Virgil Winston:Marketing Guru
My wife woke up in a foul mood today and, as I am sure most married man can attest to, that makes for a rough morning—for everyone. When Mrs. Winston is crabby, I try and stay out of her way. Unfortunately this morning, I found myself to be the object of her considerable displeasure. She arrived home late last night form the neighborhood block party committee meeting and, unbeknownst to me, spend the night sleepless and fuming. Apparently our new neighbor, Mrs. “call me Gail” Chelsey read my book cover to cover and fancied herself a bit of a marketing maven. You see, my wife has chaired the planning committee for the past five years—until last night when Gail won the nomination due to heavy campaigning. Not only did she paper the neighborhood with flyers, she left voicemail messages and gave out homemade campaign cookies imprinted with the message, “Vote for Gail.” Simple…and very effective. I would never admit it to Mrs. Winston, but I was pleased as punch to hear that my advice worked like a charm. I managed to hide my smile behind the morning paper, which is a good thing since Sunday is waffle day and our waffle iron is pretty hefty.
Having been married for well over a decade, I learned long ago that this was not a “teaching moment.” Instead, I listened to my wife vent her frustrations, berate the usurper and generally rant about the unfair turn of events until she finally realized on her own that she could beat Gail at her own game. After all, Gail might have read the book, but she slept in the same bed with the man who wrote it.
She began campaigning for next year’s nomination straight away and searched Rush Imprint for a timely gift that would last all year. Thanks to my wife, today’s lesson is simple. Just because you have a long standing client, loyal customers and a big share of the market, doesn’t mean you can rest on your laurels. It’s important to continue providing excellent service, a great product and NSM (Never Stop Marketing). Otherwise you might find your own personal Gail standing ready to move in on your territory.
Until next time, remember the words of my father, “If you don’t use it, you might just lose it.”