If you are good at creating influence, your business will soar. If you aren’t, it cannot take flight. Successful marketing means building influence with four groups of people: potential clients, existing clients, vendors and referrers.
How can you build influence?
Listen well. In marketing, becoming influential comes from being influenced yourself. When you listen to what others need from you, your company or your products, you are in the best position to give it to them. When you listen to what works for others in your industry and keep up to date on industry trends, you are well poised to influence existing and potential clients to take actions that have good results. When you listen to what referrers or vendors need from you, you can take care of them in ways that reinforce them taking care of you.
Teach others. When you educate another person on your business topics, you create influence. The more effective you are at sharing and teaching, the more influence you’ll have with those who use your information to improve their businesses. Teach what you have passion for, be a thought leader, use your own experience or share good research. Bonus: teaching is a relational activity that can garner the feedback you need for good listening.
Be responsive. Refine your message, services, products or customer care—indeed your whole business—to orient yourself around what your customers care about and what they want. What’s the point of listening well if you don’t respond in a way that shows you heard? The more responsive you are in all aspects of your business—with potential clients, existing clients, vendors and referrers—the more you will be trusted, admired and hired. Now that’s effective influence!
Listen, teach and be responsive to build influence and watch your business soar.
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