SMART SALES PEOPLE DON’T ADVERTISE : 10 Ways To Out Smart Your Competition With Guerilla Marketing

Tom Richard is from Grand Rapids, Ohio (total population 995). Tom began his career managing a chain of convenience stores before building and managing a 24,000 square foot fitness center which he played the key role in developing. Tom then moved to Philadelphia and into the fitness specialty industry where he achieved unprecedented success. While in the fitness specialty industry, Tom Richard noticed a need in the market for more effective marketing and sales training. Fueled by his passion from his own experience of losing 60 pounds, Tom has set out to improve the fitness industry one person and one company at a time. Tom Richard is the owner of Richard Stowell Enterprises, LLC which does business as both Tom Richard Marketing and Tom Richard Sales Education.

10 Ways To Out Smart Your Competition With Guerilla Marketing

Tom Richard

Copyright © by Richard Stowell Enterprises, LLC All Rights Reserved.

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in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning,

or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to Richard Stowell Enterprises, LLC,

24019 Front Street, Grand Rapids, Ohio, 43522, www.TomRichard.com.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect

to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose No warranty may

be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation Neither the publisher nor author shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

Author Contact Information: Richard Stowell Enterprises, LLC, C/O Tom Richard, 24019 Front Street, Grand Rapids, Ohio, 43522, www.TomRichard.com

What Is Guerilla Marketing? 8

What To Expect From This Book 10

Guerilla Marketing Expectations

Increased Traffic 13

Increased Brand Awareness 14

Lower Your Average Cost Per Lead 16

Pre-Qualified Traffic 18

Referral Partners A Bonus 20

The Grass Roots Company 23

Your Guerilla Network Is Your Customerʼs Resource 25

Building Your Guerilla Network

Partner Only With Those Who “Get It” 29

Must Be Mutual Get It In Writing 31

Revaluate On A Regular Basis 33

Quid Pro Quo - “Something For Something” 36

Building Your Resource Team 38

Recruiting Your Guerilla Partners

Think Like Your Customer 41

Follow The Yellow Brick Road

You Paid For It Use It 63

Your Website The Foundation of Everything 68 Providing Value On Your Website 71

Capture Information At All Costs 72

Guerilla Marketing Ideas

Creating Your Guerilla Programs 75

Outdoor Recreation 78

Scuba Diving 78

The Boat Store 81

The Outdoor Retail Specialty Shop 86

The Appliance Store 90

The Casual Dining Restaurant 94

The Newsletter Idea 108

The Running Club 112

Get Active America 116

Summary You Get The Point 119

Strength Of The Team

Strength In Numbers 121

Your Marketing Calender

Set Goals Have A Plan 127

Talk To Your Customers 129

Final Word

Traditional Marketing 131

Desktop Publishing 134

The Money Is In The Details 136

Make Guerilla Marketing Work For You 137

Special Thanks

About the Author

Chapter 1:

Introduction

Guerilla marketing is both fun and effective You are reading this book; that means that you have either heard great things about guerilla marketing, or the person who told you to read this book has heard good things about guerilla marketing

Guerilla marketing is perhaps the best way to grow

a business, but not every company will embrace the concept because success using it requires some work Few businesses are prepared to put forth the effort and

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creativity needed to use guerilla marketing successfully

It is much easier to hire a fancy advertising company, than it is to roll your sleeves up and make something happen

To make the ideas presented in this book work for you,

it requires some good old fashion work on your part

At the end of the day, when the work is done, your results will justify your effort and the out of pocket cash will be minimal After all, this is what guerilla marketing is all about

What Is Guerilla Marketing?

Guerilla Marketing is more about out smarting your competition than it is about out spending your competition With Guerilla Marketing, you will

be able to increase the amount of traffic that comes into your business without spending a lot of money Guerilla Marketing allows small businesses to compete effectively with big businesses

Guerilla Marketing can be defined as the means of getting maximum results from minimum budget There is no set definition as to what is and what is

not categorized as guerilla marketing This type of marketing can be broadly described as the spirit of working with your friends and neighbors to find ways

to help one anotherʼs businesses grow

With guerilla marketing, the possibilities are as endless

as your imagination If you sit back and apply some creativity to your guerilla marketing plan, you will be able to come up with a variety of ways to improve your business, as well as help other businesses in your community

Guerilla Marketing allows you to get your brand and your product in front of your customers at other places they shop have already grown to know and trust

By co-branding with these other companies, your company and your brand will be able to capitalize on their rapport and their relationships You will also be providing something of value to your customers and

to the market that you serve

The key to a successful guerilla marketing program

is having the right business partners The promotional opportunities are endless if everybody in your partner network is working towards the same goal, becoming a valuable resource to your customers

