The Art of Persuasion

There's a community group here in Charleston, WV, known as East End Main Street. It is a wonderful, dynamic and progressive group that's charged with promoting, nurturing and facilitating the development of Charleston's East End section as a great place to live, work and play. Various representatives of the organization had made it known to us through several channels, both official and unofficial, that EEMs might need some assistance from Maple Creative. As is often the case with non-profit community groups, they had little or no budget to fund this project. A bootstrap or pro-bono request - not that uncommon. That's all well and good.

Stay with me now. Here's where this story gets really interesting, especially if you're a marketing genius. Friday, May 25. The day before the three-day, Memorial Day weekend. Envision the Maple Creative office suite. Enter Marc Weintraub ... with a push cart and cargo in tow! Marc, who is a EEMS board member, came to visit and to introduce me to something. Marc is an attorney, by trade. But now I content that he is also a marketing genius.

After extracting me from a meeting, Marc introduced himself. Then, he introduced me to his cargo.

"Skip, I want to introduce you to your new gift. A few of us on the board thought that you and your Maple folks might have an interest in beer," he began. "This is yours to keep. Share it with your colleagues. Enjoy it," Marc continued. "Call us next week and let us know if you'll be able to help with our project."

I unzipped the cooler and was treated to the sight of a case of beer on ice. And not just any old Milwaukee's Best. No, the good stuff. Blue Moon Ale. Corona.

Nothing gets stuff done like a cooler full of ice cold beer. Beer cuts through the clutter. Beer makes a statement. It closes deals.

And that, my friends, is the art of persuasion.

[Of course, we said, "Yes, we'll do it." Be sure to check back in the weeks ahead to read about our collaboration with East End Main Street.]