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Things to Consider

Though these questions are asked in a business context, they apply equally to your spouse and family. To volunteer groups you may work with. Think of these in a broader context. Some questions that you should take time to ask of yourself are:

How well do I/we deliver on what we promise?

How often do I/we do things right the very first time?

How often do I/we do them on time?
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The Platinum Questions

There are a couple of questions we need to keep asking ourselves. 1) How are we doing? And 2) how can we get better? Both of those are crucial to long term, effective relationships.

You need to ask that of your significant other, how am I doing? Also, how can I get better?

You need to ask that of your employees – how am I doing? And how can I get better?

And of the people who depend on you and the customers who come to you – how are we doing? And how can we improve or how can we get better?
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To Build a Winning Relationship

A few essentials you need to think about when looking at a situation from another person’s perspective are, 1) you need to have a profile on that person, that individual, that customer, that friend of what they like.

You need to get to know them a bit and what it is about you or your product that brings them to you. What is it that’s important about that – develop a profile on what these people around you, whether friends or business, like.

2) You also need to slow down and take time to look at yourself through their eyes. Step back, look at it from an empathetic perspective.

See if you can stand in their perspective and look at you from their eyes. Not you looking at yourself, but look at it from someone else’s point of view. How do they see you? How do they interact with you?
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Good or Bad is a Perspective

Then the big question really is – what causes people around us to perceive what we do as good or bad? It is a subjective evaluation.

The other person thought that what you did was good or bad is because of this subjective filtering of your actions–from their point of view. The quality of is something they received “good or bad” is because of the difference between what they get and what they expected to get.

Let me say it again – the perceived difference in how good or bad of service or quality someone receives is the difference between what they get from you and what they expect from you.
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Don’t Sell Me….

There was an anonymous letter written by a customer once that said,

“Don’t sell me clothes, sell me a sharp appearance, style and attractiveness. Don’t sell me insurance; sell me peace of mind and a great future for my family and me. Don’t sell me a house; sell me comfort, contentment, a good investment, pride of ownership.

Don’t sell me books; sell me pleasant hours and the profits of knowledge. Don’t sell me toys, sell my children happy moments. Don’t sell me a computer; sell me the pleasures and profits, the miracles of modern technology.

Don’t sell me tires, sell me freedom from worry and low cost per mile. Don’t sell me an airline ticket; sell me fast, safe, on time arrival at my destination feeling relaxed and at ease.
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Emotional Connection

Helena Modjeska was a 19th century actress and was extremely popular because of her ability to communicate emotions powerfully. She could take her audience to tears or to laughter.

Once she gave a dramatic reading in Polish, which was her native language. The people she was speaking to here in the United States were all English speakers, none of them spoke Polish.

She gave a very passionate dramatic reading in Polish and received a standing ovation at the end. Many people were brought to tears by the power in her voice. What she had actually done was recite the Polish alphabet multiple times, with passion and with power, and it brought her audience to the standing ovation she received at the end.
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Seeing Through Barriers

The wonderful Zig Ziglar said, “People justify their purchases with logic, but they buy on emotion.” You know people don’t really care how much you know until they know how much you care about, 1) the products and services, and 2) about them. There is absolutely no substitute for honesty, unshakable enthusiasm and belief in the products and the service that you’re offering.

It’s the same for both your personal life and your professional life.

If you think about those people you personally are closest to, you have this emotional connection to them – they do something for you inside that rises you up and helps you lift to another level – it brings goodness to you. It’s the same in your professional life – the greatest customer you will ever win is yourself. You first must sell you, you first must feel that passion, that emotion within.
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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.
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