Pride

Pride, what does it mean to you? It should mean that you take pride in yourself, what you do, and how you do it. It means that you have pride in how you live your life. You do the “right thing”, each and every time you relate to anyone, at work or otherwise.

It has been said that pride is the downfall of a person, that pride will prevent someone from doing what they should because that action might be demeaning or embarrassing. Who says? We should all do what is right, no matter the consequences to us. Pride should not prevent us from making things “right” for our clients, prospects, friends, family, or anyone else.

One definition of pride is “pleasure or satisfaction taken in something done by or belonging to oneself or believed to reflect credit upon oneself”. We can easily take this definition and use it to reflect the satisfaction of doing the “right thing” for those that we meet each day. Therefore pride would not prevent, but would encourage, us to be better people. Just concentrate on the “giving” and not on the credit for the act of giving.

If you need to ask what pride has to do with Gratitude Marketing, you have not been listening for the past many years. We just said that pride would result in you doing what you should for others. Practicing Gratitude Marketing means that we treat everyone as we would want to be treated. Therefore, pride and Gratitude Marketing go hand in hand for better relations with others.

One should be very careful not to allow pride to prevent us from completing the 5^th law of success as detailed by Bob Burg and John David Mann in “The Go-Giver”. The 5^th and final law is: Give, get, repeat. In other words, give to others, get from others, and then repeat the process.

None of us should let our pride get in the way of enjoying the gifts of others. For every giver who gives to us without asking anything in return, there must be a taker, or receiver, to complete the process. If there is no one to receive a compliment, the giver is without anyone whose day will be better, and the giver is left with a vacant spot in their life.

If we let our pride get in the way of accepting something that is given to us by someone else, we have violated the 5^th law of success, and we have prevented someone else from being able to give to us. We have just broken the equation of giving. For every giver there must be a taker, or receiver, and we can be that person.

Therefore, we find that pride can be the trait that encourages us to “do the right thing”. That means everyone that we meet, with whom we do business, or with whom we interrelate in any manner. Also we know that pride will allow, not prevent, us from enabling the 5^th law of success: give, get, repeat, by not preventing us from accepting the giving efforts of others.

Don’t let your pride get in your way; let your pride enable you to be a giver, and a receiver, enabling the betterment of others as well as the well-being of yourself. Look at each opportunity as it arises and see if you can practice Gratitude Marketing every day. Remember that everything that we do will return to us in some way, some day; that’s karma.

Have a comment or question? Please leave them here, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. I always appreciate your input and will attempt to answer you in an appropriate, grateful manner.

Ask, Then Give

Let’s say that you have this great marketing plan to achieve success in your business. You have followed this plan for a long time, but it just doesn’t seem to be working as you envisioned. You have gained some market share, but not to the level that you expected. If you have followed the plan exactly as you planned it, without success, maybe it is time for you to try something else.

Perhaps you should tweak your plan and efforts somewhat. Maybe you should junk the plan completely and try a different plan all together. First, try talking to your networking partners, in an honest conversation, and ask for their advice. Your true networking partners will share their ideas, and their failures and successes, with you. You do have networking partners, don’t you?

What is wrong with learning from others? If someone else is successful in a comparable business, what is wrong with learning from their plan for success? Do you keep trying to reinvent the wheel (which works very well in the shape that it is), and keep floundering in your ups and downs of business, or should you follow a successful plan, and share that success?

Do you work as a franchisee in a business that has a proven path for success? Then follow that path. Hundreds, if not thousands, of others probably have followed that plan. Why are you convinced that you have a better way of operation, especially if you have never worked in that industry before? Learn, imitate, and prosper. That’s what the previous successful people did, or did you not listen to that part of their training?

Pride in business is great when it pertains to having pride in your ethics and honesty. However, it can get into your way, especially when you will not ask for help from others. Your networking partners will not laugh at you, and they will share information and help you succeed. Most likely they were the recipients of that same help from someone that helped them, someone who was helped by someone else.

If you need help, don’t let your pride get into the way of getting help from others. Then, don’t let your pride get into the way of telling your story to someone who may need your help and information in the same way. Share your success, and failures, with others and tell them to pass the information along to someone else. If you share your needs, and your assets, you will be a better person and success will come to you and follow you through life.

Karma is sharing with others; it is giving to others. If we pass good things to others and share good information with others, then good will return to us from somewhere. If we pass out negative thoughts and actions, then negative things will return to us. What we put forth will return to us. That is Gratitude Marketing.

How about sharing your stories with others? Add your comments, or email me them, or your questions, at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. If we all share with others, we will learn more ourselves. What goes around will return to us all.

Who Are You?

When you meet someone new do you classify them as to whether or not they will become your customer or not? Do you just look at them as a prospect or not? What happens when they don’t meet your possible prospect rating? Do you cast them aside as no one whom you can gain from, or do you try to build a relationship with them with the aim to try to help them find whatever they need?

Recently my wife and I have been searching for a new home. We want to return to Sacramento where we formerly lived and have tried to locate a home there through various means. We have researched houses through the internet, worked with a realtor, attended open houses, and driven by possible homes just to check the neighborhood.

So far we have yet to find the home that we want, the one that “calls our names”, the one that is the one we want. For various reasons we have had several possibilities fail to succeed, but we will know it when we find “the home”. Our realtor in California has been very patient with us, and we appreciate their assistance and patience.

During our search we have met other realtors who are very different. Obviously they are not representing us as the buyers, but they do have a vested interest in helping us. Building relationships with others, even total strangers, will pay off in the end and will bring success to everyone involved. This is a basis of Gratitude Marketing and should be practiced by all of us.

