Last night I showed up at Gary Vaynerchuk’s book signing at Powell’s for the third time in three years – one for each book, starting with “101 Wines.” And I can tell you, Gary is hitting full stride!
My girlfriend felt I conned her when she realized the focus wasn’t on wine this time, but rather his new book “The Thank You Economy.” She doesn’t care too much about business. Yet still she came around and liked this speech better than his “101 Wines” talk. He really is CRUSHING IT.
Gary started off by saying our grandparents know more about running a successful business in the new economy than we do. And that’s because back in the 1920’s, the local butcher had a 1v1 relationship with each of his customers. And if he didn’t make each customer happy, it’d take about 10 seconds to spread bad word of mouth around the little rural town.
Then from the ’30’s to 2010 or so, Gary suggests we lived in the “F* You economy.” Urbanization allowed big box stores to emerge and cease personal relationships in favor of low prices and volume.
Now, Gary summizes, this is all changing. Personal relationships has always been a tool for stealing business from the big box stores. But now personal relationships is scalable and people are talking to each other more than ever before (despite what people say about technology closing us off to other people).
Before when one closet introvert had a bad shopping experience, he might tell one person about it. And that person may be his dog dressed up as a human.
But now, that one closet introvert can warn 8,000 people on Twitter before he even leaves the parking lot of Jerks R Us!
Your company’s reputation can now change overnight. For example, did you see the bully body slam? What if your company was the bully! What if 60 Minutes was interviewing YOUR angry customer because of a viral movement?
It was easy for an angry customer to warn the town of 600 about the moody butcher in 1920. And in 2011, it’s easy to warn the earth of 6 trillion about your business. (Almost, anyway.)
And of course it works in reverse. In Gary’s new book, “The Thank You Economy,” he shares the story of buying a loyal customer Jay Cutler’s football jersey after reading the guys Twitter feed and seeing he was a fan.
That surprise gift made a loyal customer for life -as he’s promised to shop nowhere else.
Get the book to read more examples and discover more ways to win customers by saying “Thank You.” It’ll be worth every penny.
PS A lot of people like Gary because he’s so passionate and it’s contagious. I think that’s cool too, it makes him seem like a fun guy. But that’s missing the point entirely. The guy’s got a track record of success, a vision of how businesses are changing, and a great case for why he’s right. That’s where the value is.
I highly recommend checking out his book.
Your email headline was a bit over the top — but it did get me to click through to read the email! (For the rest of you, well, you need to subscribe to Stephen’s list to see those great headlines…)
Gary is very perceptive (which I already knew — and which is why I didn’t say that your headline is WAY over the top…), knows how to connect with people, etc. Maybe it’s all the wine? Regardless, he’s always fun o watch, and if you’re not careful, you just might learn something.
Best regards,
Tom
I have to write 4 subject lines every time I send out an email. The first one is typically pretty tame, the last one gets crazy!
Funny thing about Gary is he’s only been “drunk” a handful of times in his life. And even though his father ran a liquor/wine store he never had a taste ’til he was 21. So it can’t be all the wine!
PS I got a video uploaded to youtube and ranked on the first page of Google in under 24 hours. You can do it!