Relationship Marketing via Pixabay.com

Relationship Marketing — 3 Success Traits

Yvonne A Jones
Jul 20, 2017 · 4 min read

The need to build strong relationships with peers, employees and/or outsources, as well as customers or clients is essential to success. Three success traits, practiced by entrepreneurs, contribute to effective relationship marketing. They are:

- maintaining a positive mindset
- demonstrating excellent communication skills, and
- staying on top of trends in their industry.

A Positive Mindset in Relationship Marketing

Your positive action combined with positive thinking results in success.
~ Shiv Khera

People often think of a positive mindset in connection with personal development and rarely connect it as an important trait for entrepreneurs,
or as a factor in relationship marketing. Entrepreneurs who build relationships know that mindset is an essential trait in planning and growing a business.

The importance of mindset cannot be minimized because without the proper mindset anything you want to accomplish is as good as dead, even before it gets off the ground. Persistence and flexibility are two major components of the proper mindset required to build strong relationships and run a business.

Why are persistence and flexibility so important? The road to and on entrepreneurship is not usually a smooth one. There will be ups and downs. And there will inevitably be roadblocks that come up from time to time. Whether you view them as stumbling blocks or stepping stones, will make the difference in whether your business survives and thrives, or fails and sinks.

Cultivating the right mindset will allow you to build essential relationships. You will recognize that although you’re in business for yourself, there is no need to view everyone else in your niche as a rival or competitor, in the truest sense. You’ll recognize that you have strengths that others do not have, as well as weaknesses in areas that they many excel in. This can change your perception from competition to co-opetition.

Having the right mindset will also allow you to avoid being judgmental of others, and instead be open-minded recognizing that you can learn from others if you give them the opportunity to share their wisdom and you give yourself permission to learn from them.

Relationship Marketing through Communication

“The most important single ingredient in the formula of success is knowing how to get along with people.” — Theodore Roosevelt

Communication skills are vitally important to any business, but online businesses especially need expertise in practicing relationship marketing through communication. This can be done through writing relevant content, social media and videos. Entrepreneurs also need to know how to communicate effectively with business partners, network, and customers.

Successful entrepreneurs, especially ones who work online, must develop skills that convey their message authentically. This is why, although it may not be your most comfortable way of communicating, videos and live presentations are important to master. Using these methods to share new ideas, products, and services can give your customer list and sales a huge boost.

Social media, with its various platforms, has become a significant tool for communicating with customers and clients. Increasingly, it’s being used by large companies to deliver customer service. As an entrepreneur, you too can use social media effectively to let your clients and customers know what you’re up to in your business. Share more than just business. Share some of your personality and snippets of what’s going on in your life so that your audience and network can more easily relate to you.

Good communication also involves finding out, through one-on-one conversations and surveys what your clients and customers need and how you can better serve them. Take an interest in others and make them feel important by asking them questions; then listen.

Build Relationships by Staying Abreast of Trends

“Quality is never an accident; it is always the result of high intention, sincere effort, intelligent direction and skillful execution; it represents the wise choice of many alternatives.” — William A. Foster

Continuous learning is not an option for entrepreneurs. You must cultivate the mindset that non-stop education is vital to your success. It’s been said that when you stop learning, your mind becomes a stagnant wasteland. Albert Einstein said, “When you stop learning, you start dying.”

Doing business in the 21st Century requires entrepreneurs to stay on top of business and business trends. Traditional sales and marketing have shifted, and the same “old” methods are not working as well as they used to. Here again it’s important to know what’s happening because different methods apply to different demographics.

How about your relationship with your clients and customers? Are you still focusing on acquiring new customers, or are you using opportunities to create a great customer experience and continue to build relationships with them so that you create loyal customers and raving fans rather than one time transactions? This is what relationship marketing is about.

According to Kissmetrics, 78% of mobile searches for local business information result in a purchase. Now here are some startling statistics regarding conversions in a local purchase:

61% from a PC/Laptop
78% from a mobile phone
64% from a tablet.

Armed with this knowledge, is your website mobile responsive so that it adapts seamlessly to each of these devices? Are you in ecommerce? Is your website equipped to convert visitors, or do they have to go through hoops to make a purchase.

Never think you know it all, but be ready to read or listen to another way of doing things or thinking about things that concern your business. Relationship marketing allows you to truly serve your customers or clients and create customer loyalty. It also allows you to build relationships with your network, including those with whom you do business one way or the other.

What are other traits of entrepreneurs do you believe are essential to building strong relationships?

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Yvonne A Jones

Written by

Personal Business Coach| Founder of 50 & Wiser Coaching|Relationship Marketing Strategist|Author|Speaker #custserv #mindset #smallbiz #entrepreneur

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