The Smart Way to Fail: How to Fail Often and Fail Fast

The Smart Way to Fail: How to Fail Often and Fail Fast

by | Oct 18, 2025 | ideas+business

Failing in business is common. But there’s a smart way to fail, and that’s to fail often and fail fast. There are so many stories about how entrepreneurs failed before they reached success that everyone should think of failing as the normal thing to do.

Failing often and failing fast is a necessity. Learning is the most important way to grow as an individual and as an entrepreneur. When you understand that you are not going to get it right the first time in any project you start, the possibilities open to you are endless. The principles of failing fast are useful in business, but can be applied to all things in life.

 

Table of Contents

  1. Look for safe ways to fail.
  2. Don’t dwell on failure.
  3. Learn your lessons and don’t forget them.
  4. Exercise resiliency.
  5. Try many new and different things.
  6. Have a mentor or guide.
  7. Refuse to give up and to think that failure is the end.
  8. Have courage and don’t fear failure.

 

1. Look for safe ways to fail.

Think of ways to get started on your business while taking on minimal risk. Looking for safe ways to fail means that you don’t invest a ton of money into your new project. Minimize the risk by building your business with the least amount of startup capital. This will require some creativity, so look for ways to reduce the amount of money you need to start your business. What you don’t want to do is invest a ton of money in an idea that you later find out isn’t going to work. The smart way to fail is to fail with minimal risk. So start simple and start small. This allows you to fail often and fail fast.

 

2. Don’t dwell on past failure.

If you fail after your first, second, or hundredth attempt, move on. Pick yourself up, dust yourself off, and don’t dwell on failure. The sooner you get back up, the quicker you will reach success. You’re going to do this often, and you are going to do this fast. So don’t dwell on failure and move on quickly. Perfectionism is the enemy of forward progress. Your attempts are not meant to be perfect.

 

3. Learn your lessons and don’t forget them.

Keep a record of your attempts, especially what didn’t work, and what you can change. A failure ends up being only a failure if you don’t learn anything from it. Forget the failure itself, but remember the lessons. It’s called learning because you have to do something that you’ve never done before. You’re unfamiliar with what you’re doing, and not knowing how to do something can be uncomfortable. But once you’ve done something a couple of times, your muscle memory takes over, and it’s like doing something automatically without much thought. The smart way to fail teaches you many lessons, and as you get better at failing, you get better at learning.

 

4. Exercise resiliency.

If you are to succeed in business, you must toughen up and be resilient. I’ve heard stories of many people getting knocked down by what life deals them, but the most successful people are the most resilient ones who get back up and try again. You should be familiar with failing often and failing fast, because this builds resilience and lets you get back up faster. You become stronger and failure doesn’t break you.

 

5. Try many new and different things.

Business is all about experimenting. You have to try a whole bunch of different things before you can stumble on the one thing that works. Tweak each experiment and you’ll eventually find that momentum that leads you to your goal. That’s why with each reiteration, you’ll get closer to achieving your goal. Nothing works the first time. It’s by repeating these experiments with better knowledge of what works and what doesn’t work that leads you to success. Get as much experience as you can because experience is the best teacher.

 

6. Have a mentor or guide.

A good mentor or guide has a wealth of knowledge that they can share with you. Having a mentor on your side can save you time and energy, because they will tell you when you are taking the wrong step. They will show you the quickest path to success. Having a mentor is a part of learning. With their experience, they can show you the way to success, and the quickest way to get there.

 

7. Refuse to give up and to think that failure is the end.

Business is about experimenting. Think of these experiments as a maze. Are you going to get to your destination at the first attempt? No. You’ll take winding paths and meander. You’ll get led down the wrong path. But this eliminates the wrong turns and eventually you’ll learn and get to your destination.

The right thing to do is to keep trying. The wrong thing to do is to give up. Failure is not the end, it’s the beginning.

 

8. Have courage and don’t fear failure.

If you are afraid to try something new because you fear what people will think of you, or that they will laugh at you when you fail, just know that everyone’s memory is temporary. If there’s one thing good about short attention spans these days, it means that people will forget what you did and move on to the next thing to laugh at. The smart way to fail is to have the courage to fail often and fail fast.

