Relationship Marketing Achieved Through Filtering

Relationship Marketing is

Achieved Through Filtering

By Terry L. Brock

We’ve known about “information overload” for a long time but today it is more intense. This becomes critical as you decide where to focus your time, money and effort to get the results you want.

Information overload makes a huge impact on relationship marketing and how you and I establish, build and maintain profitable relationships in business. In this article let’s look at 2 sides of the Information Overload challenge: To yourself and to your prospects and clients. Let’s see how you can capitalize on it to build better quality relationships and more profitable business.

Filters in An Age of Too Much Information

More information will be created in the next 24 hours than you can process the rest of your life. One reaction we might embrace is to ignore it all. However, we can’t do that. Life-long learning and education are critical for success today.

Filtering is the key. Your filter for what you read, watch, listen to and how you spend your time has to be intensely personal and focused on what is right for you. This is where your personal and professional lives mesh. It takes work, but once you have that filter in place, you can process everything through it to decide what you take into your mind and how you spend your time. Determining your purpose is the vital first step.

Once you know your purpose, you can eliminate those distractions that don’t serve you. In business this means focusing on those activities and potential prospects that are right for you. For those that are not a right fit now – and could be in the future – have alternatives that take less of your time and still enable you to stay in touch. An Ezine, invitations to visit your Blog, free offers for a detailed CD or DVD explaining the advantages of your products or services could be examples. Stay in touch with prospects, but focus your time and effort on those that are likely to purchase now or in the immediate future. Remember, you can’t be with everyone. Be selective how you spend your time, money and effort.

Filters For Yourself

Here are some strategies to filter the information you receive to maximize your goals and objectives:

1. Realize You Can’t Do Everything. Be selective based on what your purpose is. There are going to be a lot of good activities you can’t experience. Rats! It was a sad day for me when, as a little kid, I went to our local library and realized that no matter how fast I learned to read, I still wouldn’t be able to read all the books written! Ugh!
2. Focus, Don’t Just Concentrate. Concentration is good and implies that you’re paying attention to something. Focus is slightly different. It means you’re concentrating on the overall goal you have for your purpose. Focus on those things that help you achieve the goals you want in business and in your personal life. Time is the biggest filter to handle. How are you going to spend your time? Watching TV? With family members? Attending that really important business gathering tonight? What are you going to read? Frankly I find it hard to fathom how businesspeople can find time to watch the latest celebrity gossip and blather when they could spend that time expanding their mind by reading book quality books, magazines, attending great seminars, listening to educational Podcasts and being with important people.
3. Eliminate Anything Less Than C Value And Focus On A And A+ Value Activities. As you see new articles, new email messages, new TV shows, etc. always ask if it is an A or A+ value for you. Don’t waste your time on anything C level or below. By the way, one of the biggest time wasters today is television. How many programs you watched in the past 30 days fell into the A or A+ category for you? Would your time have been better spent with a loved one, reading a quality book or other A+ time investment?

Filters For Your Customers

You can help your customers and prospects by filtering for them. Here are some specific ways to help them:

1. Know Their Purposes. As you start with your own purpose, get to know them and what they want. This is a fundamental part of establishing a relationship in business.
2. Focus On How To Delver Value To Them Through The Filter Of Their Purposes. Once you know what their purpose is, you can better filter all information sent to them.
3. Be The Trusted Advisor. You can be the person they come to know and trust through time. This is more than being “nice.” It is providing real value so they want to be around you and respect what you recommend. Your customers are under a major time crunch. If you can save them time, you will be their hero.
4. Make It Fun To Be Around You. No one likes being around a complainer. Be fun! Develop interesting, worthwhile things that you can talk about so people want to be around you. Know lots of valuable information for them so they will want to do business with you.

You build business relationships by filtering for yourself and for others. Be the resource they turn to when they need assistance. That is relationship marketing and it builds profitable business.

Terry Brock is a marketing coach and regular columnist for Business Journals who helps businesses market more effectively leveraging technology. He shows busy professionals how to squeeze more out of their days using the right rules and tools. He can be reached at 407-363-0505, by e-mail at terry@terrybrock.com or through his website at www.terrybrock.com.

Copyright © 2007, Terry Brock, All Rights Reserved Internationally. No portion may be reprinted or used in any way without prior written permission.