I love this paragraph:

There are three ingredients necessary for a rewarding and successful business experience: You must enjoy what you do and feel a sense of purpose; you must be good at what you do; and you must be able to convince other people to pay you for what you do.

That’s from John Jantsch’s new book, The Referral Engine, which is out on the market and available today. John is the world-famous author of Duct Tape Marketing, perhaps the world’s best thinker on marketing in the real world, in a practical, down-to-earth (hence the duct tape image) way.

If you’re running your own business, trying to grow, it’s hard to imagine a better way to spend $15 or so and a few hours than on this book. We all take referrals for granted; it’s second nature. We assume that if we do a good job then referrals will happen. How many times have you heard and accepted the phrase “word of mouth” as the most powerful tool in marketing?

What John does in this book is take you through a process that makes referrals a key driver of your business. He starts with defining what referrals really are (aside from the common assumptions) and how they work. He links that to the high-end strategies that drive real business growth. From there, he goes into the actual nuts-and-bolts systems that create what he calls referral engines.

I know you’re busy. It won’t take your time and money, it will save your time and money. So read this book.