Many years ago, we used to have a Bank Manager called John. We didn't hear from John very often. But when we did, he'd always try and sell us some new financial product.
It got to the point that, when I saw his name on my phone, I dreaded pressing "Answer". I knew the next few minutes would be his clumsy attempts to sell me something, followed by me saying "No thanks".
And then an amazing thing happened. One day, it turned out that he didn't want to sell me something. I was amazed.
But it wasn’t much better – this time, he wanted to tell me they’d had an IT problem in the branch.
By now, you’ll understand why the first words of this Tip were "Many years ago, we used to have…"!
So, that’s the story. But what’s the point?
Well, it's all-too-easy for us to behave like John did…
… in that, the only time we contact people is when there’s an external trigger: We need to sell something to them; we have an IT issue etc.
But when we behave like that, it means that others will behave like I did – they’ll see your name on their phone, wonder what the problem is / what you want from them this time, and either decline the call or reluctantly answer it.
The solution?
Contact people when you don’t need to! This can be a simple ‘how are you?’, right through to giving them something valuable.
Stephen Covey calls this the Emotional Bank Account – you invest into your relationships, so you can withdraw help/support etc when you need it.
Do you proactively invest enough in yours?
Action Point
Identify the most critical people in your life. Proactively contact them more often, not just when you need them…
(If one way to help them would be sharing free advice on presentations, you could even send them this link!)