Why would you want to enchant someone?

enchantment drew mclellan
Guy Kawasaki’s enchanting new book

As you know, I talk about creating love affairs with your customers a lot here on the blog.  Why do I think it’s so critical?  Let’s look at how people behave when they’re in the bloom of a new love.

  • They find the other person intoxicating — they crave more.
  • They can’t help themselves.  They talk about their new love all the time.  To everyone and anyone who will listen.
  • They are very forgiving of missteps or mistakes.
  • They want to be good and helpful to their new love — what matters to that person suddenly matters to them as well.

Now translate that back to a customer, donor, employee, volunteer, boss or vendor.  What organization wouldn’t want those very important people to feel that way towards them?

And keep in mind…this isn’t a one way street.  You have to genuinely treat them the same way.  Or the love is very short lived. At McLellan Marketing Group, we call it creating a love affair.  Guy Kawasaki calls it being Enchanting* in his new book of the same title.  Potato, potato. (You did read those two words differently, right?)

The book’s basic premise is this:  “enchantment is not about manipulating people.  It transforms situations and relationships. It converts hostility into civility and civility into affinity.  It changes skeptics and cynics into believers and the undecided into the loyal.”

Again I ask the same question — what organization wouldn’t want to be able to inspire and instill that spirit?

But as you know, I’m not into books that get us fired up to do/be something without telling us how.  (The former is just mean teasing)  Guy’s books pushes past the why and gets to the how before page 10.  In fact, chapters 2-12 all start with the word “how.”  That’s the sign of a book I can use.

You really need to read this book. (You can buy it by clicking here*) With a note pad and pen at hand, because you’re going to get a lot of fresh ideas that you want to capture.

You can also test your own “realistic enchantment aptitude” and if you want an awesome sneak preview…check out this infographic that Guy prepared.

Enchantment Infographic

*This is an Amazon affiliate link.  While I am confessing, I should also tell you that Guy sent me a copy of the book for free and I swore twice yesterday.  And I just lied.  I really swore three times.

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8 comments on “Why would you want to enchant someone?

  1. Tracy Geier says:

    Drew,

    Guy Kawasaki certainly has mastered how to use blogs effectively. I have only visited 7 out of the two dozen blogs I visit regularly each week so far and already 3 of them, including yours, have spotlighted “Enchantment.” It certainly is a book I will be reading. Thanks for showing Guy’s Infographic. I have to admit, I really like Kawasaki’s “Make crow’s feet” rather than “smile” under his “How to Achieve Likablitly.”

    1. Tracy,

      Guy has always done a good job of relationship building. Even though he and I have never met — I have shot him an e-mail or two, asking a question and he’s always been kind enough to get back to me.

      In return, I was one of the people who proofread and made some minor edit suggestions when he published his last book.

      We’re on FB and Twitter and follow each other. So there’s an arm’s length relationship already in place.

      So, when he reached out and asked if I wanted a a copy of his book, I gladly accepted. Since then, he’s sent out a couple e-mails with extras (like the infographic) for his reviewers to share with their readers and kept us plugged into his process.

      So — I am not surprised that he was successful at getting many bloggers to read/review his book. He enchanted us.

      Drew

  2. Bob Leonard says:

    Drew,

    A truly great blog post… not only for the content, but for the writing. It delivers valuable information in such a way that it’s enjoyable to consume. And you finished it by giving me a chuckle. This is what every content marketer aspires to.

    1. Thanks Bob,

      Now that’s a comment to end the week on! I appreciate you taking the time to say so. Thank you.

      Drew

  3. TC —

    It certainly is a foundational step. But I think it goes far beyond that.

    Drew

  4. Stan Phelps says:

    Drew,

    Strong synopsis of Guy’s new book. I had the privilege of hearing Guy speak about it today at SXSWi. He has a great way of breaking things down into actionable bite size chunks.

    His delivery is superb. He is funny and a tremendous storyteller.

    Here is one nugget he shared today about presenting with powerpoint. It’s called 10 /20 / 30:

    – 10 slides max
    – 20 minutes max
    – 30 point font mix

    Someone asked me how his presentation was. I responded in one word . . . Enchanting.

    Best,
    Stan

    @9inchmarketing
    ‘The longest and hardest 9 inches in marketing is the distance between the brain and the heart’

    1. Stan,

      I’ve not heard Guy speak — but I assumed he would be an engaging storyteller. I’m sure he was entirely enchanting!

      Have fun at the rest of SXSW!

      Drew

  5. Great post. I will definitely have to read his book. It looks like it has a lot of solid suggestions for building “love” relationships with your customers.

    You’re too funny. I love the end-note. LOL.

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