“Two Revolutionary Approaches To Business And Life: One last look at loving our customers…

In the last few posts, I’ve been talking about the power of what would happen if we loved our customers.  I then gave some practical ideas about how to do this.

Today I want to give us one other practical way to live out loving our customers.  I want to do this by talking about  what I’m calling “Two Revolutionary Approaches To Business & Life”. 

I saw a story that Bernie May told in his book, “Learning to Trust”.  He said this….

For the past forty years Eunice Pike has worked with the Mazatec Indians in south-western Mexico.  During this time she has discovered some interesting things about these beautiful people.

For instance, the people seldom wish someone well. Not only that, they are hesitant to teach one another or to share (truth) with each other.

If asked, “Who taught you to bake bread?” the village baker answers, “I just know,” meaning he has acquired the knowledge without anyone’s help.

Eunice says this odd behavior stems from the Indian’s concept of “limited good.”  They believe there is only so much good, so much knowledge, so much love to go around. To teach another means you might drain yourself of knowledge.

To love a second child means you have to love the first child less. To wish someone well–“Have a good day”–means you have just given away some of your own happiness, which can’t be reacquired.

The way that some people live and do business around us everyday, you’d think they believe the same thing about “limited good”! 

But limited good is lie.  The opposite is actually true! 
 When we give, we don’t lose.  We GAIN! 

Today, I want to talk to you about a way of living and doing business that could change what you do and why you do what you do.  

 This way of living can be seen in two approaches to living life.  These two approaches are so powerful that if everyone in the world used them it could solve many of the world’s problems!  What is this way of living I’m talking about?

I want to use symbols as a way to show you this idea this week… There are two ways to live life:

+ Add to others and this world. 

– Subtracting from others and this world. 

It basically comes down to living to give or to get.  You either live to GIVE to others or you live to GET from others!

There’s a book by a guy named Matt Rawlins called “The Lottery – A question can change a life”.  This book is one of those modern parable books like a lot of business books are today.

In this book, Matt Rawlins tells the story about an eccentric old man who spent the last years of his life trying to find the keys that would save mankind from destroying themselves while creating hope for tomorrow.

He spent his entire fortune, which was a pretty large amount of money and hired thousands of researchers from around the world.  He had a computer system built that could compile the data.  No one but himself was allowed to read all of it.

Historical archives were carefully examined.  No page was left unturned as these researchers looked for the keys to success in helping humanity move forward.  The research was compiled and placed very carefully in two identical books.

 After this man died, he gave the two identical books to the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History in Washington, DC so that they could auction one off to the highest bidder and give the other book away in a Nationwide lottery. 

They held this fancy event have the auction and lottery.  There were wealthy and well known people there who all wanted a chance to buy the one book.  All of the major news outlets where there to see who got the two books and they also wanted to find out what was in the books.

They held the auction and a really wealthy guy paid a lot of money to get the first book.  They then had the lottery.  Anyone around the country was allowed to enter their name so everyone was watching to see if they would win.

They finally chose a name and it was a guy named Mark Stephen who won.  All the media started trying to contact him and see what he was going to do.  He was trippin’ and didn’t know what he was going to do at first, but finally decided to at least go down and see what was in the book.  They brought him to a bank vault to see the book.

When he opened the book he was totally shocked!  On the first page was a simple question mark.  That was it!  All the other pages were blank.  At first, he laughed and thought it was a joke.  But he quickly realizes it’s not and the whole rest of the book is about this journey to discover what this QUESTION MARK means.

He eventually learns the message and it’s what I want you to understand today…

He discovered that succeeding in life is all about asking the right questions! 

He learned that questions create a focus and because of the focus of the questions we don’t see other things that might be important.  The questions we ask set up what we find.

The author says it in this was through the character Mark…

“The right question, at the right time, in the right place, with the right people is one of the most powerful tools in the hand of any man, woman or God.”

If we change one simple question in our lives then amazing things will begin to happen! 

