When I present my Conscious Business Process, I ask my audiences if they agree that successful business relies on successful relationships.

And I have found that every time they unanimously agree.

I then ask my audience what kind of relationship they would like with their energyholders (stakeholders)?

Would they like them to LIKE them?

Are they ready for them to LOVE them?

And would they like them to be LIFE PARTNERS for the life of their business and brand?

Because, successful business relies on successful relationships.

This is where some members of my audience start to feel uncomfortable.

They say, ‘NO – I don’t care if they like me’ – or, ‘My goodness I DON’T want them to love me’, and, ‘I can’t imagine being with them for life!’.

These business people don’t want these relationships, simply because they don’t like some of their customers and stakeholders.

So why are they stakeholders?

Traditional business teaches us to start with the customer – find out what the customer wants and give that to them. Even if that means changing who we are to give that or be that for the customer.

And here is the paradox.

Traditional business also teaches us the importance of keeping customers and that it can cost up to 5 times as much to acquire a new customer as it does to retain your current ones.

But if you don’t like your customers, (as per the example above), you won’t want to keep them! Even if you’re supposed to, even if it’s good for business.

When you start with your customer – you can attract the wrong customers to your business. And then, because you have enticed the wrong customers, you also lose time and energy dealing with the customer churn of those customers who are not a fit for your business or brand.

Customer churn is a 6-fold cost to a business. As Burke Alder outlines in The True Cost of Customer Churn –

1. You lose recurring revenue
2. You lose expansion opportunity revenue
3. You have to spend more marketing dollars (increase cost in customer acquisition costs)
4. You will start seeing the negative network effect that will impact referrals
5. You will lose brand leadership in your competitive market
6. You lose second-order revenue (customer champions changing companies and bringing your product on board with their new company, and word of mouth revenue).

So why have customers you don’t want to have a relationship with?

In a Conscious Business – the business starts with you.  It’s about understanding that who you are as a business is the first value of any relationship.

Your business (who you ‘really’ are) + a positive relationship = business success.

The other key here is that ‘like’ energy attracts. So, if you are ‘being’ who you are as a business you will attract the right customers and stakeholders who feel aligned to you. And because they are aligned to you, they can help you build your business and brand with the right energy (referrals) and help you attract other ‘like’ energy relationships.

It all starts with being conscious of and confident in who you are as a business.

The Conscious Business Model outlines 5 Energy Elements you can define as a business and how when you activate these elements, you can determine the depth of relationships you have with all of your stakeholders. These elements once defined are also guidelines to help you as a business stay conscious, aligned and consistent in who you are, so your relationships can learn to trust and depend on you for the life of your business and brand.

So, if you don’t love your customers or stakeholders, maybe it’s time to become more conscious as a business?  It may sound harder – but it’s so much easier!

X Cath

Integrate your truth