RUTH THIRTLE is a relationship marketing experts who loves nothing more than to see people transform into even more successful versions of themselves. Ruth made the leap from the corporate world to business ownership in 2007 after 15 years of management, sales and recruitment experience when she realised that she had more to offer to business owners than she could deliver as an employee. Ruth is all about “Inspiring Profitable Conversations” and an in-demand speaker. She has individual business coaching clients both in Australia and the UK. She is also a contributing author in The Law of Attraction in Action and The Power of 100 books and a regular contributor to the Business Blogging Network.
How you relate with and treat other people may be having a bigger impact on your business than you think. Even in the age of technology and gadgets, people still do business with people and not things.
Many of us are brought up to see that it is socially commendable to treat other people as you would like to be treated. Yet too many people do not translate that same behaviour to business. This results in people having a negative impression of a business, feeling “sold” to and not having positive things to say about the whole situation.
I believe that marketing your business through building great relationships is the way of building your business the right way; a way that is fun for you and your staff and leads to a great experience for your customers.
The Golden Rule of Relationships is therefore to treat your customers the way that you would like to be treated.
This can have an impact in a number of ways.
Repeat business. It is so much easier and more cost effective to sell more to an existing client than to acquire a new client.
Referrals. Over 90 per cent of business owners say they rely on word of mouth to build their business – yet only three per cent of businesses have a strategy. Greater relationships is the start of the strategy.
Increased Opportunities. Treating people well leads to business and referrals – it also leads to other opportunities. Opportunities to raise your profile, partner with other businesses and so much more.
The three mistakes people make by ignoring the Golden Rule.
Spending a day with a client recently, the first thing that we changed was putting her ideal customer hat on rather than her business owner hat. She then approached all of her sales funnel, copywriting and product development from that standpoint. She has done more and seen more results in two weeks than in the last three years!
“Quality in a service or product is not what you put into it. It is what the client or customer gets out of it.”
- Peter Drucker