Articles From Our Members

Love The One You’re With
A Relationship Based Approach To Growing Your Business


Agenda
• What is Relationship Marketing?
• Why Does It Work?
• How is it Different (from traditional marketing)?
• How do we use it?

Life Is Like a Donut
• You know many more people than simply your clients.
• Focus on the people you know and you’ll have plenty of business.

The Night I Met Linda (why RM works so well)
• I was pre-approved
• I offered a free sample
• I didn’t have to compete for her attention (“unfair advantage”)
• I didn’t have to “close the deal” that night

Farming (how RM is different than traditional marketing)
• TM is faster but. . .
• RM is more targeted (and therefore cheaper)
• RM is self-sustaining (the better it gets the better it gets)
• RM creates an asset (your house list is the only defensible asset you have so grow and take care of it)

How To
• Differentiate – treat different people differently
• Thank – institutionalize your thanking process
• Engage – find ways to interact with your “donut”
• Electronic – there are tons of tools available that allow the small businessperson to automate ongoing “donut contact.” I recommend Constantcontact for E-Newsletters; Aweber for autoresponders; SurveyMonkey for online surveys.
• Systematic – Farmers must be systematic – you can’t wait until you’re hungry to water the crop.

Hurdles
• Measurement. It’s hard to quantify, which makes big companies uneasy. If you work for one of them, quit; if you compete with one of them, smile.
• Time. It takes time to build relationships – big companies don’t like this either. The fact that it takes you time however means it takes your competitors time – they can’t steal/copy your relationships overnight, unlike just about every other aspect of your business.
• Truth. RM shines a light on whatever the reality of your business is. The underlying assumption here is that the service/product you provide is excellent.

Contact me: me@michaelkatz.com


- Michael Katz