Guest written by Erika Towne.
I write a lot of posts for my husband because he’s a finance guy by trade and I’m a writer by trade. He’s actually very good at writing, but it sometimes comes across as more technical than personal. I’m a write for the spoken word kind of gal.
I say this so you understand the kind of guy my husband is. I was sorting through the mail the other day when I came across an Amazon box. It’s not a strange find. We’re frequent Amazon shoppers. What was strange was what was inside. Three new copies of the book Talk Triggers: The Complete Guide to Creating Customers with Word of Mouth.
I laughed and asked him why he bought three copies. His reply got me thinking.
“I liked the guy’s presentation,” he said. “So I bought three more copies to give out.”
I laughed again, but I didn’t question it because it made sense. My husband is in the business of meeting people, helping people, advising people. Much of his business relies on client interaction and interaction with referral sources. For him, sometimes it’s not so much about getting paid, but helping someone out.
I know what you’re thinking, “That’s a great story, but what’s it mean to me?”
The story got me thinking about how we create value for our clients. A lot of you are visiting this site and reading this article because you’re searching for something. Whether it’s to build your client base or take your business to the next level, you’re struggling with how to do that.
I imagine that you are very good at what you do, but these new business challenges are taking you out of your depth.
Building a Lasting Relationship
When it comes to building a lasting relationship in today’s business world, there’s a lot of noise to compete with. Customers are inundated with Facebook and Instagram posts. They’re tweeted at constantly. Spam frequently shows up in their inbox burying the important emails in a pile of junk mail.
Most of this content is worthless. It’s words slapped together that add little or no value to the everyday operations of your clients. But you put it out because that’s what you were told to do. Content is supposed to lead to customer conversion. At least, that’s what you’re told.
Which is why your content needs to rise above. It needs to add value for the sake of value and not for the sake of the sale. You need to be a resource for your clients, someone they’ll turn to when they have an actual problem.