Within the collective of online businesses, there are various schools of thought as to how you should go about building the most effective model for business.

Two of the most popular models for success online are automation and also relationship building.

The automation model simply suggests that by automating or having as many aspects of business running on auto-pilot, certain resources (namely you), are free to focus more so on other money generating activities.

The relationship building model is more of a psychological approach, which is built upon the notion that people tend to do business with individuals or companies that they like, trust, or are at least more familiar with.

Here there may be something of a debate…

Now, many will argue that hey, with this one VS the other. You can certainly do both. Right?

This is true, but I believe this is only true to a certain extent without sacrificing the value of one model for another.

Automation of those business activities that don’t deal directly with the customer is highly efficient.

However, once you begin to automate your methods of direct contact, such as customer support, pre-selling, even e-mailing your list, I would suggest that you are also sacrificing your relationship in favor of automation.

Here is an example…

One popular method for automation is undoubtedly the auto-responder. The auto-responder allows a business to send any number of pre written e-mails to a list of customers or prospects.

Although, this is tactic definitely conserves time, most automated e-mails have the look and feel of something that has been mass produced.

These e-mails don’t have much of a personalized touch which eliminates the opportunity for a customer to develop any sort of bond or personal relationship with that business.

E-mail marketing is an incredible method by which a business can build relationships with lists and customers.

The key element to this approach is consistency as well as a personal touch.

When people here from you on a regular basis, they become accustomed to that contact and begin to expect it.

As apposed to, “Oh! This guy again. He probably wants to sell me something and off the top of my head I can’t say I feel like spending any money. So, delete.”

When a business automates the contact with customers they lose much of any personal quality and take on the image of some huge money hungry machine that frankly doesn’t have the time to send you a personal e-mail.

This is not relationship building by any stretch of the imagination. People like to do business with other people, not corporations, or franchises, or operations, but people.

Other highly effective methods for actually connecting with people online (and that is the power of the internet), include forum marketing,blogging, and viral marketing.

I won’t go into detail about these methods here, because each could easily warrant an entire piece on that topic alone.

I believe that closely associated with that initial query by potential customers, “What’s in it for me?” there is also an implied questions of,

“Why should I listen to you…Why should I trust you?”

This is the importance of relationship building and any business, but especially business online. People like to know that you are as real as they are.

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

-Aristotle



By: The Maverick Marketeer

About the Author:

Joint venture marketing is a rapidly growing arm of relationship marketing, and a highly effective one. Relationship marketing holds as its central tenant the importance of building strong, solid and long lasting relationships with your customers and clients.

Joint venture marketing exists under the umbrella of relationship marketing precisely because it is still ultimately concerned with stalwart customer relationships.

When implementing a traditional relationship marketing platform, your company will work directly with a client to forge a relationship and will usually handle all of the customer service itself. With a joint venture marketing partnership, there are many ways to structure your deal, but one of the main advantages can be that some of the customer service piece of the maintenance of your business is shared among your partners.

This also means that you take on an additional commitment to the customer service of your partners, but this also creates a win-win situation, because ultimately you are sharing customers and both gaining new and loyal customers through your joint venture marketing partnerships.

Joint Venture Marketing: Also a Relationship

This may seem obvious, but it is still worth pointing out: a joint venture marketing partnership involves embarking on a new relationship with your partners. This is another way that joint venture marketing falls under the umbrella of relationship marketing.

Through your joint venture marketing partnerships, you have the potential to develop a tremendous rapport with your partners, and these strong business relationships have the potential to increase your sales and profits almost as much as the business agreements that you come to through these partnerships.

It is human nature that we tend to assist people that we like, or feel some connection to or affinity for. It is no different in the business world. As people work more and many jobs become virtual, the lines of business lives and personal lives are becoming increasingly blurred. So what starts out as a business relationship often grows over time, sometimes developing into a personal relationship. Even if your business relationships don’t turn personal, developing a strong rapport with your partners is a great way to increase your business.

If you have an equally good product, company and customer service in the same industry as one of your partner’s other colleagues, but you have a stronger rapport with the mutual partner, then he or she is much more likely to recommend and suggest your business and products to its clients than the third party, with whom he may not have as close a relationship. Again, this is human nature - all things being equal, we give preference to people that we like.

