Relationship Marketing:
A lesson in mentoring

By Harvey Bucklin

What is a mentor? Do you have one? Should you be one?

From one person home-based businesses up through IBM and Microsoft and many other corporate giants the principle and practice of Relationship Marketing is now being successfully implemented. Here is what it is and how it works.

I subscribe to numerous newsletters and eZines and print publications dealing with Internet Marketing and there is not a day that goes by that I don't see a reference to Relationship Marketing. This is one of my favorite subjects. Basically what we are talking about here is one-on-one communication. This common-sense approach is that you are most apt to buy from an individual that you know and trust. Let me stress that. You buy from an entity that you know and trust! That is the essence of Relationship Marketing.

How is it done?

First off you must establish yourself as an honest and trustworthy person or personna. This is the principle of the "Golden Rule". Just treat others like you would like to be treated. Now you need a point of reference... such as your home, dirt-world business location or Website. Someplace where others may interact with you somehow.

No matter what you market or how you wish to sell it the best advice is to start with your family, friends and neighbors and expand this little circle by degrees. In other words the "6th Degree" principle. This means that you know somebody and they know somebody and so on and by the time it gets to the 6th circle of expansion you have an association with virtually everyone in the world. On the internet this is especially true.

The old and trite philosophy is that you first sell to someone and then you treat them like an old friend. The new, successful method is that you first establish friends and then you can market to them. Gone are the days of throwing out thousands of baited hooks to try to catch a few prize fish. There are literally millions of bad fishermen on the internet using this outdated approach. Give it up! Disregard it! Delete it! NOW! Participate in the New Digital Information Age of the 21st century. There are those that make things happen, those that things happen to and those that say "What happened?" Which are you? Which do you want to be?

So what is a mentor and how can you become one?

Be a friend to someone that needs a friend. Don't just tell me that I can make thousands of dollars... Show me exactly how I can make a few bucks and build from there. Back up your words. I don't need a salesman. I need to make money. Offer help before help is asked for. Don't just be a salesman or an advisor or counsellor. Be all of these. Be a mentor!

A mentor is someone that has concerns for YOUR personal well-being because they truly believe that this contributes to their own personal well-being. I have mentored many and it is extremely rewarding. I have also been mentored by many wonderful people (A special thanks to Randy Ullbricht of SFI! You are a prince!) and I have built many relationships that I will always treasure.

Mentoring is the heart and soul of relationship marketing. It may take a little longer to get successful results but they will last a lifetime and aren't you trying to build an income for life and a life worth living?

Be a mentor! _______________________________________________________ Article by Harvey Bucklin-Internet Marketing Consultant Writer, Editor, and Publisher of the Free Newsletter "Successful Internet Marketing". To subscribe or view the archives visit his Website "The FREE UNIVERSITY of INTERNET MARKETING" at [no longer active] _______________________________________________________