The World's Best Known Marketing Secret: Building Your Business with Word-of-Mouth Marketing

by Ivan R. Misner, Virginia Devine

Hands down. No debate. We all know that word-of-mouth can turn a company, product, or service into a roaring success or a crashing failure. This updated, information-packed new edition offers you a proven model for developing your own word-of-mouth marketing plan.

Genres: Business, Nonfiction

256 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Dr. Ivan Misner is the Founder & Chairman of BNI, the world's largest business networking organization. BNI was founded in 1985. The organization has over 5,800 chapters throughout every populated continent of the world. Last year alone, BNI generated 6.5 million referrals resulting in $2.8 billion dollars worth of business for its members.

Dr. Misner's Ph.D. is from the University of Southern California. He is a New York Times Bestselling author who has written twelve books including his latest #1 bestseller, "Networking Like a Pro".

He is a monthly columnist for Entrepreneur.com and is the Senior Partner for the Referral Institute - a referral training company with trainers around the world. In addition, he has taught business management and social capital courses at several universities throughout the United States.

Called the "Father of Modern Networking" by CNN and the "Networking Guru" by Entrepreneur magazine, Dr. Misner is considered one of the world's leading experts on business networking and has been a keynote speaker for major corporations and associations throughout the world. He has been featured in the L.A. Times, Wall Street Journal, and New York Times, as well as numerous TV and radio shows including CNN, CNBC, and the BBC in London.

Dr. Misner is on the Board of Trustees for the University of La Verne. He is also the Founder of the BNI-Misner Foundation and was recently named "Humanitarian of the Year" by a Southern California newspaper. He is married and lives with his wife Elisabeth and their three children in Claremont, CA. In his spare time!!! he is also an amateur magician and a black belt in karate.

Reviews

[Melissa Timberman · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was good, logical, and well laid out. I liked it because business owners always need refreshers on these sorts of things, and I found it motivating. However, I've been networking for 12+ years now, so there wasn't anything new to me; I imagine it's a good framework & new info for someone new to the idea of networking.

I think this would be extremely helpful to someone new to networking, intimidated by it, or who doesn't like networking.

It was last updated in 2005, so there's a lot out of date in it when he references particular types of networking groups. I.e., he doesn't include websites; his list isn't comprehensive; etc. I didn't reduce any stars because of that, though; it's not meant to be a comprehensive list of networking groups.

[Duong Tan · Rating 4 out of 5]

Classic.

[Mike Tobin · Rating 3 out of 5]

It was great to give this a re-read...some of the methods seem antiquated due to the time period it was written , however, you can take some of these older concepts (handwritten letters, faxes, Rolodex for example) and translate the methods for today (Social media, CDMS, etc). It would be interesting to see someone take the WOMBAT game plan in the back of the book and "modernize" it to make it more relevant to a new generation of networkers.
That being said, there are a lot of great tips and techniques, and is worth a quick read

[Penelope Brown · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was great for when I worked in a corporate environment.

[David Driscoll · Rating 5 out of 5]

To find out more read the book. Ways and means to good networking.

[Eric Mammoser · Rating 5 out of 5]

Great Information

I know about referrals, but never have seen it broken down like this. Very helpful for our company and for myself.

[Nick Woodall · Rating 3 out of 5]

Good marketing book.