It may sound calculating to intentionally go after developing a bond with your joint venture marketing partners, but it doesn’t need to sound so seedy and manipulative. You are not going to hit it off with everyone - this is natural and cannot be forced. But sometimes just a few extra minutes of conversation, or steering the conversation towards personal subjects, taking the time to find out about your partners on a personal level can open up beneficial avenues for your business.

Again, it is about being interested in and caring about people enough to get to know more about your partners, not using them! Putting a relationship at the central focus of your business holds true for customers, as well as your joint venture marketing partners.



By: Christian Fea

About the Author:

The following are 10 striking tips & tricks on how to get yourself ready for dating & relationships. Use them wisely and you will be bound to have fun and triumph in the dating arena.

1. Pamper Yourself First! Do the things that make you feel contented and good, and then when you have more you can share them with others.

2. Be Clear of What you are looking for.

If your primary reason for dating is to get into a meaningful relationship, you have to clearly define what you want to achieve in the relationship. Clarity brings balance between hope and fear. Jot down the qualities you want most in your partner in a long-term relationship. Then pick the 10 that are non-negotiable must haves otherwise you’ll get stuck.

3. Go for the Essentials.

Be definite about your personal values. Use them as your guidelines in evaluating if a relationship is right for you or not. Your values are your personal operating system. They can only be compromised with your agreement.

4. Know Thyself. Know yourself, your strengths and weaknesses, your dreams; when you can confidently talk about whom you are, you attract what you want most AND people around you will help you get it - because you’ve told them! The clearer you are about what you want - the more others understand and can help you get it.

5. Positive Attitude Goes a Long Way.

If your view of dating or finding a partner is negative you are effectively closing the door to opportunities. You should have a positive attitude, it makes a big difference. By adopting a positive attitude you create space for infinite possibilities in your life.

6. Have Supportive People Around.

Get help and support from family and friends who want the best for you. Having supportive, reassuring people in your life is important in bringing out the best in you.

7. Validating Feelings

Validate your feelings with the people around you. When you are happy, how do they feel? When you are sad, how do they react? Be aware of your positive and negative feelings and how they affect those around you. Awareness of how you affect others opens up areas of improvements.

8. You can be Interesting!

You had a private life before you started dating and began a relationship, keep doing things that interest you and involve your partner. Do not allow a new relationship to deprive you of what you enjoy doing and your friends.

9. What’s in a Relationship?

In a relationship, you should always be in the learning mode. Examine and evaluate patterns of behavior that may be detrimental and be on the look out for new ones that can lead to healthy and happy relationships.

10. Trash the Excess Baggage!

Clean your personality closet of your negative attitude. Stop feeling sorry for what was, let it go! You have the opportunity to start anew and get exactly what you really desire.



By: Joshua Goh

About the Author:

If you are familiar with the concept of attachment fear relationship treatment, you may be wondering what it is all about– and if it can be a help to you. Whether you have a minor problem, or if it has been making a significant impact in your life, there is hope. You can overcome your attachment fear– and have better, more fulfilling relationships than you’ve ever dreamed were possible!

There are a number of different attachment fear relationship treatments currently available. If you want the best results, however, it is in your best interest to consider a form of treatment which places its main priority on getting to the source of the problem. Regardless of what you may have heard, if attachment fear treatment is to be successful there can be no shortcuts around this factor. If you have fear or difficulty in forming or maintaining intimate bonds in relationships, this problem did not occur “yesterday,” and, as such, cannot be resolved overnight. The good news is that it is not only possible, it is not nearly as difficult or lengthy a process as you may think.

Most instances of attachment fear have their origins in a person’s early years. In some cases, though, a seriously-traumatic personal relationship in adult life can lead to attachment fear. Attachment fear treatment which will provide you with the best chance of full recovery will begin by getting to the cause in your own specific, individual situation.

