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A
Note from Mitch |
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Featured
Article: Relationships for Guerrilla M@rketers |
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Tip
of the Week |
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Market
Place |
Dear
Subscriber,
On Sept 27 we will be offering
the 15th GM Coach Certification Program and with that in mind
I would like to tell you about the birth of GM Coach.
Like many good ideas,
sometimes it can catch you by surprise. In my case, I remember
sitting in my home office in late 1999 gazing at my bookshelf
and wondering what my next big idea might be. I knew
I was transitioning from therapist to coach but wasn't exactly
sure what specialty I wanted to focus on
with my clients. An obvious choice was to create a coaching
program on my books Six Keys To Creating The Life Your
Desire, When Is Enough? or When Parents Love Too
Much books. But I had been working with clients on those
topics for almost 20 years and I was looking for a change.
I noticed a section of my library that contained four or five
Guerrilla M@rketing books by Jay Conrad Levinson. I had always
been a fan of these books and was sure they were helpful to
many people. Yet I had a suspicion that many people tended
to buy these types of books only to read a few chapters
and then never look at them again.
I realized at that
moment that my innate skills as a coach would fit in perfectly
with creating an action program for these GM books. It was
like a light bulb went off in my head that there could be a
perfect marriage between GM and coaching.
As I thought about
it a little longer it made more and more sense that I could
develop a program that would not only help small business
owners implement these business strategies by working with
a coach, but I could also train coaches to be certified in
GM. For me this was the birth of a life-changing idea-- The
Guerrilla M@rketing Coaching Program.
But as many of you
know, there are lots and lots of great ideas out there. The
key is to have a great idea that you take action on. So within
24 hours I contacted Jay Conrad Levinson, the author of these
GM books and presented my idea. He sounded interested but
was not familiar with coaching. I explained it to him and
in his usual optimistic way, said "Sounds great. You
have my permission to create a program."
That's all I needed
to hear and within a matter of days I had the basic outline
for the GM Coach Certification program. I spent the
next three months digging through the GM books and creating
12 weeks of the essential concepts that any GM Coach would
need to master. Having already written three books, organizing
a program like this played to my strengths. In early 2000
I launched the first class of the GM Coach Certified program
and quickly had 15 hungry Guerrillas signing up. Over the
next four years I have refined this course five or six times
and have personally trained over 100 GM Coaches who are now
living a new entrepreneurial lifestyle based on the name recognition
of an international brand. It has been an incredible experience
working with these small business owners as they learned and
implemented the powerful and imaginative strategies of GM.
I am proud to say
that each class gets better and better as we refine the best
ways to teach content via the teleclass and Internet. A hidden
surprise was how closely these people bonded and worked together
to make their small business dreams come true.
I have often recalled
Brian Tracy's famous quote, "Every person has four ideas
a years that could make them a million dollars". I think
this is true, but the key is to taking consistent and foused
action.
So that is my brief story about the birth of GM Coach. I hope
it inspires you to create your own big idea.
In
today's issue we'll be talking about one
of the most important GM topics of all -
How to Create and Maintain Guerrilla Relationships.
We hope you enjoy it.
To your success,
Mitch
P.S. You
can always read back issues here.
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Quote For The Day:
“All life is a chance. So take it! The
person who goes furthest is the one who is willing to do and dare.” – Dale
Carnegie
Relationships for Guerrillas
by
Jay Conrad Levinson and Mitch Meyerson (excerpted from the
GM Toolkit)
No man—and no business—is an island.
Guerrillas strive for and savor long-term relationships with their customers.
They well know the myriad of benefits of long lasting connections and do all in
their power to establish and nourish them.
They’re well aware that it costs
them six times more to sell something to a prospect than to sell that same
thing to a customer.
It’s one thing, however, to know the value of a
long-term relationship and it’s something entirely different to engage in
activities that spawn such delicious connections.
Relationship
chemistry
The chemistry of a long-term relationship is as
complex as the chemistry of a long-term and happy marriage. The starting point
is a commitment to the happiness of someone else.
The next point is a goal not of customer satisfaction, because that’s
relatively simple and common, but of customer bliss— exceeding the
expectations of customers, giving more than they anticipated, caring
more than they’re used to sellers caring.
To do this, you’ve got to learn about them.
You learn first by listening to them, then by asking more questions and
listening carefully once again.
Guerrillas often ask those questions on their web site or with specially
prepared customer questionnaires, which solicit personal information. By
knowing the personal likes and dislikes of your customers you can render
personalized service—such as clipping articles of interest to special customers
or recognizing their achievements and the achievements of their families or
businesses.
More personal touches
Here are some additional ways to use a personal touch
when dealing with customers.
- Handwritten notes on mailings make the customers feel
singled out.
- Phone calls that are not part of a telem@rketing campaign
accomplish the same.
- Using the customers’ names, talking with them of
non-business topics, alerting them to special new products or services you have
available, and responding instantly to their calls and emails, faxes and
letters.
Details
All those seemingly insignificant actions act as
beneficial catalysts in the chemistry of a healthy buyer-seller relationship.
The more details you know of your customers’ lives and businesses, the more
empowered you are to mention those details, making each customer feel unique
and special rather than part of a large demographic group.
Guerrillas have the insight to know that there’s an
extraordinary chemistry that exists in long-term relationships. It doesn’t
happen automatically. It doesn’t happen instantly. But when it does happen, the
business owner is as delighted as the customer. |
