^“As Jesus walked by, John looked at him and declared, “Look! There is the Lamb of God!”

We know that there is no better marketing than the marketing that comes from one person telling another person to try something they have personally experienced.  It happens every day to each of us and we are influenced by what others tell us.  The real question we must always ask, if we want to be honest, is whether or not that person who is telling others is telling us what they really believe and experienced or just parroting what a marketer has given them.  Thus, the dilemma of social media.  Someone really told me that I needed to read a book.  I thanked them for the recommendation and asked them what was it in the book that made them think I would like it.  Their answer put me off. They told me they hadn’t read it, but had only heard from someone else that it was good. That’s where relational marketing goes bad. And, by the way, that’s our companies’ brands and products that are at risk.

I love the accounts of the “recruiting” of the Disciples.  Most of the time we just remember the times that Jesus called the Disciples directly, but in the first chapter of John we learn that it was relational marketing that brought a number of them to Jesus. Andrew came  to Jesus because of what he heard John saying.  Andrew then brought Peter to meet Jesus.  Later Phillip (who was directly recruited by Jesus) told Nathanael and so on.  What we say, what we espouse to believe matters and as shown to us can change the course of the lives of others significantly.

Reference: John 1:36-48 (New Living Translation)