Let me read forward of the book “The Daily Drucker” (which is a book filled with different quotes, concepts and ideas from a man who was a the late management guru Peter Drucker) to show you an example of this change.   This is what it says…

“His generosity of spirit explains much of Drucker’s immense influence. I reflected back on his work, ‘The Effective Executive’, and his admonition to replace the quest for success with the quest for contribution. The critical question is not, ‘How can I achieve?’ but ‘What can I contribute?'”

We need to go from “What can I get?” to “What can I give?”!

John D. Rockefeller is an example of the benefits of giving. He achieved what our culture calls success. Rockefeller had amassed more wealth than he could ever spend.

By the time Rockefeller was fifty-three his life was falling apart. Throughout his business career he said, “I never placed my head upon the pillow at night without reminding myself that my success might only be temporary.”

 He was the richest man in the world and yet he was miserable in every sense of the word. He was sick physically, mentally, and emotionally. There was no humor, balance, or joy in his life.

Then a transformation occurred. He determined to become a giver rather than an accumulator. He began to give his millions away. He founded the Rockefeller Foundation, dedicated to fighting disease and ignorance around the world. He lived to be ninety-eight years old and was a happy man in those years because of his new and revitalized definition of success.

There are 4 ways you can give to others: time, talent, knowledge, or money.  As far as I can tell, those are the only 4 ways! 

All of us are probably generous/good at giving at least ONE of these things.  But all of us are probably stingy in with at least one of these things.  This is probably true in your business too.  It has a naturally generous area and an area where we run it in a more stingy way.

My challenge to you is this:  keep being generous in the areas you already are, but try be generous in a new area!

Here’s a new question to ask yourself daily:

“Which one of these 4 things will I give to others?”

For business owners:

“Which one of these 4 things can we give away to our prospects and customers?”

Think about this…

Mother Teresa:  “If you give what you do not need, it isn’t giving.”

Or how about this quote…

Sir Henry Taylor said it this way: “He who gives what he would as readily throw away, gives without generosity; for the essence of generosity is in self-sacrifice.”

True giving means to give what is valuable to us to others. 

These two approaches giving and serving will change what you do and why you do them.  

You will do NEW things.  And the things you do that are the same will have a new REASON behind them.  They are so powerful that if everyone in the world and every business used them it could solve many of the world’s problems!

Mother Teresa once said, “It isn’t necessary to move to Calcutta to do something significant.”

I thought of this as I was preparing this post…

To feel needed is important.  But what you might not realize is this…
by offering yourself to others you become needed.  You share your gift!

Let me end with this one last story to show you how giving to others reverberates back to you…

A man was driving down a road and he almost didn’t see the old lady, stranded on the side of the road. But even in the dim light of day, he could see she needed help. So he pulled up in front of her Mercedes and got out. His Pontiac was still sputtering when he approached her. 

Even with the smile on his face, she was worried. No one had stopped to help for the last hour or so. Was he going to hurt her? He didn’t look safe, he looked poor and hungry. He could see that she was frightened, standing out there in the cold. He knew how she felt. It was that chill which only fear can put in you.

He said, “I’m here to help you ma’am. Why don’t you wait in the car where it’s warm?  By the way, my name is Bryan.”

Well, all she had was a flat tire, but for an old lady, that was bad enough. Bryan crawled under the car looking for a place to put the jack, skinning his knuckles a time or two. Soon he was able to change the tire, but he had to get dirty and his hands hurt.

As he was tightening up the lug nuts, she rolled down the window and began to talk to him. She told him that she was from St. Louis and was only just passing through. She couldn’t thank him enough for coming to her aid.

Bryan just smiled as he closed her trunk. She asked him how much she owed him.  Any amount would have been all right with her. She had already imagined all the awful things that could have happened had he not stopped.

Bryan never thought twice about the money. This was not a job to him.  This was helping someone in need, and God knows there were plenty who had given him a hand in the past…

He had lived his whole life that way, and it never occurred to him to act any other way. He told her that if she really wanted to pay him back, the next time she saw someone who needed help, she could give that person the assistance that they needed, and Bryan added “…and think of me”.

