The Power of Relationships for Entrepreneurs
Many people talk about this as “Relationship Marketing.” I don’t care if you choose to put a fancy name to this article’s theme; but, whatever name you give it, know that it is critically important for any business.
In fact, these principles of relationship marketing are equally important for customers, clients, prospects, employees, suppliers, and partners, as well as for our personal relationships such as mentors, friends, and family.
All these groups are those we interact with on a regular basis, and we need to have great relationships with each of them.
So what is a great relationship? It’s one where there is a mutual benefit shared by both parties. It’s one where each person has a role to play and plays it well. It’s one where there is mutual trust and caring. I could go on, but I think you get the idea.
Let’s see what this might look like for a customer to your business.
- The mutual benefit: Your customer gets a product or service, and you get paid for that product or service.
- The roles: Your customer has a need and comes to you to purchase your product or service, and you provide the product or service to fill their need.
- The mutual trust and caring:It’s the… um… hey, wait a minute. Do I really need to trust and care about my customers, and do they really need to trust and care about me in return?
OF COURSE!
This is where many entrepreneurs (as well as big businesses and, too often, we as individuals) miss the point. Usually, this is because we’re moving too fast to think consciously about this important part of relationships – we have our head down trying to implement the next great idea, or we’re growing faster than our capacity can support, or any other number of reasons. It’s not that we don’t care, but we may be naïve to the fact that we need to manage our relationships well.
That’s where Relationship Marketing comes in. Although many business owners and managers might be turned off by a request to “be more caring,” their perspective may change when they see that it can actually help them implement a new program that will drive more sales, more repeat business, more referrals, and ultimately be a key to their success. “OK! I’m bought into the need for Relationship Marketing!” they shout.
The amazing thing is that the basics of Relationship Marketing are things that we once knew well, but have forgotten. We’ll start with trust. Developing trust is a function of how much you genuinely care and how well you come through with what you say you will do. In business, “coming through with what you say you will do” is honoring your agreements, like shipping product on time, paying invoices on time, returning calls or inquiries on time, etc. You have operational processes and procedures in place (I hope!) that help you do this well. If you do, trust will grow.
But what about the caring part? If you care more and the other party knows it, trust will increase even more. As a result, your relationship will improve, and this will strengthen the long-term commitment that is critical to you success.
So what are some easy ways to care?
If you’re not sure, look at what we teach our kids. Look at how we acted when we began dating someone we really liked or, perhaps, when we were courting our future spouse. Here’s a short list of what you can do:
- Say “thank you.”
- Say “please.”
- Say “congratulations.”
- Recognize accomplishments and milestones.
- Celebrate birthdays, anniversaries, or other important dates.
- Give small gifts that say, “I was thinking of you when I saw this.”
- Honor their traditions and holidays, even if they are not yours.
- Be nice, smile, and share your happiness.
Remember how you used to do these things? Maybe you naturally go out of your way to do this in some situations, but not others. I encourage you to expand your efforts here. Remember my list above? I’ll repeat it here for you so you get the ideas flowing about how you can up your game.
These principles are equally important for customers, clients, prospects, employees, suppliers, and partners, as well as for our personal relationships such as mentors, friends, and family.
As you give an honest reflection of how you’re doing with each of these groups, commit to impacting one person every day. Look at the short list above, and go for it. Here are a few ideas to communicate your messages:
- Visit them, and take them to lunch (or breakfast, dinner, coffee, etc.).
- Pick up the phone.
- Send a card.
- Send a personal email.
- Send a text message.
- Make a general announcement in a meeting or newsletter.
- Send a broadcast email to a group.
The ideas at the top of this list of how to communicate your messages are high-touch and high time commitment (and high cost if the person you want to impact is far away). The ideas at the bottom of this list are fast and easy, but less personal and might get lost in the shuffle. For example, think of the number of emails that you receive each day – do you read every single one of them?
I suggest doing a little of each of these ideas to have a balanced approach. You might visit your best customer (or supplier, or partner) in person every year. You might take your team members to lunch a few times a year. You might send everyone you know cards for as many of the reasons above that you can think of. Remember, it’s your business to know what matters to these people, so find a way to interact with them on a personal basis.
My final bit of advice is to be genuine. Long term success is determined by what we do each day, so be sure to create this habit and get systems in place to make this easy for you.
A challenge to you. Right now, think of five people that you can recognize for something on the first list, "what you can do." Write down their names. Now, choose a method from the second list, "how to communicate your message," that will balance your personal time and still be meaningful. Take care of these five now, and then commit to do one more each day.
* * *
Want an easy and economical way to communicate your message that will have a great impact toward improving your relationships? We’ve found that optimizing ease, cost, and impact will lead you to sending cards using a service like this: Check out CoolCardService.net today, and see how easy this is. Tell them you learned about them through the Institute of Success and Goal Achievement.
To your highest success,
Pete Winiarski
Note: This article is published concurrent to the newsletter as a blog posting on the i-saga.net blog, SuccessStoriesBlog.net. Please visit the blog, and post a comment to let us know your thoughts about this article.
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