On the way to work yesterday, I listened to Dave Ramsey speak to Joe Beam, author of The Art of Falling in Love. Joe said there were three key elements to falling in love… commitment, intimacy, and passion.
The conversation really stuck with me, so I made a voice memo about what I heard to write a post later.
I also discussed it with a colleague who is passionate about marketing automation. He disagrees with many in the industry who disguise their lead generation systems as marketing automation. He believes the nurturing and communication that needs to happen is with your current clients more so than with leads that haven’t committed to your brand.
Commitment, Intimacy, and Passion
- Commitment – Customers invest financially in your company for your products and services. It always amazes me how many companies are more committed to the money their customers bring them than the customers themselves. If you deliver per the contract, but your customer isn’t successful, you both lose. You must be committed to our client’s success, regardless of the necessary finances. Your clients must be committed to your success, ensuring that finances don’t get in the way. We’re blessed with customers who are committed to us and vice versa.
- Intimacy – Don’t mistake intimacy for personal affection. Intimacy is also taking the time to understand your customers and for them to understand you. We share our weaknesses with our customers, learn their weaknesses, and ensure that we plan to ensure we have both covered. We also learn as much as possible about our customers and share far beyond our contracts with them. We introduce them to our connections, find them other resources, and recommend them on and off-line. We also don’t sign agreements with companies unless we use their products where possible. We try to know them so well that we can effectively sell their products.
- Passion – One of the companies that we’ve talked on and off with is struggling. As we try to figure out how to help them (they aren’t clients), you can’t find anyone passionate about their work on their staff. They’ve been hiring other well-known spokespeople here and there to join them for webinars and events… but those spokespeople don’t use the product. How can they be passionate if they don’t even commit to using the product? The bottom line is that they can’t. It’s why they’re struggling.
Are you committed to your clients? Are you intimate with them, their industry, their positioning, and their challenges? Are you passionate about their products or services? If you answer no to any of these questions, don’t expect to ever fall in love with one another. We love our clients and are proud to say that our clients love us back. It hasn’t always been that way, but our relationships with them continue to blossom.
Last thing…since we’re doing something we love, it’s really not work at all. That’s an incredible place to be in!
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