What does love have to do with sales? Any time you have a relationship with someone, you are selling yourself and putting your integrity on the line. Relationship selling takes on a multitude of forms.
However, the quote, in my opinion, is faulty. If everyone acts righteous in personal relationships and no one ever utters I am sorry, when trouble brews, I believe this is a recipe for disaster. Without hearing an apology, the offended person will begin to stew over the issue, there will be a long-term simmering and finally, like a pressure cooker not carefully watched, an explosion will occur.
The same concept is true for business. Everyone is human and sooner or later we will make a mistake albeit forgetting to follow-up at a designated time or misunderstanding what the other person meant.
Just as the little things can break up a marriage, so can the little things break up a business relationship. Your best course of action is to take action to avert the stewing, simmering and ultimate explosion.
Rather than indignation, your first reaction should be to immediately utter, I am sorry. Follow that brief statement with, That was not my intention, how can I (we) fix it?
Once you take ownership of a bad situation, strive to fix it. The second part of taking ownership, is to do it with a smile. Your smile will put the other person at ease. Your swift actions will present you as ethical and trustworthy, and when the other person arrives at this conclusion, you will be the vendor of choice for the long-term. Continue reading →
We interact with people every day in both our professional life as well as our personal life.
These relationships are on various levels and may take on different aspects ranging from casual conversations to complex business exchanges. But do you know the key component to having a successful business relationship?
The tone of our voice as well as the words we choose makes a difference in how others respond to what we have to say. We know that if we wish to convey a particular point, disagree regarding a topic or issue, simply by changing the tone of our voice or increasing the volume a bit generally relays to the other person our position and how we feel about the topic. In business there is one key component that simply cannot be overlooked or disregarded.
The key component to have a successful business relationship is integrity. When you look up the word integrity, the definition is: the quality of possessing and steadfastly adhering to high moral principles or professional standards. Other words that describe integrity are honesty, truthfulness, honor, veracity, reliability, uprightness.
All are business qualities that you look for in others and hope to have within yourself. Without integrity, the relationship will eventually fail. Trust between the parties may be lost, feelings may be hurt and communication between the two may eventually fade away, possibly stopping completely.
Let me give you an example of a business relationship I had. A business associate that I had done a class with called me one day, told me she had recorded our class, and asked if she could use part of what I had said during this class on her website as part of a marketing strategy she had designed. She stated they, her company, would also include a link back to my site in return for allowing them to use my name and this short audio for their website promotion. I asked to hear the audio they wanted to use and she immediately sent it to me via email.
After listening to the recording while still on the phone with her, I agreed to allow them to use the recording that I had listened to as long as placing it on their website was the only way they intended to use it and as long as it was not to be used for any other purposes.
The following day, I received an email from this same business person. This time, the entire audio was attached, not just the snippet that had been sent for me to listen to the day before. She now stated that they actually were developing a product they planned to sell. She would like to include my full audio as it would not be much of a product without it but since
I had stated my limitations on the telephone, allowing just what I had heard to only be used on the website, they now wanted to have full rights to my entire audio for this product they planned to sell and needed my consent. She now offered me a percent of sales if I would agree, however did not mention an amount or how the sales would be tracked or controlled.
Our relationship had suddenly shifted from verbally communicating regarding this subject to emailing. There are also considerable changes or modifications to the original subject we had discussed the day before leaving me to feel less than comfortable. How would you have responded to this? Did this business person create a feeling of trust? Would you have felt a sense of honesty or integrity flowing in this relationship?
During the initial phone conversation, she could have come forth with their plans regarding the product they were creating and ask permission to include my material. That would have opened the door to further discussion and both parties would have felt a free flow of exchange and sincerity. This would have shown integrity. I would have respected that and been receptive to what they had to say. I would have appreciated their honesty and integrity for the manner in which they conducted business. Continue reading →