 

The above tips are smart ways to fail. Like in life, nothing in business is certain, so fail often, and fail fast. That is the only way you will learn, become resilient, and find success. At first, it is painful to fall down and fail. You get scrapes and cuts. But the ones who succeed are the ones who will bandage their wounds and get back up.

Business books to read about failing often and failing fast:
Million Dollar Weekend by Noah Kagan
The Sweaty Startup: How to Get Rich by Doing Boring Things by Nick Huber

How to Persuade People to Take Action in Six Easy Ways

How to Persuade People to Take Action in Six Easy Ways

by | Aug 5, 2025 | ideas+business

 

If you’re a business owner, getting your customer to make a purchase might be the hardest task you’ll ever have to do. Forget about hiring and coaching a team, being a great leader, setting up operations, and business strategies. If you haven’t got a fantastic sales strategy, then none of that would matter. Sales is a hurdle that discourages most entrepreneurs and makes them give up before they’ve even started. How do you make a potential customer part with their hard-earned dollars? How do you give them a good reason to want to do business with you? How do you overcome objections? In this blog post, I will review how to persuade people to take action in six easy ways. These six techniques will give you an idea of how to elevate your sales strategy to persuade your potential customer to do business with you.

Table of Contents:

1. Let your customer know the consequences of their inaction
2. Motivate your customer to take action
3. Give them a clear deadline
4. Guide your customer so that the decision is easy and obvious
5. Eliminate barriers that make their decision challenging
6. Warm up your customer

 

1. Let your customer know the consequences of their inaction

Many people don’t take action because of inertia. What do I mean by inertia? I mean that it’s easier, simpler, cheaper, and more convenient to stay still and not move. It’s easier to stay in their comfort zone than do something that makes them uncomfortable.

Exercise and physical activity is a great example of this. People find it challenging to stick to an exercise routine, even if they’ve paid for a gym membership and loaded up on that fancy gym gear. It’s easier to just relax in front of the T.V. after a grueling and exhausting day at work, or taking care of your kids when you’ve just spent time preparing them dinner and tucking them into bed at night.

People won’t take action unless you let them know the consequences of inaction.

To overcome that bit of inertia, show them the reasons why taking no action is actually the wrong decision for them to make. Your customer is comfortable where they are, so show them that their inaction causes even greater discomfort.

You must show them the discomfort of staying where they are.

Going back to the exercise example, haven’t you ever thought about working out more when you read a news article that explains the risk of having too much abdominal fat? Or drinking sugarless soda which instead spikes your sugar level?

Maybe you’re an advocate for climate action or a charity. For the climate action example, maybe you’ve shown them the dire consequences for the planet if the human population continues to cut down trees, drive SUVs that cause global warming, or dump their unrecyclable waste into landfills. All of these things would cause discomfort into any environmentally conscious citizen.

Once you’ve described the discomfort of not taking any action, your customer would be more persuaded to take that first step. I further describe how you can eliminate barriers for your customer that would encourage that initial step.

 

2. Motivate your customer to take action

There must be a motivating factor in order for a customer to act. If there’s no motivation for the customer to act, they would slip into indifference and apathy. When trying to make a sale, you must answer the question, what are people motivated by? If your product doesn’t answer that question, they are left wondering why they should buy from you at all. Give your customer the motivation by persuading them to take action.

You need to give them a reason that lights that fire in their soul. Dangle a carrot in front of them, and push them to act. This doesn’t just apply to sales. For example, maybe you’re a team leader at work, and you just can’t seem to get your reports to be motivated enough. Their productivity under your leadership suffers as a result.

This is when you really need to empower them to make their own decisions and take ownership of that project. If the momentum falls flat after that initial enthusiasm, pump up the energy and recharge that spark. Motivating people is all about lending them your infectious energy. It has to be so motivating that it’s contagious. Only then will your team or customer take action, and maintain that momentum.

