Business Coaching

Stop "Think It Overs" In Your Sales Presentations

Marcus Cauchi of Sandler Sales Institute® in London explains that you must stop accepting "think it overs" from your prospective customers if you intend to close the deal.

No More "Think It Overs"

Get Tough - Get an Answer

Professional selling can be cruel.

Prospects are frequently better conditioned than the salespeople who call on them, and consequently they can destroy a salesperson in a phone call or during a chance meeting. On a day-to-day basis, even a good salesperson hears "no" more often than any word.

Can you think of a worse profession for people who thrive on acceptance?

It's OK to Fail

The word "no" comes with the territory in sales. So does failure.

Unfortunately, traditional sales trainers teach you that it's never OK to fail, or that you should stop when you hear the word "no."

But top sales performers know better.

They learn from their failures. And if they can't hear a "yes," they'd rather get a "no." They want to avoid anything in between. And that requires them to remain tough mentally and emotionally.

The 4 Possible Outcomes

Four things can happen to you in a selling situation. 

You can get;

• a "yes,"
   
• a "no,"
   
• a "no" with a lesson,
   
• or an "I want to think it over."

A "yes" always feels great. It pumps you up and motivates you to find another prospect.

A "no" doesn't feel great, but at least you know where you stand.

A "no" with a lesson isn't so bad. You know where you stand, and when you get off the phone, or back to your car, you may be able to turn a negative into something learned.

Avoid those TIOs

You want to avoid the "I want to think it over" answer because there's nothing worse in sales.

What does it mean?

When you go back to your car and begin to critique yourself, what do you say? "What happened in that sales call? Where do I stand? Could I have closed the sale with a little more perseverance? Should I have done this, or that?"

Self Deception - the Killer of Careers

The sad thing is that most salespeople are satisfied to hear an "I want to think it over." It gives them a false sense of security. After all, will a sales manager fire a guy who says he's got 84 proposals on the street? He will eventually, if those proposals don't materialise into sales.

Always go for a "yes" or a "no."

Marcus Cauchi
Sandler Sales Institute® London
Sales Training London
All rights reserved, (C) Sandler Training (SM) and Marcus Cauchi 2008

Thanks Marcus.

This is an example of the counter-intuitive style of the Sandler Sales system but isn't it so true?

"I want to think it over" is such an easy excuse to give and it keeps the lead in the sales pipeline statistics but how much time do you think your prospect is going to give to your proposal when faced with their usual day-to-day activities?

What happens?

You follow up again in a few days and you are told that your prospect is still "think it over." It's the same answer after a week and then another week. One month later when you call, the prospect has just signed with your biggest competitor.

I will be featuring many more articles from Marcus but if you want to learn more about the Sandler system I recommend the Nightingale Conant audio program "Close The Deal".

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Global Marketing: Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions

I am delighted to have the second article from Global Guerrilla Marketing Coach, Alexa Ronngren and today she explains Geert Hofstede's techniques for analysing the cultural differences between countries.

I covered the Hostede theory in my MBA program and since then I have watched with interest as aspects of the cultural dimensions reveal themselves to me when I meet people from different backgrounds.

While I am filing this under Global Marketing, as each country becomes more multi-cultural, these factors will influence the success of your negotiations and relationships even if you never export.

Over to Alexa.

Who is Geert Hofstede?

Born 1928 in the Netherlands, Geert Hofstede started out his professional journey studying engineering.  Some time between 1945 and 1947, he went through a year-long internship that included a trip to Indonesia as an Assistant Ship Engineer.  World War II ended in 1945 and the world was full of change and possibilities.  We can only imagine how intriguing the dramatically different Indonesian culture must have been to this young Dutch student! 

Hofstede returned home and completed a Masters of Science in Mechanical Engineering and a tour of duty as a technical officer in the Dutch army.

After a few managerial jobs in industrial companies, he went back to school part-time to earn a Doctorate of Social Science.  This was when he got a job with IBM Europe to found and manage their Personnel Research Department. 

This position would lead him to become one of the world's utmost experts on culture and its influence on the workplace.

