All four of these men are good at all three (congruence, alliances, and customer focus) so when I emphasize one or another aspect for each it is only for example purposes. [...]]]> Yesterday’s post riffing on Mashable’s 6 Challenges brought to mind a few folks that are really good at congruence, alliances, and being customer-centric.

All four of these men are good at all three (congruence, alliances, and customer focus) so when I emphasize one or another aspect for each it is only for example purposes. Without further ado:

Dr.Mani is a heart surgeon in India who treats children with congenital heart defects. He funds the surgeries through donations as well as through his own information marketing efforts. I hold him up as an exemplar in congruence. He has a consistent message across platforms and across time. He demonstrates that congruence through what he says in his blog posts, what he tweets and retweets on twitter, what he interacts with on facebook. He has also started to segregate some of his different aspects by creating multiple twitter accounts: @DrMani for the gestalt and non-profit aspects, and @infoprofitz for the information marketing specifics.

Mark Joyner is called the “Godfather of the Internet” for his ability to make an “offer you can’t refuse” (he is even giving away the book on it: The Irresistible Offer). His world changing projects develop through his constructs. I hold him up as an exemplar in building strategic alliances. His social media is not promotion driven, in fact he rarely sends out links — even for his own products. This is partially because Mark is selective about who he accepts into his program to promote his Simple·ology programs and relies on those partnerships for the promotion, while he builds the relationships — with his partners and with his prospects.

Marlon Sanders is a marketer through and through. His online presence is focused on one thing: producing and promoting products. This is a great thing because he is an exemplar at being customer focused and consistently overdelivers on what he promises. As an example of that, he is starting a Quickstart call this evening for his 6 Week Round Table. This may not seem like a big deal, but he is charging less than a quarter of what the typical “guru” (with little to no experience) would charge. Rewarding those who purchase early and being humble enough to create a “round table” rather than lording it over others from the head of the table shows Marlon’s commitment to his clients.

Paul Myers is a great marketer with a minimal presence on the social web. Yes, he has facebook and twitter accounts, but is rarely active at either. I hold him up as an exemplar of managing his social web presence through minimalism. Paul has a ton of great marketing resources and his primary mode of communication is through his email newsletter (which is worth it’s weight in gold!). He shows a way to be present, but not active, on the social web.

Notice, that the four men I chose as exemplars are all “old timers” — they’ve each been doing their thing online for over a decade and are still going strong. The biggest lesson here: find what works for you (and your clients) and do it with consistency, through strategic alliances, and with a focus on what’s best for the customer.