 

3. Give your customer a clear deadline

This is one of the easier ways to persuade people to take action. Online stores love to use this technique to ramp up e-commerce. They put up a timer on their storefront counting down the days, hours, and minutes until the sale is over. This strategy works because of the “fear of missing out” and the creation of “scarcity”.

This is also something that you must use in the workplace if you’re a team leader. Your direct reports are less likely to procrastinate and get a task done if they have a goal to work towards. And as you know, every goal must have a deadline and be time-bound. When they have a deadline, it’s like turning that hourglass upside down and letting the sand run out until there’s no more time to waste.

To make a faster sale, use this technique. Envision how you can incorporate a countdown into your sales strategy. It could mean setting a deadline for them to take action before the sale is over. Some decisions, however, take time, especially if it’s a lengthy sales cycle. Sometimes your customer doesn’t like to feel rushed into making a decision, especially if the decision involves an expensive purchase. Use your judgement when trying to implement this technique. I go into more detail below about warming up your customer if this is the case.

 

4. Guide your customer so that the decision is easy and obvious

Most of the time, you have to make the outcome of their decision obvious. Don’t rely on confusing them into making a decision because it won’t work. If it’s too challenging to do something, they will not do it at all. The trick to overcome this is to make it easy. It must be effortless to take action. This is one of the easy ways to persuade your customer to take action.

For example, e-commerce and shopping online makes it easy to buy products. At first, the customer wavers between indecisive and decisive. What makes them finally enter in their credit card number and hitting the “buy” button? It’s because the online store is designed with the user’s experience in mind. There are many steps involved throughout the purchasing journey. Landing on the initial webpage that acts as their virtual storefront. Loading their shopping cart with products. Entering in their credit card number. Finally hitting the “buy” button. Making it easy means acting like a guide throughout their purchasing journey, or their decision tree. There are many steps involved, and you have to be there every step of the way or else your potential customer will just forget about it and go back to being inert.

From attractive graphics, colours, and fonts, your customer should have no choice but to continue through to the final step, because you’ve made the purchase or decision irresistible to them. Be available to answer any questions every step of the way.

From initiating that sales call to closing the sale, you should make the process so simple that it’s easy for the customer to agree to buy. Ever get lost because you didn’t have a map? It’s the same concept with sales. The customer needs a map that guides them in their decision.

 

5. Eliminate barriers that make their decision challenging

Your customer doesn’t have time to work out the kinks when making a purchase. If it’s too hard for them to decide, they will just move on to the next business that makes their purchase a no-brainer. With technology, it’s easier than ever to make the customer journey smooth, barrier-free, and effortless.

Once you’ve gotten rid of all the barriers, your customer will love you for it and come back for more. That one-time customer will soon turn into a repeat customer who’s loyal and brings in more referrals to your business.

Eliminating barriers means making the process easy. Think of ways to eliminate these barriers before they even pop up on your customer’s radar and even before they encounter them.

 

6. Warm-up your customer

There’s a reason why it’s called “cold-calling.” When you are cold-calling, your customer doesn’t know you and doesn’t have a good reason to buy from you. You haven’t yet built up the rapport that makes them familiar with your product. There are many books explaining how you can warm up your customer for better results. Some that I would recommend include Launch by Jeff Walker and Oversubscribed by Daniel Priestley. These two books both explain methods for warming up your customer before you ask them to make a purchase. To this end, you will have greater success in persuading your customer to take action.

Ever heard of the observation that it takes at least seven touch points for your customer to finally buy from you? These touch points can include social media posts, emails, and newsletters. It’s anything that makes your customer more familiar with you and your product. So every touch point should give them more information about your product, and should be persuasive enough that they pay more attention at the next touch point.

Getting your product in front of your customer only once will not persuade them to buy from you. That’s why lead nurturing and warming up your customer works. You must do this at least seven times.

 

The Final Word

Implementing even a few of these strategies will propel you forward to sales success. These techniques will guarantee that your customer’s journey is far more painless and quicker than your competition’s. Guiding them and showing them the right way at every step of the customer journey eases the potential pain points in your sales funnel.

