BRX Pro Tip: Relationships Beat Transactions Every Time
Stone Payton: And we’re back with Business RadioX Pro Tips. Lee Kantor, Stone Payton here with you. Lee, if anybody in the marketplace beats this drum, it’s us. Relationships over transactions, but speak a little bit to that.
Lee Kantor: Yeah. Anybody running a service business, the most important asset you have is trust, integrity, things like that. And you can’t shortcut trust. You can’t – trust doesn’t really scale. Trust is earned, relationship at a time, and you build it by showing up consistently. You keep your promises. You care about the outcome for your client more than you do for yourself. You’re truly a team player, truly a servant leader.
Lee Kantor: The problem is that a lot of these service businesses, and you’re seeing it more and more, they’re about transactions. They really don’t care if the customer wins. They’re just trying to get the next customer. They’re just trying to make the sale. They’re just moving on to the next one. And that’s really a trap.
Lee Kantor: You have to build around relationships. And when you are, and when you give – when you say relationships are important, you have to do the work that really delivers the value to the relationship. You can’t just give it lip service. That means you got to stay in touch. That means you got to check in. That means you have to celebrate their wins, and you have to genuinely be interested in their outcome and helping them get the outcome they desire.
Lee Kantor: So, three ways to make that shift. First, stop treating follow-up as a sales activity. Start treating it as a relationship activity. Reach out to people with no agenda.
Lee Kantor: Second, look out for ways to add value before you’ve been asked. You should be ahead of your client. You should know where the danger is ahead of them. Send them an article. Make an introduction. Share something useful. You have to do those kind of things to keep the relationship going and to position yourself as that go-to partner, that trusted advisor, that they cannot do their work without your help.
Lee Kantor: Third, you have to always be thinking long-term. The client in front of you today might not be ready to buy. But if you invest in the relationship, they will be ready to buy at some point, and/or they will send you somebody else who is ready to buy.
Lee Kantor: So, relationships beat transactions every time, especially if you’re in a service industry. And guess what? Everybody is in the service industry.