He waited until she started her car and drove off. It had been a cold and depressing day, but he felt good as he headed for home, disappearing into the twilight.

 A few miles down the road the lady saw a small cafe. She went in to grab a bite to eat, and take home. It was a dingy looking restaurant.

Outside were two old gas pumps. The whole scene was unfamiliar to her.  The cash register was like the telephone of an out of work actor – it didn’t ring much. Her waitress came over and brought a clean towel to wipe her wet hair. She had a sweet smile, one that even being on her feet for the whole day couldn’t erase. The lady noticed that the waitress was nearly eight months pregnant, but she never let the strains and aches change her attitude.

The old lady wondered how someone who had so little could be so giving to a stranger. Then she remembered Bryan. After the lady finished her meal, and the waitress went to get change for her hundred dollar bill, the lady slipped right out the door. She was gone by the time the waitress came back.

She wondered where the lady could be, then she noticed something written on the napkin under which was 4 $100 bills. There were tears in her eyes  when she read what the lady wrote. It said, “You don’t owe me anything, I have been there too. Somebody once helped me out, the way I’m helping you. If you really want to pay me back, here is what you do: Do not let this chain of love end with you.”

Well, there were tables to clear, sugar bowls to fill, and people to serve, but the waitress made it through another day. That night when she got home from work and climbed into bed, she was thinking about the money and what the lady had written. How could the lady have known how much she and her husband needed it? With the baby due next month, it was going to be hard.

She knew how worried her husband was, and as he lay sleeping next to her, she gave him a soft kiss and whispered soft and low, “Everything’s gonna be all right; I love you, Bryan.”

4 Practical Ways To Have an “I-You” life Or An “I-You” Business

Yesterday I shared the difference between having an “I-It” business versus an “I-You” business.

But the question is…

How can really we live an “I-You” life and have an “I-You” business? 

Here are 4 practical ways:

1. Pay attention to people around you. 

I don’t know if you’ve thought about this, but many times we just kind of wander through life not noticing the people around us.  Bueber said, “All real living is meeting.”  Do you really meet others or are you just going through the motions? 

A Modern Good Samaritan Story With A Negative Twist
Daniel Goleman tells a story of some seminary students who had a problem…

One afternoon at the Princeton Theological Seminary, 40 students waited to give a short practice sermon on which they would be rated.

Half the students had been assigned random biblical topics.  The other half had been assigned the parable of the Good Samaritan, who stopped to help a stranger by the roadside, an injured man ignored by people supposedly more “pious”.

The seminarians worked together in a room, and every 15 minutes one of them left to go to another building to deliver his sermon.

None knew they were taking part in an experiment on altruism (or selflessness). 

Their route passed directly by a doorway in which a man was slumped, groaning in evident pain.  Of the 40 students, 24 passed right by, ignoring the plaintive moans.  And those who were mulling over the lessons of the Good Samaritan’s tale were no more likely to stop and than were any of the others.

For seminarians, time mattered.  Among 10 who thought they were late to give their sermon, only ONE stopped; among another 10 who thought they had plenty of time, 6 offered help.

Of the many factors that are at play in altruism, a critical one seems to be simply taking time to pay attention; our empathy is strongest to the degree we fully focus on someone and so loop emotionally.

• How many opportunities to serve someone do we miss everyday, because we don’t pay attention to people? 
• How many do we miss because we don’t fully focus on someone besides our self? 
• Do you know realize how much better you’d feel about yourself and your business if you just occassionally focused on serving others? 

Noticing others is the first practical way to have an “I-You” life or business.  If we can begin to really notice other people and think about them, we’d be taking a huge step towards living this out!

2. Put yourself in someone else’s shoes. 

After noticing others we need to begin to focus on what it would be like to be them.

Why Mercede Benz Owes Its Existence To Empathy
In 1886, Karl Benz drove his first automobile through the streets of Munich, Germany.  He named his car the Mercedes Benz, after his daughter, whose name was Mercedes.