When inertia is the default state of your customer, it takes leadership skills to motivate them into taking action. Show them two options: option A, the consequences of staying inactive, or option B, the benefits of making a definite decision. Then, make their decision process easy, clear, and obvious. It has to be obvious so that they won’t waver between these two states. Strategies I’ve just described include setting a deadline for them to make a decision, eliminating barriers in the customer journey, and making their decision obvious and clear.

Nuturing leads: not just a sales tactic

Nuturing leads: not just a sales tactic

by | Feb 26, 2024 | ideas+business

1. Nurturing leads can benefit you in your everyday life even if you don’t have anything to sell

Nurturing leads is not just a sales tactic. In fact, ever been to a networking event and have met a lot of interesting people that you would like to get to know more of? Or, have you ever wanted someone to do something for you or your career? The immediate benefits of networking might not be apparent at first. But these people can really help you in your career or business down the line. This is where nurturing leads plays an important role.

Nurturing leads is doing the opposite of a “cold call.” Since you’ve already introduced yourself to them, your leads are now “warm leads.”

 

2. Networking is the perfect opportunity to nurture leads

It takes a lot of time and effort to maintain your relationships with your leads.

Some people don’t like to network because it’s uncomfortable to talk to strangers. Yes, you worry about whether you’re not giving them the right first impression. You worry about whether you’re saying the wrong thing. There’s a lot of pressure that is sometimes involved with networking.

There are a lot of other people who go to networking events for the same reasons that you do. I remember when I was a student, and almost everyone in the room was looking for someone to give them a job after graduation. The number of students outnumbered the people who could hire them, or introduce them to a hiring manager, so there was a lot of competition. It’s for this reason that professionals sometimes avoid networking events: there are a lot of people asking for favours who have no connection or obligation to them.

 

3. Networking events are a chance to sell your personal brand

I’ve been on both sides of the equation. It makes me understand now why networking doesn’t work if you don’t go about it the right way. It can get frustrating because you end up wasting time “barking up the wrong tree”, as they say.

The trick is to find a type of networking event that works for you, and that could mean a less formal event which is more focused on getting people to talk to each other than in making a sale.

You can be reluctant to ask people for favours when they don’t know you, or have a reason to do you a favour. And you’d be right to be reluctant. That’s why your connection first has to warm up.

Work on your elevator pitch. It’s a thirty second speech to sell your personal brand. It should briefly describe who you are and why they should get to know you more.

Yes, networking takes time, but you have to be patient.

So start early and get to know as many people as possible.

Someone you met a year ago might think of you today and be interested in what you can offer.

 

4. Nurturing leads builds your professional network

Nurturing leads is not just a sales tactic because there’s no better way to progress in your career than by finding new opportunities through your network. It could be a connection that is internal to your current company, or a different one.

Knowing more people can also make you more knowledgeable.

If you’re building your own business, it’s useful to know people who can advise or mentor you.

By broadening your network, you cast a wider net and increase your chances of making the one connection that could change your life.

 

5. How you can nurture leads

After the introduction, send a follow up message that reminds them who you are and where you met. Then suggest that you meet up for another coffee, either virtually or in person.

After the coffee chat, stay in touch.

Send a new message when you’ve reached a career milestone, or have interesting or relevant information to share with your network.

 

6. Where you can find leads

There are a lot of places where you can find leads. For example, special interest groups and professional associations are the two most common places to find new leads. Also, people flock to social media, whether it’s Facebook or LinkedIn, to connect to new acquaintances.

Finally, through volunteering for a cause you believe in, you can be introduced to the same people who believe in the same causes that you do. This can be a great conversation starter and a way to keep in touch.

So don’t wait until you want to switch careers or move up the career ladder to start networking and nurture those leads. Similarly, it’s important that nurturing leads is not just a sales tactic because the main objective is to expand your network.

You can think of networking as an exchange of useful information. You can connect to someone, but it’s even more meaningful if you have something to offer.

This is where adding value plays an important part in nurturing leads.

Following up on warm leads are more likely to result in meaningful and lasting connections than cold leads.