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What To Expect From This Book

After you finish reading this book, you will have a thorough understanding of how you can use guerilla marketing to increase your sales in your business You will also understand that guerilla marketing strengthens your brand, your image in the community, and acts as a catalyst when it comes to growing loyal customers

The ideas that are presented in this book are not for everyone This book will provide examples that you may not be comfortable with or that you think are just plain silly However, you will find a handful of ideas that interest you You need to understand that each reader will find different ideas that they feel are exciting It is for this reason that we have included a broad range of ideas and concepts

You will also notice in this book that our examples and ideas will be discussed in terms of a particular type of guerilla partner You are expected to be able to take the ideas presented in this book and adopt them to many different types of businesses in different industries

Guerilla tactics are effective in every business and in every industry It is for illustrative purposes that we have chosen to discuss them in the context of specific businesses in specific industries

This book is intended to get you thinking about guerilla marketing By the time you finish this book, you will develop your own unique way of establishing your guerilla network When you find your mind racing with new ideas, we have accomplished what we have set out to do Enjoy!

Tom Richard 12

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and update your marketing plan

What goes around, comes around; so you will want to make sure that you are reciprocating the referrals to the business that is supplying you with the most amount

of traffic If you are getting the most traffic from a program that you are running with a local restaurant, then you will want to make sure that you are actively promoting his/her business If your guerilla partner

at the restaurant is also keeping track of where their business is coming from, this is a great first step in building a long lasting guerilla relationship with this business

There are no guarantees in guerilla marketing and youʼll need to continually update your partners and the programs that you run with them The larger your guerilla network becomes, the more traffic you receive, and the stronger your brand becomes

Increased Brand Awareness

Branding the image of you and your company in the community is a precursor to increasing the traffic into the store By increasing your brand awareness in the

community, you strengthen every step in your sales process

Strong brands increase the amount of mind share, how often people think of you, that you have in the community This increased mind share will keep the top-of-mind awareness that you need in your future customerʼs minds

With top-of-mind awareness, when a person realizes that they have a need for your product, you will be the first company that they think of

There are many companies that spend hundreds of thousands of dollars creating top-of-mind awareness and you are going to accomplish it for pennies on the dollar using effective guerilla marketing strategies Sound to good to be true? Read on

Exactly how well you are doing in the brand strengthening department is an unmeasurable variable

in guerilla marketing Community exposure to your logo and message creates a familiarity with your brand, even to those who are not in the market to buy

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whatever you are selling at the time With that said, if your brand is stronger and your mind share is greater than your competitionʼs, then you will win in the long run every time For this reason, do not become discouraged if a certain guerilla marketing partner or program is not immediately yielding results It may

be doing wonders at strengthening your brand and this will affect the bottom line at some point in the future, you simply need to be patient

Lower Your Average Cost Per Lead

If you were to take the total amount of money that your store or your company spent on marketing and advertising last year and divide that number by how many people walked into your store, then you would have your average cost per lead Most businesses average between $20.00 and $60.00 per lead

When you begin to implement guerilla marketing, you will see a significant reduction in your average cost per lead

It is important to calculate this number if you have not been calculating it up to this point Before you start

implementing guerilla marketing strategies, figure out what your average cost per lead was last year, last quarter, or last month

If you are not tracking your leads, then you should smack yourself in the face and then begin tracking them today.

When you calculate your “before guerilla marketing” average cost per lead and compare it with your “after guerilla marketing” average cost per lead, this gives you quantitative data to justify the amount of time that you will be investing in your business with these programs This quantitative data will also be

a fantastic tool when you are trying to recruit your guerilla partners

Guerilla marketing can be taken lightly and often times does not command the respect it deserves As you begin to run programs with other businesses, it is important to collect quantitative information that will help you ʻsellʼ it to other businesses These identifiable and measurable results will be your only tool to help you ʻsellʼ the guerilla concept to those whom you so desperately would like to partner up with

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Pre-Qualified Traffic

In addition to a lower average cost per lead, guerilla marketing increases ʻqualifiedʼ traffic as opposed to ʻcoldʼ traffic that more traditional forms of expensive marketing creates The reason they are more qualified

is because they already trust you, and they will walk

in with a certain amount of rapport established before they even talk with you

This trust and rapport is a direct result of them having been ‘referred’ to you.

