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I heard this line from author, salesman and motivational speaker Zig Ziglar at a live seminar and immediately identified the premise to be true as a direct contradiction to the traditional teachings of business coaches that people do business with people they know, like and trust.

People do business with people they know.  I don’t know about you, but I have been with the same woman for 32 years and I am still trying to get to know her. You only know what people want you to know about them so to suggest you actually “know “ someone is a bit of a ridiculous misnomer. Granted you do need to know of them in order to do business so let’s change this mindset to –people do business with people they know of.

People do business with people they like.  Given the only choices are people you like or dislike and given the 50% probability, are you prepared to eliminate half your supplier or customer base simply because you don’t like them? That does not sound like smart business. Zig contends that liking someone may actually be a disadvantage in the relationship, simply because your business judgement may be swayed buy your personal feelings for the person, versus the business proposition they represent. If you don’t take an objective approach to their goods or services then in effect you could settle for incompetence. Let’s change this mindset to – people do business with people they view as competent.

People do business with people they trust.  No argument from me on this one. If your gut is telling you that the person can’t be trusted then you have to trust that survival instinct. Let’s leave this mindset as is – people do business with people they trust.

There you have it, the new paradigm:

  1. People do business with people they know of.
  2. People do business with people they view as competent.
  3. People do business with people they trust.

We welcome your comments.

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