The overall reason people stay in relationships that just aren’t working is because of fear of being alone. Many people are basically considered “walking dead” when it comes to being in a relationship that has no merit of making it. Gabby Love offers many key warning signs that a relationship is on the brink of failure and it’s time to move on.

A. Fighting for no reason at all. When you start fighting over petty points that seem to blow out of proportion, i.e. leaving the toilet seat up is a favorite. The man being used to living his whole life on his own all of a sudden is considered inconsiderate and uncaring by the woman if the toilet seat is left up.

B. Showing little or no affection. It’s funny how this is such a gray

area that can break up a relationship because it’s usually determined by the disgruntled party. What is really too much or too little?

C. The dreaded friends of the disgruntled party take center stage. Remember how excited you were when you first met and that special person was considered your true “soul mate” ? Now the meeting of disgruntled friends opinion appears center stage for discussion in your relationship.

D. If there was sexual involvement in the relationship it basically has been stopped or so mundane that you can’t wait until you are through. To me this is the real sign it’s over. Sex should be considered 90% mental and 10% physical.

E. Conversation in a relationship has become null and void. Remember the long hours on the phone and in person talking about everything? Now you can barely say one word to each other.

F. Finding your focus shifted to others instead of the one you are with. Remember sitting at a table and gazing into each others eyes when you first started dating? Now you look elsewhere instead of with the one you are with.

G. Finding excuses to not be together alone is becoming more evident. One of the favorite cop outs is work. Always working late becomes a popular tool because the other party can say they are too tired to get together.

H. Vacations are spent apart. Let’s not forget the movie “How Stella Got Her Groove Back.” Vacations apart are meant as a reason to explore new potential recruits. If your mate says they are going to a particular romantic getaway spot by themselves or with friends….boy… the signs are on the wall! It’s over!

The above are just a few key points to look out for in a relationship that is going bad. Always remember a healthy relationship should be uplifting and positive.

CUSTOMER RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

Introduction:

In today’s competitive markets, customers are demanding an altogether different kind of relationship with producers and suppliers than the customers of transactional marketing era. The customers are more value conscious and if they do not find value for their money, they have no qualms in shifting their loyalties; undoubtedly this is the golden era for the customers, but for companies, survival has never been so easy. The companies have to strive hard and should win customer’s confidence which is possible only when companies keep delivering value to customers.             As customers consistently are in search of value, they are also interested in helping companies create value for which the companies need information. The new age customers also want to share problems they are facing, and inform companies the kind of product or service they are looking for. They also want companies to share every bit of information they have, which helps in developing a close bond between the customer and the company.

Developing, maintaining, and sustaining the close bond between the customer and company is known as customer relationship. Companies across the horizon, to enrich the bond of customer relationship, are using the new database technologies that enable the management to know all about customers and offer customers a platform to interact with the company. Today, customers and companies share information, which has helped the company to revive their relationship with customers and manage the customer relationship.

Evolution of CRM:

The focus of transactional marketing approach is on individual transaction and does not concern continuous relationship with customers. The framework of transactional marketing does not contain a strategic long-term perspective. It centres around tentative adjustment process as regards performing marketing functions. Customers are viewed as outsiders to the business.

            Under transactional approach customer’s expectations, satisfaction, multiple influences on their decision – making process etc., are not given due significance. Very little attention is paid to customer services and customer commitments. The thrust of transactional marketing is on gaining more and more new customers rather than retaining existing customers.

In contrast to the transactional marketing approach, the relationship marketing focuses on continuous multiple transactions rather than isolated individual transactions. The relationship marketing approach considers customers as insiders to the business and aims to build a long-term and never-ending relationship with them. The focus of relationship marketing approach centres around developing hard core loyal customers with the idea of retaining them forever. A high degree of customer contact, commitment and services are maintained.

