Let’s understand a galleon ship first – it was a marine vessel used for war and trade between the 15th and the 18th centuries. The ship featured masts and sailed slowly which is why the cannon couldn’t be properly directed, another reason was the improper shooting angle.

The angle is what decided where the cannonball would land, and in this particular case, it was supposed to skim across the water.

The three-shots approach was based on a solid reason.

The first was to get an idea of the cannon and the way it operated, the second was to measure the distance, and the third shot was actually the one that should hit the opponent galleon ship.

Cannon efficiency was the highest when two gallons were the closest and the shot was in a straight direction. As a rule of the thumb, the lesser the distance between the galleons, the more effective would be the shots.

Galleons are used no more, but we should still understand them because they teach us valuable marketing lessons – lessons that we can incorporate in our strategies and improve relationships with our clients.

The very first marketing lesson that we learn from the cannon and the galleon ship.

Identify the type of client, and accordingly determine the kind of contact that you would like to have with them.

We all know that we should be in touch with our clients.

But what is the most effective way to reach out to them? Figure out suitable communication methods and then test them out in different ways until we realize which of them works best.

Measure

So now we’re in regular contact with our clients using the most effective method. Time to get their feedback and measure their engagement, satisfaction, and other key metrics.

This will help us understand what it is happening, and accordingly, we can adjust our cannons such that the shot is the most effective, directly hitting the target, and in the case of marketing, our goals.

When we reach out to the clients every now and then, trying to understand them and serve them better, we build a relationship with them.

Had we skipped any of the previous steps, we would have missed the shot, which is quite common when we fail to understand what is happening and why.

Now how can we strengthen the relationship that we have built?

Remember when the cannons were most effective – when the galleons were side by side. The same thing applies here. We must be close to our customers if we want to retain them. 

When we are close to them, we understand their needs better and can solve their problems more appropriately.

By remembering and adopting the marketing lessons which a galleon and cannon teach us, we can serve our clients better, satisfy them more, and ultimately, ensure that they stick with us throughout. 

Thank you for reading, I would appreciate hearing your thought on this.