Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth

by Jay Baer

Talk triggers aren’t gimmicks; they’re business choices.

Assembling the right team is one way you defend against gimmickry.

the Triangle of Awesome.

The Triangle of Awesome includes one or more representatives from marketing, sales, and customer service.

You are including marketing for obvious reasons; they’ll be the ones who are tasked with fostering conversation about the talk trigger among fans, customers, employees, and other stakeholders. But the main reason to have marketing on the team is its position in the organization’s heart. Marketing is often considered the most exciting part of business. It’s all about real people and the connection we build with them over time as a brand. Done efficiently, great marketing is about capturing and cultivating momentum. These are the roots of a great talk trigger culture.

sales and/or operations teams will be fearless advocates for solving customer problems. They’re witnessing daily the struggles customers are having and what’s missing in the marketplace. The insights from the sales team can unlock paths of exploration for talk trigger ideas, concepts that may be too esoteric for actual product design but might resonate as a talk trigger.

customer service team is your secret talk trigger weapon, as it’s the closest to day-to-day issues. The team knows what worries concern your customers. It is the first line of defense for problemsolving, and focusing on customer dissatisfaction is one of the best methods for uncoveri...

Talk Triggers Team Assignments

For the marketing team, ask it to assemble the following data points for both your company and some competitors. BRAND POSITIONING

CURRENT WORD-OF-MOUTH AND SOCIAL MEDIA TRENDS

COMPETITIVE POSITIONING

MARKET RESEARCH

CUSTOMER RETENTION SURVEYS

WIN/LOSS DATA

PRODUCT REQUESTS

CUSTOMER ANECDOTES AND MEGAFANS

CUSTOMER CHURN DATA

CALL CENTER LOGS

ANECDOTES

Ground Rules for Insights Gathering

Get Close to Your Customers

Getting Your Team Close to Your Customers

As outlined in the last chapter, your first talk triggers meeting will be a reading of currently known data from each of the team members’ domains. From that initial meeting you’ll begin to collectively ask other questions. Most likely you won’t have any data that answers them.

You have a variety of mechanisms for accomplishing that objective, so let’s review them one by one.

Customer Surveys

Social Media Conversation Data

Product or Service Usage Data

Sales Conversations, Interviews, and Customer Service Calls

Living the Customer Experience

Create Personas

Relentless Pursuit of Above Average

Create Candidate Talk Triggers

Ideas do not always present themselves as clear winners or losers. Indeed, many inspired ideas seem like idiot ideas at first blush, but when examined further they begin to reveal their true genius.

How do we separate great ideas from bad ideas?

It’s worth reiterating an important point: Same is lame.

Talk triggers are not campaigns, stunts, buzz marketing events, or influencer campaigns. So where do you begin?

Identify Potential Talk Triggers

After examining your business from a customer’s perspective, you may feel that you have a much better idea about how to answer those questions, and different members of your group will have varying perspectives.

ANSWER THESE QUESTIONS TO CREATE TALK TRIGGER IDEAS

Begin by reminding yourself and the group of the four R’s of talk triggers. They should be: Remarkable: Something worth talking about Relevant: Fits the context of your brand Reasonable: Not a stunt or a “viral” idea Repeatable: Available to all customers, not a select few on your VIP or influencer list

Plot Complexity

COMPLEXITY MAP

LOW IMPACT, LOW COMPLEXITY

HIGH IMPACT, LOW COMPLEXITY

HIGH IMPACT, HIGH COMPLEXITY

MEDIUM IMPACT, MEDIUM COMPLEXITY

OVERCOME INTERNAL INERTIA

“WE DON’T HAVE THE BUDGET”

“WE CAN’T MEASURE IT”

“IT’S TOO COMPLICATED”