We spoke with one realtor who represented a builder of homes, and we understand that her first responsibility is marketing the homes of her employer. However, we spend some time discussing her offerings with her, discovering that she did not have any possible homes in her current inventory and would not for several months. We asked her if she knew anyone who might have anything that would interest us, and she could not have cared less about our inquiry. She could not recommend anyone who might be able to assist us in any way.

As we practice Gratitude Marketing we meet many people who will never become our customers. However, we should attempt to build relationships with them and discover what they need. If we can help them realize the solution to their need, so much the better. If we must refer them to anyone else who might assist them, we have helped multiple parties. If we cannot directly assist them resolve their need, maybe some advice might be the solution. Whatever we can do is better than no help at all.

It does not matter how short lived a relationship may appear, Gratitude Marketing may have a lasting effect on us. The person who you show gratitude and assistance to on one day may be the one who calls you months or years later with information that may bring you great success. The more that you help others who are not your immediate prospects, the more that their assistance in the future may impact you. Make every contact count in some manner.

Please leave me your comments, and let me know your experiences with referrals, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. Your attitude towards your networking partners is one of the main aspects of Gratitude Marketing.

The Prospect Who You Never Met

Do you have a prospect who you never met? How is that possible? How could you have a prospect who you never met, never discussed their needs, never spoke to about your product or service, or never knew existed? How can anyone decide to do business with anyone who they never met, never listened to their sales pitch, or never decided that they trusted them?

We know that people do business with, and refer business to, people that they know, like, and trust. So, how do you gain a prospect who you have never met, who doesn’t know you, who doesn’t know if they like you, or who doesn’t know if they trust you? Remember the second portion of that mantra, and refer business to. If people know you, like you, and trust you, then you should have established networking relationships with them. They have become your networking partners.

Networking partners, what does that mean? Perhaps you do not understand, or believe in, building relationships with those who you meet in the course of your business. Your networking partners are those business people who may, or may not, be your prospects, but are your partners in networking. They will believe that they have a vested interested in building mutual success for both of you.

Mutual success means success for both of you, both partners, without hesitation or qualification. Therefore, you will do what you should do, what you need to do, for your networking partners. Your networking partners will give you advice before you ask for it. In other words, they will try to help you before you know that you need help, when they see you doing something that you shouldn’t do.

Your networking partners will be aware when they meet someone who should know about your business or needs your product or service, who can benefit from knowing you and from networking with you. Your prospects should become your networking partners, and they should know that being your networking partner is above and beyond being your prospect. Your prospects put money into your bottom line; your networking partners put prospects into your business. Turn those prospects into networking partners, and you will have more of both.

Your networking partners are your unpaid marketing advocates. They bring you additional prospects through referrals, telling others about you, your product or service, and how great it is to know you and do business with you. From your networking partners, you may gain new prospects that you never meet until they are ready to become your prospects. Just think, no cold call, no research, and no marketing pitch; just meet the prospect, don’t mess up, and sign them up for your business. Then, thank your networking partner and give back as soon as you can do so.

So, how do you thank these people who add prospects to your bottom line? Thank them for their confidence in you, their belief that they know that their referral will be treated with all the grace and professionalism that you treat everyone, including them. Make sure that they know how much you appreciate them, their referrals, and their faith in you. Make sure that they know that they are as special as they really are.

Please leave me your comments, and let me know your experiences with referrals, or email me at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call me at 360-314-8691. Your gratitude towards your networking partners is one of the main aspects of Gratitude Marketing.

Communications Hazards

Communications can be with clients, prospects, family, or friends. They can take various forms, including actual personal conversations, telephone calls, emails, greeting cards, letters, notes, and texts. There are different guidelines for each of these methods, and each has its own hazards that can sink us and our business. We will be known for what we say and how we say it.

These methods of communication may not all be suitable for our business or appropriate for all our clients or prospects. What we say to our family or friends may not be suitable to say to a client or prospect. No matter what we have to communicate, how we say it can have a greater impact. A formal presentation should not be sent as an email, and questions and answers relating to the terms of a major agreement should not be left only in a telephone call. Meeting arrangements should be confirmed by email or a personal telephone call.

Two of the most popular methods of communication are emails and texts. Emails are sent each and every day for a variety of communication needs. From scheduling meetings to confirming information to thanking someone for their assistance, emails support many businesses that need a quick, printable, and archiveable form of communication. Emails have been used in positive and negative ways to define the grounds for business. They should not be written with excessive abbreviations that some people may not understand.

There is an increasing use of texting in communications. Texting should be used for personal, not detailed business, communications. Texting does not provide a trail supporting business communications. The abbreviations in texts are often confusing and sometimes impossible to decipher by some recipients, and there is a formalness in normal business communications that texting does not support. Some people do not have texts activated on their smartphones. When we send those people texts, they never receive them, have no idea that we tried to text them, and we do not receive any notification that our text was not received by them.

Communications should be undertaken with our intent in mind. Telephone calls can be confirmed by written messages; texts should never be used for business communication due to problems with keeping records; abbreviations should be kept out of business communication; business agreements should be finalized and documented in written form. Decide what we want to say, how we want to say it, and then say it appropriately.

No matter what the form of communication that we use or the intended recipient, our content must be truthful, must be complete in every detail, and must be free of all typographical, spelling, and grammatical errors. It is mandatory to proofread our communications with others. We must respect our recipients by spell, grammar, and typo checking our communications and not mixing various types of communication in the same chain of a conversation. A professional business leader should be able to communicate with professional means and professional words.

We must determine what is our preferred method of communication with our clients or prospects, with family, and with friends? Please leave me any comments, or email them at Jim@SOC4Now.com, or call 360-314-8691 with any ideas. Gratitude Marketing should be foremost in not only the content of our communications, but should determine the format and form of our communications. Communicate with good karma in mind, and good karma will touch us and our business.