Since then, Hofstede has been dedicated to research and dissemination of his theories on culture.  He is a world renowned Professor Emeritus on the subject and has received countless honors within the intellectual community.  His books, which are often used as study material in international management classes, include:

• Culture's Consequences: Comparing Values, Behaviors, Institutions, and Organizations Across Nations (2001)
   
• Cultures and Organizations: Software of the Mind (2004), Exploring Culture. Exercises, Stories and Synthetic cultures (2002)
   
• Uncommon Sense About Organizations: Cases, Studies, and Field Observations (1994) 
   
• Masculinity and Femininity: The Taboo Dimension of National Cultures (Cross Cultural Psychology)  (1998)
   
• Culture's Consequences, International Differences in Work-Related Values (Cross Cultural Research and Methodology)  (1980)

What are the Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions?

At IBM, Hofstede's job involved research and analysis on how culture affects the work place.  He had access to a large database of employees from over 70 countries. 

He started off by examining the 40 largest countries and uncovered four dimensions that separate cultures.  Later, the scope expanded to 50 countries and three regions.  In 2001, he combined data from other researchers to expand the reach to a full 74 countries.

Initially, he uncovered four dimensions:

• Power Distance Index (PDI),
   
• Individualism (IDV),
   
• Masculinity (MAS), and
   
• Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI). 

Recently, he added a fifth dimension, Long-Term Orientation (LTO). 

Since the inception of Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions, other cross-cultural studies have verified his results.  These studies include a group of commercial airline pilots and students in 23 countries, a set of civil service managers in 14 countries, and two sets of premium consumer studies in 15 and 19 countries.

Let us take a look at each of these dimensions and how they hold up to scrutiny. 

In order to create a good reference point for readers, each explanation is followed by a chart created with raw data from Geert Hofstede's Cultural Dimensions.  I have chosen ten countries for our reference, including those where most of the visitors of this blog come from. [Thanks Alexa]

Power Distance Index (PDI)

Who decides who gets to be boss? 

Is it the authoritarian him or herself?  Or is it those who follow the ruler? 

According to Hofstede's research, the distance between the powerful and the less powerful is determined from the bottom up. 

So Power Distance (PDI) is a measure of how much "the less powerful members of organizations and institutions (like the family) accept and expect that power is distributed unequally."

Every society has some level of inequality, but that level varies greatly from one country to another.  The higher the value on this index, the more accepting the lower classes are of inequality in power.

 

My personal experience fits well with the results of this index.  Although inequality exists almost anywhere, the countries with a high PDI tend to have a more stringent hierarchy system.

Individualism (IDV)

Do people prefer to integrate in groups and organizations, or are they more prone to self-sufficiency?

The higher the score on Individualism (IDV), the looser the ties between people, and the more people in those cultures are expected to look after themselves. 

English speaking countries tend to rate very high on individualism.  In the US, for example, people are supposed to succeed based on their own personal efforts and merits. 

This stands in stark contrast to collectivist societies which have very low IDV scores.  In those societies, people are expected to help and protect each other and have strong group affiliations.  Often, these societies have a strong family bond that includes extended family, such as aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, in-laws, and so on.  Oriental societies generally score low on IDV.  This shows in the way business is often conducted as a family affair.

Masculinity (MAS)

In this dimension, qualities such as assertiveness and competitiveness are linked to masculinity, while modesty and caring is considered feminine qualities. 

According to Hofstede, "The IBM studies revealed that (a) women's values differ less among societies than men's values; (b) men's values from one country to another contain a dimension from very assertive and competitive and maximally different from women's values on the one side, to modest and caring and similar to women's values on the other." 

So Masculinity (MAS) is a measure of the distribution of roles between genders.  The higher the MAS score, the more competitive and assertive women are within that society.  Whereas in lower score countries, men tend to take on the more "feminine" qualities of caring and modesty.
 
 

The definition of the MAS dimension does fit with the results as I have experienced through my travels.  For example, in the US, "masculine" values such as competitiveness are instilled in children early on.  While in Sweden, a strong social system proves "feminine" values like caring.

Uncertainty Avoidance Index (UAI)

Uncertainty Avoidance (UAI) is a measure of how comfortable society is with uncertainty and ambiguity. 

Cultures with high UAI scores socialize their members to feel uncomfortable with unstructured situations. 

Hofstede explains that these cultures "try to minimize the possibility of such situations by strict laws and rules, safety and security measures, and on the philosophical and religious level by a belief in absolute Truth; 'there can only be one Truth and we have it'."  People in these countries tend to be more emotional. 

