About The Referral Challenge With Eric Ruth - The Referral Challenge
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About The Referral Challenge With Eric Ruth

My name is Eric Ruth. I’m the creator of The Referral Challenge and the ReferralSurge™ System, and I’ll be your primary coach.

I have a long track record of successfully helping local service business owners get more clients and make more money. Over 23,000 have asked for my help and followed my advice, over 10,000 have purchased products or services from me, and I’ve personally coached or consulted with well over 1,000 local business owners.​

Eric Ruth - The Referral Challenge

How The Referral Challenge Is Different and Better

To survive and thrive, every local service business and professional practice has to get good at:

  1. Generating leads
  2. Converting leads to clients
  3. Maximizing client lifetime value​

The Referral Challenge installs a unique and proprietary system into your business that does all three. A significant distinction between The Referral Challenge and other programs you may have tried is that our emphasis is squarely on relationship marketing.

In step #1, you generate leads by referral rather than by advertising. In steps #2 and #3, you leverage consistent value-added communication, proof and trust, rather than gimmicky tactics. It’s a more professional, authentic and transparent way to market and grow your business. It costs significantly less than advertising, feels more genuine to you and your audience, and ultimately works better.

Because of the progressive, layered approach to the system installation and training, it begins working for you almost immediately. But this is NOT a “magic bullet, quick-fix, easy button” (unicorns don't exist). Rather it’s a rock-solid approach, grounded in referral/relationship marketing best practices, that gets better, stronger and more productive the more you use it. It’s the kind of marketing that never goes out of style and never stops working for referral worthy businesses.​

4 Reasons Why I Created The Referral Challenge:

1. Over the years I’ve created hundreds of marketing campaigns for local service businesses. The referral marketing campaigns were always some of the top performers for referral worthy businesses, producing a significant number of the highest quality leads, with the highest conversion rate at the highest ROI. The problem was that the campaigns were only used sporadically. It became clear that businesses committed to providing real value to their clients need only transition from the occasional promotion to a consistent process (system), and they would generate these high-quality referrals regularly and reliably, rather than intermittently. Consistent always trumps sporadic.

2. Most local business owners instinctively understand the value of collaboration and cooperation - of creating win-win relationships with other trusted local business owners. But most continue to use old school, labor intensive tactics I refer to as “traditional” networking. I set out to develop a system that incorporates the time-tested and proven referral marketing/relationship building best practices AND leverages technology for automation, speed and accountability. And I succeeded in creating that guaranteed referral system based on 4 of Stephen Covey’s 7 Habits of Highly Effective People:

  • Be Proactive - Focusing on your circle of influence
  • Think Win-Win - Seeking mutual benefit
  • Synergize - Creatively cooperate (finding new solutions to old problems)
  • Sharpen the Saw - Learning and growing through collaboration​

3. There are many excellent books and programs on referral marketing. But what they all lack is an integrated, mostly automated system for implementation that produces referrals reliably. Every business function can be improved with a system. Systems produce greater efficiency and effectiveness. They are the “secret” to working less and making more. The Referral Challenge installs a breakthrough new system in your local service or professional practice that generates guaranteed referrals every month like clockwork, practically on auto-pilot.​

4. Like most people, I feel slighted (or worse) when I patronize a business that under-delivers on its promise. That demonstrates a lack of integrity which almost always leads to failure. But any business that provides outstanding value can become referral worthy. Those are the businesses we all love to patronize, and I thoroughly enjoy working with. Because I know that together we can produce impressive results. The referral marketing campaigns I previously created were so successful they launched my former company to seven figures, attracting thousands of local service businesses to us. Since then I've refined and improved everything, creating a breakthrough new system that leverages technology and dynamic (potentially viral) communication channels like Facebook to produce explosive results. Referral marketing is my wheelhouse. I can honestly say there are very few folks out there as innovative, and even fewer with my track record of success. You'll see that for yourself inside The Referral Challenge.

What Is The Referral Challenge?

The Referral Challenge is a 30-day, step-by-step program that installs my proprietary ReferralSurge™ System into your local service business to produce guaranteed referrals. It includes all the tools, templates, campaigns and coaching you need to successfully use the system to generate a steady stream of new clients by referral, consistently and reliably.

If You're Interested In The Referral Challenge System Training, Download The Referral Checklist To Get On The Announcement List For The Next Time I Open Up The Referral Challenge

Eric Ruth Biography Snapshot

1998 – 2006: Founder and President of Fitness Marketing Systems. Grew the business from nothing to half a million per year in revenue working from my home with one part time employee. Generated over 3,000 fitness business owner customers. Established myself as the go-to guy for creating marketing tools and systems that produce clients and revenue consistently and predictably.

2006 – 2011: Founder and Co-Owner of NPE, LLC. We went from $0 to over $2 million in sales in less than 24 months. Then doubled the revenue again 2 years later. We made the Inc 500 list of fastest growing privately owned companies in America two years in a row (2010 and 2011). We generated over 10,000 paying customers, all local service business owners just like you.

2008: Won GKIC Marketer of the Year. GKIC is the company founded by Dan Kennedy, widely regarded as one of the greatest practitioners and teachers of direct response marketing.

2010: Created Pushups for Charity (PUC). With the help of hundreds of values-driven local fitness business owners, PUC has raised over $1 million for the men and women of the U.S. Armed Services. PUC is still going strong today.

2011 – Present: Founder and CEO of Local Leverage LLC. Staying true to what got me here, I continue to help local service business owners get more clients and make more money with effective marketing and sales systems. The Referral Challenge is a Local Leverage LLC brand.

2014: Featured in the book No B.S. Brand-Building by Direct Response co-authored by Dan Kennedy and Forrest Walden​.

Eric Ruth featured in No B.S. Brand Building by Direct Response

"Eric Ruth helped me generate $250,000 per month with his proprietary marketing system. The results were absolutely amazing. The phone started ringing off the hook. For almost three years, I literally built my business on the backbone of that one marketing system. If you want more local clients, Eric's your man!"

Forrest Walden, CEO of Iron Tribe Fitness​

And Co-Author of No B.S. Brand-Building By Direct Response

Forrest Walden CEO of Iron Tribe Fitness
Eric Ruth Inc 500 Dan Kennedy Marketer of the Year

Some proud moments: receiving my first Inc 500 plaque; dinner with Dan Kennedy; winning GKIC Marketer of the Year


If I had to pick just one thing that’s helped me more than anything else, it would have to be the willingness to invest in myself – in my sales and marketing education and the real life application of that education.

I’ve always thought of myself as a student-practitioner, and I always will. That’s my identity. I invest in learning from the best, then I apply what I learn, innovating and adding my own creativity and skills. Nothing I do is based on theory or what “should" work. It’s all tested in the marketplace with money/time/effort/credibility at risk.

And without a doubt, the investment in acquiring knowledge and applying it is the best I’ve ever made (and continue to make). The total amount to date is staggering - roughly $500,000. But it's produced tens of millions in sales for my own companies, and well over $100 million in sales for my customers' businesses. That's a very nice ROI. And it's why I'll never stop buying knowledge and speed.