Referrals are the lifeblood of a small business. And though Jill Lublin is BizBox's resident expert on the matter--see her great recent post on the subject here, and her BizBooks conversation about her recent Get Noticed...Get Referrals here-- we just came across a good piece from Entrepreneur.com's John Jantsch that focuses specifically on getting customer referrals.

Jantsch's main insight seems to be that you need not do things specifically in order to increase customer referrals that you wouldn't otherwise do; rather, the trick is to see all of the ordinary marketing you do through the prism of generating such referrals.

A particular trick is to think of marketing your products or services as fairly distinct from the products or services themselves: "The key is to think far beyond your core products and services and start developing ways you can gain trust with prospects by offering valuable, informational products," Jantsch argues. "Only then should you start to pick apart your actual product or service to make sure you're delivering on the promise you built before the sales process began."

But ultimately, he concludes, all the great marketing in the world will only do so much, and what is being marketed needs to do the rest: "you must intentionally build systems and processes that allow you to deliver such a wonderful experience that your customers have little choice but to rave about your company and its services to their friends, neighbors, and colleagues."