But there was a problem.  Instead of being impressed about his great creation, the machine angered the citizens, because it was noisy and scared the children and horses.

The citizens pressured the local officials who immediately established a speed limit for “horseless carriages” of 3.5 miles an hour in the city limits and 7 miles an hour outside of the city.

Benz knew that he would never be able to develop a market for his car and compete against horses if he had to crawl along at those speeds.  

But Benz had an ingenious idea.  He invited the mayor of the town for a ride.  The mayor accepted his invitation never expecting that Benz was up to something.  But little did the mayor know, Benz was up to something!

Benz then arranged for a milkman to park his horse and wagon on a certain street.  He told the milkman, that as he and the mayor drove by, to whip up his old horse and pass them– and as he did so to give the German equivalent of “flipping off” the mayor and Benz.

The plan worked perfectly.  The mayor was so mad he demanded that Benz overtake the milk wagon.  Benz said he would love to except for the fact that, because of the ridiculous speed law, he was not permitted to go any faster. 

Guess what the mayor did as soon as he had the chance?  Yep.  Very soon after that experience the law was changed!

This simple thing – putting ourselves in other people’s shoes – could change how we see, feel and act toward other people! 

But there’s something else we need to do besides noticing people and putting ourselves in their shoes…

3. Treat other people like they are someone important, because they ARE important to themselves, their family and to God!

Emerson once said, “Every man I meet is my superior in some way. In that, I shall learn of him.”  One of Dale Carnegie’s tips to “Win Friends And Influence People” is to “Always make the other person feel important” 

Dale Carnegie tells a story in his book about just how powerful “making someone feel important” can be.  He says…

“I was waiting in line to register a letter in the Post Office at Thirty-third Street and Eighth Avenue in New York.  I noticed that the registry clerk was bored with his job – weighing envelopes, handing out stamps, making change and issuing receipts – the same monotonous grind year after year.

So I said to myself, “What is there about him that I can honestly admire?”  This is sometimes a hard question to answer, especially with strangers; but, in this case, it happened to be easy.  I instantly saw something I admired no end.

So while he was weighing my envelope I remarked with enthusiasm: “I certainly wish I had your head of hair.”

He looked up, half-startled, his face beaming with smiles.  “Well, it isn’t as good as it used to be,” he said modestly.  I assured him that although it might have lost some of its pristine glory, nevertheless it was still magnificent. 

He was immensely pleased.  We carried on a pleasant conversation and the last thing he said to me was: “Many people have admired my hair.”

Carnegie goes on to say…“I’ll bet that chap went out to lunch that day walking on air.  I’ll bet he went home that night and told his wife about it.  I’ll bet he looked in the mirror and said: “It is a beautiful head of hair.”

Then Carnegie says…”I told this story once in public; and a man asked me afterwards: “What did you get out of him?”  What was I trying to get out of him!!!  If we are so contemptibly selfish that we can’t radiate a little happiness and pass on a bit of honest appreciation without trying to screw something out of the other person in return – if our souls are no bigger than sour crab apples, we shall meet with the failure we so richly deserve.

“Oh yes, I did want something out of the chap.  I wanted something priceless.  And I got it.  I got the feeling that I had done something for him without his being able to do anything whatever in return for me.  That is a feeling that glows and sings in your memory long after the incident has passed.”

Anyone can look for the bad in others.  Anyone can see how they’re better than someone else, but can you do the opposite? 

Can you see the good in them?  Can you see something that’s better about them than you?

Can you do it all for no reason, but to show someone love and that they matter? 

What if part of your life and business mission became this?
To remind as many people as possible that they’re important.

What if you saw every one of your prospects and customers as “V.I.P.s”?
That leads me to the last thing I want to say about trying to live an “I-You” life or run an “I-You” business…

4. We have to really care about people for any of this to really make a difference!

You can learn techniques and they might help, but they’ll never have the full power they could if they don’t come from your heart!

Dale Carnegie said, “One can make more friends in two months by becoming genuinely interested in other people than one can in two years by trying to get people interested in him.”

