Foreword to Duct Tape Marketing

On the Subject of Marketing Integrity

By Michael E. Gerber, author of The E-Myth

I have known John Jantsch for over ten years, first in his role as a certified E-Myth Consultant for my company, E-Myth Worldwide, a role in which he served his clients and my company with the enthusiasm of a disciple, and then later as the founder and CEO of his own marketing consulting firm, Jantsch Communications. During those years, John and I would talk about business, about life, and about his personal process for growing both his business and his knowledge about business so that he could fulfill the single most important objective John has always had—to serve his clients, his community, and his family as best as any man can.

What is remarkable about John is that, unlike many men and women in this tricky world called business who claim to know the unknowable all for the purpose of enhancing their personal brand, he has remained true to who he is—a guy from the middle of America who knows himself as few of us do, and who aspires to nothing more than being a good householder and a good gentleman. But none of this modesty can hide that fact that he has spent a huge amount of the hours of his life drilling down into the practical world of marketing to discover what actually works—and why. Nor does it keep us from seeing his unique ability to teach anyone how to put this practical knowledge to work to create a wonderfully effective business.

In short, this book is really about integrity—John’s integrity, and that of the true art of marketing—which is why I have called this foreword, “On the Subject of Marketing Integrity”. John and I share a passion for the subject of integrity in marketing. Marketing—which could sometimes be called selling, which could further be called getting someone hot to buy—yes, that’s essentially what everyone who buys this book is looking for, even you, dear reader! After all, to everyone in business, getting someone hot to buy is obviously the holy grail. And that’s what every marketing book worth its salt better be about if it’s going to hold anyone’s attention.

Yes, John keeps his promise, step by step by step, to demonstrate to you how to do marketing to get your someone hot to buy your something, but also—and this is very, very important—how to do it with integrity. This begs the question I’m actually raising here: what does integrity have to do with marketing? Well, first of all, without integrity, marketing is left to tricks, sophistry, and lies—the same devices the old trickster used with the peas and the shells on the streets of many cities: Is it here? Is it there? Where is it? Is it anywhere? With John, you’ll not only know where the pea is, but long before you wonder, John will have told you forty-two times.

John wants to make sure you don’t get lost here. He wants you to know the science of his craft, not to overwhelm you with his wizardry. In short, it’s true to John’s integrity that he is less interested in you thinking he is a marketing genius—there are more than enough of those out there!—than he is in delivering to you what he’s promised.

This book is just like its namesake—Duct Tape—it’s good, incredibly smart, amazingly practical, and immensely sticky stuff. You can begin to put it to use immediately.

And John tells you how. This book is also amazingly thorough. John spares no effort to dig deep down into the mechanics of marketing, as opposed to the academic clap-trap of marketing. He is less interested in the philosophy than he is in the tools, tasks and skills required to look at marketing as a vocational school of marketing might. When you finish this book, John will want to know that you have applied it to achieve very specific results and will want you to tell him so! Yes, finally, when all is said and done, John wants to talk to you about what you’ve done and how he’s helped you on your path. Like the good friend John is, he’ll get back to you from the middle of America and ask you how you’re doing, how it’s going, and what’s up?

I hope this has helped, dear reader. And give John my very best when you see him. He’s about to become one of your best friends, too. Which is what I meant with the subject of marketing integrity. Who wouldn’t want his customer to become one of his very best friends? I know I would. Wouldn’t you?

Michael Gerber
http://blog.inthedreamingroom.com