On the other side of the spectrum are cultures that have a higher tolerance for change and provide less structure within society.  Low UAI societies lean toward relativism in religion and are more contemplative and less emotional.

There is some controversy with this index. 

Geert Hofstede's son, Gert Jan Hofstede, has continued and expanded upon his father's work.  He co-authored Culture and Organizations with Hofstede and is an Associate Professor at Universitair Hoofddocent in the Netherlands.  On his website, the younger Hofstede addresses an email he received stating that the UAI scores must be reversed.  He argues against this being the case, and tries to explain the scores as society's search for truth.  You can read it here:  http://www.info.wau.nl/people/Gertjan/understanding_dimensions.htm 

After living in over a dozen countries and visiting a few others, I think the situation is more complicated than that. 

I believe that Hofstede tried to correlate too many values into this index.  The countries scoring high UAI numbers tend to be more religious and emotional than low scores on this index.  However, my experience shows that some of the lower scoring countries are actually the ones with more rules and regulations.  Therefore, those societies are less tolerant of uncertainty and expect more structure.

Look at, for example, my two native countries of Brazil and the US. 

Brazilians are indeed more emotional than Americans.  Decisions are more often based on gut instinct and relationships rather than calculations and research.  However, Brazilian society has many less rules than Americans.  Also, rules within that society are looser and more prone to interpretation. 

In contrast, Americans tend to be more pragmatic.  However, US society is regulated in many ways.  Beginning at the neighborhood level there are rules and regulations governing what a person can and can not do on their own property.  Americans operate on a strict time frame.  In the US, rules are often fixed and exceptions are clearly forecasted and built into the regulations.  So, if a new condition arises, Americans are less likely to bend or break the rules. 

Brazilians look at things on a more emotional level.  If a new situation arises that has an emotional appeal against the rules, they will be bent or broken.

Long-Term Orientation (LTO)

This dimension was added based on results from a Chinese study of students in 23 countries.  This study was based on the teachings of Confucius, a Chinese philosopher from around 500 B.C.  However, the dimension is also relevant to countries which were not heavily influenced by the teachings of Confucius. 

Long Term Orientation (LTO) refers to the level of thriftiness and perseverance within a society.

Hofstede explains that a low LTO score, meaning the society has a Short-Term Orientation, represents "respect for tradition, fulfilling social obligations, and protecting one's 'face'."  The higher the score, the more a society is prone to saving and planning for the future.  In the chart below, scores were not available for Spain or the Arab World.

 

Here also, I think Hofstede used too many values in one dimension.  From my experience, the chart looks backwards, as the Chinese are very concerned with 'saving face' and have a deep respect for tradition.  Meanwhile, countries that are ranked low in this dimension are societies where planning and perseverance are common. 

You can read about the index and find the raw data at ITIM International's website.  It is a consulting company who has received permission from Dr. Hofstede to use his name and brand.   http://www.geert-hofstede.com/   

So far, I have covered the aspects that make up culture and the Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions in my first two posts as a guest blogger.  The final article of this triage will give advice on how to deal with and overcome cultural challenges.  You can find them all here on The Business Coach Blog.

Alexa Ronngren is the Global Guerrilla Marketing Coach.  She has almost two decades of experience, a BS in Business Marketing, a certification in Pricing, and is a certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach.  She is currently writing Global Guerrilla Marketing: Crossing borders & leaping over the cultural divide.  In addition, she is a big fan of the Business Coaching Blog!  Check out her website: www.aldeia-marketing.com

Thanks Alexa.

A very interesting article and I see that you are being controversial and challenging Geert Hofstede's ideas.

If Alexa hasn't featured your country in the graphs, I can recommend the http://www.geert-hofstede.com/ website as the major countries are listed down the left hand side and you can just click and see how your country rates.

When I was first introduced to these ideas, I found it difficult to imagine how countries could be so different but as you become more familiar with the concepts, you will start seeing these factors come through in your dealings with the different nationalities.

Both Alexa and I would love to read your comments but watch out for the confirmation box. It is a bit sneaky in Typepad blogs but you do have to prove that you are human and not a computer spam generator.

Do you have stories to share about how you have experienced these cultural dimensions?