The relationship marketing approach has gradually taken the shape of Customer Relationship Management. Relationship marketing has a narrow focus on the customers and only on the marketing functions of the organization concerned. On the other hand, Customer Relationship Management focuses more widely on customers and on the entire functions connected with value creation and delivery chain of the organization concerned. Organizations have preferred the usage of the term Customer Relationship Management rather than relationship marketing.

The Customer Relationship Management in general is operationally defined by authors as “a management process of acquiring customers by understanding their requirements, retaining customers by fulfilling their requirements more than their expectations and attracting new customers through customer specific strategic marketing approaches. The process invites total commitment on the part of the entire organization in evolving and implementing relationship strategies that would be rewarding to all concerned.”

CRM BUSINESS CYCLE:  The CRM Business Cycle are:

Acquisition and Retaining Understand and Differentiate Develop and Customize Interact and Deliver

Acquisition and Retaining

            Acquisition is a vital stage in building customer relationship.  For the purpose of customer acquisition, an organization is likely to focus its attention the suspects, enquiries, lapsed customers, former customers, competitor’s customers’ referrals, and the existing buyers.  From these the organizations need to acquire customers and prospective customers and retain valuable customers.

Understand and Differentiate

            Organizations cannot have a relationship with customers unless they understand them…what they value, what types of service are important to them, how and when they like to interact and what they want to buy.  True understanding is based on a combination of detailed analysis and interaction. To understand the customers the various activities required are:

Profiling to understand demographics, purchase patterns and channel preference. Segmentation to identify logical unique groups of customers that tend to look alike and behave in a similar fashion.  While the promise of one-one marketing sounds good, we have not seen many organizations that have mastered the art of treating each customer uniquely.  Identification of actionable segments is a practical place to start. Primary research to capture needs and attitudes. Customer valuation to understand profitability, as well as lifetime value or long-term potential.  Value may also be based on the customer’s ability or inclination to refer other profitable customers.

            Customer need to see that the company is tailoring service and communications based on what they have learnt independently and on what the customers have told to them.

Develop and Customize

            In the product world of yesterday, companies developed products and services and expected customers to buy them.  In a customer-focused world, product and channel development has to follow the customer’s lead.  Organizations are increasingly developing products and services and even new channels based on customer needs and service expectations.

Interact and Deliver

            Interaction is also a critical component of a successful CRM initiative.  It is important to remember that interaction doesn’t just occur through marketing and sales channels and media; customers interact in many different ways with many different areas of the organization, including distribution and shipping, customer service and online.

            With access to information and appropriate training, organizations will be prepared to steadily increase the value they deliver to customers.

CRM Technology

            The application of technology is the most exciting, fastest growing and changing the way customers get information about products and services.  Technology includes all the equipment, software, and communication links that organizations use to enable or improve their processes.  The mostly used tools are

Sales Force Automation

            These systems help in automating and optimizing sales processes to shorten the sales cycle and increases sales productivity.  They enable the company to track and manage all qualified leads, contacts and opportunities throughout the sales cycle including customer support.  They improve the effectiveness of marketing communications programmes for generating quality leads as well as greater accuracy in sales forecasting.  The internet can be used by the company in imparting proper training to its sales force.  In depth product information, specialized databases of solutions, sales force support queries, and a set of internal information on the internet can improve the productivity of the sales force.

Call Centers

            Call Center helps in automating the operations of inbound and outbound calls generated between company and its customers.  These solutions integrate the voice switch of automated telephone systems with an agent host software allowing for automatic call routing to agents, auto display of relevant customer data, predictive dialing, self-service Interactive Voice Response systems, etc.  These Systems are useful in high volume segments like banking, telecom and hospitality industries.  Today, more innovative channels of interacting with customers are emerging as a result of new technology, such as global telephone based call centers and the internet.  Companies are now focusing to offer solutions that leverage the internet in building comprehensive CRM systems allowing them to handle customer interactions in all forms.

Data Warehousing

            A data warehouse is an implementation of an informational database used to store shareable data that originates in an operational database-of-record and in external market data sources.  It is typically a subject database that allows users to tap into a company’s vast store of operational data to track and respond to business trends and facilitates forecasting and planning efforts.

