Doing Business Guerrilla Warfare Style

By Author: Wildfire Marketing Group Content Distribution Team
Total Articles: 49
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Don't get the wrong idea here, as appealing as it may sound, I'm not going to tell you how to booby-trap your competitor's office. Ok, maybe I will, but what I'm really talking about here is taking the core aspects of guerrilla warfare and applying them to your business. You may be wondering why you would want to do this, and the answer is simply because it's powerful and it works. Think back to some of the most successful guerrillas throughout history. The American militias battling Britain successfully sent the largest and most powerful military in the world scurrying back home, and then quite some time later, faced the same experience from the other side of the table against the Vietcong. Throughout the world, small units have been able to achieve stunning results against almost insurmountable forces by utilizing certain tactics, and this is what we are going to teach you how to apply to your business.

The first thing that you need is a goal that you are 100% passionate about. Most guerrillas are fighting someone or something that they consider an oppressor that is detrimental to the future of their people. That means ...
... that they will do anything that enables them to achieve their goal. You need to conduct business the same way. If you want your company to be the best pizzeria in town, then you know that you need to use the best ingredients every single time. If you're having a slow month and money is tight, you can't buy the bargain brand cheese or you'll sacrifice the quality of your pizza. Instead, you'll have to cut corners elsewhere, which might mean paying yourself less that month. That's what absolute commitment is about, and when you see what kind of results it produces, you'll never go back to your old ways.

No man is an island, and when you're up against a major competitor, you'll need all the help you can get. Guerrillas win the support of the people by helping and supporting them. Companies win the support of other companies (or consumers) by helping and supporting them. The customer service at Zappos is one example of winning the support of consumers, many of whom have told others about via word of mouth, email and blogs. There's a good chance that there are a number of local companies that are related but not in direct competition with you, and if you help them achieve their goals, they will often help you achieve yours. This could come in the form of referrals, links or other exposure. You should also utilize networking and leads groups. You want to build up as much support from as many sources as possible so that your company is the only logical choice.

No matter how determined you may be, going head on against a giant competitor is just stupid. Successful guerrillas find their enemy's weaknesses and use them for leverage. You should be doing the same against your competitors. Effective guerrillas don't typically have tons of cash sitting around so they arm and equip their forces with their enemy's resources. This produces two main benefits. First, it gives you access to resources that you wouldn't otherwise have, and second, it reduces the resources that your competitors can effectively utilize. You can't exactly walk into your competitor's office and take their furniture and printers, but you can use a similar approach. For example, we had a client a few years ago that was competing with some of the top bed manufacturers in the US. They had four major competitors who were each investing several million dollars each month in their own advertising and marketing, and our client couldn't come anywhere near that level. We took a different approach by optimizing their website to outrank their competitors for their own brand names, which meant that every dollar that their competitors invested in marketing generated direct exposure for our client. As a direct result, our client had landed a 54 million dollar contract with a major luxury hotel chain.

Look at what really matters in your business and what doesn't. Guerrillas often don't wear uniforms. They wear whatever allows them to blend into their environment. They don't put on big showy parades like a traditional military. Instead, they focus on exactly what they need to do so they can achieve their goal, and you should be doing the same thing. Attending prominent trade shows may make you look like an industry big-shot, but that doesn't mean anything to your customers. Neither does sponsoring irrelevant events or advertising just for the sake of advertising. You should increase your advertising if possible, but more importantly, you should determine which channels are actually producing the results and drop any that aren't. If you have a sales staff on salary, put them on commission with the opportunity to earn far more than they do now as long as they produce results. Instead of spending lots of money on fancy desks, buy folding tables - they do the same thing. Instead of trying to be cheap, buy quality chairs and set up dual monitors - productivity and revenue will increase.

For the record, guerrillas typically live in the jungles and go days or weeks between baths. You should avoid this or people won't want to do business with you. They probably won't even want to get within a few feet of you. It's just something I thought you might want to think about before you take the concept too far.
Are you ready for your business to grow like wildfire? From website design to graphic design and everything in between, Wildfire Marketing Group has the skills and experience to make it happen.