Follow this link if you missed Alexa's first article Global Marketing Understanding Culture & Customs

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Global Marketing: Understanding Culture & Customs

I am delighted to welcome a new guest blogger, Alexa Ronngren who is a Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach and an expert in Global Marketing. This is the first of a three part series looking at Global Understanding.

Over to Alexa.

I spent six months in Malaysia in 2007, as a Brazilian-American, I found the country to share some of the advantages of the United States.  There were malls and supermarkets where I could find whatever I wanted, big movie theatres showing the latest from Hollywood and restaurant chains that are commonly found in the US. 

The people also were friendly and had big open smiles, like you find in Brazil.  Also like Brazilians, Malaysians were very proud of their food and eating was an important event, not to be done at your desk. 

However, perfect strangers asked me questions that seamed so very personal. 

How many kids do I have?  What is my religion?  How much did I pay in rent for my apartment?  When I'd go out to eat lunch with my Chinese-Malaysian co-workers, they couldn't understand why I use a fork to eat rice-based dishes.  It was okay that I was too clumsy to navigate chopsticks, but they insisted that I use a spoon! 

What is culture?

We often hear the word culture tossed around. But what does it really mean?  Why does it even matter? 

Culture is a learned pattern of human behavior. 

It is the socialization we all receive within our respect civilizations.  Specifically, culture is made of collective knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, morals, and customs. 

According to Dr. Dennis O'Neil, professor of Behavioral Sciences Department, Palomar College, San Marcos, California, there are three layers to culture. 

Cultural Traditions

First are the traditions that distinguish a society, such as language, racial and national identities and general beliefs and morals. 

In the United States, our main language is English.  According to the US Census Bureau, Whites make up a majority of people and about 30% who claim other ethnic and racial backgrounds. 

In the world, countries range between individualistic and communitarian.  USA is an individualistic society.  People there believe in the US Constitution, which grants life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness to each citizen.  This means they value the rights of individuals more than benefiting the greater good. 

How does this play out in the real world?  Take for example the American sense of individual fairness.  In the US, people will stand in line and wait their turn.  If another person cuts in line, the American is generally offended and feels like his or her rights have been cheated.

Now take a look at Malaysia, which is more communitarian (not to be confused with Socialism or Communism). 

The national languages are Malay and English.  The CIA Factbook states that Malaysians are made up of Malay 50.4%, Chinese 23.7%, indigenous 11%, Indian 7.1%, others 7.8%. 

They believe that religion is an integral part of the Malaysian identity that they even have two court systems, an Islamic court with based on Shariah laws for Muslims, and another one for everyone else. 

Last year, there was a controversial court case in Malaysia.  In Malaysia all people of Malay ethnicity are considered Muslim at birth.  Throughout a person's life there, all legal identification states their religion.  Lina Joy, a Malay lady who had converted to Catholicism, wanted to make her conversion legal so she could marry her Catholic fiancé. 

The Muslim courts refused to grant her request to leave Islam, even after she appealed her case.   Judge Ahmad Fairuz stated that "She cannot simply at her own whims enter or leave her religion.  She must follow rules." 

As in many countries in Asia, the greater good is valued above the needs and desires of the individual. 

The second part of this series of articles will go into greater detail regarding individualism versus collective societies.

Subculture

The second layer of culture is subculture. 

These are heritage, food traditions, and dialects that can be found within a culture. 

In the US, we sometimes talk of subculture as if it is divided along racial lines.  But there is a big difference within the racial divide. 

Take the Hispanics for example; there is a marked difference between the Cuban-Americans, Mexican-Americans, and the Argentinean-Americans.  Each group has its own food heritage, dances, music, art, and dialect of Spanish.

Cultural Universals

The third layer is cultural universals. 

These are behaviors common throughout humanity. 

For example, all peoples of the world communicate with each other in some way.  We all assign roles and classifications to people within our societies.  Behavioral norms are assigned within each society.  All of us have some form of jokes and games.  Each society contains art, music, and dance.  And we all use some form of leadership.  But each society creates its own rules for these cultural universals.

When communicating, we all used a combination of verbal and non-verbal cues.  Speech-communication classes teach that a full 90% of communication is non-verbal. 

So does that mean there is just a 10% different in the way people from different cultures communicate? 

Not at all!  Non-verbal communication differences are found in the intonations we use, our hand gestures, our facial expressions, symbolism within our speech, and even the way we say things. 

