One of the significant beliefs we have at Schooley Mitchell is that providing ‘Distinctive Value’ to the people you know will help you to develop stronger relationships, which we believe to be the source of all business value.

Michael Vickers, one of our Sales and Marketing trainers, teaches that providing ‘Distinctive Value’ sets you apart and helps develop deeper relationships of long term value. If you can find ways to help people with their stresses or issues, outside of the things you sell, then your relationship will strengthen exponentially.

Providing ‘Distinctive Value’ can happen at three different levels, including;

1) The corporate or business level
2) The job level
3) The personal level

So the challenge is to determine how you can help the people around you at these various levels by providing either, information, or some other item of value, they would find useful. In other words, how can you truly connect with someone by providing something they want or need? And it has nothing to do with your business – that’s the important point here.

I have provided an example below that relates to personal interest. In normal circumstances, you would ask a person about their personal interests before sending something to them because it must connect with them at their personal level, not yours. However, in this case I am providing an example of something special that can be shared on a fairly universal level. It definitely makes a connection.

I originally just sent this to my family, friends, and coworkers but their reactions were so strong that I realized the great business value that can be obtained by something so simple. It really is very cool, so please watch it all the way through and I’m confident you will have the same reaction.

Every time you make a connection with an associate by providing something of value, like something that will help them with their company, or in this case, provide a personal item of interest, you nurture that relationship. We refer to it as delivering a rose.

Please feel free to deliver this very special rose to anyone you like. You can either do so by using the ‘Send to a Friend’ button at the top of this email or by simply copying the link to your own document and providing your own summary as to why you are sending it to them. Either way, it connects. In fact, sending this piece of advice about ‘Distinctive Value’ connects on its own, in addition to the connection from the short video.

Turn up the speaker volume and [Click Here].

We know that this particular short video may not interest absolutely everyone, although we haven’t found anyone yet. However, that’s not the point. The point is that it is universally interesting and can be used to provide value and a connection to any business contact you have – it’s a rose!

The continuing challenge is to identify the needs, stresses, and interests of your business contacts and then deliver ‘Distinctive Value’ to them to address those needs, stresses, or interests. How can you connect with real value – a real rose?