Are You Almost Human? How to Build Extraordinary Relationships Today!

How do you build stronger relationships?

Can you can learn a few valuable business lessons from the futuristic new cop drama show on Fox:  Almost Human?   What I can share with you is that you can learn a few valuable business lessons from the futuristic new cop drama show on Fox:  Almost Human.

The show is set in the year 2048.  And in order to keep up with technological advances, police officers are paired with robots, or synthetics.  However, the main character is an officer who himself has an artificial leg so he is also viewed as somewhat of an outsider himself.  The robot he is paired with is an older model that was deactivated because of having “human like emotions” which were viewed as weaknesses.  But through different parts and episodes of the show we see how both partners grow and actually become successful because of the balance between the two.  (Whew, now that we’ve gotten through that, let’s move forward.)

All BUSINESS is a contact sport!

Tweeting, updating posts, pinning and sharing pics even though they all require the use of your hands, still aren’t  hands-on approaches to relationship building.  It’s almost as if business owners and consultants have found themselves in a rush to be the most tech savvy people in their industry at a rate that would make the USA vs USSR race to space seem like a friendly game of checkers with your childhood best friend in comparison. Is there a place and a need for social media marketing and interactions?  Of course.  However, nothing will ever create the level of trust, comfort, and help facilitate the building of relationships quite like a good old-fashioned conversation.

Yes, there are a lot of automated programs and marketing strategies that you can use to build lists and get information out to potential clients.  But how strong are the “relationships” that you’re building?

I’d say these sort of relationships are as strong as a double shot of  cranberry juice on the rocks.  During a conversation with a good friend who consults with a lot of owners of high valued businesses, he shared something with me that really hammered this point home.  He told me that very few, if any, of his clients actually share his online posts or “likes” them.  Does that mean that they did not read them?  No.  For him, the posts were used as ice breakers for more initial conversations and as a segue into more in-depth future conversations.  What he was able to do, however, was to add the social marketing to the more traditional method called TALKING. (Before you sign the petition to have me thrown in a room with rubber walls for saying that you shouldn’t try to build your business 100% via the internet, give me the right to plead my case.)

Now, I know that for some it may seem like it takes too long to actually find out what your clients, potential customers, business partners, etc., actually want and how you can work together to accomplish these goals.  Well, view it as a business expense.  I have spoken to many groups across the country, and I consistently give this piece of advice:  Quit SPENDING time on any of your business relationships.  Start INVESTING time in all your business relationships.  Think of it this way:  If you were to go to McDonald’s and SPEND a dollar for a value fry, you’d expect to get a small fry.  An even exchange.  If on the other hand you were to INVEST in a McDonald’s, you’d have a different expectation:  A return on your investment, or growth, which as simple a concept as it may be, should be easily relative to how you should approach your business.  Your business, regardless of what  industry you are in, does boil down to one product:  PEOPLE.   So invest time in the relationships that you and your business are building.

“Quit SPENDING time on any of your business relationships; start INVESTING time in all your business relationships.”

This Wednesday I’ll show you how. See you here