Data Mining and OLAP

            Data mining involves specialized software tools that allow users to sift through large amounts of data to uncover data content relationships and build models to predict customer behavior.  Data mining uses well-established statistical and machine learning techniques to build models that predict customer behavior.

            OLAP (Online Analytical Processing), also known as multi-dimensional data analysis, offers advanced capabilities in querying and analyzing the information in a data warehouse.  In some CRM initiatives, OLAP plays a major role in the secondary analysis that takes place after initial customer segmentation has occurred. For example, in CRM – based campaign management systems, OLAP is an excellent tool for analyzing the success or failure of the promotional campaigns.

Decision Support and Reporting Tools

            Web enabled reporting tools and executive information systems are used to deploy the business information that has been discovered.  This enhanced customer knowledge is distributed to executive decision-makers as well as to the operational customer contact points.  Applications equipped with some of the same sophisticated modeling routines developed in the data-mining phase are applied to individual contacts in real time.

Electronic Point of Sale (EPOS)

            The main benefit of EPOS and retail scanner systems is the amount of timely and accurate information they deliver.  Advances in the technology have significantly aided the scope for data analysis. In addition to the original scanner-related data on sales rate, stock level, stock turn, price and margin, retailers now have information about the demographics, socio- economic and lifestyle characteristics of consumers.

Benefits of CRM:

The following are the befits of customer relationship management

Generation of more and more loyal customers. Expansion of customer base. Reduction in advertisement and other sales promotional expenses. Benefiting customer selectivity approach. Increase in the number of profitable customers. Easy introduction of new products. Easy business expansion possibilities. Increase in customer partnering, etc.

      Apart from the above mentioned business benefits, the customers are also benefited in terms of improved service quality, personalized care, reduction of customer stress, increased value of money, customer empowerment.

Conclusion:

      In today’s highly competitive business world, CRM is becoming the ultimate solution for both, customers as well as organizations. A good CRM system may adopt many tools to enable the various processes, viz., marketing campaign building, sales tracking, incentive compensation and customer delivery. Each of these processes requires number of programs or technologies to provide a solution. Companies need to develop a consistent scalable technology platform that is supportable across delivery channels, and management must train people at all levels of the organization to understand the new technologies and incorporate a customer-centric approach to every customer’s interactions.

REFERENCES

Greenberg -  CRM at the Speed of Light-TataMcGraw-Hill Publishing Company Ltd.,New Delhi. Peeru Mohamed H ; Sagadevan A – Customer Relationship Management – A Step by Step Approach, Vikas Publishing House Pvt. Ltd., New Delhi. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_Relationship_Management – 47k www.crminfoline.com/ – 18k

In Link building, the weight of strategic relationship can’t be denied. Relationship building is the way through which you can widen your website’s reach. When other sites link to your website they are in a sense, endorsing your website. The strength of building a large network of website that backlinks to your site can determine your online success. There is ample of evidence that shows the significance of strategic relationship for any link building campaign accomplishment. Quality link building goes beyond just being referred by the website which is relevant to your site. It is more about cultivating strategic relationships with other sites who intend to display your links as “organic”.

Right Way to Start Building Good Relationships- “A good start is a half done”. The authentic meaning of this proverb is having a good start always produces a great outcome. So if you are going to start relationship marketing, make sure to have a good start. Following a chronological approach is always better and Link Building campaign needs to follow these given approach step by step:

Research for relevant websites- Choosing potential link partner is the foremost step of a link building campaign. It can be done through a search for the websites working in the same area. It requires comprehensive research of sites in major search engines with most relevant keywords.

Note: Be cautious about the website’s interest in link partnership and its content quality. There should always be a resource page or a link partner’s page.

Make a list of thematic sites- Prepare a list of websites interested in link partnership on the basis of research. To make it more expedient in use, you may sort the list either by geographical region or by page rank.

