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Read the following short stories about
famous People
His name was
Fleming, and he was a poor Scottish farmer. One day, while trying to
make a living for his family, he heard a cry for help coming from a
nearby bog. He dropped his tools and ran to the bog.
There, mired to his waist in black muck, was a terrified boy, screaming
and struggling to free himself. Farmer Fleming saved the lad from what
could have been a slow and terrifying death.
The next day, a fancy carriage pulled up to the Scotsman's sparse
surroundings. An elegantly dressed nobleman stepped out and introduced
himself as the father of the boy Farmer Fleming had saved.
'I want to repay you,' said the nobleman. 'You saved my son's life.'
'No, I can't accept payment for what I did,' the Scottish farmer replied
waving off the offer. At that moment, the farmer's own son came to the
door of the family hovel.
'Is that your son?' the nobleman asked.
'Yes,' the farmer replied proudly.
'I'll make you a deal. Let me provide him with the level of education my
own son will enjoy. If the lad is anything like his father, he'll no
doubt grow to be a man we both will be proud of.' And that he did.
Farmer Fleming's son attended the very best schools and in time,
graduated from St. Mary's Hospital Medical School in London, and went on
to become known throughout the world as the noted Sir Alexander Fleming,
the discoverer of Penicillin.
Years afterward, the same nobleman's son who was saved from the bog was
stricken with pneumonia.
What saved his life this time? Penicillin!
The name of the nobleman? Lord Randolph Churchill,
His son's name? Sir Winston
Churchill.
A
city boy, Kenny, moved to the country and bought a donkey from an old
farmer for $100.00.
The
farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. The next day the farmer
drove up and said, "Sorry son, but I have some bad news, the donkey died."
Kenny
replied, "Well then, just give me my money back."
The
farmer said, "Can't do that. I went and spent it already."
Kenny
said, "OK then, just unload the donkey."
The
farmer asked, "What ya gonna do with him?"
Kenny,
"I'm going to raffle him off."
Farmer,
" You can't raffle off a dead donkey!"
Kenny,
"Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he is dead."
A
month later the farmer met up with Kenny and asked, "What happened with
that dead donkey?"
Kenny,
"I raffled him off. I sold 500 tickets at two dollars a piece and made a
profit of $998.00."
Farmer,
"Didn't anyone complain?"
Kenny,
" Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back."
Kenny
grew up and eventually became the chairman of one of the biggest companies
in the USA.
ANOTHER SHORT STORY
by Perry Marshall
In April, my good friend Bob was abruptly fired from his
job as a warehouse manager.
He had four kids and his wife was 8 months pregnant
when he got the boot.
Bob is an honest, straight-shooting, trustworthy, hard
working, show-up-early-and-leave-late kind of guy.
The kind of guy anybody would want to have on his crew.
So why did Bob get fired?
The stated reason was that they found his resume.
Don't know if it was lying around somewhere,
or on his computer, but they found it. "Sorry, Bob,
we're gonna have to let you go... good luck with
that baby, now, and good luck making them health
insurance payments."
So... Bob needs a job, just as quick as he can get one.
Which to me is merely a very common marketing
problem with a fairly easy solution.
I instructed him: "Skip Monster.com, skip Jobs.com. And
never, ever send your resume to the Human Resources
department. You'll just end up on the slag heap, talking
to bureaucrats who can only say no. You need to send
your letter past all those people and right into the hands
of the real decision maker."
So here's what we did: We rented a mailing list. We
chose the types of companies, the positions of people
within those companies he wanted to send letters to,
and they all got a letter in the mail, from Bob.
What did the letter say? It went like this:
Dear Joe:
Any business person who has employed other
people for any length of time in the State of Illinois
has dealt with his fair share of no-shows, lousy
attendance records, lame excuses, disappearing
office supplies and the constant need to supervise
everyone.
I'm sending you this letter precisely because you
don't want to hassle with any of that in your business.
No doubt you have enough challenges on your hands
already. I can contribute a strong work ethic and create
an industrious atmosphere at your company.....
....and Bob went on to describe *exactly* what kind of
guy he was, and *exactly* the kinds of things he could
do for a prospective employer. He did NOT try to be
all things to all people. In fact the thing I worked the
hardest on was helping Bob articulate the specific
kind of job he wanted.
As you can see, this is NOT the cover letter they taught
you to write in college :^>
This was a targeted message, dropped on a laser-targeted
audience. (If people only knew the power of a good
mailing list!) And you know what?
For every $75.00 Bob spent on postage, he got a job interview.
Would you buy a job interview for seventy-five bucks?
Bob sure thought it was a good deal. He produced a bunch
of interviews and got three job offers. Took the job he liked
the best, knowing that if things didn't work out, he could
always crank up the marketing machine again.
Oh, and you know what's funny? The guy who hired
him - the day before he got Bob's letter, he had fired
some yo-yo for stealing office supplies. So when he tore
open Bob's letter, he thought "Man, has this guy been
reading my diary, or what?"
There are few problems a good marketing education
can't solve. Finding a job, replacing a client, raising
money for some worthy cause... if your bag of marketing
tricks is deep enough, it's like knowing how to crack
a safe any time you want.
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