Not only have they been referred to you, but they have been referred to you from a business with which they have already grown to trust and have an established relationship If you are good enough to be associated with their other favorite stores, then you are good enough for them to shop with

Let me give you an example An avid runner visits her favorite running store to buy a new pair of shoes She buys every pair of shoes at this store and has done

so for the last five years She is always treated with phenomenal service at this specialty shoe store and

knows the owner personally She walks into the store and the owner shows her the new pair of shoes that just arrived last week The owner knows she will like these new shoes because they have all of the zoom-zooms and wham-whams that she looks for in shoes

After trying on the shoes, the owner tells her to try them out on the new treadmill he has in the store This way she can really test the shoes and see how great they feel The treadmill is prominently displayed in the window It is from your fitness equipment store and has a classy sign on it that displays your logo and the logo of the running store side-by-side Beneath the logos, the sign reads “The only treadmill for serious runners.”

She tries out the shoes, falls in love with them, and buys them on the spot.

The owner of the running store loves having this treadmill in the store because they sell more shoes The woman who bought the shoes has just had a wonderful experience in her favorite store and on your best treadmill She has now associated her wonderful experience and her favorite store with your company and your top treadmill When she is in the market

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for a treadmill, where do you think sheʼll stop first, and what treadmill do you think she will want to buy? When she comes into your store, she will have already come to trust your company and your product She is

a perfect example of pre-qualified traffic

Pre-qualified traffic, combined with a lower average cost per lead, equals real bottom line results

It is because of these results, you are reading this book right now Guerilla marketing is a force to be reckoned with and can be adopted by any company regardless

of size and stature

Referral Partners A Bonus

When you establish a guerilla marketing network, in addition to the creation of a smart marketing team, you will have a built-in networking team eager and actively passing referrals What does this mean? When you establish your team of 5 - 20 partner businesses, these businesses will not only run guerilla

marketing programs, but they will also actively refer business to one another.

This typically would be viewed as a given However,

it deserves a spot in the book because it is more powerful than you would initially believe

If you are a great person to do business with and are worthy of a referral, then your partners will send you, on average,

3 - 10 referrals per month

The larger your referral group, the more referrals that you will receive If you have ten businesses in your network, then you can expect to receive 30 - 100 referrals per month This amount of business alone will make a splash on your financial statements and

it is not even taking into account the increased traffic that will come from the guerilla marketing programs that you will be running

In order to increase the amount of referrals that you get, you will need to actively refer your customers to your fellow partners as well There are stand alone networking groups that currently realize this amount of

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referral business, and you will be able to benefit from

it simply as a by-product of your guerilla marketing initiative

As you start to receive referrals from your partner businesses, you NEED to treat these customers like they are royalty

Imagine how great you would feel if you referred one

of your own customers to a guerilla partner and the customer later thanked you for the help you gave them and was elated at how well they were treated

When you do this for the customers your partner businesses send to you, you are creating this great feeling for them and for their customers This makes your guerilla partner look like a hero and they will love you for it They will be eager to refer more and more people to your business, and they will treat the customers that you refer to them with the same level

of service and personal attention

In addition to strengthening the relationship between the two businesses, when a customer is treated like royalty, the customer will bring you unsolicited

referrals as well They will tell their friends and family

to stop into your store and to make sure they tell you who they were sent by It is the fact they want to tell you who they were sent by that proves they felt you went above and beyond in servicing their needs They almost feel as if they are part of a secret club and have received a gift of celebrity service This is powerful and is transferable throughout the community

This concept is referred to as grass roots referring, where your community is actively recruiting new customers for your business and the businesses in your guerilla network.

The Grass Roots Company

Guerilla marketing is the best way in the world to establish yourself as a grass roots company A grass roots company is one that is incredibly well established

as a community player They are embraced and celebrated by the community that they serve Whether you are a national company with one hundred stores

or a sole proprietor with one location; with guerilla marketing, each store will establish itself as a grass roots company in their respective communities

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Grass roots companies are established with guerilla marketing because your brand and your message will be strategically placed in every nook and cranny throughout the community With the guerilla marketing strategies that incorporate community involvement, you will be establishing your store as “The Most Local” store in town This distinction bodes well across all the important steps in your unique sales process It helps establish rapport with, and keeps that top-of-mind awareness amongst your future customers Moreover, strengthening your brand in the area where it matters most locally

There is nothing stronger than being perceived as a true community player

Most companies are under the false impression that throwing money at the community will have the same effect of an established Grass Roots Campaign It is not that easy; if it were, then everybody would have the perception of being a grass roots company It takes more finesse and more tact to win over the community

at large It takes combined guerilla marketing initiatives along with earned media to develop this perception When it happens, you will notice that this

is the strongest differentiator between your store and every other store in your market.

