Company Vital Sign

John Jantsch of Duct Tape Marketing has fairly controversial claim - he says he can measure the health of your business with a single number:

I can tell you that the relative health and success of most businesses can be gauged by this simple factor - how many clients refer friends, neighbors and colleagues.

This may be hard for some to hear, but if you are not receiving lots of referrals, there may be something that needs fixing.

If you have any issues around asking for and expecting referrals, something may need fixing.

To me, this is like the classic rule:

You really only know a topic well enough when you can teach it to someone else.

Thta is, John's picking the highest form of success, and then asking if you can hit it. If you can, you've hit all the other key points along the way.

While I'm not particularly a fan of over simplification, I think in this case, John is dead on. Having a goal of 100% referrals seems like it would motivate you to ask the right questions - not just how can I sell more, or or how can I better support a customer, but how can I make that customer so enthralled they can't help but tell their friends, family and neighbors about me.