There are no shortcuts to great relationships

There is a plethora of business advice available that breaks things down to a few action points. It seems to me that number is always four or seven. As in, “the seven secrets of effective what-have-yous” or “the four fundamentals of you-guessed-it.”

Since every slice of really good business advice needs a clever, catchy title, I'm going to call mine Pitching Woo.

Except Pitching Woo doesn’t break down quite so simply.

You see, The Woo isn’t about closing more deals, booking more business or increasing your sales. Those are the natural consequences of The Woo, but not its raison d’etre.

This isn’t just for salespeople. It’s for CEOs and secretaries and everyone who falls anywhere on the curve. This isn’t about how you treat prospects, it’s about how you treat people.

All people. All the time.

When you’re wooing, you aren’t inking a deal, you’re forging a relationship. And, try as you might, you can’t build a long-lasting relationship in four simple steps.

Wooing clients — providing value, demonstrating commitment, partnering for their success — takes effort. It's not easy. But really, what's your alternative? Asking more or less random people if they want to buy your stuff?

Why? Because it's on sale?

You're better than that. Your stuff deserves better than that.

Your customers deserve better than that.

For me, it starts with this blog. My goal here is not JUST to give away free marketing advice. No, my goal is to provide value, to commit to your success with every single post, to demonstrate relationship-building simply by . . . building relationships.

It starts with this blog, but that is literally the first word on the matter.

Relationships, even business relationships, take time. And effort.

And time.

No amount of charm, wit or perfect grammar, no clever turn-of-phrase, catchy headline or clever analogy will ever shorten the process.

I cannot imagine the prospective client who reads one post and immediately drops everything, picks up the phone and calls in begging to sign a long-term contract.

I can, however, imagine the prospective client who reads one post and is intrigued enough to read another. I can imagine this individual coming back every so often to catch up on the latest.

I can even envision the phone call we eventually receive asking for a meeting.

How do you approach relationship building in your business? 

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Don't let Jeffrey M. Peyton's accolades, business accomplishments or cool demeanor fool you. The Sun's newest marketing team member has wing-walked on an airplane at 700 feet, co-piloted the Goodyear Blimp, swam with sharks, and managed to obtain paperwork officially declaring him “legally sane.”