Networking is never easy. It takes time, and it takes practice. Expert networkers are trained to recognize opportunity and to give immense value to others.

Should you partner with an influencer to promote your business?

Should you partner with an influencer to promote your business?

by | Dec 4, 2023 | ideas+business

Introduction

At a certain point in your business, you might consider partnering with an influencer to promote your business. A social media influencer can spread your message and win you new audience members.

 

What is an influencer?

An influencer has a loyal audience who are hooked into the minutiae of their everyday lives. They tune into their social media channels just to see what the influencer is doing, wearing, buying, and recommending.

It really is amazing how devoted these fans can be. If the influencer has a massive following, they often capitalize on this by building partnerships with other businesses and getting paid for it.

 

Partner with an influencer to promote your business and increase brand awareness

If you own a business, and want to build brand awareness, or increase exposure to your target audience, you could consider partnering with an influencer. This can really multiply your following, popularity and get your brand in front of your audience.

Of course, you have to pay an influencer. Like any paid ad service, you want to maximize your return on investment (ROI) to achieve the most results from the money you spend. The influencer becomes your brand ambassador, or temporary spokesperson, for your business.

The partnership might become part of your marketing plan. An influencer charges fees in exchange for featuring your product or service through their social media channels. A partnership might be useful if your following is small and you want to grow your following.

 

Does the influencer match your target audience?

There is a right way to execute a partnership with an influencer. First, examine whether influencer marketing is right for your business.

Would your business have the most advantage from this partnership? Since influencer marketing does not work with all businesses, you should decide whether this is the right path to take.

It’s not surprising that lifestyle and leisure (e.g. travel and food) are the industries where the most influencers are found. So it’s these industries that would work best.

What kind of audience do you already have, and what kind of audience do you want to attract?

Understand your target audience, have a goal clear in your mind, and know what you hope to achieve from this partnership. This is important for analyzing the end results and concluding whether the partnership worked to bring about the desired effect.

 

Tips on searching for an influencer to promote your business

Look for an influencer that will resonate with your audience, within your budget, whose views agree with yours.

Ask for a media kit. Most serious influencers will have one put together. A media kit includes their background information, follower count, bio, and social media channels.

If you don’t already have an influencer in mind, or know which ones to approach, do a search on social media and view their blogs, tweets, photos and videos.

Influencer marketing is just like any paid ad service: do your research before engaging their services, because the reputation of the influencer becomes the reputation of your brand.

Research what the “market rates” are for their services, and decide if it’s within your budget.

Meet virtually with the influencer to work out the details of your agreement, and to determine if they’re a good fit for your brand.

 

How to approach an influencer

What you need before you approach an influencer is a website or established business with your social media channels already set up. Once you’ve constructed a short list of influencers to approach, write an email or send a direct message. Avoid sending a generic mass email.

Another option is to engage the services of a digital marketing agency that represents the influencer.

Have a clear outline of the types of content you want the influencer to use to promote your business.

Finally, the contract should include the expected fees and pricing for their services, based on your agreement and previous research.

 

The risks of partnering with an influencer

There are always a few risks that you will take if you are working with an influencer. To effectively use influencer marketing, your actions must be authentic. The influencer must believe and genuinely support your brand, products and services, or it will be seen as insincere, untrustworthy, or done only for money.

These days, it is easy to inflate their follower count through fake user accounts.

On rare, though nonetheless possible, occasions, your influencer might find themselves embroiled in a scandal or controversy. As your brand ambassador, this invites negative publicity that might affect your brand.

You have to believe in what they stand for, which can be a problem if their views and opinions do not agree with yours. Thoroughly understand the influencer’s personality to ensure that it aligns with your brand’s values.

Finally, what should you do once the influencer has put their recommendation for your business out there? Follow up by monitoring engagement with the influencer’s post. Determine whether your ROI was worth it, and whether you gained more followers. You could continue the partnership if opportunities arise.

 

Conclusion

By partnering with an influencer, you can achieve a reach far greater than if you were promoting your business yourself. If you are cautious with your outreach, you can really maximize your ROI. Don’t skip any of the key steps, it can mean building a new partnership that works better and more efficiently.

