{"id":5951,"date":"2015-07-20T15:36:03","date_gmt":"2015-07-20T15:36:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/?p=5951"},"modified":"2015-09-17T21:49:34","modified_gmt":"2015-09-17T21:49:34","slug":"how-to-build-a-relationship-driven-company-culture-via-marketingscope","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/2015\/07\/how-to-build-a-relationship-driven-company-culture-via-marketingscope\/","title":{"rendered":"How to Build a Relationship-Driven Company Culture ~via @MarketingScope"},"content":{"rendered":"

How to Build a Relationship-Driven Company Culture ~via @MarketingScope<\/a><\/h2>\n
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HOME<\/a> \u00bb FEATURED<\/a>, MARKETING<\/a>, SOCIAL MEDIA\/MARKETING<\/a> \u00bb HOW TO BUILD A RELATIONSHIP-DRIVEN COMPANY CULTURE ~VIA @MARKETINGSCOPE<\/p>\n

\u00a0BY TED RUBIN<\/a> \u2022 WITH NO COMMENTS<\/a><\/p>\n

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What\u2019s the one thing that\u2019s lacking in business culture today that has the potential to bring in more revenue than anything else? I\u2019ll give you one word: trust. It\u2019s not something you can buy with advertising dollars. It has to be earned through the actions of the people in your company, from the executive office all the way to the mailroom. Unfortunately, many people seem to have forgotten the impact that this little 5-letter word (or lack of it) has in their personal and business relationships.<\/p>\n

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I\u2019ll give you a recent example from LinkedIn \u2014 the generic LinkedIn request to connect, followed closely by a sales pitch. I\u2019m sure you\u2019ve received some of those, right? Who hasn\u2019t? Now I\u2019m not objecting to the connection request\u2014after all, LinkedIn is for connecting. Maybe they\u2019re new to the platform and don\u2019t know how to personalize a connection request, maybe they made the mistake of using the mobile app which for some reason doesn\u2019t allow for a personal note. That\u2019s understandable. But connecting with someone just to pitch them (without building a relationship first and developing trust) is inexcusable.<\/p>\n

I posted my \u201cnew reply\u201d to those types of pitches on Facebook<\/a>, and it goes like this:<\/p>\n

\u201cSo you connected in order to simply pitch me\u2026 not even a hello, how are you, buy me a cocktail before propositioning me? You don\u2019t even know me, sent me a generic connection request, then when I open the door for you, instead of shaking my hand and getting to know me\u2026 you come right out with a sales pitch.<\/p>\n

Seriously??? Dude\u2026 time to get some relationship building game. Good luck on your next pitch\u2026 not interested. Make it a great weekend. \u201c<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The post received 42 comments and over 211 likes, and virtually every commenter was in solidarity with me\u2014many having had the same experience.<\/p>\n

I don\u2019t know a single person who likes to get pitched via social (or any communication channel) before a relationship is established. Do you? Yet we see this all the time\u2014especially from sales people more interested in meeting quota than doing the work of building rapport.<\/p>\n

Rajesh Setty<\/a>, co-founder and President at WittyParrot, illustrates this concept in his LinkedIn post entitled \u201cThe Forgotten Art of Asking Right<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n

He hits the nail on the head with this post, using an ingenious, color-coded \u201cRequest Spectrum\u201d illustration of the four zones of relationship maturity and where it may (or may not) be conducive to ask for something.<\/p>\n

\"TedRubin-article-reqspec1\"<\/a><\/div>\n

Zone 1 is where you first meet, and the illustration shows the trust-building track along the relationship as you get to know the person, develop rapport, etc.<\/p>\n

In my opinion, Raj\u2019s spectrum should be required reading for any sales or marketing class, and it should be built into every organization\u2019s employee guidebook.<\/p>\n

Are there some people that will ignore it anyway? Sure. There are lots of folks out there who could win awards on pissing off their co-workers, alienating customers and driving away prospects. It\u2019s a personality thing. However, if more companies ask the right questions on interviews, they could weed out those potential employees who will never \u201cget it.\u201d And by actively teaching this concept to current employees and making it integral to company culture, organizations could scale their relationship-building capabilities both inside and outside the company via both face-to-face meetings, and especially via digital and social channels.<\/p>\n

However, I also think that companies must do a better job of building trust with their employees. It\u2019s a two-way street. The key lies in revamping the employee-employer relationship. Employers have to understand that the \u201cbuyer\u2019s market\u201d they\u2019re in right now will not always be the case, and even if it is, that attitude is no way to build brand loyalty that can go well beyond time on the job. If you want to build a winning team that stays with you, advocates for you and helps you get ahead as a company, you have to treat that team with respect. Treating employees like a commodity and\/or a cost center eventually backfires because it leads to constant turnover, which is counterproductive in the long term.<\/p>\n

Another way employers can build and nurture this type of culture is byempowering their employees<\/a> and recognizing the fact that social connection is an integral part of all of our lives now. Remember that in today\u2019s social world, every person has an extended circle of personal influence and an opportunity to build their own personal \u201cbrand.\u201d By helping your employees build that brand rather than squelching individuality, you could build an army of very powerful advocates. Most people, when given the opportunity will advocate for their brands, when they feel good about where they work.<\/p>\n

Start thinking of your employees as an investment instead. If you look out for them and help them when they need it, they\u2019ll be there for you when you need them. It can be as simple as creating a nurturing workplace that encourages growth and innovation, versus a culture of fear fostered by so many companies today.<\/p>\n

Maybe we can\u2019t teach everyone how to #JustBeNice<\/a>, but we can definitely do a better job of building trust with our employees and teaching them to do the same with co-workers, vendors and customers.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

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#JustBeNice \u00a0\u00a0#RonR<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

How to Build a Relationship-Driven Company Culture ~via @MarketingScope HOME \u00bb FEATURED, MARKETING, SOCIAL MEDIA\/MARKETING \u00bb HOW TO BUILD A RELATIONSHIP-DRIVEN COMPANY CULTURE ~VIA @MARKETINGSCOPE \u00a0BY TED RUBIN \u2022 WITH NO COMMENTS What\u2019s the one thing that\u2019s lacking in business culture today that has the potential to bring in more revenue than anything else? I\u2019ll … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":6,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5951","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-tedrubin","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5951","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5951"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5951\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6005,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5951\/revisions\/6005"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5951"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5951"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.thesocialcmo.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5951"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}