Marketing Technique

John Melchinger--The Marketing Coach™

Where Your Heart's At
the strongest basis for joining

Associations and other groups are like markets... they are formed by people who have something in common and wish to share and develop that interest with others who also care. There is a lesson in this.

In private practice marketing, one desire is to hang out where the best prospects hang out. This makes prospecting for affluents interestingly simple... on the surface. Live where "they" live; dine where they dine; play golf, tennis and bridge where they play; belong where they belong. Mix with the people you want to prospect. Would it were so easy. If it were, marketers would be paid much less and professionals in private practice would have to look elsewhere for a means to engage prospects because everyone and his brother would be there as well, competing for their attention.

In reality, prospecting for affluents who congregate is relatively easy... if you are looking to do this and enjoy yourself. Take Kiwanis for example. It is an international group without a religious affiliation, secret handshake, single purpose (like defeating multiple sclerosis) or funny hats to wear. The men and women who join do with one aim: make the world a better place through community service one annual theme at a time. Elks, Rotary, Knights of Columbus, D.A.R., Masons, Eastern Star and the hundreds of similar civic organizations and thousands of chapters throughout North America are all different yet uniquely similar in one respect: they all were formed for a purpose, attract members for that purpose, and build there habits as an organization locally within the greater organization's guidelines. Economically, each local group reflects the local community.

If some of the prospects you are looking for congregate in such an organization or club, you are fortunate - on the one hand - that they gather in numbers regularly in one place. On the other hand, you will be unlucky if the interest that prompted them to belong is not an interest of yours. If you join an organization for a purpose other than that for which the association was formed, you will soon be found out and unhappy.

Kiwanis is dedicated to doing community service through participation. Shriners is known for fund raising and planning their children's hospitals and parades. KoC is certainly oriented towards religion, just as the B'Nai Brith and many other organizations are. The political or historical influence of organizations can certainly play a key role. Each association is greatly influenced by a certain degree of similarity at its core. Join for economic motivations - to prospect - and you will be found out and perhaps ostracized. You will be seen as a taker, not a participant or giver.

The simple way to join a group or association is do your homework and decide what group you could most readily participate in, then join that group. As people warm up to you they will ask what you do. You will tell them in a relaxed way, not imposing on them because they asked. Relationship will precede business, which is natural for most markets. Most of all, you will have fun. That's a great way to participate in your community.

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