If people like you, they’ll want to do business with you!
Any sales or marketing exec knows that the real objective in sales is to build long-term relationships built on desire and trust. This is equally true for the achievement of stakeholder engagement or client satisfaction. It would seem strange then; just how many individuals, teams and businesses often focus on the acquisition of staff or clients and afterwards think about their care.
Outstanding sales occur when the focus is put on the quality of the relationship from start to finish!
People buy with their hearts long before they buy with their heads, however the question of logic, moral beliefs and value systems can override the desire to buy.
Whether it’s for you, another individual, a team or an entire business, a happy work place where the employer is trusted is a productive work place. And a happy and productive workplace can maximise client experiences and help build long term mutually trusting client relationships.
With this in mind it is worth having a basic understanding of some of the ways the body creates a state of happiness and trust.
Our Body’s Happy Drugs… Understanding Your “D.O.S.E ”
Understanding the human body and mind is still very much a work in progress. However, current research and philosophies make some very interesting reading when understanding both your own and other people’s behaviours.
In order to provide inspired leadership, truly productive management processes and meaningful client and customer relationships, it is useful to understand the behaviours of the body and mind in the production of some of the chemicals and neurotransmitters it can produce.
Dopamine
To some extent Dopamine can be referred to as your “Pleasure Controller” or your reward system for the brain. It’s fundamentally the drug that allows the sense of satisfaction, often when achieving ones goals. Examples of this can be as grand as learning how to fly or earning a PHD or as simple as crossing a task off your “to do” list. When you complete a task you get a little hit of Dopamine.
Dopamine is released in a number of activities such as eating, playing video games or having sex. It can also be released through consumption of stimulants such as alcohol, cocaine, nicotine or even screen time. Due to this it can be a highly addictive drug as, ultimately, satisfaction feels good!
Oxytocin
Oxytocin is often referred to as the “Bonding Hormone” or the “Love Molecule”. It effectively influences an individual’s “Trust” and relationship with the world at large. Some researchers have drawn the conclusion that it substantially influences our psychological stability. An example where oxytocin is produced could be human touch in the form of a handshake or hug, potentially leading to a feeling of a bond and trust that wasn’t present before. It is no coincidence that human beings have used these forms of greeting for thousands of year.
The “Love Molecule” reference is referring to the trust built between two lovers after physical contact. More often than not, if you are deeply in love with someone you will list him or her as the person you trust most in the world. This is due to a greater level of intimacy and greater level of perceived trust.
Further studies of Oxytocin being produced even when people simply visualise a hug or embrace have suggested that Oxytocin is produced as a result of psychological stimulation rather than the physical touch itself. It has been suggested that Oxytocin can seriously influence an individual’s feelings of optimism and positivity; hence people with higher Oxytocin levels are willing to take more risks.
It should be noted that it’s not clear whether positivity was as a result of higher Oxytocin or due to the fact that Oxytocin can help reduce cortisol levels [see “Cortisol” later in paper].
Serotonin
Serotonin is a contributor to one’s personal feeling of wellbeing and happiness as it acts as a mood regulator. High levels of Serotonin are considered to positively affect your mood while lower levels can lead to negativity or even depression. Research doesn’t seem to answer whether lower Serotonin causes depression or whether depression causes lower Serotonin.
Whilst foods containing Serotonin cannot affect the brain, some foods such as beans, wholegrain pasta, rice and dark chocolate encourage the body to create Serotonin naturally. Pride can also be a source of raised Serotonin. This could be by achieving a grand goal or simply by the positive feeling of wearing a new pair of shoes or having a haircut. Again, like Oxytocin it is considered to be a result of Psychological stimulus. Hence it is thought that simply by re-living or visualising a positive experience where pride was re-lived can help in producing Serotonin and create a positive mood.
