The Clean and Green Club

Another Recommended Book: Appreciation Marketing: How to Achieve Greatness Through Gratitude, By Tommy Wyatt and Curtis Lewsey (BFG Group Publishing, Westport, CT)

As Wyatt and Lewsey point out, your customer can leave you for ever in just two clicks: the first to Google or another search tool, and from there to a competitor. This is one among many reasons why I’m a big believer in marketing by building real relationships (something I spend quite a bit of time on in my own award-winning sixth book, Principled Profit: Marketing That Puts People First).

And one of the best ways to build relationships is to say thank you. A lot. To say thank you without any obvious self-interest motive on your part, such as enclosing your business card and asking for a referral along with the thank-you. It shows up your thanks as insincere. In Wyatt and Lewsey’s vivid metaphor, it’s “chocolate frosted dog crap.”

The authors spend a fair amount of time describing that kind of person, and several others you want to avoid turning into. Fortunately, they also provide plenty of examples of sincere thanks expressed well. Start your thanking program by appreciating the blessings in your own life, and with that grounding, thank others every chance you get. This is their strategy to achieve “TOMATO: Top of Mind Awareness…Through Others.” Once you have that, your marketing will almost take care of itself.