinny, chubby? Urban, rural, suburban or even ex-urban? (Ex-urban sounds like you divorced a city.)

Of course, these labels help us group our customers and find them. It’s the old “birds of a feather” concept. And to that end, this process can be useful.

This morning Minnesota is in shock. A major bridge in Minneapolis collapsed. No warning. Nothing unusual happened prior to the collapse. It just dropped 64 feet into the Mississippi River. At least 50 cars fell into the river. As many as 60 people were injured. Nine people have reportedly died.

Our governor rightly called it a “catastrophe of historic proportions”.