Note: Focus on collecting good resources rather than large.

Send emails of link building proposal- Prepare an email template for sending link building request. This is the most decisive step of a link building campaign. While writing emails for link building request, you should keep few points in mind.

Be assured that you have visited their website. In your email, put a line about their website.

Be delicate. It should be a personal request and should not look like coming from an automated program or software.

Offer them something of value, remember to point out what‘s in it for them.

Add a line to explain the importance of link partnership.

Note: Never send link building request number of times, to a single email ID, as it can irritate the receiver.

Follow up- Follow up is required at weekly interval to check the persistence of links.

Note: While doing follow up if you are not getting your links; don’t be agitated as it can mess up your relationship with the partner. Better ask him/her to add link again. Don’t forget to mention the mutual link partnership agreement signed before.

Brand Reputations in Relationship Building- Do you ever think when you commend any brand to your customer; it directly reflects your brand reputation? Suppose someone has requested you to recommend his/her brand you are not aware of. Do you recommend that brand? Never. But if you have taken service from any brand and you feel good about it- you will definitely recommend the name to any of your friend who has a need of the same service. Likely is the case with link building where you need to focus on the quality of links you are going to recommend in order to build relationship.

In Link Building, strategic relationship shows how successful your link campaign is launched. And both partners can take the benefit of link building throughout the strategic relationship.

The connection that exists between closed sales and a profitable quarter is equal to the connection that may be found between customer relationship management and a successful network marketing business. As a matter of fact, a successful network marketing business relies on customer relationship management as its one stock in trade that will promise to yield results no matter what the market does! Customer relationship marketing is somewhat complicated by the fact that although it is a widely applicable concept that applies across the board to all forms of commerce, it also varies greatly from one merchant to the next.

In spite of these differences, there are also some similarities which are a good starting point for your business, especially if you are uncertain if you are truly making the most of your network marketing business with respect to building, maintaining, and deepening relationships with your customers.

* Perhaps the most important aspect that will help you to get a good idea as to how to treat your customers and manage the relationships they have with you will have to date back to the point of first contact. When, where, and why did the customer – or potential customer – contact you in the first place?

* What made your product or network marketing business attractive enough to the individual to send you an email or call you? Find out what the words and phrases were that you used and the idea you were trying to get through, and in so doing you will discovery which need of your customer you addressed on that day.

* Once you have identified the need that the customer believed your product or network marketing business could fulfill, it is essential that you become familiar with your customer’s time schedule. For example, if staying home with the kids during the summer vacation is of importance to the consumer, and you know that you have three months left until the first day of summer vacation, you will have just formulated your actual window of opportunity for closing the deal and introducing another candidate to your down line! Work with the time frame provided and help your customer understand how she or he can put this time frame to work in order to achieve their stated goal!

* Do not be bashful but ask! While this may sound like the proverbial car salesman question of “what’s it going to take for you to buy this car today,” this kind of question is not without merit, and while it is advisable to stay away as far as possible from sales related clichés, there are times when they do come in handy. Find out which objections, if any, the customer has, what constraints them, what concerns them, and what is that little push that you could provide in order to make the customer close the deal.

A successful network marketing business relies on customer relationship management more heavily than is often given it credit for and while the hunt for lead will almost certainly continue to take over the lions’ share of the average network marketer’s attention, while it is the relationship savvy marketer who will become successful.

Relationship marketing is a very important component in the affiliate marketing business. When you are doing the business, there will be 2 different type of relationship. The 1st type is the relationship with the merchant and the 2nd type is the relationship with your subscriber. Why is having a good relationship with your merchant and subscriber so important to your business?

The 1st type of relationship that you will form with is your merchant. This is very important if you plan to do this business long term. If you have been using the correct business model and you are seeing some success, your merchant will take notice of you when he realizes that you have been bring him consistent sales.

