The Cornerstone of Customer Marketing Advocacy

We will follow a product or service recommendation of a friend or colleague, but not one from the organization that makes or provides that product/service, why?

Trust.

We have more trust in our friends and colleagues because we have a human relationship with them. Rapport has been built over time with them (the length of time doesn't necessarily matter).

Often with a friend or colleague, there is not an agenda to sell something to each other from the onset of the relationship. That allows some level of vulnerability and/or candor to enter into the relationship building process over time, which helps accelerate and solidify trust.

Brands are often interrupting one's attention and priorities to force an opportunity to build a relationship. This is true even in the most consultative of selling processes.

It often doesn't work because if the desire to build a trusted relationship of any kind is not mutual, the balance of power between the parties is off, and the "interrupted" party will be guarded in their interactions with the other.