The Representor - Fall 2007

Tech Tools & Tips
Building your business through "Relationship Farming"
by Terry L. Brock
Terry Brock is a marketing coach who helps business owners market more effectively leveraging technology. He shows busy professionals how to squeeze more out of their busy days by using the right rules and tools. You can reach Terry at 407-363-0505, by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his Web site at www.terrybrock.com.

Relationship marketing is vital for your success in business. Successful people know that business is built on solid, mutually beneficial, profitable relationships.

Relationship marketing is "farming"
Establishing, building and maintaining positive, profitable relationships in business is very much like farming. Some say that business is war. They use analogies to combat, killing, beating the enemy, etc. I think that analogy is missing the point of what business is all about. War is about killing people and destroying things. Even if you win in war, you lose a lot.

Farming, on the other hand, is about creating and growing. It is about scientifically researching what is best. It is about studying the soil and using the right tools to grow your crops. Farming is about being patiently persistent in doing the right things even if you don't have immediate results. Harvest comes after a series of doing the right things in the right way. In farming, you're creating and providing necessary products. In war, you're destroying and killing. I like farming better. Business is more like farming - Relationship Farming - than combat or war.

That is what Relationship Marketing (R-Commerce) is all about. Look at successful people you know in business. Most will agree that successful business is about carefully cultivating and nurturing relationships. I have yet to hear anyone say that success in business is about killing others and destroying things. Relationship Marketing is Relationship Farming.

E-mail for Relationship Farming
As a successful Relationship Farmer, you use many tools. One of these tools is e-mail, the most commonly used form of communication in business today. Used properly, you can get a better "harvest" when employing e-mail.

Learn to create short, valuable e-mail messages for maximum Relationship Farming. We're inundated with e-mail today. Now more than ever, we want personal contact - R-Commerce - to connect with people.

Today businesspeople commonly complain about too much e-mail. That's why I'm suggesting an approach for Relationship Farming that works well. Carefully craft and mold creative, short (please!) e-mail messages that are always valuable for the recipient.

Here's an example of what doesn't work: "Hi, Bob. Hey, our new widgets are out, and I wanted to let you know about them. In fact, there's a 50 percent discount if you act today ... blah, blah, blah." Even if YOU think Bob is interested in your product, you have to find out what HE is interested in. This "force them to hear about me and my product" approach is more war-like than farming-like. It would be better to think like a Relationship Farmer and consider what will yield the best harvest.

Here's an example of what could work better: "Hi, Bob. I know you mentioned last time we talked that you thought about blue widgets for your marketing campaign this coming December. I just saw a new blue widget that is available and thought you might be interested. Here's the link for more information. By the way, you can get a 50-percent discount for early purchases by next Wednesday. No pressure, but let me know if I can be of assistance to you on this one. Hope that Mary and the kids are doing well."

Notice the difference in tone between the two messages? The first is about me, me, me. The second focuses more on Bob and his needs. Guess what Bob is more interested in knowing about? Duh! This is not rocket science. However, this is farming. It is about cultivating and nurturing relationships over the long term.

Relationship Farming = better harvest
E-mail is just one tool that you, as a Relationship Farmer, can use to cultivate and nurture business relationships. As a farmer would not use a high-powered fire hose to water tender, growing crops, don't come on too forcefully in selling. Apply gentle, nurturing, valuable assistance to your customers so they grow.

The harvest could, and usually does, take a while. However long your "season" for selling takes, long-term Relationship Farming is about caring for people, helping them and creating a better harvest all around. Relationship Farming requires work and persistence, but the yield is well worth it.

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2007 Electronics Representatives Association (ERA), Chicago, IL 60611
Originally printed in the Fall 2007 issue of The Representor
Cannot be reprinted without the permission of the Electronics Representatives Association (ERA)