How Strong Customer Relationships Saved My Business… And Quite Possibly My Family
October 25, 2007, I got the call no parent wants to receive.
My son-in-law had been hit by a roadside bomb in Iraq and was in a coma after almost bleeding to death on the side of a highway in Sadr City.
All we knew was that he was on a flight to Ramstein Air Force Base in Germany.
That’s literally all we knew. I didn’t know if he was going to live or die.
But I knew in that moment, my business and my life, were going to change forever.
Up until that point, I like to say I had “been somebody online.”
I spoke at numerous conferences; I had a huge network of JV partners… I was most definitely making things happen.
Suddenly, I had family obligations that overrode everything else as far as business was concerned.
But… and it’s a BIG but… I also needed to keep the money rolling in.
Before, it was easy. I could work all the time and do nothing but business.
But all of a sudden, my wife and I were basically raising our grandson, little Johnny.
I had to help my kids by driving them to doctors’ appointments hundreds of miles away, provide financial support, and generally “be there” in ways that I’ve never had to before.
THESE SEVERE CIRCUMSTANCES WOULD HAVE DESTROYED MOST PEOPLE’S BUSINESSES.
Let’s face it… most people can’t survive having the brakes thrown on their business overnight. Lord knows, I barely did it!
But because of the strong customer relationships I’d built up over the previous 10 years, I was able to explain the circumstances to my customers, and then fall back on my membership site.
I made the decision I was going to focus the majority of my time on that one part of my business.
At the time, I didn’t know how long I’d have to do that, but it ended up being almost three years! I focused almost exclusively on that membership site (without promoting it or recruiting new members… just making it work with the people we already had!
That membership site, along with sales of 7 Day Ebook, provided the income and employment not just for me, but for my family as well.
We were able to leverage time and support our family the way we needed to, without depending on speaking at conferences anymore.
I didn’t have time to promote products or forge new relationships… all I had time to do was to service the customers we already had (specifically in my membership site).
But because of those relationships — and focusing on building those relationships –
WE ACTUALLY CAME OUT OF IT STRONGER THAN BEFORE THE ATTACK… BOTH AS A FAMILY AND AS A BUSINESS.
So yes, leads are important!
Yes, sales are important.
But the true value and satisfaction in your business comes from the relationships you create with your customers and subscribers.
The power of those relationships will not only sustain you, but it will fulfill you through good times, bad times, hard times, and easy times.
Those relationships and friendships that develop actually make life worth living and are the true reward for building a great business!
So don’t just focus on the bottom line and think that represents the true value of your business because it doesn’t.
Ultimately those relationships you forge through service to others are the most valuable thing in your business.
One thing that creates outstanding relationships is staying in the flow of your customers’ and subscribers’ lives with a steady stream of valuable content.
If you’d like the secrets, tools, and proven strategies to create relationships that last for decades, check out the free training at ContentMarketingScripts.com
