15, 18 years ago I was living in St. Petersburg off 4th street. I owned the house…bought it from the previous owner because they were getting close to foreclosure. The lady who owned the house, Geri, had been recently widowed and wanted to leave the house. She couldn't afford it anymore and had a bunch of bad memories there.
Funny enough, turned out Geri and her husband had a contentious plural marriage. When the husband died, the 2 wives went their separate ways. I bought the house from Geri on a quit claim deed and didn't do a title search. Junet, yes that's how she spelled it, showed up one day banging on the door yelling about why people were in her house.
I learned my lesson about not doing a title search, I promise.
I met with Junet and her aunt to try and negotiate something but they were completely unreasonable. She wanted half of the value of the house, but there was no equity in the house. Amazing!
When it was clear we weren't getting anywhere I contacted the lender….
But I am straying far, far away from the point of this email, ask me about it one day when we see each other…it's a great story.
Anyway, I was sitting around the house one afternoon and someone knocked at the door. When I answered there stood a door-to-door salesman who was hockin' a $20 coupon book for a local restaurant.
Even though I was broke, I lived pretty well back then, but I wasn't interested in this particular restaurant so I nicely told the guy no thank you. (I spent time knocking doors at one point and I would never be nasty with one of those guys. It's hard work and I have respect for guys and gals who'd rather go bust their butt than live off the system!)
Then the most amazing things happened….he thanked me for my time and did everything he could do to live by the old Zig Ziglar rule…Whether you make the sale or not you should always try to leave the prospect in such a way that the next salesman can gain his/her attention even easier than you did.
This guy did it, and I was impressed.
I went back inside and thought to myself, "You know that guy's working hard for a $20 sales. He probably only makes $10 from it…I should buy one of those books from him."
Understand, I didn't want the book, didn't use the book, but I liked the guy selling it so I called him back and bought.
And there you have it…The key is to have someone like you. Some people ask me why I wear a kilt, why I wear a beard, why I have a foul mouth sometimes, why I talk about politics…basically why I break almost every rule you've ever been taught about business.
It's because for people who I resonate with, they like me a lot…and I like them.
So we end up doing a lot of business. A business relationship based solely on products and services and not on any kind of personal relationship is a tenuous business relationship at best.
The trick is to stay in contact with your customers and prospects so they feel like they have a relationship with you. When they feel that way, your income is far better protected against competitors.
To your success
Everte
PS. I did use one coupon and the restaurant was really not that good. They were doing a lot of smart marketing, but the food was menza menza, service OK. I never went back, but I was glad to have purchased that coupon book. That kid earned the sale that day!