I once went to lunch at a local sushi buffet restaurant with two friends.  All these sushi chefs were working hard behind the counter, but no customers were talking to them. 

I decided to ask one “Have you ever counted how many sushi you make day?”  He didn’t know English, so he just smiled, but the guy next to him said, “About 2,000!”  I said, “2000!?!  You guys are machines!  And he smiled and kept smiling while he made the next sushi roll.”  I didn’t do it to get extra sushi.  I did it, because I cared about the guys doing all of the work for us to have such a great lunch.

When someone really cares about you, you can tell.  And when someone is faking it, we can tell that too!

I’m not telling you to stop having “to make a profit” a goal for your business.  Making money through offering a quality product or service is not a wrong or bad thing. 

What I’m just suggeting is that we make our business/life goal more than “to make a profit”.  When we do that both life and business will be so much more meaningful!

Conclusion
We need to start leading a “you” life toward others.  It’s the kind of life we want people to live towards us.  But, it has to be real! 

You can learn techniques for your own purposes and you can manipulate people OR you can learn to empathize and feel for others because you really care about them.  When you do, they’ll do almost anything for you.

What if your business became a business that loved people and treated them as “Yous”, not to trick them to get them to buy from you, but just because they deserve it? 

What if we served them out of selfless love?  What if we empathized with them and made them realize how important they are?

What would happen to them? 

Or more importantly..
What would happen to US? 

I want to challenge us all to live an “I-You” life and run an “I-You” business!

Coming Next Week
Stay tuned.  In a post I’m doing next week, I’m going to continue looking at ways we can learn to practically love our customers.  My next post will be called…

“Two Revolutionary Approaches To Life And Business”

If you want to be notified when it’s posted, then please subscribe by email, by RSS feed (both at the top left, under my picture) or become a fan of my brand new Facebook fan page.

Until then…

THANKS so much to those who tweeted and Digged my last post!

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Scott @rampbusinesses

Do You Have An “I-It” Business Or An “I-You” Business? Continued thoughts on loving your customers…

In my last post, I asked you an usual question to be asked in a business context.  I asked you… “Do you love your customers?”

Well, today I want to ask you another strange, but powerful question.  It’s a question that can begin to help us see how we could move closer towards actually loving our customers.

But first, I want to share something with you.

In the famous book, “How To Win Friends And Influence People” Dale Carnegie says…

“People are not interested in you.  They are not interested in me.  They are interested in themselves – morning, noon and after dinner.”  Later he says…  “Why should people be interested in you unless you are first interested in them?” 

We need to understand that deep down all of us crave to be treated like someone important – someone who matters.

Later in the book Dale shares a story that proves his point.

He tells about a researcher on coast to coast airplane flight who tried an experiment.  He only asked questions to the person sitting next to him- for 6 hours! 

When the person the researcher was talking to, got off the plane, they found out they were a part of an experiment.  They were asked what they thought about the researcher and they all said they thought he was a really good conversationalist!  

All he did was ask questions and let THEM talk!  And THAT is what made him a good conversationalist!

Why?  Because people become interested in you when they realize you are interested in them.

That leads me to the other strange question I told you about.  Are you ready?  Here it is…

Are you running an “I-It” business and an “I-You” business?

If you have no clue what I’m talking about (which I’m guessing is most of you) then listen to this story that Daniel Goleman tells in his book “Social Intelligence” and you’ll see what I mean.

Daniel says…

A woman whose sister had recently died got a sympathy call from a male friend who had lost his own sister a few years before.  The friend expressed his condolences, and the woman, touched by his empathic words, told him poignant details of the long illness her sister had suffered, and she described how bereft she felt at the loss.

But as she talked, she could hear the clicking of computer keys at the other end of the line.  A slow realization dawned: her friend was answering his email, even as he was talking to her in her hour of pain.  His comments became increasingly hollow, perfunctory, and off-point as the conversation continued.

After they hung up, she felt so dejected that she wished he had never called at all.  She’d just had a gut punch of the interaction that philosopher Martin Bueber called “I-It”.