While you may find that uncovering the origins of your particular attachment fear is distressing, you can be assured that the pain will not last forever. There is less to be gained from prolonging all of the negative feelings than by beginning to deal with them outright. Not only has your attachment fear been standing in the way of having the kinds of close, happy relationships that you really want, it has likely affected your overall sense of wellbeing in general. You do not need for the emptiness to be a part of your life forever– attachment fear relationship treatment can help you.

If you think about it, it does make sense. You do not want to get hurt again; nor do you want to risk being abandoned. When your coping mechanisms tell you the only way to ensure that you will not have these kinds of experiences is to never become truly close to anyone, and never form intimate bonds, those coping mechanisms are keeping you stuck in some painful experience that you had at some point in your life. If the experience was traumatic enough to have left you in the position where you are now– with fear of attachment sabotaging your chance to enjoy a happy, healthy relationship– tackling this problem with appropriate treatment should not be delayed.

If you are considering whether or not you should seek treatment for the problems you are having with attachment fear, the best way to look at it is that you have nothing to lose– and what you stand to gain when you can leave those fears behind is the joy that a great relationship can bring into your life!



By: Daniel Hartman

About the Author:

Do you need help selling IT services?  In order to build a strong IT consulting business, you need to get away from selling low prices and sell your knowledge, expertise and the value-proposition of mutually-beneficial relationships with your prospective clients.    

As a small business computer consultant, there are a lot of challenges you will face as you build your business.  One of them involves marketing and selling your services to highly qualified business owners that understand and embrace the value of your sophisticated IT solutions.  The following 3 tips can help you set yourself apart from the competition and avoid price-sensitive buyers.

1) Leverage Your Expertise.    When you are selling IT services, your expertise will set you apart from the competition.  There are hundreds of people who can do the easy work of an IT “generalist." But you need to make it your business to do the hard work and show you know the industry better than they do.  You need to be an IT “specialist” and be one of only a couple people in your area that can do what you do.  When you can truly leverage this concept of being a specialist, you will move away from price sensitive buyers and towards those that understand the concept of a sophisticated IT solution.  These tend to be the same clients that are willing to pay higher hourly billing rates for relatively scarce, high-value, results-focused expertise.



2) Sell Knowledge, Not Commodities.  If you want to have a successful IT business, you need to stop selling the same old products by themselves and start selling the real value of your services… and the bottom-line business value they provide.  You aren’t going to get very far by selling IT services to product-only customers or competing on price alone.  You need to bundle in value-added services and add real value in order to substantially grow your company and survive for many years.  Think about the concept of selling “You, Inc.”. Remember, your value proposition includes everything you know and are good at, as well as the personalized relationships you build with your clients.  How can you transform your whole marketing approach, so it’s not about just reaching potential customers and clients?  Rather, think about reaching long-term clients, who will need you for many months and years to keep their IT systems up and running.  Stop thinking about how to market “low, low prices” and start really selling your specific solutions that solve real business problems and are different from the solutions of any other IT service provider in your area.  



3) Sell Unique Benefits.  When you are selling IT services, think about which benefits you can give your clients that will be different from the average generalist consultant in your area.  You need to differentiate yourself from the competition to increase your base of high-paying, steady, long-term clients.  Think about the benefits you offer as part of long-term relationships with clients.  For example, what are the terms of your service contracts, and how do they benefit both you and your loyal clients?  Or is your location – close to clients – something you can leverage with a guaranteed response time during regular business hours?  Think carefully about exactly what you offer clients that no one else can and then stress these unique benefits in all your marketing collateral.

 

In this article we talked about 3 valuable tips that can help you when you are selling IT services.  To learn more about how you can get great, steady, high-paying clients, sign up for free tips on Selling IT Services now at http://www.ITServicesBusiness.com.

 

Copyright (C), ITServicesBusiness.com, All Rights Reserved.



By: Joshua Feinberg

About the Author:

(copyrighted)

Throughout my life, I have realized that in ANY type of relationship, whether it is just starting, a new blossoming or even very established and ever lasting, the following must fit and be true.

A.  COMMUNICATION

1.    Communicating: In any relationship, communication is the key.  Whether in letters or emails, phone or face-to-face conversations must exist and consist of the actual content of the subject matter with some sense of understanding between the other parties.  We must understand and know that we live in a sophisticated MULTI-cultural world and people’s thought processes are not as black and white as a letter or email, or even most times A simple phone call.