This will be a good chance for you to further the relationship with the merchant. When you have a good relationship with him, there will be times when you can ask him to help you. You can ask for higher commissions, give you the whole product so that you can do detailed product review or even a joint venture deal with the merchant.

The 2nd type of relationship that you will form with is your subscriber. You will have to take note that when people buy products online; they buy because they trust the seller. Trust is a very important factor in the affiliate marketing business. It is thus very important for you to build trust with your subscribers.

When you have made the effort to build a good relationship with the subscriber, your subscriber will soon treat you as someone who is credible and sincere in helping them. This will definitely helps to increase your sales because whenever you try to promote a product to them, they will know that it is a quality product. Do not make the mistake of promoting a lousy product just because you want to make quick cash.

In conclusion, we can see that having a good relationship with both the merchant and subscribers is so important for your affiliate marketing business success. Do not ever misuse this relationship as once you have done something that makes the relationship worsen, it will be very difficult to make it like it used to be. You should always remember that affiliate marketing business is all about building relationships.

We hear it everywhere: for a strong relationship, you need clear communication and trust. Books galore cover the topic. Dr. Phil, on his website, recommends making a “to do list,” “setting specific goals,” and “meeting each other’s needs,” for a romantic relationship to prove successful.

Are we not forgetting something? As children, did we ever maintain a friendship by setting goals or creating to do lists? Did you ever say, “Bobby, to make our friendship work I am going to need you to meet my need of building a better Lego castle.” Of course not. You and Bobby were friends because you thought he wore cool jeans and you had fun together.

Our culture underrates the importance of fun and encourages critical thinking in friendships and relationships. Yet watch children who bond quickly through nonjudgmental play. There is a spontaneity and appreciation of pleasure in children. So often adults forget the simple pleasure of enjoying a partner with no critique or pressure to improve.

Let us return to an appreciation of fun and pleasure! As an adult, your concept of fun need not be limited to a sexy game every Saturday night. There are many other ways to experience fun with your partner.

Fun and spontaneity cannot be taught with a ten point checklist. Therefore, instead of giving you a list I will present some questions that may stimulate ideas for bringing more fun into your relationship.

 
Remember what you liked about each other in the beginning. What drew you to your partner? Was it his passion for race cars or his eccentric habit of whistling in the streets? Whatever it was, begin to consciously encourage him to do the things that are fun for him, even if they are not fun for you. By supporting the fun in his life, you will have a happier partner. You do not need to fake interest in whatever your partner thinks is fun; just encouraging him to pursue his passions will put some juice into your relationship.

 
Express what you find to be fun, and do it. Maybe your idea of fun is much different from your partner’s. Many people sacrifice certain hobbies or interests when their partner does not share in them. But this sacrifice can be harmful to you and your partner. For example, I am a staunch fan of 19th century opera. Most of my boyfriends have hated opera, but that has never stopped me from regularly blasting out high pitched arias during dinner dates. I like to think they respect me for it.

 
Explore what fun means to you. Besides your staid interests and hobbies, what new activities might you try together? Find something that you both have not done before. Try sky diving together- maybe you will both hate it. Or love it. I know a couple who tried bird watching on a fluke and found it was a passion for them both.

 
Put the sensual into unexpected places. Take pleasure in surprising your partner. Ask yourself, what is something that my partner would never expect from me? Perhaps for years you’ve described yourself as artistically inept. Take up painting. Or you rely on sexy lingerie for those special evenings. Start wearing old man pajamas. You never know what your partner will find exciting.

The niche markets that are available online are getting more competitive and you as an affiliate will have to do something more if you want the customers to purchase the product from your link. What is the one thing that you can do to make yourself stand out from the rest of your competitors?

Letâ??s say there are 2 people who promoting the same product to you and one of them is your best friend. You will definitely purchase the product from your best your friend as you already have a relationship with your friend and you will trust your friend more.