“I-It” is when we treat someone more as a thing than as a person. 

The Austrian Born psychologist wrote about “I-It” in his book in 1937 called “I-You”. 

In “I-You”, Bueber wrote that an “I-It” person has no attunement to the other’s subjective reality, feels no real empathy for the other person.

He said an “I-You” relationship is a special bond, an attuned closeness that’s often – but not always – found between husband and wives, family members, and good friends.

Daniel Goleman goes on to say…

“The emotional indifference and remoteness of an I-It relationship stands in direct contrast to the attuned I-You.  When we are in I-It mode, we treat other people as a means to some other end.  By contrast, in the I-You mode our relationship with them becomes an end in itself.”

The sad reality is that many businesses live, move, and breathe in “I-It” mode.  After an experience with them we feel more like an “it” than a “you”.

It’s an expectation that causes us to approach them suspiciously – with our guard up.  It makes us cautious of doing business with them again.  And if the experience is bad enough – we even warn others to stay clear!

But when we’re actually treated as a “I-You” by a business, we’re so shocked and surprised that we drop our guard.  We open our hearts to them and what they’re selling – and even go tell the world about our amazing experience!

You see?  There’s a HUGE, powerful affect you and your business can have on people if you just started treating others as “Yous!”  And the amazing part is that the same response will start echoing back at YOU!

Robert Cialdini talked about this idea of people responding back in the way you do to them.  He calls  it “The Rule of Reciprocation”.  In his book “Psychology Of Influence”, he tells this story to explain it…

A few years ago a University Professor tried a little experiment.  He sent Christmas cards to a sample of perfect strangers.  Although he expected some reaction, the response he received was amazing – holiday cards addressed to him came pouring back from the people who had never met nor heard of him.  The great majority of those who returned a card never inquired into the identity of the unknown professor.  They received this holiday greeting card, click, and whirr, they automatically sent one in return.”  Cialdini says, “While small in scope, this study nicely shows the action of one of the most potent of the weapons of influence around us – the rule for reciprocation.  The rule says that we should try to repay, in kind, what another person has provided for us.”

When we start treating people the way we want to be treated, we start getting treated the way we want to be treated!  It’s like magic!   🙂

People are craving and fiending for someone – anyone – to treat them as “Yous”! 
People are looking for empathy. 
They don’t want you sympathy – for you to feel sorry for them.  They want to feel understood!  

That’s what you want, isn’t it?  You want other people to feel what you do, so you know they understand.

If you and your business give that to other people they’ll love you and do almost anything for you!   

I know some of you are probably thinking, “This is all great, in theory, but is it really possible to apply this in my business?”  I’m glad you asked!  🙂

I want to share one last story that shows you the real power and impact of a business that treats their customers as “I-Yous.”

Scott Stratten shares a story in his new book, “Unmarketing” that proves that a business can live out what I’m sharing with you today.

He tells the story about Zappos.com – the famous online shoe store. 

Scott shares the story of about a person who ordered multiple pairs of shoes for his mother.  She was ill and in the hospital, and he didn’t know the exact size that would fit her, so he ordered 9 different pairs. 

He planned on having her try them on, so he could pick the right pair and send the rest back.  But things didn’t go as planned.

His mother ended up dying and he later realized, after the normal “return” window of time, that he still had the shoes.  Because they cost him a significant amount of money, he decided to contact Zappos and see if they’d still give him a refund.

He called in and shared his story and to his amazement the customer service rep said they’d take back the shoes.   The rep worked out a time to send a UPS truck to come get the shoes and the full amount he paid was put back onto his card.

But that wasn’t the real shock for this customer.  The real jaw-dropping moment came when the delivery truck came to collect the shoes. 

The delivery truck driver had brought along a bouquet of flowers with the deepest sympathies from the customer service rep he spoke to on the phone!

Now THAT is an example of a business treating a customer as an “I-You!”  That customer service rep treated this man as a person, not as an it.  He didn’t worry about the costs of taking back the shoes.  He  didn’t worry about putting the money back on the man’s card. 

