Are you looking for a fiancé?!

“I’m all about relationship-building.”
15 years ago, I would probably tell you “we aren’t looking for a fiancé. We are looking for sales!!”

(And the 9 top tools that will help you build relationships. And then, scale!)

 

But everything has changed. And today we are definitely looking for relationships and engagement…

So how would it scale???

It won’t. Not at first. And then it will, and it will have no limits with how big a business can become and how a small company can have millions of clients all over the world without unreasonable marketing investments.

 

Ramon Ray is an entrepreneur, author, and speaker.

He is the founder of Smart Hustle Media and has started four companies (two of which he has sold). Ramon has authored four books. His latest book is “The Celebrity CEO: How Entrepreneurs Can Thrive by Building a Community and a Strong Personal Brand.”

 

“I love what I do. Ramon told me, I educate business owners on how to start and grow their businesses. I’m neither a consultant nor a coach. We have events, we have online content, we have blog posts and a podcast.

I also work with leading brands, both small and large, to help represent them and add credibility and authenticity to their messages. We might help those brands create content. I can also speak at their events, host their live videos, etc.”

When I asked Ramon about his biggest success he told me that one of his biggest successes was when a lady called and said, “Ramon, I know you eat burnt pancakes and bacon every Saturday morning. We watch your videos and we want you to come and host this big event with this billion-dollar brand.” That’s a success – and that’s what happened from content and from creating relationships with your audience and building the ‘Know, Like and Trust” that will lead them to hire you.

 

Everything has changed when we talk about marketing and sales. And that’s the huge opportunity for entrepreneurs

As a marketing and sales director for more than 20 years, for international leading brands, I learned how to deliver messages to people without them being able to choose whether they want to get this message or not.

Think about it for a minute; showing a promotion or advertisement in the middle of my favorite TV series, or at the movies, means forcing people to see or hear something they don’t necessarily want to watch or listen to.

Fortunately, these days are ending. Why fortunately? Because it forces entrepreneurs and business owners to find the customers that want to listen or watch what they’ve got to say, and the best way to contact those potential customers. The good news – when you approach a customer that is likely to want or need your product or service – the chances to make a sale are times higher.

The social media channels, and the fact that we are living in a world without (almost) borders, allow us to contact and build a dialog and engagement with our potential customers.

These channels are changing rapidly. More than that, each social network has its unique tone and style. In order to build connections with our audience, we have to know the game and the unwritten rules of each social media network.

 

In the last years we can find tools and apps that will help us build relationship and transact them into meaningful business deals.

Here are Ramon Ray recommended tools:

 

“I think that even more important than the tool is how you’re using it. Ramon Ray told me when I asked for his recommendations. “I found that the biggest goal for my business has been following up. So that’s the purpose behind most of the tools I use.

I use Magisto for video creation. I did it just yesterday. I pulled together some images from an event and Magisto automatically added sound and transitions to the video. Then I used Audacity to record my voice as a voice-over. I next used Adobe to bring in the video from Magisto and blend it with the voice over to create a second video.

I talked about the importance of following up. There are several tools for follow-up. I use Asana. It has a free version, but I’m a firm believer in paying for things if they are worth it. Many other tools compete with Asana. I love using Asana blended with other productivity tools. I’m a Master of my email tool and with a calendar.

Regarding customers, I’m a firm believer in email marketing and marketing automation. I use Infusionsoft (now called Keap) for my fan building, my community nurturing. If-Than-That: If they don’t do something, Then Do That.

Other marketing automation tools are Salesforce, HubSpot, ZOHO, and Mailchimp. I use the ZOHO tool for my deals.

 

At the end of our conversation, I asked Ramon what his one key success factor?

“For me, He said, it’s the ability to build genuine relationships with people and to let people KNOW, LIKE, and TRUST me. That’s the absolute key to my success: Relationship, Relationship, Relationship.”

 

Listen to Ramon Ray speaking about building relationships as the Key Success factor for any business