This post is a revision from a Squidoo Lens I wrote several months ago: How To Improve Your Business Relationships. I found out through my experiences over the years that attraction marketing is definitely the approach you MUST take in order to find success in the network marketing industry. And a fundamental principle of attraction marketing is establishing or building business relationships. It will take more effort to do, but the end result is a successful and thriving business. Enjoy the message!

We live in a day and time where the know, like and trust factor is the number one thing that stands in the way of us building and growing a successful business.  Business relationships must be established in order for you to succeed.  Your customers must be able to clearly know you are there to assist them by offering them something that is truly of value.  They have to be able to know that you have their best interest at heart.  They must be able to define you, your business, and the products/services you provide.

When I began my online business venture, I had a difficult time building business relationships.  I poured everything I had into meeting people and providing them solutions based on the knowledge I possessed.  I followed the attraction marketing principles by joining a countless number of social networking sites, and I constantly engaged in conversations with everyone I met.  I retweeted tweets on Twitter.  I shared or posted their Facebook updates on my wall.  I commented on their blogs.  I did everything I was supposed to do, but for some reason, I was getting ZERO results.

I could not get a single person to retweet my messages. I could not get any of them to share my Facebook updates.  I could not sell a single product.  Geezzz.. I could not even get my upline sponsors, the people who recruited me into the business, to follow me on these social networking sites.  Now how depressing is that?

Why was I having such a difficult time in building business relationships?

Simple.. they did not know, like, or trust me.

Sure, they saw me as a nice guy, but maybe they also thought I had some hidden agenda.  People are really immune to the nice guy approach these days.  They will listen to you all day long, but when it comes down to taking action, they are very hesitant to take the next step — trusting you.  They have questions about your character.  How could this person be that nice?? Why would he want to help me??  What is in it for him??  Is this offer really free??  These are some of the questions they ask.

With the growing number of scam offers out there, you really can’t blame them for questioning your trust.  People are losing their hard earned money at an alarming rate, and your offer to provide them “a valuable service” is distorted by the facts.  Here are the facts:

National Consumer League’s (NCL) 2008 Fraud Report:

Overall Scams                        % of Total    Average Loss

Fake Check Scams                        40.79%        $3,297.76

Internet: Gen Merchandise             23.23%        $1,366.74

Friendship & Sweetheart Swindles   1.12%          $7,307.77

Top Internet Scams

Internet: Gen Merchandise             33.41%        $1,370.07

Prizes/Sweepstakes/Free Gifts        3.89%          $2,584.16

Friendship & Sweetheart Swindles   1.62%          $7,351.91

Top Telemarketing Scams

Fake Check Scams                        61.20%         $3,532.99

Prizes/Sweepstakes/Free Gifts        12.04%         $3,918.18

Phishing/Spoofing                          10.42%         $462.59

The above stats were randomly pulled from the NCL 2008 Fraud Report.  There were other scams identified, but I only pulled these for my illustration purposes.  You can see the full report at NCLnet.org.

Can you now imagine how terrified people must be of you and your so called business?  Can you imagine the amount of trust you must establish with them in order to get them to buy from you?  Today, it takes 10 times as much effort to build relationships as it took in 1997, which is when I originally started in this industry.  You really have to be more than just a nice guy (or gal), you have to have sources or credentials to prove it (content, testimonies, etc.).

You have do more than talk the talk, you have to also be able to walk the walk.

Prove it to me! Show me what you’ve done!

Your walk comes in the form of your content (value). You have to show people what you have done and let your work speak for itself.  This can come in the form having the best blog site to writing some of the most engaging articles.  The more useful content you put out on the Web, the more valuable you become. The more valuable you become, the more profitable your business, and the easier it becomes to gather a following.

So, what can you learn from my experience?

You need to know that your main focus should be on your content.  Go out there and build the best blog site, and people will notice.  Write some of the most helpful ezine articles, and people will notice.  Once you start focusing on your content (value), you will began to see a significant amount of support from your upline and everyone else around you.  People will start to comment on your Squidoo lenses. People will start to seek your advice. They will retweet your tweets and share your status updates.  You will finally break through the barrier.  You will be known, truly liked, and highly trusted in your online community!

Share Your Experiences:
How well has attraction marketing worked for you in building your business relationships?

Barry O. Canada
The MLM Leads Maker
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