A Customer Focused Approach

In her latest book, Relevant Selling, author Jayne L. Smith makes an excellent point about a customer focused company. She makes it very clear that a company focused on their customers has the best chance for success in any business.

The customers needs must drive your company. Smith puts it this way "The voice of the customer should dictate your budget, strategy, and resource allocations. She takes it a step further by making the point that companies must ask their customers what is important to them.

This sounds like a very simple strategy and I agree with it strongly. Find out what your customers want and structure your business to meet those needs better, faster, and with more consistency than your competitors.

Check out Jaynie's website http://www.jayniesmith.com/ and if you have an opportunity to hear her present at a seminar, I recommend it. She will help your company's sales efforts.

More About Connecting

Think about everyone you come in contact with every day. How often do you make eye contact and how often do you just look the other way. Now I will admit that there are some people who should be avoided, of course.

However, there are many opportunities to connect, sepecially in business. When you visit a company, do you treat everyone equally important or do you just breeze by the people who you feel are less important? For example, what about the receptionist, guard, or janitor? On the other hand, if you are one of those people who are treated often as less important, do you begin to feel that way?

The point is that there are many opportunities to make connections and it is especially important in business. A business setting is a great place to work on connecting with other people. Eye contact, body language, and attitude are all important.

The point of all of this is working on yourself. If you want to continue to improve your career and improve your relationships, work on making connections. However, this is not about you. If you want to make meaningful business connections, your encounter must be about them.

How Important is Making Connections Anyway?

I have re-listened to a CD program from motivation and etiquette expert Shawana Schuh and having done so, remembered so many things that I learned the first time and when I attended one of her seminars. The title of this program is Connecting in a Disconnected World.

She gives so much great advice in this session that it is very difficult to summarize even the most important parts. However, one theme keeps recurring with regard to making connections and that is "make it about them, not yourself." Whether you are connecting with customers or connecting with friends, it is alway more connecting to focus on other and not yourself.

Putting the focus on other involves all communication that you do both verbal and non-verbal. If you always place others first, you will be a desired communication partner. If you make it about them, you both win.

If you would like to learn more about Shawna, just go to her website at http://www.shawnaschuh.com/ and you will find some resources there. If you are interested in working on yourself, one of the best observations that I can make is to check out the advice of Shawana Schuh.

Three Cs of dressing for connecting

One of my favorite advisers is Schawna Shuh. She is a professional speaker and author who gives motivational advice. One of her segments is about dressing to make connections in business and she refers to it as the three C's.

First is color and we should all use color in our wardrobes when we are tring to make a positive impression. After all, our outfit and our appearance is for the benefit of others who see us. Therefore, using cheerful colors is a positive for others.

The second C is comfortable. Your clothing should be comfortable for the situation. Your selection of your outfit should be appropriate for your current engagement whatever that might be. Nobody should be made to feel uncomfortable because of what you are wearing.

And the final C is for cover up. In a business or formal situation, it is always best to do so. This is fairly self explanatory. All of this advice is designed to help individuals to connect better with others in both business and professional situations.

You Don't Have to be Negatively Influenced

Don't take this the wrong way. At one time, in my younger years, I was much more opened to being negatively influenced. Now I know that I don't have to be.

At one time, I thought that I must try to fit in. Now I know that I don't have to. I say, don't take this the wrong way because it doesn't mean that I don't like you. It just means that I don't have to be influenced by you.

Maybe it is just a matter of having some self confidence and self esteem. Maybe it is a part of being older and wiser. I can be nice to everyone and I can socialize with anyone, but I don't have to be anyone but myself.

I guess that part of improving self confidence is knowing that I am ok and I don't need to fit in. I don't need to change and I don't need to act or think like anyone in order to get along with them.

Therefore, I can avoid the influences of others that I consider to be negative without avoiding anyone. Perhaps, I can even positively influnce someone else in return.

Talent, Passion, and Commitment

We use the term passion quite a bit to describe an attitude or approach to your respnsibility. Passion can be defined as an intense, compelling feeling or enthusiasm or desire.

We all have talents at something and when we try to accomplish something either professionally or personally, we use our talents to help us to get there. Where talent leaves off, passion should take over. Where passion is limited, commitment kicks in.

I believe that it takes all three to have sustained success at anything. Use your talents wisely to attain your goal. Be both passionate and comitted and success should come your way.

Working on your interpersonal skills

It seems to me that working on your interpersonal communication skills are more important now than ever. I encounter a lot of people and I am always impressed and take quick notice of anyone with good interpersonal skills.

On the other hand, a person with poor interpersonal skills also stands out in the crowd by their shortcomings.

The reason that I claim that it is more important that ever is that social media offer such abundant opportunity to communicate UN-personally that we lose touch with the ability to interact. In fact, some youngsters may not learn such skills because they are growing up with social media.

Make it a point to work at connecting in your professional and personal life.