Business and Dating

Here's a bizarre question. When you were a teenager and were dating (that's what they called it back in my day), how did you behave toward the opposite sex? Did you grovel or act weak? Did you complain about your previous dates with other people? Did you storm off and act like a child to get attention? Did you get dates because people felt sorry for you? Did we attract people because we were a cheaper date than someone else?

OK, now let's turn this back around to business. Let's assume we all know that attracting someone is not about acting as described above. Why then do so many of us act that way in business?

For example: we find out the client has been cheating on us. Our response is telling them how hurt we are and how much we care so they feel sorry. Or we send a nasty-gram email to lash out at them. Or if we're trying to land a new client, do we brag that we're not the best, but boy! are we cheap? None of those work well in personal relationships, why would they in business?

The reason a person wants to marry someone and stay married to them is very close to why a company wants to hire another company and stay with them. Bottom-line, we are attracted to people or to companies because we feel they have a value to us, we respect them, and we WANT to be with them.

What works (or doesn't work) in personal life usually works (or doesn't work) in business.

Barry LaBov
LaBov and Beyond
www.labov.com
LaBov Sales Channel
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