My Gardeners Promotional Tactic

Internet marketing is a fashionable subject nowadays.

Millions of articles have been written on the subject. The Internet gives a cheap option to everybody to promote anything to the World. We all compete for the best way to promote our businesses, products and services: autoresponders, newsletters, java's, cgi's, search engines' submissions, download time, graphics, ISDN, real audio, real video, DHTML...

My gardener has beaten all those "technical" wonders. He has promoted himself with no Internet, no images, no DHTML, no ISDN... He has so many customers that that there is a... waiting list.

How does he do it?

My garden is a small one, but I have many bushes and trees along the fence. There are also flower beds all around. I do not fancy working in my garden, although I do it from time to time for leisure.

In the African climate the trees, bushes and weeds grow dramatically quickly. If you do not prune them for one month, your garden will transform into a genuine bush. This is exactly what has happened to my garden. I estimated that I would need 2 full days to make it look "normal" again. Two days are just too much to call it a "leisure".

There was a gardener working on the other side of the street, by my neighbours. He was:

barefoot
barehanded
smoking dagga*
looking very thin
in his fifties
He appeared to be do nothing: sitting on the ground under a tree, smoking a long cigarette made out of dagga leaves and an an old sheet of newspaper.

If I had some time to search for a gardener, he would had been my last option. But I had no time and I really wanted my garden to look at least a bit better.

I experienced a shock, since he had a list of demands before even considering my proposal to work in my garden:

He was charging 50-00 rand per four hours (usual rate is the same amount, but for one full day's work)
He could come only after 1 week
He needed refreshments: a 2 litre bottle of Coca-Cola should be available.
If you do not live in South Africa, you do not realize that his demands were absurd. Here I am, offering the guy a nice job in a little garden, but he ruins his chances by nonsensical demands! He finally agreed to come for 30-00 rand for 4 hours. The 2 litre bottle of Coke and 1 week waiting period were non-negotiable.

He came on the agreed day, 45 minutes late - looking as if he had spent a heavy night with his companions in a local bar. He immediately demanded his Coke. He looked at the garden and started to roll his dagga leaves into a piece of dirty newspaper. I could not bear this situation anymore and locked myself in the office - just hoping that at least the bigger branches will be cut out. I felt that I had lost my 30-00 rand.

It was 9 o'clock am.

There was a knock on my office door at 11:15 am. It was the gardener. Before he would open his mouth, I told him that I had no more Coke. He looked at me and said that he actually came to tell me that he was... finished.

I thought that he was not only drag-addicted, too demanding and non-reliable (he was late), but cheeky, too.

I went into the garden to experience another shock:

8 big refuse bags of leaves, branches, weeds and rubbish were neatly stored in my garage
All bushes and trees were trimmed to perfection
All flower beds were weeded, soil was loosened, all dried flowers and plants removed
Pavement was weeded and swept clean.
I had never seen my garden in such a sparkling condition. I could not believe my eyes.

I gave this gardener 50-00 rand, as he previously demanded
another 2 litre Coke
humbly asked when can I see him again to do my garden. He said that there is a space available in 10 days time.
I asked whether he needed anything else than the Coke - maybe Sprite? No, he wanted only Coke.
He works in one of the upmarket suburbs of Pietermaritzburg in South Africa. And is in great demand.

He does not know what the Internet is, but he understands much more about business than the majority of people. He will have his customer database growing fast. And they are willing to pay him much more than he demands.

He gave me the lesson of my life. He is the reason that we have prepared this short quiz for you: "Do You Promote by Performing?". You better test yourself now: learn from the gardener how to have a line of customers, waiting patiently for your service, and willing to pay you cash instantly. Click here.

(* - Dagga smoking is prohibited in South Africa, but the habit has not been condemned all over the World. It is actually legal in some countries - like in case of euthanasia or abortion. This website does not comment on any political, religious, racial, sexual or other preferences. We try to abstain from comments on controversial issues)

About the Author

Fabian Krause is the founder of The Internet Clinic. His teaching is based on simplifying seemingly complicated business issues in three steps: (1) in-depth analysis (2) extracting the most practical aspects of a given problem being analysed and (3) presenting results to the public in a form that is easily understandable, educational, entertaining and practical. His publications are usually enhanced with diagrams, tables and pictures since there is no language in this World that can describe a given problem better than a simple graphic.

:To contact see details below.


fabiankrause@internetclinic.org
http://www.internetclinic.org