Living Life by Design

Have you ever thought about your interactions as exchanges? “Social psychologist Dr. Uriel G. Foa discovered the resource theory of human relationships. He argues that all interactions are actually transactions,” Captivate. A business is about people doing things together on a fair exchange.  How we choose to invest our time and energy into others is what makes our business unique to every other person in every other office, but there is always a way to improve how we operate. What if I could tell you a way to do it a way more effectively and efficiently? A way that ensures you are working to your best abilities. Vanessa Van Edwards, author of Captivate, discusses how to take your strengths and utilize them to maximize your transactions with others. We both give resources and get resources. With this new take, how do we ensure we invest ourselves efficiently to properly manage our relationships with others? 

Here are a few ways to deepen your current relationships and make them lasting relationships: 

Invest emotionally to elevate your relationships: share your secrets. Don’t be weighed down by your mistakes. Our mistakes make us personable and relatable. “Don’t be afraid to ask for advice, share vulnerability, or admit weakness– they bond you to people.” This doesn’t mean faking it till you make it, be genuine. Deepen your relationships by making processes and conversation more personal. Be able to be vulnerable with others.  

Invest into learning what they value: ask yourself how well you know your client. Understanding what makes people tick, different, unique, and feel loved by uncovering their “primary value.” This makes your interactions more effective and efficient. Learn what has the most impact on your clients, what they value most, and what you can do to better serve them. Consider what drives them and add value to your interactions by implementing what they value most.  

Invest into the one who aren’t quite there yet. If you have clients who couldn’t get approved for a loan, you want to help them get to a place where they one day will be able to own a home. Make sure you are staying in touch with those who didn’t quite meet the loan requirements. You could be helping them improve their credit score for the next 6 months to a year for them to get approved. If they decided they want a bigger house than originally planned and need to save for a bigger down payment, help them through that process and continue to serve them.  It’s easy to stop connecting with clients who can’t get loan approvals, but investing your time into them, continuing to grow your relationship with them, and helping them one day own a home is rewarding. “It’s my job to step in and see how we can aid potential clients in not only achieving but surpassing their goals.”

Someone wrote, “I am worried about our tendency to over invest in things and under invest in people.” As servant seller, we want our clients to be able to say, “they took time out of their life to invest into mine.”

Invest into your people…