It’s really easy to be ungrateful, isn’t it? This last year and a half was HARD. I admit that. And yet, consider: Where are you at in your business now? How has the experience of living through a pandemic shaped you as a person? What changes have you made in your business? Personal life? Your family? Surely we have a lot of things to be frustrated about. But we also have a lot to be immensely grateful for.
And gratitude is magic.
Have you ever noticed that you don’t need to teach a small child to be ungrateful? It comes to us naturally. That means that if we are to live gratefully, it needs to be intentional. Thanksgiving is coming in the next couple of weeks and that makes for a great opportunity to talk about the benefits of genuine, authentic gratitude. So, what can intentional gratitude have to do with your sales outcomes?
Gratitude is EVERYTHING. It is the key to successful networking and relationship building!
How so?
Well, first, it’s important to fully understand what sales really is. Too many people still view sales as extortion and slick trickery. The reality is that sales is all about genuine service. We serve our clients by selling to them.
Now watch. When we are intentional about sales as service to our clients, this makes us genuinely grateful.
Grateful for our clients.
Grateful for success.
Grateful for business.
Grateful for connections.
Grateful for even the hardships.
This, in turn, facilitates a relationship with our clients based on mutual respect and gratitude. And I ask you: Is there any better way to do business, network, build relationships, or to guarantee repeat business than to have a genuine quality connection with a client?
Do you enjoy being around someone who is truly grateful for you? Of course! Those are the people you want to spend all your time with! Dale Carnegie says in How To Win Friends And Influence People that everyone wants to feel genuinely appreciated. Seems obvious, doesn’t it? Isn’t the best way to make someone feel appreciated to express gratitude for them and for your connection with them?
Consider this: You receive what you focus on.
Your subconscious mind will always go in the direction that you are consciously thinking. And where your subconscious mind goes, your actions cannot help but follow. And finally, the actions you take ultimately create your outcomes and results.
In other words, when you focus on what you are grateful for, you get MORE of that – rather than getting more of the problem at hand.
When we think about and emit gratitude, the same will come back to us! You find that your clients will be as grateful for you as you are for them!
So what are you grateful for in your business? Are you grateful for:
- Your clients?
- The challenges that have caused you to pivot?
- Your staff?
- Your facility?
- Your personal freedom?
- Your hours?
- The success you’ve enjoyed so far?
- The opportunities available to you?
- How much you’ve learned along the way?
Sit with that! Reflect on it! Now doesn’t that bring some refreshing perspective?
As for me, I am grateful for so many things:
- I am grateful that I get to run a business that feels like fun to me!
- I am grateful that I get to regularly work with successful, CEO-mindset entrepreneurs.
- I am grateful for my team that helps keep this business going strong.
- I am grateful for my family’s unending support of my passions.
- I am grateful for my strengths and weaknesses, as well as the strengths and weaknesses of the people I get to work with – because it makes us a powerhouse!
- Most importantly: I am grateful for you. Yes – I mean that!
Be intentionally grateful for where you are. And surprisingly enough, that will create more abundance in your business. You’ll see benefits extend much further than you may have anticipated!
Happy Thanksgiving to you and yours!