He just put himself in this man’s place and treated him how he would want to be treated if his mother had died.

But that’s not the end of the story!

The customer was so overwhelmed by the way he was treated that he blogged about it and his post was read by thousands!

If we, our business, and our employees started treating other people the way we want to be treated – starting loving others like we love ourselves – we would be surprised at the way people respond back to us!   

That’s the power of an “I-You” business.

Feedback? 
What do you guys think about this “I-You” idea?  Do you have any other ideas or examples about how to apply it in our business?

Coming Tomorrow
Stay tuned.  In my post tomorrow, I’ll give you 4 ways we can live an “I-You” life and have an “I-You” business.

Until then…

If you thought this post is worthy, can you please do me a favor?
Please share this post.  Choose any (or all) of the “Share This” options below.
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Thanks,
Scott @rampbusinesses

What Would Happen If You LOVED Your Customers?

Do you love your customers?  Seriously.  Do you?

I know “love” is a strong word, and it even feels weird for me to type it out in this context, but what would happen if we did?

I heard a story that took place a long time ago in England.

A group of men were tearing down a wall by using dynamite.  They had the wall all rigged to go.  Everything was set.

They lit the fuses and were waiting for the explosion.  When, to their horror,  they saw a small, young boy playing near the wall!

They started screaming at the little boy, “Get away from the wall!  Get away!  It’s going to explode!  Get away NOW!”

The boy was just froze there in fear – frightened from the yelling of the men.

That’s when something incredible happened.

The boy’s mother, who had just noticed the little boy had slipped away from her side, saw the danger he was in.  But instead of yelling and screaming at her son, she did something else.

She got down low and said calmly, “Come here son.  I’ll protect you.  Come to Mommy!”  And instantly he ran to the saftey of his Moms arm.

What was the difference?

He ran to the one who he knew loved him and would look out for him.

Business strategist and marketing guru, Jay Abraham talks about a key, fundamental mindset and attitude that he uses, which he calls “The Strategy of Preeminence“.

What is it?

It’s the mindset of constantly putting your client’s needs ahead of your own.   It means that you always do what is in their best interest.  

It means that you want to make their lives better through your product or service – OR any other product or service that’s best for them (even someone else’s).

Isn’t that the same mindset you have when you love someone?

If you begin to love your customers, you need to communicate your love, through your words and tone, so they know that you really care about help them.  

When you do that you go from sounding like a “screaming voice” that freezes them in fear to a “loving voice” that they actually feel safe in responding to.

But love isn’t just words that are communicated.  Love is shown through actions!

Jay Baer, Social media strategy consultant, speaker & author, gives a great example of this in a post called “5 Ways to Turn Helpfulness Into Marketing Greatness“

It’s a cool story about a taxi driver named Mike that Jay met on vacation in Canada.  What’s so unique about Mike? He’s a taxi driver that produces an online/offline guide of local “hot spots”.  He tells about the best restaurants, clubs, happy hours, etc. 

It helps tourists find great spots AND helps local businesses by promoting them for free.  (Check Jay’s post for the full story.)

The “golden rule” says that we should, “Do to others what we’d want them to do to us.”  In other words, we should treat people how we want to be treated. 

That’s what you do to someone you love!  And Taxi driver Mike is living out the golden rule – showing his care for others through his actions. 

• And guess what taxi driver local businesses are going to promote?
• Guess who tourists are going to ask for first?

 

That’s right.  It’s Mike. 

Why?  Because we naturally have positive feelings towards someone who cares about us.

When you not only communicate your love to your customers, but show your love to them through your actions, then something amazing will happen.

They’ll love you back!  And that will change everything.

It will change how they respond to your words.  It will change how they feel about you.  And it will change how they act towards you.

Stay tuned.

I’m going to get back to talking more about how to create engaging content marketing and to get others to create content for you (see  Part 1, Part 2, & Part 3).

But before I do, I want to explore this idea of loving our customers more.

Until then…

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Thanks,
Scott @rampbusinesses