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It’s the Power of Love – in Business

When we infuse love into our business, this is something that Artificial Intelligence (AI) cannot take away. At least not in the near future.

What does Love in Business mean? Barbara Fredrickson (Author of Love 2.0) defines love 2.0 “as a micro moment of shared positive resonance”.

Let’s look at that from the viewpoint of a client or customer. Why do they buy a product or service? Obviously, because they find value in it. And in case you haven’t heard me say it before, value is NOT price. Your clients and customers resort to price when they can’t distinguish value.

I am reading Seth Godin’s Book Song of Significance. He points to the Industrial approach to capitalism – squeeze value from all of your resources in an extractive manner to gain efficiency and profitability. He contrasts that to a Market approach. This approach is not so much about squeezing resources and efficiency to make profit as it is about solving problems to make a profit.

Ask yourself why do you choose your barber or hairstylist? It is because of the relationship you have built together. How about your favorite restaurant? Do you have a favorite server?  (Hey Blanche). OK, I hear it. This is hospitality, what about less personalized products and services?

Have you heard of Zingerman’s Deli or Wegmans Market? These are a Deli and Grocery stores that are  world-famous for service AND profitability. When you look at their values you will note they are not about dominance, or competition, or efficiency. They are about connection, community, and love.

Whether you are an Attorney, an Accountant, or a Software Engineer, you can create micro moments of positive resonance with your clients.  As a car-wash, a call center, or a hardware store, you can do the same.

Now contrast that with THE model of efficiency – Amazon. In 2022 Engadget reported that Amazon lost $8.0 BILLION due to employee turnover. Their profit in 2021 was $33 Billion. They were efficient, they got the most out of their human resources.  Was it worth $8.0 Billion?

We saw in the pandemic that Wall Street doesn’t care about our communities. We saw the government was inefficient.  And we saw how our local small businesses adapted and contributed to the community. AND this is important we saw how our communities responded in kind.

That’s what love in business is all about.

Kick Start Your Marketing

Today I’d like to teach you about the three most important start up marketing tools you need to get and keep new customers.

1. In person: It’s essential you meet with customers/clients in person whenever possible. This shows you respect them and take the time to work with your clients to give personal attention to each of them.
2. Follow up letter: Always take a moment to send a follow up letter about what you talked about, new agreements or partnerships made and to thank them for taking the time to meet with you. Likewise, you should always send thank you letters or small gifts to partners you find success with.
3. Phone call: Use a telephone call to follow up with them to talk again about the matters you talked about in your meeting and offer any assistance you can to help their business run smoothly and more successfully.

None of these will work if you don’t have a quality product/service to back you up!

Here are the key steps for putting together your start-up marketing tools:

1. Research potential customers, buyers, competitors and their preferred methods of distribution.
2. Talk to potential customers. Take a hard look at your product from a customer’s perspective and see what it needs to be successful.
3. Follow up with your 3-step process from above.
4. Develop systems for contact follow through, quality control standards and customer service.
5. Develop post-sale follow up system to keep lines of communication open is customers and build on your current relationship which increases future purchases.

“Marketing and innovation produce results; all the rest are costs” Peter Drucker, management consultant

Here’s another one I love from an icon:

“If there is any one secret of success, it lies in the ability to get the other person’s point of view and see things from that person’s angle as well as from your own.” Henry Ford, Founder of Ford Motor Company

This lesson has offered you the tools to put together a start-up marketing plan that can be used over and over again to help your customer base and business grow in a manageable way. The tools offered in our FREE test drive offer these very same things.