Need To Know? In the information age, knowledge is your best weapon.
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P>Think about it: Much of what you've learned in thepast, while it may have been accurate at the time, has sincechanged, leaving you misinformed or uninformed-so that a lot ofwhat you thought you knew for a fact is actually wrong. In socialsituations, your lack of up-to-date information is inconvenient,but in business, it's suicidal.
You must realize that in business, just as in sports, people areconstantly trying to become better than you, and some of themsucceed. The ones who do have mastered the art of learning.
Seagulls fly in circles in the sky, constantly searching forfood. When they find it, they land and eat their fill. Then theyreturn to the sky, only to fly in circles once again. It'stheir most powerful instinct. Guerrilla marketers have an instinctjust as strong-the need for constant learning. They gobble up datawith an intellectual appetite that can never be sated.
Anybody can read books, listen to tapes, watch television,attend seminars and browse the Internet. So how do guerrillas learndifferently from other marketers? They learn with two-way brains.That means in addition to merely learning, they act on their newinformation. They do things that take advantage of their newfoundwisdom. This action is the essence of guerrilla marketing.
Nowadays, learning is different than when you were a kid. Thekey to succeeding in your own business is not learning aboutsomething all at once, but learning one thing after another.Because information changes, pouring in from all differentdirections, you've got to be selective in your learning.
Never before in history has so much information been readilyavailable to so many people so easily. In just one hour in your ownoffice, you can learn more today than you could have a decade agoafter spending a week in a library. You can learn theories andfacts, discover up-to-the-minute information and uncovercompetitive intelligence galore. You can learn about yourprospects, your customers, your industry and your marketplace.
The information that's available has never been as importantas it is right now in the information age. Because information isthe currency of the times, guerrillas do all they can to help theircustomers learn how to succeed. They do it by providinginformation.
Guerrillas understand the power of repetition in learning andteaching. They've seen its potency in marketing. They know,too, the joy of learning-for its own sake, and for the sake ofpropelling their businesses to the top. Nonstop learning-thatdescribes their journey.
Jay Conrad Levinson's Guerrilla Marketing booksare printed in 37 languages and are required reading in many MBAprograms worldwide. His Web address is http://www.gmarketing.com his AOLsite is at keyword "guerrilla"; and his toll-free numberis (800) 748-6444.
For More Information
A new video, called "Guerrilla Marketing in Action,"is now available. The 55-minute presentation is done inviewer-friendly magazine format, featuring seven business ownersand their marketing stories, as told in the entrepreneurs' ownwords.
The business owners interviewed offer detailed information abouttheir marketing programs. They discuss many of the 100 guerrillamarketing weapons and show you their marketing materials, which youmay be able to utilize in your company's marketing program.Many of the entrepreneurs offer strategies that may help youovercome the challenges you face.
