Many business consultants and books promote the theory that people buy from people they know, like and trust. It follows that to be successful, you should do things that will build your likability and trustworthiness. In this issue of our PEC newsletter, we have outlined many ways to express gratitude to your customers by keeping in touch via phone, social media, or just emails and other methods. All these methods of communication and staying in touch help build your relationship with your customers.
While doing some reading, I came across several articles that talk about building your likability and how expressing gratitude can actually change your brain. Some psychologists have been assigning depression and anxiety patients “gratitude exercises” and found that not only does the mood of these patients seem to improve in the short term, it often improves for several months. So it seems that by exercising our “gratitude muscle” we can make some changes in our brains. This is basically a strategy of paying it forward. The more we practice gratitude to others, the more thankful we feel and the more likely we are to act positively toward them; at that point the recipients of our gratitude start to show gratitude to the people they come across. This causes an exponential cascade effect of gratitude.
What does this mean to you and your business? Well, if you want to build your pipeline and social network using gratitude, the end result might be that you make more sales. So put that smile in your voice when you talk on the phone, stay in touch and build those relationships. It will come back to you many times over.