Personal marketing ...: It's all about focus, determination & persistence.

Marketing ... what word in the modern business lexicon is surrounded by more mysticism! Yet as long as you keep thinking of it as something separate from yourself, you've got the wrong slant on it.

It's not a course you study at business college, (although business colleges do teach

It is, as co-authors Peter Urs Bender and George Torok say in their new Canadian bestseller Secrets of Power Marketing, simply "the expression of who you are."

THAT'S IT???

That's it... but think about it. You answer the phone and snarl at the person on the other end of the line. You've marketed yourself as an unpleasant person to deal with -- best to stay away from you.

You dress sloppily, and apparently don't have very nice personal habits. You've marketed the fact that you don't care about yourself ... therefore ... you don't care about the person you're about to do business with.

In fact, the kernel of what both authors have to say about marketing is contained in one pithy expression: "You can market positively or negatively, but you cannot not market -- the same as you cannot not communicate."

When I asked Peter Bender how he got started on a marketing book, he replied that it started about three years ago. "I was talking to George about marketing as a speaker, based on my experience. He thought it would make a great book. We approached Stoddart Publishing and they thought it would make a great book."

"It really started as a book on marketing for speakers ... then, as we worked on it, it shifted to a marketing book for small business people, or for intrapreneurs -- individuals within companies, often women, who needed an edge, who wanted to move upwards through the organization to the top."

Did it take long to write?

"Two years and three lifetimes of experience," says Bender wryly.

Was it a happy collaboration?

"He did it my way and we had no problems. We're still friends and colleagues," he smiles impishly.

Where did the authors get the idea for the Five Strategies of Marketing?

"All my books are based on three or five principles," says Bender. (He has two other books, Leadership from Within and Secrets of Power Presentations, both of them on the best-seller list.)

"It's probably because I can only remember that many things at once. 'Twelve' things or 'Twenty-two' points are just too many to remember," he says with a sly dig at other marketing books that offer many, often hard-to-remember rules.

"In a sense, 'five' is a magic number. It corresponds to the number of fingers on one hand. Even I can remember to tick them off like that," he laughs.

In fact, the Five Strategies did not spring full blown from the head of Zeus.

"They evolved and emerged as we wrote the book. Once they emerged, we codified them."

Bender is proud of the fact that Secrets of Power Marketing is the first Canadian marketing guide for non-marketing people.

"It's designed as a guide for nonmarketing managers," he says. "It's not a recipe for short-term success. It's a long-term strategy that will pay you handsomely months, even years later."

The co-authors compare it to planting bamboo. In the first six years, bamboo seedlings only grow about 12 inches high, but their roots are well established. Then suddenly, in the seventh year, the bamboo sprouts to six feet tall.

"Marketing is like that," says Bender. "It takes time for results to appear. You may think nothing is happening because you don't see the growth ... but it's there. You are the bamboo farmer."

So what are the Five Strategies of Personal Marketing Bender refers to? They're so simple they seem almost simple-minded. But to follow them takes determination and persistance.

1. Take control of the perceptions people have of you and your company.

2. Form relationships with people of influence.

3. Find ways to be known as an expert by the media.

4. Use focus, creativity, and uniqueness to leverage your limited resources into personal Power Marketing.

5. Use database marketing to concentrate and expand the reach of your marketing tools.

Perceptions?

Look well, dress well, don't be a slob. There's a slightly cynical phrase that used to be common in companies I worked in. "It's not the truth that matters, it's what's perceived to be true." It's not a bad description of this whole aspect of marketing. Bender and Torok's section on Perceptions is chock full of simple, straightforward advice on how to put your best foot forward without being brash or gauche -- in everything from clothing to how to speak. If some of the suggestions seem simplistic, it's because all too often we forget that simple things (like a grungy business card, or scruffy shoes) can create a perception of us in others we may have to fight for years to overcome.

Form relationships?

Bender and Torok have a "Relationship-Building Action List" that really says it all. Call, send notes, send congratulations and thank-you's ... there are dozens of things you can do to smooth the ways both of friendship and business relationships. These are simple, non time-consuming every-day courtesies -- things your colleagues probably most often complain are lacking in our high-tech world. Email is a wonderful tool, but it's not as personal as three hand-written lines on a card asking "How are things going?" If there's one general message for this whole strategy, it's "Stay in touch."

Get known to the media?

Easier to do than many think. It's really based on your ability to communicate interesting information about yourself and your business to the press. You can do this in print, on the radio, TV, and increasingly on the Internet, where you yourself control what is said about you online. Are you interested in something being said on, say, a radio program? Call the station and ask to speak to the commentator. Getting known often starts as simply as that. Like any other marketing strategy, a "one-off" comment isn't going to get you far, but if you have a message you want to communicate to others via the media, like any other marketing strategy, you have to persist in getting it out.

Leverage your resources?

That's just a shorthand way of saying "Make the Most of What You Have." If you have (and most of us do) limited money, you need to find ways to make it go further. Instead of advertising, try sponsorship. It gets your name out there, it gets you a reputation, and it may ... just may ... down the road, bring you business. Bender himself is a living example of what "leveraging" can do for a career. He came to Canada at 23 to learn English, and though he still speaks with an accent, he is a powerful and persuasive speaker. He is dyslexic, so that made it difficult for him to read, write, and learn. But who cares about that when they get a personal note of thanks from the author of three Canadian bestsellers! My favourite story about Bender is the one where he turned a negative book review of his Leadership From Within into an object lesson on how to triumph over adversity. Read it on page 175 of Secrets of Power Marketing. You'll laugh your way into a leveraging program for your own business.

Database Marketing?

Of all the strategies Bender and Torok advocate, this has to appear as the most simple minded. It simply means -- keep a list of your contacts, names, addresses, and phone numbers. Keep it on a computer. Use one of the readily available database programs to work with it ... and then keep it up to date. Add new contacts regularly, and call, call, call. Can you honestly say you do this? Come on, now ... honestly? If you do, you don't need to read this chapter -- but as someone who has been in business for himself and watched that business slowly wither away, I now realize what went wrong. I had a database.

It wasn't on a computer and I wasn't working that database systematically, day after day, month after month.

Well, when would I get a chance to do any work, you might ask. But that's the point. When I wasn't working I should have been calling ... focusing my energy on growing the business. When good times roll, nothing seems amiss. But when bad times hit ... bang goes your business ...!

And that's really the core of it! Marketing is about you, yourself and how you present yourself to the world. It's about how persistently you do it, and frankly, it's about how systematically you do it. Growing your business is the best way to keep it alive in the long term. Treat the business as a journey, not a destination, and your business will flourish.

Shannon Moore is a Toronto-based freelance writer and editor whose work has appeared in many Canadian papers and trade publications. Peter Urs Bender and George Torok both deliver keynotes & seminars throughout North America. For more information, visit their website at www.PowerMarketing.ca. To purchase the book call Books for Business at 1-800-668-9372.