Nearly every form of marketing and sales technique we see today is invasive and breeds distrust – despite most of us being instantly repelled by the slightest hint of pressure.

So if you have ever thought to yourself “I hate selling, I am not good at it!”… I am glad you did, it means you are still connected with that part of you that knows your relationship with your clients is the most important thing you have and that you can’t force a relationship to happen or people to enter it.

Thinking that most of what you do when promoting myself, answering enquiries and talking to leads is laying the foundation for genuine relationships – and not trying to deceive, force and push people – should immediately make you feel better about this whole “marketing thing”.

There are 3 essential elements to a relationship-oriented marketing:

TRANSPARENCY & CLARITY

This goes far beyond having prices available on your website, it is about making it completely safe for people to approach you.

We do this by:

• Thinking of our business as our space, and making sure people feel welcome and respected when they enter it

• When we are the ones entering our clients’ space (with an email, for example) doing so in a careful and respectful way, as opposed to making it feel like an invasion

• Allowing our true intentions to be clearly seen. Be genuine when giving, be confident when asking (whether that is a fee, commitment, contact details, etc.

TRUST

Practising the above should put us on the right track for building trust, but trust also comes from respecting our clients’ need for time.

EXCITEMENT

I invite you to read our definition of brand HERE.

Being authentic with your marketing will have two effects:

• Our people, those we define “ideal clients”, will be excited to work with us because who we are resonates with who they are. They will WANT to work with us.
  
• It will make it clearer for those who aren’t our ideal clients to see that we are not who they are looking for.

In very simple terms, getting clients means building relationships. How we choose to do it determines now only how our business feels to us, but also how likely we are to be successful in the long term.

When we choose to create solid relationships with our people, based on transparency, trust and excitement, our clients will love working with us and tell the world about it. 

Or we can decide we don’t have time for that, and we would rather bet on our ability to take complete strangers and consistently, repeatedly, get them to give us their money.

The choice is yours, what will you choose?