Relationships are important. What’s more important is how we nurture the relationship. All relationships are not the same, so, of course, every relationship won’t get the same attention. Your relationship with the cashier at the local supermarket will be different from that with your golfing buddy or your wife. More importantly, building good relationships and connecting with people is one of the ways to develop yourself as a leader. Therefore, you should make an effort to build more true relationships and not just transactions.
Below are some insights Scott Simons first shared on the ASOTU podcast
Outline: Insights From ASOTU Podcast | How To Build Relationships
The Good Car Dealers
Car dealers, sadly, have a bad reputation. Some of the reputations have been deserved as some car dealers are not nice people and don’t do what’s best for the customer. However, there are many car dealers who are amazing humans and want to serve their customers. I’m a successful car dealer and a partner at Carter Myers Automotive. One of the ways the team I serve with and I have been successful is because of the relationships we’ve built with our customers.
How To Build Relationships
Here are a few ways that we’ve built relationships with our customers.
1. Be in Touch
Every day, I make it a point to be in touch with people on my phone contact list. I don’t have to have a 2-hour conversation with everyone, but I do my best to send a quick text message or leave an audio message. I want people to know that they’re on my mind.
Building a relationship is not just being in touch with people when you need them or when they need you. It’s those times when there’s “no ask” that often means the most. Keeping in touch “just because”
Related article: The Link Between Your Mindset and Your Money.
2. Have a Circle of Influence
Chet Holmes speaks about Dream 100. He references this in regard to sales. However, you can build your own list of key people and have a circle of influence for your business or your life. One circle of influence might be related to the church, another to business, investments, and your family.
3. Exchange Phone Numbers
When I’m at events, I often ask people to exchange phone numbers. Not with everyone in the room, but with people I want to form a deeper relationship with. I ask them for their cell phone number. They give it to me, and I’m happy to share mine with them. In a world of social direct messages, emails, and voice messages, I find that a text message is still one of the BEST ways to connect with someone.
4. Leverage Team Members as Company Ambassadors
One of the most underused assets in your company is your team. Each one of those team members, be it 5 or 5000 team members, can build their own personal network and leverage it to benefit their sales and your company’s sales. Encourage them to build their personal brands and build their networks.
Almost 50% of our sales come through relationships with our sales team. Sure we can do advertising and other paid methods of getting a customer. But our costs are lower, profit is higher, and the relationships are more solid when sales come through one of our team’s relationships with a current or future customer.
5. Build Strong Human Connections
The importance of making a strong human connection is that when one of your customers is thinking of buying what you sell, they’ll first think of you. This is powerful. Think about the product or service you sell. Does your community think about you when they want to buy it or hear their friend wants to buy it?
6. Harness the Power of Social Media
Social media has also been a powerful way for me to build my brand. When customers buy from my team or me, we often post pictures of us on Facebook. Usually, pictures of me with the customer who bought from me or a customer with one of the team members who they bought from. Why?
The picture creates a great branding opportunity, the friends of the customer see what they bought and who they bought it from, and it creates a ripple effect.
It doesn’t take much time or effort to post on social media.