Having a good relationship and having good credibility is very important for you to make yourself standout from your competitors. You should know that customers will only purchase products from someone that they can trust. When you are following up with your subscribers, you will want to make sure that you are providing with good relevant information so that they will know that you are knowledgeable in this area.

Once they have received good values from you, they will be eager to get more information from you when you are promoting relevant products to them. You will get better response from them and they will be more willing to purchase the product from you because you are more trustable.

You will want to be very selective of the product that you will be promoting to them and make sure that it is good quality product as your credibility is on the line every time you promote a product t them. It will be worth your investment of time and effort into building good relationship with your subscribers as it will means that you will have a long term business and you can get more profits from your subscribers.

Within the collective of online businesses, there are various schools of thought as to how you should go about building the most effective model for business.

Two of the most popular models for success online are automation and also relationship building.

The automation model simply suggests that by automating or having as many aspects of business running on auto-pilot, certain resources (namely you), are free to focus more so on other money generating activities.

The relationship building model is more of a psychological approach, which is built upon the notion that people tend to do business with individuals or companies that they like, trust, or are at least more familiar with.

Here there may be something of a debate…

Now, many will argue that hey, with this one VS the other. You can certainly do both. Right?

This is true, but I believe this is only true to a certain extent without sacrificing the value of one model for another.

Automation of those business activities that don’t deal directly with the customer is highly efficient.

However, once you begin to automate your methods of direct contact, such as customer support, pre-selling, even e-mailing your list, I would suggest that you are also sacrificing your relationship in favor of automation.

Here is an example…

One popular method for automation is undoubtedly the auto-responder. The auto-responder allows a business to send any number of pre written e-mails to a list of customers or prospects.

Although, this is tactic definitely conserves time, most automated e-mails have the look and feel of something that has been mass produced.

These e-mails don’t have much of a personalized touch which eliminates the opportunity for a customer to develop any sort of bond or personal relationship with that business.

E-mail marketing is an incredible method by which a business can build relationships with lists and customers.

The key element to this approach is consistency as well as a personal touch.

When people here from you on a regular basis, they become accustomed to that contact and begin to expect it.

As apposed to, “Oh! This guy again. He probably wants to sell me something and off the top of my head I can’t say I feel like spending any money. So, delete.”

When a business automates the contact with customers they lose much of any personal quality and take on the image of some huge money hungry machine that frankly doesn’t have the time to send you a personal e-mail.

This is not relationship building by any stretch of the imagination. People like to do business with other people, not corporations, or franchises, or operations, but people.

Other highly effective methods for actually connecting with people online (and that is the power of the internet), include forum marketing,blogging, and viral marketing.

I won’t go into detail about these methods here, because each could easily warrant an entire piece on that topic alone.

I believe that closely associated with that initial query by potential customers, “What’s in it for me?” there is also an implied questions of,

“Why should I listen to you…Why should I trust you?”

This is the importance of relationship building and any business, but especially business online. People like to know that you are as real as they are.

Character may almost be called the most effective means of persuasion.

-Aristotle

One action you can implement immediately to help more people and make more money this month is to ask. It seems basic, just ask! It is so often overlooked. Have you asked for more business? Have you asked for more clients? Have you asked people to work with you? It’s really fundamental.

The first thing I’d encourage you to do in asking is understand what you’re asking for. What do you want your clients to look like, to be like? What is an ideal client? Get clear about that and know what you want from a client.

Also, just how do you know when you have it? If you’re going to get really clear about what you’re going to ask for, say, “How will I know when I’m standing in front of or speaking to the person that’s right for me?”

Honor the value of the connection between you and the client. To ask for business, to ask a client to work with you, to ask a stranger if they’re interested in Reiki or coaching or whatever it might be, you have to have a real respect and honor to the connection and relationship between you and the client.

Then the second part is having a plan for asking. “How am I going to ask? Where can I go to ask?” Take that vision that you worked with in part one and apply it to the plan. This is really key. What we don’t ask for we never get. What we don’t seek out never comes to fruition for us.

