bizRichard

Caffeine Related Business Building

A few years back I was visiting Morocco with my good lady wife, Sue. We had hired a four-wheel-drive and were visiting various sites around the country. Pulling in to a ‘tourists must stop here’ location we were presented, by one young lad, with a ‘camel’ woven from a palm frond. My having unintentionally accepted his ‘gift’, the lad remained anchored in front of me, his ‘angelic’ smile clearly communicating that a gift in return was expected, preferably in the form of cash no doubt!

Is this reminiscent of the same antics, more than likely experienced by you at main railway stations or other public places (wherever you are in the world), when a small bunch of heather or flowers is pressed into the palm of your hand before you realise the consequences that the ‘small present’ entails?

The event reminded me of Robert Cialdini’s book titled simply Influence: Science and Practice. In this book he discusses, in some detail as a result of much scientific research, what he calls ‘reciprocation’ - our natural human behaviour to repay, in kind, in response to what another person has provided us.

And isn’t this what so many people in business try to do, whether sending promotional ‘gifts’ or attending networking / marketing meeting etc – “Givers gain”, I’ve heard it called - the philosophy of ‘I give you something and you then give me something’!

But, does it work?

With time, if you are into networking, you begin to realise that, to be successful, the process is crucially about fostering trust and developing relationships, long-term – this is the real key to building your clients, customers and sales.

I was reminded again about this in a very good book given to me recently by Karin called ‘The Jelly Effect‘, written by Andy Bounds (whom incidentally I know from the past), and is a book well worth reading. His skill is communication, and his take on this (as you would expect) is very simple, and immensely effective.

He says that when you go to a networking or marketing type event, the ONLY purpose you have is to “organise a cup of coffee”. Your intention should never be ‘making a sale’, but simply to arrange a future contact with someone you want to talk with or need to do business with. And it is during those subsequent meetings where the trust and relationship is built that will eventually lead to the business result required.

But why am I rambling on you might ask?

Well, it’s because I continually come across so many potentially great business people who simply do not understand the difference between relational and transactional customers.

And understanding in which camp your customer belongs, will make a huge difference to the way you do business.

It makes a difference to the way you advertise for or acquire your clients or customers, it makes a difference to the way you treat them and the time you give them, and it also affects your pricing structure, and consequently impacts substantially on your bottom line – your profit.

Without going into detail (which will be the subject of a separate article) transactional customers typically make their buying decisions based on price – here today (if the price is low enough), and gone tomorrow. Relational customers, however, will make their buying decisions based on the best long-term solution, in which price plays little part – give them ‘true value’ and they will keep spending far more money with you over the long term.

I bet I know which sort of customer
you would prefer?

And to get the type of customer you want, simply set up you business processes to acquire and keep your preferred choice, paying scant attention the ones you don’t need, and your rewards will come pouring in!

And if you want any help, you know where to come.

Now, go make some money the smart way!

Doctor Richard C.

PS
If you want to buy the books referred to or see their reviews:

I was directed this week to a survey done by the Bank of Scotland, aimed at identifying the attributes displayed by Britain’s more successful small business owners.

Why is it that surveys done by the banks are so bland - they never seem to produce any really stimulating results? Is it PC to not upset any of their clients perhaps? Anyway, this survey was unexcitingly ‘par for the course’.

After analysing over 4000 interviews they decided that there were four distinct business personalities looking after Britain’s SME business sector.

One in five entrepreneurs in Britain is a ‘high flyer’

‘High flyers’, approximately 17% of those surveyed, were identified as those business owners who demonstrated strong and consistent growth for their businesses over the past three years. They tended to be successful business leaders with an optimistic outlook on the UK economy and were investing in the future.

‘Steady Growers’, at 35%, were identified as owners achieving moderate growth for their businesses over the past three years with a fairly optimistic outlook on the economy etc.

‘Survivors’, also at 35%, experienced little or no growth in the last three years and expected their performance to remain much the same for the following year or so.

And finally, ‘Strugglers’ at 13%, fortunately representing the smallest group. These are business owners that have experienced no growth over the past three years and tended to be pessimistic about the prospects for both their businesses and the economy.

So, nothing exciting there! But if you are interested in reading the survey it is available on their site – see link at end

What was interesting, but didn’t surprise me

Of the ‘strugglers’ group, more than one in five of its businesses were over 20 years old, and they had found more difficulty running their businesses over the past five years.

Contrast that to the ‘high flyers‘ group where most of the businesses were under five years old.

Passion

Does this remind you about my article of 18th July in which I discussed passion. And, how, after being hammered by bureaucracy, long hours, poor returns or whatever, and being held ‘hostage’ to their business, the owner’s passion is inevitably cooled, resulting in the business’s decline towards failure.

To me, this survey revealed an unintended ‘gem’ - clearly supporting the view that once you’ve lost the passion for your business, you will continue to struggle – maybe for ‘20 years’ or more according to the survey, or until the business (or you) finally fails.

So, what’s the Answer

If you are being held ‘hostage’ to your business, break the shackles – and get your life back. Either find some way to rekindle that passion (talk to me about how) or get out and start another business with a fresh passion. Make a decision now - desert the ‘strugglers’ and join the ranks of the ‘high flyers’.

You’ll be surprised at how reinvigorating this can be on your life, and the lives of those nearest and dearest to you.

Now, go make some money the smart way!

Doctor Richard C.

Link to bank survey