Wait a minute - the way we say things? 

Isn't that part of the verbal communications? 

Not exactly - each society uses a certain amount of context within their speaking patterns.  Some societies say exactly what they mean.  In other societies, meaning is heavily implied. 

In his 1976 book, Beyond Culture, anthropologist Edward T. Hall explained his method of determining the level to which cultures depend on factors other than direct speech to express the meaning in their communications. 

The United States is considered a low-context society.   Americans generally say what they mean and get to the point directly, unless they are politicians or lawyers.  Yet people are still expected to perform some niceties, such as greeting each other when they meet. 

Brazil, a higher-context society, expects people to go through a longer dance of small talk before getting to the point.  Then, when trying to make a point, it is common for the Brazilian to restate the point in a few different ways. 

In even higher-context cultures, a point may go completely unspoken.  For example, in Tunisia, a person may say "yes, no problem" to a situation that is definitely a problem to resolve.  But the way that "yes" is said, and the body language that accompanies it, lets a native understand that there is indeed a problem.  It would have been considered rude to come out and directly say "no."

In different societies, age and gender roles are set up differently, but we all classify based on marriage and kinship.  We also all tend to raise children in a family stetting of some kind and to divide labor by gender to varying extent. 

In Asian societies, the elders are revered.  It is considered disrespectful to stand up to someone older than you directly.  So, if there is disagreement, the younger party tries to work around it.  If there no other way to find agreement that is acceptable to both parties, the older party wins the debate. 

In some societies, youth is dominant; hence the huge market for beauty products that defy the aging process.  Part two of this series of articles with delve deeper into gender roles.

Classifications and roles are also assigned based on race and color. 

The candidacy of Barak Obama for president in the US, has brought the issue of race out into the open.  At first, Americans were reluctant to talk about his classification as an African-American because it is not socially correct to point it out.  However, this classification is a reality of the society. 

In Brazil, where racial mixing is more common, there is a separate category for mixed color people, "mulatos". 

This brings up the subject of integration.  There are differing levels of integration of various subcultures within societies. 

In Malaysia, for example, the three main racial groups hold on strongly to their heritage and are not strongly integrated into one society. 

In the US, people of immigrant decent are still not considered "full" Americans, for example, Mexican-Americans, Italian-Americans, even African-Americans (whose immigration dates back several generations). 

In Brazil, the divisions are much stronger among social-economic lines than racial lines.  So, a person born in Brazil to foreign parents is a Brazilian.  But the subcultures of well off and poor Brazilians are quite distinct.

Conclusion

Humans are people regardless of where we come from. 

We all laugh and cry, we all live and die. 

But we do have different ways of interpreting the world around us.  We are profoundly influenced by our cultural socialization. 

I was born in Brazil, but moved to the US as a young child.  Americans I talk to sometimes wonder, "When will she ever get to the point?"  Meanwhile, I struggle to remain patient with my Brazilian friends when it takes thirty minutes just to say goodbye. 

Why? 

Because even though I have lived all over the world, I carry my cultural heritage with me.  I continue on with the habits I've acquired in my early childhood.  I blend them with those I've received from my formative years in the US.

Stay tuned for the next article in this series where we will examine the Geert Hofstede Cultural Dimensions.  The final article of this triage will give advice on how to deal with and overcome cultural challenges.  You can find them all here on The Business Coaching Blog.

Alexa Ronngren is the Global Guerrilla Marketing Coach.  She has almost two decades of experience, a BS in Business Marketing, a certification in Pricing, and is a certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach.  She is currently writing Global Guerrilla Marketing: Crossing borders & leaping over the cultural divide.  In addition, she is a big fan of the Business Coaching Blog!  Check out her website: www.aldeia-marketing.com

Thanks Alexa. This is an excellent introduction to a topic that I haven't covered before.

You are certainly communicating the issues involved with dealing with people from different cultural backgrounds.

This reminds me of a fundamental marketing mistake which is commonly made. It is so easy to find yourself falling into the trap of thinking that your prospective customers think like you do and will act like you would in their situation.

But it's just not true. While there may be some common reasons to buy, the values and beliefs surrounding that decision can be completely different.

The other point that your article brought home to me was that it is easy to think of marketing on a simple domestic/international basis and find yourself thinking "I don't export, I don't need to know about how other cultures think and act."