It’s very powerful to ask for clients and business. A lot of people get scared about it. They say, “I don’t want to ask. I just want people to see my value and come to me.” Do you value yourself? If you’re afraid to ask, I don’t think you do.

Asking is such a powerful tool, because it allows the potential clients to know about you. That’s number one, because people have to know that you’re there to work with you. But more so for you, it leverages the value of what you do, because you share it with others and you ask of them to take a part in your services, your gifts, how you help people.

So make a mini goal for yourself in the next couple of days, “How many people will I ask to work with me, or ask to have a complementary session, or ask to come to a complimentary seminar?”

Also, realize what you’re asking for. Sometimes you’re asking for a complimentary session. Sometimes you’re asking for someone to be a client. It’s all very relative, because certain things are going to be easier for some of you to ask for. Some of you may just be asking for them to be on your newsletter or on a mailing list. Decide what you want to ask for. See what feels comfortable to you and really ask for that.

Now here’s one of the really important factors in asking. After you decide how and what your goal is and where you’re going to ask people for business, be aware that it needs to be continuous. I don’t want you to just spend an afternoon and go, “Okay, I’m going to go ask 10 people. That’s my goal, then I’m done.” I want you to constantly and consistently ask.

Just focus on the asking, because it will prepare you for always being free and open to ask for business. That will serve you for years and years. You’ll automatically start attracting clients.

If you ask for business, if you ask for the opportunity to share your gift with someone, you will automatically, consistently and immediately see a shift in your business.

One action you can implement immediately to help more people and make more money this month is to ask. It seems basic, just ask! It is so often overlooked. Have you asked for more business? Have you asked for more clients? Have you asked people to work with you? It’s really fundamental.

The first thing I’d encourage you to do in asking is understand what you’re asking for. What do you want your clients to look like, to be like? What is an ideal client? Get clear about that and know what you want from a client.

Also, just how do you know when you have it? If you’re going to get really clear about what you’re going to ask for, say, “How will I know when I’m standing in front of or speaking to the person that’s right for me?”

Honor the value of the connection between you and the client. To ask for business, to ask a client to work with you, to ask a stranger if they’re interested in Reiki or coaching or whatever it might be, you have to have a real respect and honor to the connection and relationship between you and the client.

Then the second part is having a plan for asking. “How am I going to ask? Where can I go to ask?” Take that vision that you worked with in part one and apply it to the plan. This is really key. What we don’t ask for we never get. What we don’t seek out never comes to fruition for us.

It’s very powerful to ask for clients and business. A lot of people get scared about it. They say, “I don’t want to ask. I just want people to see my value and come to me.” Do you value yourself? If you’re afraid to ask, I don’t think you do.

Asking is such a powerful tool, because it allows the potential clients to know about you. That’s number one, because people have to know that you’re there to work with you. But more so for you, it leverages the value of what you do, because you share it with others and you ask of them to take a part in your services, your gifts, how you help people.

So make a mini goal for yourself in the next couple of days, “How many people will I ask to work with me, or ask to have a complementary session, or ask to come to a complimentary seminar?”

Also, realize what you’re asking for. Sometimes you’re asking for a complimentary session. Sometimes you’re asking for someone to be a client. It’s all very relative, because certain things are going to be easier for some of you to ask for. Some of you may just be asking for them to be on your newsletter or on a mailing list. Decide what you want to ask for. See what feels comfortable to you and really ask for that.

Now here’s one of the really important factors in asking. After you decide how and what your goal is and where you’re going to ask people for business, be aware that it needs to be continuous. I don’t want you to just spend an afternoon and go, “Okay, I’m going to go ask 10 people. That’s my goal, then I’m done.” I want you to constantly and consistently ask.

Just focus on the asking, because it will prepare you for always being free and open to ask for business. That will serve you for years and years. You’ll automatically start attracting clients.

If you ask for business, if you ask for the opportunity to share your gift with someone, you will automatically, consistently and immediately see a shift in your business.