Practice Gratitude

“If the only prayer you said in your whole life was, ‘thank you,’ that would suffice.”  Meister Eckhart

Practicing gratitude is not only good for your soul its also good for business. It is amazing how a simple “thank you” can turn people into champions for your business. That goes esepcially for your co-workers, vendors, referral partners and the customers that every day make your business go by simply showing up, engaging your services and opening wide their wallets. That is something that we do not want to take for granted!

Most industries these days are at risk of being turned into a commodity. Fierce competition exists and if you’re strategy is to compete on price alone you’re in for trouble. As a favorite mentor of mine likes to say: “There’s always someone ready to go out of business faster than you!” (John Jantsch) And that is pretty much what you can expect when you compete on price. It may be a slow painful death but you’ve already lost the battle if price is your main focus. Now, there are exceptions. But if you’re not Wal-Mart it likely won’t work.

Much better to build relationships and then nurture them with gratitude.

The shadow side of gratitude is flattery. If all you want is someone’s money (or referrals or performance, same thing) then gratitude devolves into one more tool of manipulating people to get what you want rather than sincere thanks.
So what are the marks of sincere gratitude vs. flattery?

Simple. Gratitude is mindful of the other person and treats them as more than a conduit for a transaction.

How do you say thanks?