Three Industries with High Earning Potential for Small Business Owners

Three Industries with High Earning Potential for Small Business Owners

by | Nov 27, 2023 | ideas+business

Introduction

Most entrepreneurs who have authored business books are also owners of businesses that earn them millions. Just I’ve noticed a pattern from reading these business books. There are three industries with high earning potential, and these entrepreneurs have capitalized on them.

The three industries are: real estate, event planning, and coaching.

On the high end, business owners in these industries can make millions in potential earnings.

Before they’ve moved on to write books about it, they were self-made millionaires from various backgrounds. Not all of them were raised in rich families, which goes to show that with luck and hard work, you can build your million dollar business, too. Realistically, though, the average income is in the high six figures.

In this blog post, I describe the three industries with high earning potential. I will outline their risks, qualifications, and challenges in each.

 

1. Real estate agency

Owning a real estate agency can really have the potential to earn you a high income. The real estate market is expected to grow to USD $729 trillion globally by 2028.

If it’s your dream to be a real estate agent, you will need to apply for a real estate license. The required coursework can take up to 1.5 years to complete within Canada, or up to six months in the US. After passing the exam, if you want to obtain a broker license and own your own brokerage, you need further training and at least two years of experience as an agent.

The startup cost of a real estate brokerage is at least $10,000. This includes office expenses, marketing, and salary for your employees.

The risks of starting a real estate brokerage are lawsuits from: not disclosing information about the property to the buyer, any breach of confidentiality, and injury on the property during showings.

The threats to your brokerage business could stem from events such as a housing market crash. The housing market is sensitive to many factors out of your control, including interest rate, supply and demand, and the health of the economy.

In addition, the rise of discount brokerages are also driving competition between different firms.

As a real estate agent, your commissions are pretty much standardized across the region that you work in, so it may not be possible to earn millions if you don’t own your own brokerage.

Furthermore, owning a real estate brokerage is just like owning any business as an entrepreneur. You must network and get your brokerage known and trusted within the industry.

In the end, real estate brokerages are in an industry that have the high earning potential of $160,000 per year.

 

2. Event planning

Another industry with high earning potential is event planning. This industry is expected to grow to USD $1.75 trillion by 2032.

Unlike real estate, you don’t need a license to be an event planner, so there are lower barriers to setting up your own event planning business.

However, it could help to be certified in event management. Once you earn your certification, experience working for another event planning agency before starting your own would be useful.

The risk to starting your own event planning business is that your highest income earning months are seasonal. In addition, the event planning industry took a tumble during the pandemic as events were switched to online virtual platforms.

This just shows how you must be able to pivot and adjust your business model in response to market conditions that are out of your control.

In addition, the cancellation of a single event would require you to refund all the tickets, leading to a major loss in income.

Finally, there is the threat of competition from other event planning agencies. but depending on your brand and price point, you may be able to find your niche more easily than a real estate brokerage.

 

3. Business coaching

The third industry with high earning potential is business coaching. As a business coach, you act as an advisor for other entrepreneurs, guiding them in their business journey.

Your coaching business can have different models. For example, one on one or group coaching can be in-person or virtual, or you can sell masterclasses that your customers view on demand.

Business coaching is possibly the business with the lowest risk out of the three, because of the low overhead costs. Unless you’re thinking about leasing an office space, all you would need is a phone line to handle calls, a virtual meeting platform like Zoom, and internet.

It can also help to get certified as a coach, and these programs will have a fee.

One risk that this type of business faces is the loss of income caused by a recession or economic downturn. During these times, people will be reluctant to start businesses and hire someone to help them, though it might depend on what type of business they are in.

There are also challenges that can result in this type of business. For example, it’s also true that some niches perform better than others.

Selecting a good client can take time. There has to be a good match between client and coach, so know how to select clients who will work well with you.

Another risk is that depending on your business model, you may be trading time for money. One way to get around this is to sell access to on-demand coaching classes on an online teaching platform.

 

Conclusion

All three types of businesses require you to put in the effort to network and get your name out there to gather and maintain a good client base.

