Your First Relationship

It's soon time to honour the first person you met upon entering this world... your mother! Mother's Day is fast approaching.

With that in mind, today I'd like to talk about your close relationships, as well as thinking outside the box and choosing Mother's Day as a way to send an unexpected heartfelt card to your clients this year.

How will you celebrate it this year? How do you nurture the relationship with your mother and other loved ones, for that matter.

First of all, when I ask clients who they need to keep in touch with to establish the number of cards they need to send out, I am astonished with the frequent reply: I don't have many to send.

Stats say, the average person knows about 2000 people by the time he or she is 20 years old. Imagine how many people the well-established business person knows?

Probing a little further, I discover the client is thinking only of their A-list clients. And while it's important to focus 80% of your time on the top 20% of your clients, a huge opportunity to explore the goldmine within the remaining 80% is missed.

If you leverage your time, and use an efficient system, you can keep in touch with those clients without spending a lot of time doing so.

While you need to enhance relationships with your clients, what about nurturing relationships with your loved ones at the same time? At the end of the day, these are the people you spend a large part of your time with, and those relationships matter most.

How many mothers do you have? Of course, you only have one biological mother. Growing up, however, you likely adopted a few mothers along the way.

In my case, my honourary mothers include the mom of my best friend in high school, some of my mother's close friends who were like a parent to me growing up, and when I married, some of my husband's adopted moms. I have a few honourary grandmothers too.

What impact do you think you'd have if you sent each of those people a sincerely-worded card, telling them what a difference they have made in your life?

The added bonus to nurturing those relationships is you remain in the forefront of their minds. Wouldn't it be great to get more heartfelt referrals from those closest to you?

Now, it's time to turn your attention to your business clients. Think outside the box this year. How many of your clients are mothers? How many other mothers in your circle of influence do you know who are mothers? Your hairstylist, your child's caregiver, the organist at your church, women at your gym, school contacts, your chiropractor, massage therapist...

The list is endless. Are any of these people potential clients for you? Could they provide referrals to you? How will you ever know until they know you better, and more importantly, until they know you care?

What impact would you have if you sent them an unexpected, heartfelt Mother's Day card? Do you think it would make their day? Would you generate goodwill and nurture a lot of relationships in an instant?

I think you'd better put pen to paper and get cracking on that list! Time is money.

(P.S. If you need to find a quick, easy way to send beautiful cards that are also cost-effective, I'd be happy to help you out. Email me: susan@AreYouACardSender.com)

The Tweet Spot - TIP #7

Consider connecting with your clients on Twitter. Offer tidbits of information (translation: offer value) to them. Think Twitter is inane? Hey, Starbucks, Microsoft, QuickBooks, Intuit and Amazon all use it (as reported in the NY TImes, April 13, 2009). Why not you? Think about it.

To your Success,

Compound Interest

Show interest in others to develop business relationships. This can be as simple a gesture as looking at the person's business card for 10 seconds after they offer it to you. Even better, make a sincere comment about their card to show you noticed it.

To your Success,

Welcome to The Connecting Point!

I've created this blog to discuss how to nurture your business relationships to improve your sales and referrals. Now, all things discussed here apply to all relationships, so the wise ones will take these ideas and improve their personal relationships as well. The abundant life is balanced in all areas. Looking forward to our discussions!

Is Your Account Overdrawn?

How are your relationships doing in this economy? Have you "over-spent" in the good times, cashing in on too many favours but not returning them when it was clearly needed? Did you make deposits steadily into your relationships while the economy was good or did you try to buy your way out of debt, because your business did well in the bull market without having to spend time on an activity without a clearly-defined ROI?

Well, my friend, these are the days of reckoning. The result of those actions will now become clear. If you are struggling in your business; if your business is floundering in these rough, economic times; if your client base has diminished; if you now need to re-invent the marketing wheel in order to find new ways to increase your client base.... then, you are overdrawn my friend.

If referrals are flowing in more than ever, because friends and colleagues want to ensure your business does well, then you have secured solid relationships, your 'savings' account is healthy and you have an excellent cash position.

What can you do today, to solidify relationships with those around you? It's not just what you know, and it's not just who you know, it's who you have given to and who you have served, that will make the world go around.

Think about it.