But in today's multi-cultural society it is nonsense. The cultural issues are very relevant to you and me, both for business and for personal reasons.

Just spell checking the article brought home just how many differences there are between English and American English with the missing "u's" and the "z's" which I tend not to notice when I am reading because I have become socialised in the American spellings.

We take things for granted but it is a mistake. It is a hallmark of guerrilla marketers that were are intentional in what we do. We think about it and do what it takes to succeed.

Both Alexa and I would love to read your comments but watch out for the confirmation box. It is a bit sneaky in Typepad blogs but you do have to prove that you are human and not a computer spam generator.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

Business Networking for Success: The Guerrilla Way

I have been given permission by Monroe Mann (www.UnstoppableArtists.com) who has co-authored "Guerrilla Networking" with Jay Conrad Levinson to share with you the Preface to "Guerrilla Networking", so you get a feel for what guerrilla networking is all about together with three proven guerrilla networking strategies to help you create attention and word of mouth recommendations.

* * *

TRADITIONAL NETWORKING:

Meeting People

GUERRILLA NETWORKING:

Becoming the type of person OTHER people want to meet.

PREFACE

Networking does NOT mean meeting people.

That definition is just plain wrong, and it's no wonder why so many entrepreneurs feel lost when it comes to networking which should actually be very easy. You see, networking should be easy, and is easy. The key to your success simply lies in which definition of networking your subscribe to.

Networking does not mean 'meeting people.' Actually, it means, 'becoming the type of person that other people want to meet.'

For example, take some of the big movers and shakers in business, such as Bill Gates, Tony Hawk, and Avril Lavigne. They have taken the power of networking to its highest level: people want to meet them.

Ask yourself this question: would people stand in line for hours to meet with either of these three entrepreneurs? Yes! Why? The answer is simple. They know how to network, for they became the type of person that other people want to meet.

This same networking principle applies to dating, friendship, and yes, small business. Why work your butt off to meet people when you can put that same energy into becoming an interesting person within your field, and then, benefit again by having the same people you want to meet... come up to you?

Herein lies the power of this principle: you kill two birds with one stone. While your boring competition 'who no one wants to meet' is out there desperately trying to meet people day after day, you, on the other hand, are actively putting your efforts into becoming as cool as humanly possible. By diversifying your offerings, be becoming a leader in your field, and by putting together a knock out marketing angle, you'll end up taking your industry by storm.

The result: your competition, the press, and customers alike end up at your doorstep, trying to meet you.

To the uninformed, this public interest might appear to be a lucky fluke. You, however, would know that it was actually the result of your persistent hard work, and the fruit of your foolproof guerrilla networking plan finally reaping its reward: you became the type of person/business that other people wanted to meet and work with.

If you continually try to 'meet people', especially without changing and improving your marketing angle along the way, you're wasting time. Meeting people can do nothing for you if you yourself have nothing interesting to offer.

Taken further, you might have noticed that no one wants you to tell them how wonderful you are; people want to discover and find that out for themselves. And therein lies another key to guerrilla networking: your accomplishments are not as impressive if you have to tell people about them yourself.

Bottom line: if you're playing your networking cards right, and are out there doing interesting things in the public eye, people should be flocking to meet you. You should be receiving emails, phone calls, and letters from those who think you (and your company) are so cool, that they want to do business with you. If not, it's because you're not memorable enough to warrant such action, in which case, you better re-evaluate your guerrilla networking strategy immediately!

So remember: networking does not mean meeting people; it means becoming the type of person other people want to meet. Become as cool as possible, get your brand out there as much as possible, and let us find out for ourselves how cool you are.

In other words, don't necessarily try to meet us; the idea is to make us want to meet you. And if you're reading this book, yes, you're probably someone who we want to meet.

-Monroe & Jay

44. HITCH YOUR WAGON TO A STAR.

Who is Monroe Mann? Well, if you didn't know me'Monroe' before picking up this book, you certainly know me today as the co-author of this fine publication. And this newfound interest in meeting me is probably a result of my co-authoring this book with Jay, right?

BINGO.

Hitch your wagon to a star.

If you want to succeed in the world of guerrilla networking, you first need to acknowledge that you are probably not as well known as you would like to be (and need to be!) That being established, the quickest way to increase the number of people who want to meet you is... to partner up with a bigger name.

