No, it’s not an official holiday!  It’s not even one of those contrived days that give the greeting card companies an extra sales boost.  It’s not any of those.

It’s a week I made up.  Yes, I made it up.  I decided that we needed to set aside a week to recognize the importance of relationships and relationship-building in our personal and professional lives.

 Much of what I read these days relating to business revolves around how important relationship-building is to business growth.  In fact, a new e-book (The Emergence of the Relationship Economy) is all about a shift in our economic mentality to relationships as the bedrock of customer growth and retention. 

One would not think this is something “new”.  After all, it seems obvious that unless a business owner has good relationships with customers or potential customers - the business isn’t going to succeed. 

But society and culture has changed dramatically since my Dad owned a gas station and my Mom was in real estate.  We lived in small town USA where everyone knew everyone else and my parents’ customers came back again and again because they liked and trusted my Mom and Dad.  They had business growth because they formed relationships and they had relationships because they were in business!

Over the years, we went from a “neighborhood” society to a distant anonymous culture traveling too fast in the fast lane of life.  Mobility became the norm and extended families living in close proximity to each other became a thing of the past.  Strangers became our customers and as long as they returned again and again - that’s all that mattered.

But interestingly, the advent and growth of the internet has turned the tide and it is shifting back toward being “in touch” with others in a personal way that ends up benefitting us professionally.  Just look at the rapid rise of social networking on the web if you have any doubts.  Long term care professionals tell us that the internet is an important tool for the elderly in care facilities as it keeps them connected and their minds alert.  When life throws us a number of curve balls in rapid succession and there is no one, “in the flesh” to turn to - we can turn to Facebook or LinkedIn or one of a vast number of sites that link us with others instantaneously.  It my not fulfill our need for physical warm, but it keeps us from total isolation.

That’s the personal side of the shift.  What does it have to do with business?  Everything the experts tell us.  They say that as we continue down the information highway, the businesses that thrive will be those that focus on growth via building strong interpersonal relationships with others that lead us to clients and customers.  A long steady stream of them.

A dear woman said to me this past week that everyone says “people buy from people they know, like and trust; but no one tells us how to get to that point!”  My, do we not know how to build relationships - for any reason?

We do, but we don’t often equate them with leading to business success.  It seems it’s the most difficult to ask those we know to be our customers or clients (what we call the ‘warm market’).  Our dichotomized western minds want to segment everything - business over here and relationships over there! 

Those of us who know that they are one and the same are left screaming in the wilderness, so to speak.

So I’ve decided that this week, May 19 - May 23 is “Celebrate Relationship Week”.  Think about the people with whom you are in relationship and do something out of the way for them this week.  Make Hallmark happy & show you care enough to send the very best.  Or send a note of thanks for a small deed done that made your day at a time when you needed it most.

And go one step further!  Decide to make one new friend this week.  Invite him or her to lunch or coffee and begin the process of getting to know each other.  Find out your goals, what you’ve accomplished, your interests and the networks you are a part of and the skills each of you bring to the marketplace.  Decide to continue to share together on a regular basis.

And take the risk of not even mentioning doing business together.  Let that come as you get to know each other better, gain each other’s trust, find each other to be very credible and learn that you can hold each other accountable for nothing as simple as keeping an appointment over java.

Over time and in the long run - you’ll be glad you did. 

Happy “Relationship Week” everyone!

Linda, a fellow journeyor