Business is a Two Way Street

Being an entrepreneur occupies my mind, calendar, and life with the things I must learn and teach others to master. Sales, marketing, customer service, accounting, dispute resolution, public speaking, public relations, human resources, recruiting, firing, social media, and the list goes on. One of the things that might go through the cracks is the appraisal of the “Business is a two way street” value.

I was sitting with Eric Cooper, my Rockstar right hand man months ago sharing a value that I run by in business and life. Business is a two way street. As I was sharing this with him, he made a great and impactful comment. He said “Your customers should be as honored to do business with you as you are to do business with them and serve them”. Are your customers, vendors, and team members just as honored to work with you as you are to serve them? Are you just as honored to serve and work for your team, vendors and customers as they are to work with you?

Business boils down to humans serving humans. Whether it is your company providing a service to a customer in exchange for money, or it is a vendor of your company serving your company with a product of service that you pay them for, the value is always the same. Both sides of the human to human interaction should be appreciative, honored, and thankful that each are working together. Each human in the interaction brings value to the other.

In my years in business, the best, longest-lasting, and most loyal connections (whether customer to company, team member to company, or vendor to vendor) are established and maintained when both sides of the transaction are thankful and appreciative of the other. They frequently show their love and gratitude to one another and never take one other for granted.

If your company is not as thankful and grateful to a customer for their business as your customer is to your company, they may fire you! If your company continues to serve and work for a customer who is not grateful for what your company does, it may be time to fire them! Your company may have a vendor who is serving you and takes your business for granted. Do you have a team member who is excited and honored to serve you and a sincere appreciation is long overdue?

Run this question through all of the human to human interactions in your company. Make needed adjustments so that all people involved are appreciated for what they do to serve, for their time, their money, their effort, their skills and their dedication.

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