Tickets to Ride into the Millennium

by Jay Conrad Levinson


Heading into one millennium from another is a good time to reexamine the baggage you’ll be bringing along. In the area of marketing, you’ll certainly have to leave behind a lot of old ideas and myths, notions and traditions. But you surely want to take with you at least the five essential tickets to ride into that new millennium with confidence in your success.


Guerrillas will enter the year 2000 with momentum because they’ll have those tickets. They’ll know exactly where they’re heading and they’ll have the right tickets to their destinations. To generate and capitalize upon your own momentum, to travel first-class into the future, it makes sense for you to learn the five destinations of the guerrilla and their five tickets to ride. You can go to the same destinations; you can have the same tickets:


1. The first is your Identity Ticket. It’s the ticket that leads to close relationships. You get it with consistent and never-ending follow-up. You stay in touch with your customers and key prospects so regularly that you become part of their identity, someone they trust, someone they refer to their friends and associates. You convey your own identity in all of your marketing to them so they know clearly who you are and why you’re good.
Because you know that marketers either follow-up forever or fail, follow-up is your middle name. I can read it there on your Identity Ticket.


2. The second is your Humanity Ticket. Whatever new and brilliant technologies you select to energize your company in the marketing arena, you always remember that your customers and prospects are people first, every one of them unique and special. So your marketing messages to them are warm and human, attentive to details of their lives, caring of their progress, helpful and informative, personalized whenever possible. This ticket leads to bonding and loyalty, far in excess of that enjoyed by most small business owners. Customer research questionnaires provide the information guerrillas need to prove their humanity. It’s vital in an increasingly impersonal society.


3. The third is your History Ticket. Lots of new and start-up companies, especially those that will spring up after January 31st, l999, have no histories. You do and your ticket leads to credibility. The more you have, the easier it is to buy from you. Your history ticket is dated from the day you launched your business, includes your marketing strategy, your list of satisfied customers, your past success stories, your past publicity reprints, everything you’ve done to earn the confidence of your market. That History Ticket, probably presented on your web site, in your brochure, in your mailings, in your ads, will bypass the skepticism that faces new businesses and pave the way to future sales with trust.


4. The fourth is your Technology Ticket. Of course, you’ve conquered all traces of technophobia and now use technology to help you serve customers, scout for new prospects, link with fusion marketing partners, research the competition and create a plethora of marketing materials for yourself. This ticket leads to professionalism, but it has side tracks that lead to places you don’t really want to do. Many lead to an over-reliance on what technology can do rather than what it can do for you. Some side tracks lead you to glamour and hype instead of useful information, others to glitz and flash that your web site visitors don’t want to see, still others to fill your TV and print ads with special effects instead of reasons to want what you offer. Guerrillas stay on the right track with their technology, using it as a guide and not as a master.


5. The fifth ticket is your Action Ticket. It leads to accomplishment instead of conversation. That ticket is where you find your roadmap in the form of your marketing calendar. It’s where you can see the specific tasks you must perform so as to keep your marketing in constant action, to keep your name at the forefront of your market’s awareness. The other tickets are worthless unless your Action Ticket is put to full use. Marketing is something that many people discuss and analyze, but guerrillas view it as a time and opportunity to take action, to do something, to capitalize upon the momentum they’ve achieved to go soaring into the new millennium, not missing a beat.


These five tickets are yours if you have the awareness of their importance, the desire to reach their destinations, and the attitude to use them with enthusiasm. With that awareness, desire and attitude, you’re well equipped to enter a new century with exactly what you need for profits, control and certainty.