It is true to say that there is one, often overlooked, skill that makes being a success in business a hell of a lot easier.
Indeed, this ability makes life, in general, a whole heap easier!
This is a skill that is not difficult to possess.
It’s an ability we are born with yet very seldom even give a second thought to.
What I’m talking about is the ability to develop and grow relationships and rapport with others.
We may take this for granted, but if we spend time cultivating the ability, it WILL pay dividends.
To give you an illustration of what I’m talking about, let’s imagine I meet you for the first time in the street, and I ask you to give me a lift to a destination 100’s of miles away.
The vast majority of us would respond with an answer in the negative, probably ending in ‘…… off’!
But now replace the stranger with your best friend.
Now you are very likely to help your friend get to his desired destination.
Depending on the strength of your relationship, you may even volunteer to drive them all the way.
The stronger the relationship, the rapport, the connection between you and the people in your life, the more they will do for you.
Let’s imagine this in a purely business context.
When you make the effort to build a relationship, the people you deal with are more prepared to listen to what you have to say…
They will be more prepared to trust you and go along with your suggestions…
Ultimately, they will be more willing to spend their hard-earned cash on products or services that you are promoting.
Of course, the upshot of all this is, as I mentioned earlier, it makes your life as a marketer much easier.
You don’t have to rely on ‘strategies’ and ‘tricks’ and ‘hypnosis’ or whatever other techniques people come up with to make people part with their cash.
People like buying, but they don’t like being sold to.
And people also buy from people they like.
Building relationships is very much the oil that will make sure your marketing engine runs smoothly.
Here’s the bad news though.
Try to build relationships purely as a strategy rather than something you genuinely want to do, you will get spotted a mile off.
We can spot fakes.
We all know that the shark-like smile of the second-hand car salesman.
…and in these situations, our shutters go up.
So how can you build relationships to benefit your marketing?
The simple answer is to have a GENUINE interest in the people you deal with.
Focus on the long-term relationship and not trying to make a quick buck.
In the long term, the value of a relationship is going to be worth much more than a single transaction.
I understand that when cash is tight and you are desperately trying to make it online, the focus can easily slip from the people to the profit.
But once profit becomes the only focus, the relationship with your customer suffers.
Hopefully, it is fairly obvious that being ‘decent’ and taking the time to build relationships and rapport, is not at odds with being business-like…
…On the contrary, in the long term, it actually makes your success that much easier.
So if you are not doing it already…
… start consciously thinking about your list as real people.
Think about their wants and needs…
…and then try your best to meet those wants and needs.
Do this and you will never look back
