R3: Retention, Referrals and Raving Fans Overview
R3: Retention, Referrals, and Raving Fans
This is an implementation guide for the R3 Framework. It will be updated and improved over time. If you don’t currently have customers or buyers, the tactical components of R3 won’t apply to you directly. However, the principles apply directly to marketing and sales. My general recommendation is to start reading it and, if at any point it doesn’t resonate, stop and reallocate the time to something else.
The Book:
You can get the full R3 handbook and a copy of the book here. Similar to my first book, Bumpers, I’m using it more as a forcing function to organize my thoughts than anything else. The outline has been sitting in my Google Drive for almost six years. Here’s the first section:
About:
Retention, Referrals, and Ravings Fans is an “accidental book”. I taught it about a dozen times as a live class. When I taught it, I taught it in the order it should be implemented: reverse order. Building from the back to the front is far more efficient. Naturally, many people struggled with learning something backward.
My business partner at the time, Dan G, took all the recordings of the final live class and rearranged them in an easier-to-follow format. That became the outline for the original version of this book. Looking back, this was a really strange way to try and accomplish this - even the outline feels disjointed.
I will do my best to lay out the basics of what I call “R3” - but the ability to write one piece that smoothly integrates many complex concepts eludes me. Some of the concepts may be referenced and included as supplemental material. On some levels, I think this makes it easier to reference and study later, but I may be just trying to justify my shortcomings as a writer.
To prevent it from being too disjointed or confusing, entire sections are being removed and turned into mini-books or workbooks.
The first draft of the book is available for paid subs here
INTRODUCTION
I would like to get something out of the way right here in the beginning. This book will not do anything for you. As in, it will not magically come to life and do any of the work for you. Skim it, read it all the way through, read it 108 times..it won’t matter if you don’t do anything with it.
Not only will this book not do anything for you, it also won’t make you more intelligent. To increase your intelligence, you have to learn. So, just to make sure we’re on the same page, that’s probably the best place to start.
Increasing Your Intelligence
Intelligence is a funny thing. Everyone has their idea of what intelligence is. Street smarts? Book smarts? You don’t have to adopt my definition of intelligence but it will be helpful to understand what I mean when I say it. My working definition of Intelligence I adopted from a student of mine, Dr. Todd Snyder1. It’s simple, unifying, and practical:
“Intelligence is the ability to get what you want”
If your ability to get what you want increases, you have become more intelligent. I don’t care how well you remember something or repeat something, if you haven’t increased your ability to get what you want, you haven’t gotten more intelligent.
How do you increase your ability to get what you want?
By learning.
So what is learning? My definition:
Modifying your behavior based on new information.
“Same circumstance, different behavior”
If you run into a problem and behave the way you have always behaved, you haven’t learned.
So, using my working definitions, there is only one way to increase your intelligence…
Engaging The Field.
I cover this in-depth in my book, Bumpers so I’m not going to go too deep here. (It’s the “Intention-Intervention” Gap chapter).
Engaging the Field is simple. When you get new information, test it against reality. Everything you read in this book is either:
Conceptual
Theory
Someone else’s data
All books, courses, etc are the same. Concepts, principles, strategies, and someone else’s data. Take them, engage the field, and get your data. Here’s how to get the data:
Consume
Reflect
Enagage and implement
Reflect again
Repeat
I have a free workshop on this process called “Engaging The Field”. You’ll find it in the resource hub mentioned above.
Okay, now that’s out of the way, here is a study guide for Retention, Referrals, and Raving Fans.
This is the foundation of R3. The concepts in Part 1 are the underpinnings of the entire framework.
Stealth Influence
Allegiance Capital
System Reliability
Turn The Required Into HFM
Monkeys and Bananas
Two Plow Horses Are Better Than One
About Black Holes, where you’re losing the most customers and money
The Big Three Black Holes
Innovation Doesnt Sell
What Does Sell
The Five Key Decision Points
Turning Innovation Into Information
Inverting The Process To Maximize Return
Ace Cards
Buckets
The Main Campaigns
Engaging The Field & Resources
You can apply much of this on your own. If you want high-touch support or help:
Paid members can get the full book, campaigns, and QnA here. Nic will answer all questions about R3 or anything related to R3.
If you want to experience R3 for yourself, go to ExperienceR3.com. It’s two emails and two texts over two days. You will learn and experience it simultaneously for free.
Components of R3, like Stealth Influence and Allegiance Capital, work well baked into the marketing and advertising strategy taught by Laurel in the Laurel Corner, which you can find at the top of this publication
Hope you find this useful and decide to join us on this ride.
Live to Learn. Give to Earn
Man Bites Dog
Our “Out Of Print” Business Development Books and Letters are available by clicking here for paid subs. A lot of marketers try and resell this stuff, just get it here.
Social Media: Check out the Guardian Academy Instagram for aesthetically pleasing stuff and exclusive video clips. Twitter (Or X) for more frequent updates and insights.
Forthcoming Event and Experience Dates can be found by clicking here. Nothing compares to being in the right room with the right people. It doesn’t have to be our room with us - just get yourself in proximity to the right people, places, and things for you.