Building winning relationships is not about just your business relationships but your personal relationships as well. What do you need to do to make all of those thrive?

I want you for a moment to think about some of the following numbers. A typical business hears only from 4% of the dissatisfied customers that leave their business. The other 96% just quietly go away and more than 90% of those never come back again. That’s a serious loss in relationships and in business.

There was a survey done on why customers quit going to certain organizations and why people have problems with certain organizations. 3% of those people moved away to a different location, 5% had developed other relationships or friendships or rapport with other organizations, 9% left for competitive reasons of some sort. 14% left because they were dissatisfied with the functioning of the product or service, and 68% of those quit because of an attitude of indifference by the managers, employees or the organization itself that they were dealing with.

The typical dissatisfied customer tends to tell ten to twelve friends or associates when they’re dissatisfied with a business. On the other hand, people who like the service they’ve received tell on average only two or three people.

Seven out of ten of those complaining customers will do business with you again if you can resolve their complaint in their favour. But if you resolve that complaint on the spot, 95%will come back and do business with you again, and in many cases like you better than before they’d had a problem.

On average a satisfied customer will tell at least five people about the problem and how you resolved it. It’s crucial to build those winning relationships personally and professionally because they do last a lifetime.

Building Connection

One of the most famous diamond dealers to ever live, Harry Winston of New York City, heard about a wealthy Dutch merchant who was looking for a specific kind of diamond to add to his collection.

Winston called the merchant, told him he thought he had just the perfect diamond for him. He then invited the merchant to come to New York so Winston could show it to him.

The collector flew to New York and Harry Winston assigned one of his salesmen in his store to meet and show the diamond to this potential customer. When the salesman presented the diamond to the wealthy Dutchman, he described the expensive stone by pointing out all of its fine technical features. The merchant listened, praised the stone and said, “That’s a wonderful stone, but it’s not really what I want.”

Winston, who was standing back and watching, stopped the merchant just as he was leaving the store and asked, “Do you mind if I show you that diamond just once more?”

The possible customer said, ‘fine’ and proceeded to go back and look at it once more.

But instead of talking about the technical features and value of the stone, Winston spoke spontaneously about his own genuine admiration of this specific, rare diamond and what an amazing thing of beauty it was. Abruptly the customer changed his mind and bought the diamond on the spot.

While waiting for the diamond to be packaged and brought to him, the merchant approached Mr. Winston and asked, “Why did I buy this from you, when I had no difficulty saying no to your salesman?”

Harry Winston said, “That salesman is one of the best men in the diamond business. He knows more about diamonds than I do. I pay him a good salary for what he knows. But I would gladly pay him twice or even three times as much if he could put into him some of that which I have that he lacks. You see, he knows diamonds, but I love diamonds.”

This story talks about a single principle of persuasion. People tend to be far more persuaded by your beliefs, your feelings, and your emotions than by logic or knowledge. This does not mean you don’t have to be knowledgeable or have logic, but what’s in your gut often makes a difference.

(to be continued…)

Order this article as an AudioBook!

Has this program caught your interest? You can purchase and immediately download this entire 12-part program! It includes a full-length AudioBook file as well as a complete PDF transcript!
Get all 12 segments of this program right now!
Order Now: Winning Relationships! – Only $9.95

Strategies of Influence and Persuasion
Do you ever wonder how to become more persuasive and influential? Would you like to know how to get people to instantly accept and like you? What if you knew the verbal and nonverbal tactics that immediately give you credibility? Well now you can! You can start using these strategies today to build a winning, commanding presence. Learn how to rapidly get people to believe what you are saying. Know how to deliver a tough message without becoming the “bad guy”. Learn a step-by-step strategy for getting people to like and accept you. Refine your skills of speaking persuasively. Learn what the number one conflict is—and how to rapidly break free of it. Dr. Larry Iverson will guide you through proven methods that will help you make a positive impact and be more persuasive with everyone you meet.