Sometimes something can happen in your life that forces you to make changes that you’ve always planned on making but never got around to it. COVID 19 is a perfect example of this. When the virus shut down most of the world, all of a sudden we were all forced to transform how we did business. We could no longer rely on what we had done previously. The game changed and those who adapted their strategy took pole position.
To me, perhaps the most critical change of all is how we communicated with others. I’m not talking about the lack of handshakes or social distance. I am talking about how we were forced to adapt virtually and how relationships suddenly mattered more than ever. Of course, relationships in business have always been important but now the big danger that loomed was ‘out of sight, out of mind’.
Trust is a bedrock of effective relationships and yet trust is also extremely hard to maintain to a large degree when you are forced to rely on zoom calls and emails. Persuasion is no longer a case of charming your way to a successful sale. You have to earn trust and you have to do so via a different medium.
This brings us to the important quality of caring. We talk about customer care when we really mean taking care with customers to make sure they are happy. When I say ‘caring’ I am talking about genuinely putting yourself in the shoes of the customer and really imagining yourself as them. I am talking about searching for what they need and what they are feeling and how you can support them. I am talking about taking the time to know your customer like you know your friends and act accordingly.
Gary Vaynerchuk suggested this a number of years ago and many others talk about the importance of caring for your customers. But in an age of Covid, this takes on a whole new meaning. It’s not a platitude you claim to value. It is a practice you are relentless about executing. It is a set of actions that display such caring and it is you actively doing what you can to really get to know your customers.
Who are they? What do they want? What keeps them up at night? What do they fear? What do they need? How do they look at you? What do they want from you? How can you work with them not just for them? How can you solve more problems for them that they originally think of? In short, how can you make their life massively better?
When you answer questions like these you don’t just stand out. You don’t just gain competitive advantage. You build a relationship and a sense of trust with your customer that will only have positive implications for your future in business. Make your goal to help your customer achieve their goal and you will win.
In my online training ‘The Influence School’, I have an entire module which deep dives into understanding others so well that you know exactly how to motivate, persuade and inspire them. I even share my 12 drives module which is a comprehensive model of how to motivate anyone successfully.
Doors are now OPEN to The Influence School for one week only until Thursday, 8th of April. Find out more about The Influence School here: owenfitzpatrick.com/influence
You can also register to watch a copy of my free masterclass ‘HOW TO MASTER PERSUASION AND GET A YES’. Watch the replay here: owenfitzpatrick.com/replay
