Relationships are the best investments

Relationships are everything. Think about it.

You want to apply for a job. Your credentials can win you a job interview, but it is your attitude (or well, perceived attitude) during your job interview that secures you your job. You get your job because you have developed that rapport during the interview, and because you have forged a relationship.

You sell products. People don’t really buy your product, there are tonnes of other similar products out there! They buy because you are the one selling the product. People buy because of the relationship you have with the client.

You provide a service. Granted, the service must fulfill its objective - if you are a doctor, you must be able to help your patients, and if you are web designer, you must be able to create that web site. But what really gets your clients to leave a testimonial saying “You are the best” is that level of customer service you provide. Its the relationship, again, that you have created between your customer and you.

You do Internet marketing. They say that “the money is in the list”, so you give away an excellent freebie and you grow a huge list of leads. But thereafter, you failed to follow up and build the trust and relationship with the people on your list. To them, you are “just another newsletter”. The power of email marketing is not in the technology - it is in the relationship.

You are an entrepreneur. You write a business plan and you seek for funding, but others have plans which are bigger and bolder than you. However, because of your relationship and trust you have built with your potential investor, he might just choose to place the funds with you.

You are going to retire. All you want is spend time with the people you want to, and live your best till the last day on earth. Again, it is all those relationships you have built over your lifetime that starts to pay off. Because of these relationships with your friends, clients, and colleagues, you are able to find company to go out for afternoon tea on days when your programme is lax.

Is it time for you to take a step back and examine the relationships you have built in your life? How strong are they?

Tags: Internet Marketing, job-interview, relationship-marketing