2.    Change communication methods:  Any time that one method of communication is not really working, it is best to revert into another method.  That’s why when we write letters to people, whether business or personal, once in a while, we pick up the phone, call the recipient and say: “Hey, I just called to see if you’ve received my letter.  Do you have any questions? What do you think?” Or make comments, raise questions… In other words, I think it is important to open the line of communication.   Possibly, I am old fashioned.  However, throughout the years, I have learned that one type of communication might sometimes get misconstrued.  For example, in a letter, you may be able to express some of your thoughts and feelings yet, no matter how hard you try, you are not able to express ALL your feelings because you cannot really express your tone.  Whether it is a soft and pleasing tone, directing, commanding, demanding or bluntly angry tone, you cannot truly express these in letters.

To give you an example,

I bought software package for my website some time ago.  I was under the impression that the software would do what I wanted it to do for my Credit Repair ebook.  I was misunderstood.  As a result, I emailed back and forth with the vendor and through several emails, I received a response saying:  “Please do not shout at me.”  Both of us insulted, I asked either for the vendor to call me or provide me a phone number so that I could call.  In our conversation, I was informed that because I had some words capitalized in my emails, it was construed as “SHOUTING.” Although I had no intentions of that, I used CAPITAL letters to emphasize my point.  However, a phone call resolved all issues.

A friend of mine meets with his parties, even if he has to travel 300 to 500 miles to talk with the party face-to-face.  I asked him, why.  I suggested, “Its insane.  If you were going to meet this person for the first time after several communications, then I would understand.  However, driving such a distance, with the possibility of an accident, going through two states just for a lunch meeting when you treat this person as one of your close friends of years, is illogical.” The response I received was logical. He said, “Talking with people face-to-face and looking into their faces and eyes, reveals a lot of things that you would never be able to see on the phone, letter, email, or even a gift package.”  What do you think? 

3.    Changing tone of communication and removing the dryness. As a person who has experienced much unanticipated stress, I have learned one thing.  If I want to be dry and serious in everything I DO, I WILL LOSE THE SENSE OF BEING THE HUMAN THAT I WANT TO BE.  What do I mean by that?  Allow me to give you an example.  On behalf of my clients, I talk with corporate executives, as well as, some challenging people who think- they know everything that there is about the law and the world.  Therefore, some of my conversations are down right nasty when I realize that the party on the other end of the phone does not understand my point, or what I am trying to say.  Meanwhile, a minute later, I am as pleasant and funny as I can be with the next person in the same company.  I joke, ask about the weather in their neck of the woods, while I am discussing what is going on with my client’s account and making my request and demands.  As a result, I have established relationships with executive offices of some major corporations to the extent that some of them, as soon as they hear my voice, they know who I am.  We joke, tease, and discuss clients’ issues and nicely resolve the matter(s) or sometimes leave as it is…  To some others, I may need to say my first name, and to others I may even have to repeat my last name and even joke with them saying, “This is Mike Samadi, your worst nightmare you know…” but, because we have established a relationship through letters, faxes, emails and many phone calls, they know I am just joking.    In order to lose that dry sense of communication and making it pleasant, sometimes humor, teasing or joking around would add on to the sensitivity, making the communication more pleasant and the parties more comfortable.  Sometimes with some arrogant corporate representatives, even VPs or presidents (who can’t come off of their high horses), my tone on a phone conversation gets serious and nasty (at times).  When I realize it is not working then, I draft a letter and properly forward it to the company or the person.  Then, the direction changes in my favor.  Do I draw a picture?  The rules of communications is not a straight line; because, we do not know how other party feels or react to ONLY one method of communications AND/OR to the tone in that communication (especially in this crazy multi-cultural world we live in).

