Building relationships in business is what I’ve been talking about for 30 years. Today we can do it more effectively and on a wider scale through the advanced technology that we have.
In this interview, you will hear from one of my mates over in Ireland, Sean Weafer about how building relationships is fundamental to business. In this interview we used Google+ Hangout to record our interaction. Note the ease with which you could do something similar. This will be instructional on a couple of levels — 1) Building your business through relationship marketing and 2) How a tool like Google+ Hangouts can help you build content and market what you do.
Leave a comment and let us know what you think about this concept. We look forward to hearing from you.
Terry
Connect with me on Social Media
Twitter – @TerryBrock,
Facebook – www.facebook.com/MarketerTerryBrock
LinkedIn – www.linkedin.com/in/marketerterrybrock/
Watch my videos – http://www.youtube.com/terrylbrock
Sean can be reached at:
SalesDojo.com
SeanWeafer.com
And as a special treat to help you enhance your learning and growth, we’ve taken the steps to get a transcript of this interview. It is available for you, below:
Building Trust in Business Relationships
Terry: Hi! I’m Terry Brock with terrybrock.com. We know that social media is changing the way we do things but some things don’t change. And that is, the connection of building relationships. I’ve always talked about the importance of relationship marketing where I say it’s not about e-commerce, it’s about r-commerce, relationships. And, you’re gonna like this. I’ve got with me a buddy of mine who’s joining us from his office in Dublin, Ireland. He’s an expert on this. His name is Sean Weafer and he joins us now from the Emerald Isle. Sean, good to have you with us today.
Sean: Great to be here, Terry. How are you in sunny Florida?
Terry: Oh, doing fine. Well, you have done so much in helping people. You’ve got a company now called Sales Dojo, you’ve been helping people with seanweafer.com for many years and you talked about relationships and that. Let’s start with that first. Tell me why building relationships and quality relationships is important in the business process.
Sean: Well it’s not just about any relationship anymore, Terry. My work predominantly is about using social intelligence and how we connect with people. There’s a great emphasis on using our technical intelligence and we have to be professionals, but the reality of the marketplace now is unless you can build a very compelling and high trust relationship with people, you don’t get the chance to deploy your technical intelligence. So as you quite like to say, a lot of it is about the relationship. And I find that many professionals unfortunately, whether excellent of their technical stuff, it’s in the social intelligence that they fail. Quite badly in. And I draw a difference between, say, a trusted relationship and a high trust relationship, wherein let’s say for example, you and I have a trusting relationship where I may not share everything with you. Whereas with the high trust relationship, I have this powerfully compelling relationship, where I have no hesitation whatsoever in sharing my challenges, my issues, my stuff with you which then gives you the opportunity to be of more service to me that you might have known us.
Terry: Yeah, I think that’s an extremely important point that the relationship and the trust that you have and that’s the beauty of when we talk about social media and social relationships and Klout Score. People are interested in how do you boost your cloud score, what do you do to…well, it really comes back to the fundamentals that have been around for a long time called trusting people and then having, I like the way you say it, high trust. So, what are some ways that you can build that high trust, particularly, staying in touch in electronic, digital-based world of social media and all that’s going on today. How do we do it? How do you see it working?
Sean: Well, I think it could be fallbacks and fallbacks on what we were talking about content marketing area where about 80% of the stuff you put out there is really good quality information and 20% is advertorial kind of stuff. I think people need to see that you’re confident, that you’re credible, but most importantly, and this is the real benefit of social media, that it actually shares something of your personality, of your humanity, almost. That you’re not just a professional, you’re a person as well. And people want the technical knowledge but they really wanna know that they can get to connect with you. And why is this even more important now? Then perhaps in the past as people have lost an awful lot of faith in big brands, they’re not taken in by advertising, by corporate websites so much anymore. It’s pretty much about the personal connection. And to build that rapport, to build that level of trust, they need to see a little bit more about you and hence the personality piece. And that’s why things like Klout or Facebook are even LinkedIn to some extent where it shows your background, who you are. And these videos increase in YouTube or even as we’re doing here, people get to see you rather than just staring at stereotypical image of what you represent.
Terry: Yeah, I think you’re absolutely right and one of the things that we see is you and I are using right now is Google Plus. We’re using the Google Hangout feature and it gives us a chance to have a whole lot more than just an email conversation or even an audio conversation where we talk. Now, you can see what’s going on, you watch facial expressions when I’m going “Oh, what am I gonna do?”. You know, you could tell what I’m doing here and how I’m reacting. You can see things around and you’d know all my books back here and all that kind and you’re like, “Ooh, that guy must be smart, you know, he’s got all these books there and by the way, some of them haven’t even been colored in yet. So you know, we’ve got that, but I think what you’re talking about really makes sense and using the video is extraordinarily good. I know you’ve been using video a little bit. How do you see in that helps in building trust and building relationships in social media and in the digital world?
Sean: I think the key thing is when you’re dealing with people, the real value of that is that they get to see you, they get to see aspects of your body language which is not something you typically see when you’re on a… maybe a phone call, for example. Body language as we all know is a powerful important element of what we call congruence in communication. So what you’re saying has to be reflected by your physicality. And videos are fantastic for that because they see basically how sincere you are, by virtue of not just the words that you speak, but the tone that you’re using and of course the body language that you’re using as well. For example, that’s one of the reasons why people are less trusting of people maybe with facial hair because they couldn’t see the micro movement of the muscles. So that’s why the bad boy look was always the guy with sort of a beard, if you will, or a 5:00 o’clock shadow type of a situation. Or is this well-shaved guys, we get along really well with people, you know. But it’s simple things like that which will right back to basic with psychology and that humans engaged with people often without consciously knowing that that’s having an impact in how they talk to people. So things like video for example, are very powerful elements in that relationship mix that we need to be creating.
Terry: Yeah, absolutely. Well Sean, you have helped people and many different companies around not only in Ireland and England, but throughout the world. You’ve been training, you’ve been showing people how to do this for many years and now, I’m excited about the program that you have going with Sales Dojo. I know there’s a lot there. If somebody says, “Hey, I want to get to know more about this Sean Weafer guy and what he’s doing”, what’s the best way for them to get in touch with you?
Sean: Well, the best way is just email me directly at sean@seanweafer.com or sean@salesdojo.com, either those will get to me. If you want to learn more about the stuff we we’re talking about here, you can check in a new book which has just come out on Amazon, Terry, which is The High Trust Adviser, How to Build High Trust and High Profits in Today’s Business. And that’s a really good way to get down deep into the kind of stuff that you and I have just fleshed over here. But you can reach out to me either through salesdojo or through seanweafer.com or by all means, do check out the book at Amazon as well. I think you’ll enjoy the read.
Terry: Very good. Well, Sean, I’ve known you for many years and you are just a consummate professional, a great friend and I know that those who tap in to the knowledge base that you have always are better off for it. So I’m encouraging those of you that are watching this to get in touch with Sean Weafer. Look into his stuff, bounce over at his website, look around there, you will be glad you did and you will be glad you had a chance to meet Mr. Sean Weafer. Sean, thanks for joining us today. Look forward to seeing you again sometime, mate.
Sean: Always a pleasure, my friend. Always a pleasure.
Copyright 2013, Achievement Systems, Inc. and Terry Brock. All Rights Reserved.
www.TerryBrock.com
