The one thing you need to solidify a business relationship
CHANTELLE FITZGERALD (She / Her)
I create Leadership Development Programs for leaders at every stage of their journey from entry level to executives| Gallup StrengthsFinders Coach |Mindfulness Trainer| Speaker |EQ| Professor | Facilitator
Recently, I went on a trip with my sister, her fiance, Kelly, my mother and Kelly’s mother to the South of France. My sister and Kelly would like to get married in the south of France. (I know it’s a bit bougie, but it will be amazing.) :-) They vacationed last year and fell in love with the French Riviera.
Who wouldn’t!?
Now they want to create this same magical experience they had on vacation for their guests at their wedding.
My sister invited me to come for moral support, I guess :-) and to give my 2 cents here and there in picking out the venue and helping with all of the logistics that go into planning a wedding.
After talking and visiting several potential venders, venues, hotel managers, wedding planners, etc. something very clear came to the surface as a very KEY and CRITICAL business skill that I do not think many people utilize very often or even daily, and yet it is absolutely the ONE thing you need to have in order to solidify a great partnership in business.
THE STORY
Here is a story of a very powerful business relationship that was formed in the process of planning a wedding and the one thing you need to do it.
It was a Friday morning in France. It had been a busy week of checking out venues, touring the surrounding region, checking out potential hotels for guests and thinking about what would be best for the budget and guests attending this wedding.
My sister and Kelly fell in love with an incredible venue and on Friday morning we went to a well known chain hotel to inquire about rates and blocking several hotel rooms etc.
We had an appointment to meet with a woman, but soon found out she was not in charge of making the decisions of rates and the amount of rooms we could block off. Thus, she went to go get her boss.
She returned about 10 min later saying that her boss was in a meeting and that he would be coming out as soon as he was able.
Ok, great.
MEETING THE HOTEL MANAGER
We waited for about another 10 min or so and her boss Christophe comes out and apologizes for the long wait.
My sister proceeded to tell Christophe why we were all there and what we were looking for (amount of rooms / rates for hotels, etc).
The first thing that Christophe said was he raised his hand in the air to show off his wedding ring and said to my sister and Kelly “welcome to the club”. Christophe continued to crack jokes about how he married his high school “honey” and how everyone always says awww, when he says including the “dudes” (those were his exact words). LOL
(I’m cracking up, and thinking, this guy is really funny and has a great personality.)
He then proceeded to talk about how he knows the stress of planning a wedding, the importance of locking down one detail so it is one less thing you have to worry about and his own experience of saving for years to afford to have a nice wedding.
The fact that Christophe was able to empathize, and explained how he completely understood and remembers the stress of planning a wedding made the difference. He genuinely wanted to help make this the best experience for my sister and Kelly and his approach made a tremendous impact on them.
After the meeting, they raved about how funny, kind, and genuine he was. They went on about his willingness to go the extra mile to help them find a wedding band as he was a former musician.
THE ONE THING YOU NEED:
The one thing that you need to have in order to build lasting relationships in business is EMPATHY. Being able to understand where your potential client or current client is coming from is KEY to building trust and understanding. If you can tap into the feelings of your customers or future customers it is a game changer.
Give it a shot and let me know how it works for you.
#empathy #leadership #kindness #understanding #mindfulness
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3 年There are nuggets in this article, thanks for sharing I’d be honored to have you in my network CHANTELLE
National Marketing Director for ALS USA Environmental / Leadership in Environmental Laboratory Testing Solutions worldwide / Personal Branding Leader and Adjunct Professor
5 年Beautiful real-world example of why people achieve and succeed, CHANTELLE. Empathy leads to #relationshipmarketing
Certified Executive & Leadership Development Coach
5 年Hi Chantelle, thanks for sharing your story and asking for my thoughts! The manager in your story sounds like he demonstrated 2 of the 5 pillars of EQ... Empathy and Social skills. Both are needed to foster positive relationships. Send pictures of your sister’s wedding ??
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5 年CHANTELLE?you know I am overjoyed by the way you infused work/life (and LOVE) in this incredible wedding trip! Clearly passionate about what you do, you were keenly aware of how valuable that moment of empathy was for the current and future business relationship with Christophe. Hands down, it's essential! I'd add that following up to continue deepening the connection is the next best thing for developing that relationship into a powerful partnership.?