So, good interpersonal and communication skills are essential, and the know-how for gracefully dealing with difficult clients and customer service issues.

Also, it requires you to have realistic expectations. A good reputation is not built overnight.

A good business and marketing plan for making sales is also a major factor in the success of the business.

Expertise and experience are valuable, so find ways to gain that knowledge fast.

At first, stress and work life balance can be an issue, until you may need to find a system for outsourcing your tasks.

Avoid situations such as taking on a client that is not a good fit for your or your business, which can tarnish your reputation.

Relationship-building and leadership skills will land you far ahead of the game.

How to build reciprocity in your business

How to build reciprocity in your business

by | Nov 20, 2023 | ideas+business

The importance of building relationships with your audience or customer is key to the success of your business. Reciprocity sets up a system of mutual benefit that helps to drive growth and engagement, and ultimately, sales.

From your customer’s perspective, reciprocity means that if you help them, they will help your business. Reciprocity is not created immediately, however. It takes time to build trust and loyalty through your brand.

Here you will find reasons why you should build reciprocity in your business, and how it can mutually benefit you and your customer.

 

1. What is reciprocity in business?

Reciprocity is the exchange of value in one from entity another. In this case, the value is often given by your business to your customer for free. For instance, if your business is to sell goods, you may add on free shipping as an added value to your product.

This achieves two things. From the point of view of your customer, reciprocity gives a reason for your customer to keep buying from you. From your point of view, as the business owner, it encourages loyalty to your brand.

This is how a system of mutual benefit is built. You should find ways to keep this system going so that your customers return for repeat business.

 

2. Why should you build reciprocity?

As a business owner, the main reason to build reciprocity is that it gives value to customers. It builds trust and strengthens the relationship between your business and your customer.

By giving value, you achieve another effect: you build authority, which gives your customer a reason to listen to you. As you grow your brand, you will hope to encourage loyalty among your customers.

What better way to do this than to position yourself as the authority in your niche? Building reciprocity also motivates your customers to take action. Whenever you are trying to sell something, you will always get some resistance from your audience. To tip the balance in your favour, give them something for free. You will encourage their decision making and thought process, pushing them towards your offer.

Finally, this system of mutual benefit also wins new customers. A customer who is new to your brand, and has never heard of your product, needs encouragement. A great way to introduce your business to them is to give them a free taste of your product and all of its benefits.

 

3. How can you set up a system of mutual benefit?

If you are a new business owner, you may be puzzled as to how you will nurture relationships with your potential customers. The simple answer to this problem is to build up content that you will later give away for free.

The first step is to create the content. Called a lead magnet, this is a piece of marketing material that you will give away for free in exchange for their email address, or for signing up for your newsletter. This could be a free checklist, e-book, or audio material.

Just because it’s free doesn’t mean that you should make the material low quality. The purpose of the lead magnet is to introduce your brand to your potential customer and entice them to buy from you in the future, so don’t skimp on its quality.

The lead magnet should promise them that there is further quality to be had, and give them a reason to remain interested in your business.

Don’t be afraid to give them value for free. It will ultimately lead to a greater return on investment because your audience will want to act as your brand ambassador, spreading news of your business by word of mouth and recommendations through social media.

 

4. How can your business benefit from offering free value to your customer?

Let’s say that you have given your audience a ton of value in the form of materials such as blog posts, videos, webinars or photos. Your content is interesting and engaging. You also gave value in the form of free trials, limited time offers, coupons or free shipping.

How can you ask for something in return? This is where your social media marketing strategy can be of good use. You can ask for feedback, comments and reviews. By keeping your audience engaged, they will think of your brand first instead of another competitor’s. They are more likely to take action and buy from you.

The more channels you use to get your message out there, the more likely your audience will see it and remember your brand.

 

5. Building reciprocity in your business is really just an exercise in maintaining good customer relations.

When there’s a system of mutual benefit set up, your customers are more likely to be happy with your brand, and more willing to buy from you. The more value you give, the more persuasive your messaging is. This is how you will convince your potential customer to sign up to be a loyal customer.