I could certainly have written and published a networking book on my own. The question is... how many people would have bought it? Sure, I would have sold a couple thousand copies to my own circle of fans and readers, but I probably wouldn't have reached even an 1/8th of how many people are reading this book now. This book, more than likely, is in you hands not because of me, but rather because there is another 'far more prominent' name preceding mine on the front cover of this book: none other than that of the master himself, Jay Conrad Levinson.

On that note, you might be intrigued to know that originally, the order of the names on the front cover was to be Monroe Mann followed by Jay Conrad Levinson. Jay had no issue with that, but he did make a poignant comment: "Monroe, I'm fine with whichever order you prefer, because I want to help you, but think about this: who is the bigger 'movie star' of books right now?" He was right. The answer, of course, is Jay Conrad Levinson.

He went on to make the correct observation that more people will trust 'and thus purchase' the book if his name were first. As a result, more people would then know my name, Monroe Mann. And then, well, that's guerrilla networking in action folks. Here you are, reading this book: Guerrilla Networking by Jay Conrad Levinson & Monroe Mann!

Now, your turn. Think about your industry and make a list of the 'movie stars' of your industry. Who would you be proud to have your name next to? What company might give your own credibility a boost were they to associate with you?

Again, the key is to get over your ego, first and foremost. Yes, we know that you can do it 'on your own', but how well can you do it on your own? Now that is the true question. You might be able to find a 20% solution on your own, but by partnering up with a bigger name, you are far more likely to find the 80% solution that is going to bring in big bucks, big recognition, and big satisfaction.

Don't try to do it solo. Try to get as many people involved with your projects as possible. The more successful and recognizable names you can attach to you and/or your projects, the more likely other successful and recognizable names will want to jump on board as well.

Now, is it easy to hitch your wagon to a star? In many ways, yes it is. You just have to keep you eyes open, don't let your ego blind you, and remember to ASK! On the other hand, it is not necessarily an easy thing to do. It may take persistence, time, and a lot of hard work... but in the end, it'll be a heck of a lot easier than trying to 'establish yourself' on your own. That could take a lifetime, and unfortunately, that's all we have! By hitching your wagon to a star, you'll end up establishing yourself long before that lifetime of yours is over.

TRADITIONAL NETWORKING: Going it alone.

GUERRILLA NETWORKING: Putting your ego to the side.

# 26. INCLUDE THEM IN YOUR ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS.

This technique, of course, implies that you are writing a book. Of course, we are blatantly hinting that you should be writing a book. Mentioning people in the acknowledgements to your book, you see, is perhaps one of the finest ways of letting someone know that you admire them, and appreciate them in some way. Putting someone else's name in print in a bound book that is sold publicly can make that person feel like a million bucks. In turn, that action often has the effect of making these people want to meet you.

I mentioned Jay in the acknowledgements to my first book, The Theatrical Juggernaut, and then sent him a copy. Who would've thunk that a few years later, I would be co-writing a book with him. That, in a nutshell, is the power of including someone in your acknowledgements. Were it not for me including him in the acknowledgements, I very well may never have sent him a copy of the book, and had I never sent him a copy of the book, then you very well might not be reading this one today.

So have fun with your acknowledgements! Make it a ten-page list of acknowledgements if you want. The more people you mention, the more likely some of these people are going to end up wanting to meet you.

Take note: you can acknowledge people in more places than just the front of a book. You can acknowledge people in public, at a banquet, during a meeting, in a memo, in an email.

This is so easy to do, and yet, so few people do it. Why not? If you publicly acknowledge people who have helped you and/or have been an inspiration to you 'ya might be surprised' they might hear about it, and want to meet you.

Everyone likes and wants to feel important, and as those of us who have read How to Win Friends & Influence People know, when it comes to success in personal relationships, the key is in the other person, and not you. The same principles apply to guerrilla networking as well: it's not about you! It's not about you!

While the whole principle of guerrilla networking works only when you develop yourself, the whole point is that your development should be influenced by other people. In other words, follow your heart 'yes' but as you do so, you should continually be trying to figure out what these other people might think is 'cool' as well.