Endorphin
Endorphins are Mother Nature’s way of allowing the human body pain relief by small hits of euphoria. Endorphins effectively cloak the pain the body may be feeling by getting mild hits of “Happiness”. When an individual goes for a run or hits the gym, Endorphins are created to help an individual feel positive about the experience rather than feeling the negativity. It is thought that this survival mechanism plays a major role in how humans blame the dominant species. Due to this wonder drug, not only are we willing to return to the gym or go for another jog, in some cases we just can’t wait as we want another hit. Not only can we cloak physical feelings but emotional and psychological pain can be cloaked with heightened levels of Endorphins.
How an individual releases their DOSE can play a major effect on the so-called “Trouble maker” hormone, Cortisol.
Cortisol
Cortisol is released in response to stress (fear) or low blood sugar. It is designed to give a burst of energy and is (along with adrenaline) largely responsible for the ‘Fight of Flight’ reaction that humans have to stress. Cortisol can be an issue if levels are too high OR too low. The ideal is to achieve a balanced level.
In today’s stressful world, often an issue that arises is that the production of Cortisol can effectively get stuck in the “on” position. This can lead to huge negativity and anxiety as your body and mind can start to crash effectively leading to a meltdown. It’s a little like starting a fire to stay warm, however as you keep feeding it, the energy used effectively means you’re burning down the house. Meditation, yoga and breathing techniques have all been used to combat high cortisol levels. More recently is it understood that physical touch and connections to other beings can produce Oxytocin's, which in turn helps lower Cortisol levels. Again this would make perfect sense as to why people hug or shake hands after an argument.
So what benefit comes from understanding people’s behaviours and the chemicals they produce in certain situations?
Well to some extent it depends on the application.
Whether it’s a Personal, Client or a Staffing application the starting point is the proven need to be honest and build trust. To build relationships of any description you need to build trust and provide some level pleasure.
The old sales training tag line has long been… “People buy people”!
Many businesses understand that building strong levels of trust is imperative to building lasting and valued relationships. If you look at todays advertising campaigns you will notice that advertisers want to build the relationship more than they wish to push their products. A great example of this could be the John Lewis or Marks and Spencer’s Xmas adverts. In particular, John Lewis don’t really push their products, all they wish to achieve is the emotional connection. This is often achieved with heart touching stories complimented with heavy levels of nostalgia. They know that if you like and trust them, then you won’t just be willing, but you could actively want to buy from them.
People often talk about John Lewis’ outstanding customer service; which in part may be due to many staff being “partners”. The fact is that by building the trust with their own staff and offering them rewards for positive behaviours they have effectively managed to create a team of brand ambassadors to champion the business. Add to that a great marketing campaign and one of the very best returns policies in the industry and their customers feel safe, have trust and build an unbelievably high level of brand loyalty where they are now the benchmark for industry standards.
This is all about trust!
Sales and Marketing is all about trust and it’s about building it both internally and externally from your business!
And whilst a client or customer may be the rarest of corporate commodities; its worth remembering that the scarcest corporate resource in the world over the last decade and expected to continue for the next decade is relevant and appropriate human capital! Get your staff right, create the right values systems and your clients will naturally fall into place.
Long gone are the days of sharks in suits and aggressive outward marketing campaigns, they belong on the waste heap along side dictatorial leadership and overly high-pressure, boiler room environments.
If you want to build outstanding stakeholder and client relationships get ready to put in the kind of effort you’d expect to deliver in your personal relationships. No, we don’t mean for you to get ready to sleep with your clients! You need to introduce yourself politely, show an interest in the other parties wants, needs, desires and dreams; then take a hard look at how, or if, you can measure up to expectation and if so start to deliver in the knowledge that any relationship requires effort at every turn along the way. It’s only through adopting this attitude will you receive what you truly want and require!
What D.O.S.E. – does teach us is that through understanding your own body and mind you can relate to others even better than before.
Get your own behaviours in check, inspire your staff to be true ambassadors and then chase open trusting relationships with clients…
If you'd like to speak further about how to develop your stakeholder or client experience, we’d love to hear from you on
0203 8000 885 or hello@corporatecandy.com