By winning the hearts and minds of those

in the community, you will take sales from your direct competitors

You will also take sales away from those dreaded Big Box Stores Big Box stores will always be fighting the image of a heartless, large corporation With your grass roots mentality, you will be able to get more people to cross over into your store instead of shopping

at the mega stores that have been eating away at local retailersʼ businesses

Your Guerilla Network Is Your

Customerʼs Resource

When you have properly established your guerilla network, you will have developed a valuable resource of information with worthwhile tools for your customers It is this valuable resource that will become the underlying reason for the success of your guerilla network

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As you build this network, you will be bringing together

a group of complimentary businesses that, together, will serve your customers in multiple areas of their lives Customers do not like to have to go around and find reputable and trustworthy businesses when they have a project or a need for something They find it convenient and valuable when they have the ability to

be quickly referred to a business or a person who can solve their problem or help them with their project

To illustrate this point When you are looking for something for your home and you have a friend that has recently just done the same thing to his/her home,

do you ask them who they used? Do you take their recommendation either for or against the company or the person that they used? Of course you do! The same concept applies to every business!

It is this same level of trust that you will be establishing with your guerilla network

It is just like customer sharing You are going to establish a network of companies and people you trust to whom you will be sending your most valuable customers The power comes from the fact that there

are 5 - 20 companies doing the same thing for one another

The connectivity between these companies yields big results and happier customers.

It is important to note that this entire concept is well received and appreciated by your customers A client once told me, “I donʼt want to pressure my customers into shopping somewhere.” You will not be doing that

at all You have simply taken the time to select only the finest companies to whom you are comfortable referring people to Your customer will appreciate the recommendation and so will the business to whom you are referring them

When you add in the fact that these participating guerilla network partners will be teaming up to provide valuable services and information free of charge, then you have a large resource not only for referring, but also for researching and for getting much needed information

Think about it a woman just moved into a house

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that needed a little work and comes to you for her home gym, then she will also be in the market for a company that can do home renovations What else might she consider? Maybe an interior designer? You bet With your guerilla network in place you will have established some pieces of value that will not only help this woman in solving the needs of her new project, but that will also build up a positive image of the companies that are providing the pieces of value You may have a packet of information available with design tips and other valuable pieces that will help her get started The customer perceives this as you going above and beyond to help her with the needs outside

of your scope of business Gee, arenʼt you swell?

This concept can be taken to varying levels of complexity depending on your network, but the concept remains the same Your guerilla network will, as a team, become a valuable resource for customers who are in the market for the products and services your network represents Being viewed as a resource works wonders for building your brand and differentiating yourself from your competition

It inevitably makes the customer decision

on who to do business with an easy one

you.

of guerilla marketing It is your job to find those businesses and recruit them to join your guerilla

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marketing network

It has been my experience that the companies and the people who truly understand guerilla marketing, usually understand it from the git-go Keep this in mind as you begin talking with businesses Becoming

a successful partner in a guerilla network takes more than just signing up for the job; it takes constant work and active participation Never coerce or ʻhard-sellʼ

a company into becoming a guerilla partner because nine out of ten times, they will not end up putting forth the effort that is necessary to carry their weight

You need to be very selective with the companies that you choose to be a part of your network This is crucial Remember that you are going to be sending your best customers to these businesses Therefore, everything about their business needs to fall in line with the values that you are most proud of in your business

You also should try and recruit companies that have strong brands, as the strength of their brand will be partially transferred to your brand as you co-brand with them.

Companies that typically make a good addition to a guerilla network are ones that have the ability to decide about their marketing at a local level We all know about companies that have to run everything through their ʻcorporate officeʼ before they can do anything

Unless you can contact the real decision maker directly,

it is best to avoid these types of companies because they tend to slow things down for the entire network These types of companies usually have a hard time selling the guerilla marketing concept to their ʻhead officeʼ even if they are 100% sold on it at the local level

Must Be Mutual Get It In Writing

Everything you and your guerilla partner agree to do needs to be thoroughly discussed and put in writing You should set up the parameters and the expectations

of a marketing program in writing and agree to a specific period of time that the program will run For example, if both businesses agree to include brochures with each customer receipt, then that agreement should

be written out with a starting and ending date

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This may seem like a bit of overkill; however, having the agreement in writing with a specific ending date will prevent the relationship from becoming uncomfortable

An ending date will also prevent the need to confront each other if things are not working out You may simply choose not to renew your agreement without having to hurt anybodyʼs feelings or ego

A written agreement will also make it feel more official Instead of having the agreement a mere favor

to one another, the written agreement legitimizes the program and will increase the chances for success This is especially important when employees are involved

The worst killer of a great guerilla marketing program is the employee who simply does not care.