To that end, it's a no brainer that most people would consider a public acknowledgement from you pretty cool in and of itself. So... be that person who publicly acknowledges others. If Oprah Winfrey mentions your name on her show, you're as good as golden. That is the power of public acknowledgement. If Oprah wants to meet someone, all she has to do is publicly acknowledge that person on her show, and you can be sure that person would find out about it in less than 24 hours. That is the power of public acknowledgement.

So who do you want to meet? Make your list. Now, publicly acknowledge each one! The more public the acknowledgement, of course, the more quickly this technique will work, but acknowledgement of any sort will usually eventually be passed along to the recipient. So start publicly acknowledging people for what they've done for you, and do this at every opportunity you can find!

TRADITIONAL NETWORKING: Yearning for the day when you are acknowledged by someone else.

GUERRILLA NETWORKING: Acknowledging the very people you seek acknowledgement from.

# 30. SAY THANK YOU.

No one thanks anyone anymore. It's disgusting. And rude. And arrogant. Just say thank you! Say thank you!

Say thank you to the postman.

Say thank you to your boss.

Say thank you to your employees.

Say thank you to your son or daughter's teacher.

Say thank you to someone who just made photocopies for you.

Say thank you to the person who just bought you lunch.

Say thank you to whomever puts up with your insanity on a daily basis.

Say thank you to your parents.

Say thank you to the guy who just ripped your movie ticket stub.

Say thank you to the woman who just served you.

Say thank you to the person who just spit in your face!

Just say thank you. Make it a habit to say thank you constantly, and you might start to realize that people are constantly regarding you more highly than ever before.

Take a moment to write a thank you note to every one of your clients. To every one who has ever sent you a gift. To every one who has helped you in some way.

Heck, in this day and age, even just sending a quick ten-second text message would be more appreciation than most people receive in an entire year.

If you truly want to become the type of person that others want to meet and work with... start saying thank you! ALL THE TIME! Just get over your own ego and sense of self-worth and start showing some appreciation for the work of others, and?wild notion?you might start to see that these same people start to show some appreciation for what you do, and begin making a more concerted effort to work with you.

Don't wait for others to show appreciation before showing yours. That is a backwards notion. SOMEONE has to set the ball in motion, and as a guerrilla, it should be you. Go ahead, and take the 'thank you' plunge. Once you start doing it, it'll become an addiction and a habit, and you'll start to wonder why you didn't start saying thank you sooner.

Oh, and lest you think you already say thank you often enough: YOU DON'T! Trust us. You don't. No one does. And that is the whole point.

TRADITIONAL NETWORKING: Hoping others will thank you.

GUERRILLA NETWORKING: Thanking them first.

Copyright 2008 - Jay Conrad Levinson and Monroe Mann

Thanks Monroe.

I love the idea of turning traditional networking on its head and being the person other people want to meet.

I am absolutely convinced that effective networking is an essential guerrilla marketing tactic and the immediate leads and referrals that come from networking are just the tip of the iceberg. However done badly, networking can be a frustrating and expensive waste of time.

Yes it's nice to meet people and have a chat but it has to lead somewhere and that's why it's so important to know the inside tricks that the book covers. I also loved the bit above where Monroe and Jay said "While your boring competition 'who no one wants to meet' is out there desperately trying to meet people day after day, you, on the other hand, are actively putting your efforts into becoming as cool as humanly possible."

So what you can do to be seen as "cool" in your market?

The timing of your book is spot on because I am currently re-considering my networking activities and I have already ordered the book from Amazon. You can get your copy of Guerrilla Networking from Amazon UK or USA or from Barnes & Noble US here.

I can see strong connections between aiming to be the person that other people want to meet and Rich Schefren's current work on Attention and becoming the maven of your niche.

It is certainly getting harder to get people's attention as we become more and more immune to "interruption marketing" that demands our attention when we don't want to give it. For me, that's the big advantage of the Internet. I can get the information I want, when I want it 24 hours per day, seven days per week.

To my surprise, I can't see that Momroe Mann has been interviewed for the Guerrilla Marketing Association yet but networking is such an important task for Guerrilla Marketers.

I do strongly recommend that you take a look at the Guerrilla Marketing Association as this is Jay Conrad Levinson's way of keeping you updated with all the latest thinking on Guerrilla Marketing. While teher is a subscription fee, you do get a 30 day free trial at the start.

To Your Success

Your Profit Coach

Paul Simister, Certified Guerrilla Marketing Coach

Business coaching for customer focused entrepreneurs

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