Don’t sell, Ask permission to collaborate.

“Hello, Joe. I see you are doing (this). I think you are doing (that way) right now and (this) is what I recommend to make it better. Would you mind involving me in this project of yours? I help people do (this) for life, and I want to be part of your story.”

I didn’t ask for their money. I asked for their time.
I didn’t sell. I asked permission to collaborate.

Starting a relationship with someone is not about bragging your heroic moments where you tell them how good you are. It is about listening to their stories, caring about their goals, and willing to sacrifice your time to talk about it.

I am not lying. I am telling you, the sacrifice is totally worth it. Some of the people I collaborate with don’t use my product, they use my competitors (I prefer to think of my competitors as friends who are doing it differently, I do refer a few to them). But that’s alright, probably because I am still part of my customer’s stories and more importantly I get bombarded with ideas.

The world needs new leadership, but the new leadership is about working together.
-Jack Ma

The world needs a new kind of leadership. Think about it, the customer you trying to serve with the BIG revolutionary idea of yours, is probably helping someone else with a big idea of hers too.

Writing emails that say I can do X for the price Y compared to Z isn’t going to help much in this decade. What we need is a collaborative leadership, people coming together to solve a problem. Your customers are intelligent, they do have an idea about how to solve their problems better and waiting for you to ask. Successful relationships, whether they are marriages, business partnerships, friendships, etc., are about doing things together.

Build it and they will come isn’t always true, unless you are this big movie star or sports celebrity. You must build a community around what you do, that feels like a family supporting each other and growing together. I am sure that means sacrificing some of your time which you rather willing to spend on writing code or running ad copies, but totally worth it.

To end this article, I am going to quote my friend John's (YEN) words, from the email conversation we just had.

“Without community, you don't have customers... and you don't have a business... so, yes. community before EVERYTHING!”