A friend suggested that, “effective communication comes with: active listening, not taking things personally, being clear and impeccable with your word, and having compassion for both sides.  Of course this takes practice and is sometimes easier said than done, but I feel it should be strived for.  It is about being able to express yourself and your points without having to raise your voice to prove anything to the other person.  It is about active listening and active participation.  Not everyone is going to be nice or polite on the phone, however, in all of my experience of being calm, assertive, and a little forward, with my hint of compassion underneath it all, people will usually cooperate with me.  Being nasty should not be the way to get what you want.  I believe we must practice asking for what we want directly and assertively while also respecting the person on the other end.  You cannot control another person’s reaction, however, you can take the high road and control your own reactions to a person.”

4.    Patience:  This is a factor that I guess I lack.  I have learned that a liar will always trap him or herself.  In my opinion, some of those who CLIAM to be honest reveal their hidden secrets shortly later.   I don’t want to share my experiences in this matter.  They are extensive.   I would say here: I have finally concluded that much can be seen and understood about a person’s honesty and values based on their actions and how they present themselves. Years ago, I was testing a friend’s honesty and loyalty to me.  I took $12,000 cash and spread it all around the house, some in obvious places, some hidden to be found easily and some not so easily. I left town for a couple of days -leaving her alone at the house.  Of course she had visitors.  What she had done surprised me.  She collected all of the money she could find and stacked it in a safe place.  We had met just a few months prior.  What do you think?   

B.    HONESTY and TRUST.

It is also important to reference these two words when we are talking about business or personal relationship.  Throughout the years of my short –yet-learning life, I understand that honesty is the key to success.  I can provide several examples, but I am only going to give you a “consolidated” one.  I used to own real estate properties while I was working on my computer projects, before my life took a massive down turn.   If you are interested to read about what happened and how I took control of a life that was under the control of many people and agencies -you got to wait and read “When I-RAN”-coming in Dec. 2008). Here is an example.  I had a set of tenants that as soon as they moved-in, their first monthly rent was paid using a check from a closed account.  Of course the check was given to me towards the middle of the month.  By the time my bank notified me, they were due for another payment.  Therefore, I had another bounced check.  As a result of my begging, requesting, demanding and their deceptions, the husband ended up in jail, the family evicted, and their stuff thrown on the side of the road.  Two years later, the lady found me, called, and asked me for help.  The first thing out of my mouth was, “Why do you call me, the person who evicted you and the person who threw your husband in jail …?”  She stated, ” You were right, we did you wrong and you had all the right to do what you did…I am sorry for that…” A similar situation happened on another occasion.   

When I review consumers’ credit reports and interview them, I realize if they are being honest or dishonest as I am speaking with them over the phone or especially in person. It doesn’t matter how hard one tries, you will never know if a person is being honest with you - in a letter or an email. 

Let’s see why. It does not matter how good a deceiver may be, but in a phone or face-to-face conversation- question after another, exposes stuttering, lack of proper response and many other factors to include the tone-change that reveals the hidden secrets.  A face to face communication even reveals a lot more as you have eye contact, visualizing -body language, face/color change, sweat, and signs of nervousness that cannot be seen through the phone, email, letters, etc.  In my opinion, the least honesty you can receive out of anyone in a communication is through an email, or letter.  Do you know WHY?

You see.  One thing I learned throughout my short life is the fact that the TRUE experience is gained through LIFE (especially later).  I possibly started life later than most others did or do. I not only had to adapt to a life without parents, was influenced by horrible so-called friends in my teen years, and lived and learned on my own, especially new rules and culture the hard way. By the time I realized that I just knew a bit too much that I could be dangerous to myself, life had passed me by.  Or was I gaining experiences the hard way?  I forgot the title of the song by Pink-Floyd that says,

“Tired of laying in the sunshine, staying home to watch the rain.  You are young and life is long, there is TIME to kill today.  And then, one day you find, 10 YEARS … …”   TIME is the essence of our lives.

I hope I did not bore you.  

I have written a bit about these issues in my first book called “Bad things Happen to Good People.  Your Credit = Your Life, Fix It Now!“.

With best wishes,

Mike Samadi

Any questions?  Go to Q & A of http://www.MasterCreditRepair.net, read and post.  Go to the “Comment” page and post your story or comment.  Your personal information will remain confidential.  Joint my membership club (coming soon).



By: Mike Samadi

About the Author: