Ever since we started playing the cooperation game and banding together in tribes, it’s been important to demonstrate our value to the group.
The things we do every day either raise our status or lower it.
If we go too long stacking demerits, our status puts us at risk of being shunned.
This dynamic has genetically affected the way we subconsciously navigate the ongoing, day-to-day interactions with our modern “tribes” of the top people in our lives.
We have this unconscious desire to look good to the tribe and maintain (or raise) our status.
The highest level of status is to be a hero.
If you can rescue someone from a dangerous situation once—or often enough—you may rise to legend status.
If you can rescue someone from a dangerous situation once—or often enough—you may rise to legend status.
Knowing that we’re wired for this, one of the best things we can do is figure out how to engineer opportunities to give our clients a way to be a hero.
It can be as simple as giving them a gift card to give to a friend…or a helpful book.
We did this with a mosquito control company: every new client got a thank you note and three golden tickets for a free mosquito treatment to give to any of their friends or family.
It worked amazingly, because it was a 100% free gift, not a 50% off coupon or a buy-one-get-one.
Giving it away was an instant status boost, and a surprise and delight to the receiver.
Another way to move your clients to hero status is to equip them to get a friend out of trouble.
Many home service companies offer VIP membership programs to their clients that give them “front of the line” response times, no service charge, and preferential pricing on repairs and maintenance.
The hero-making move is to allow these VIPs to extend that status to anyone in their inner circle, giving them the power to save a friend in trouble and instantly rise to hero status.
They’ll jump at the chance to do it.
“Give a Friend” or “Save a Friend” is much more powerful than “Refer a Friend.”