Two owners could spend time and come up with a great program that falls through because of uninformed employees A default arrangement can be included in the written agreement which would give one or both companies the opportunity to back out if the program becomes one sided due to a lack of follow through

It is a good idea to shop your guerilla partnerʼs business from time to time to make sure that they are following through with their end of the agreement Finding businesses that both talk the talk and walk the walk is the hardest part when it comes to executing and implementing guerilla marketing programs.

In the agreement, you may also specify certain terms that allow you to back out of the written agreement; such as a situation where one of your customers complains about the service that they received from your guerilla partnerʼs business If this happens more than once, you will want to immediately find

a replacement company for which to promote and refer your customers to After all, they are acting as a extension of your business and there is nothing worse than a negative experience

Revaluate On A Regular Basis

When you set up your specific program, you need

to schedule a time when both companies will come together and evaluate the progress This will give you the formal meeting time required to sit down and see if things need to be changed You increase the chances of a valuable discussion by prearranging this

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date from the beginning

At the meeting, you will review the success of the program and discuss possible changes that can be made to the agreement You may decide to increase the program, to change the program, or to stop the program altogether

It is recommended that you meet with your guerilla partners at least once every six months, if not sooner The frequency of the meetings will obviously depend

on the complexity and the size of the program

Complacency and apathy will slowly suffocate any guerilla marketing program regardless of the size and the scope of the strategies.

A pre-arranged appointment regarding the program overview will prevent this slow suffocation

Here are questions that should be asked when you meet with your guerilla partner:

1 Is it working?

2 How well is it working?

3 Do we want to continue this program?

4 If yes, what changes should be made to

the program?

5 Is the program balanced between both

companies?

6 If no, what changes can be made to

balance the program?

7 Should we add any additional

programs?

8 Can we involve any additional

companies in this program or future programs?

These questions will provide both you and your partner with discussion necessary in evaluating the operational scope of your partnership strategies

Write these down Word for word, this is what must be discussed to properly evaluate the program To avoid

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an awkwardness, include these discussion questions

in the written agreement outlining the scope of the program at its onset

Quid Pro Quo - “Something For

Something”

As you are building your guerilla network, please

remember the Latin saying quid pro quo As you

have conversations with potential guerilla partner companies, you will come across many companies that are looking for something for nothing You do not want to involve yourself with these businesses

It will only damage your brand long term and waste your time in the short term

There ARE owners just like yourself who understand this philosophy and who will go out of their way to promote your business; to give something for something quid pro quo.

It is not terribly difficult to spot the businesses you want to avoid Their mind-set is, “what am I going to get out of this if I ʻsign upʼ?” These owners do not

understand modern business practices; it is no wonder the small business failure rate is so astronomical

They will typically talk about how YOU can benefit THEM for the entire first five minutes Those who understand the need to give in order to receive will often come up with one or two ways to help you and your business in that same first five minutes

As you begin these conversations with potential guerilla partners you will want to make sure that the relationship can grow into one that will remain balanced A balanced relationship is one where both companies are doing an equal amount of work and are reaping an equal reward The best types of balanced relationships are those where both parties have very little to do, other than agree to some terms

You will come across the opportunities where very little work is required from both companies quite frequently.

These types of relationships are obviously the easiest

to start with If you have a guerilla marketing program that requires little more than an agreement between

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the two parties that yields measurable results, then those are the programs that will significantly reduce your cost per lead while giving you the opportunity

to reduce your more expensive and inefficient marketing overhead Once you become comfortable with the concept of guerilla marketing, then you can begin to implement some of the more complex and involved programs that can remarkably reduce your advertising overhead to a fraction of your budget while simultaneously increasing its effectiveness

Building Your Resource Team

Your guerilla network is going to make up your resource team Companies that will bring an added value to your team are the preferred choice Ultimately, the businesses you partner with will need to provide

a perceived value to your customers When I shop a business for a perceived value, I ask myself, “Would

I refer my mother to this business?” This is a great strategy to use, whomever you think about

Discussed later in the book, you will establish some tangible resources with all of the companies in the guerilla network Keep this in mind as it will help you make informed selections while searching out guerilla

partners What other resources can you provide for your customers outside of the products and services that you have available at your company? In other words, what other complimentary products or services could one of your own customers be in the market for?

You are the only company representing your product category in your guerilla marketing network This is the beautiful and powerful aspect of your resource team

You will only have one interior designer, one realtor, one restaurateur, and one builder in your team This

is fantastic because that means that all of the referrals for that product category will go to the same person every time However, this means that you need to find the best company for your team As you shop these different companies, make sure you choose the one that will provide the best all around resource for your customers