Being relevant is one of the most powerful ingredients in building successful business relationships. If you become — here’s that horrible word — boring, you are toast in today’s world. Stay alive. Be relevant for others and find ways to make their lives better.

“Stop it already! I don’t have time for yet another blog, news story, article, podcast, video on the internet, social networking meeting, blah, blah, blah. Yikes! I am inundated with so many choices that it drives me nuts.”  Maybe you can relate.

We’re all swamped with so many things going on. Your customers are in the same place. They are swamped and can’t keep up with all the new information. Then you, as an aspiring new vendor of theirs, come bouncing in the door with your new “Wonder Widget” and they can’t handle any more. You call it rejection. They call it, “Dealing with yet another pesky salesperson.”

So how do you become relevant and build quality, profitable business relationships today? How do you get someone’s attention in an age of overload? How can you stand out in a favorable way?

There are lots of techniques that work and we only have a short time here, so let me share some of what is going on and some solutions to help you.

Today it is imperative to be relevant. That means you have to appeal to my interests. Don’t tell me about you. Ugh! I want to know about how you can help me. This is the old story of what everyone’s favorite radio station is… WII-FM (What’s In It For Me?). It is your job as a successful entrepreneur, salesperson (aren’t we all today?) and business leader to actively find out how to help the other person. This is the best way to ensure your own success.

The overload of video on the Net is a good example. Today we are swamped with so many choices that we often feel overwhelmed. We can’t keep up with it all. As I talk with entrepreneurs, I find most of them interested in how they can produce video and send out their video to the masses. However, with everyone producing video and sending it out there — who is watching this stuff? Are we a world of producers only? Does anyone consume this stuff?

Think about it. The world is not just sitting around waiting for you to produce your video. They are interested in their stuff and what is going on in their lives. Chuck Reaves, a professional sales trainer from Georgia, shared an important insight many years ago. He said that it is a revealing exercise when in a conversation with another to monitor how much they ask about you. Be the one asking the questions and the one listening. When the conversation ends, pause and ask how much you know about that other person and how much they learned from you. Successful salespeople ask and listen more than they talk. It’s the old, “Two ears, two eyes and one mouth — that’s the proportion you use them,” adage.

So, what do you do to be relevant? How does this increase your relationship marketing? Here are some points that can help.

Be relentless in being relevant. Never stop thinking about how you can profoundly and positively impact others for their betterment. The more you can do to help them achieve the goals they want, the more will flow to you. It is the way of nature. It is the way of successful relationship marketing.

How to remain relevant:

• Think Them, Not You. Find out what is bothering them. Where is their pain? Hey, we all have pain. Find out what is the most painful, challenging thing they are enduring now. If you can fix it, make it so. If you can only listen and empathize, do that. They’ll at least know you care and that is a big step forward.
• Stay Current. If you don’t know what is happening in our world, you can’t be relevant. However, we don’t need to watch cable news 24/7 (please!). I find reading news.google.com gives me a quick overview of popular news stories I need to know. Then I go in-depth with business journals online for relevant business news (yes, shameless plug here). I also enjoy The Wall Street Journal and the Drudge Report to get a good overview. I avoid TV as it is so enmeshed with needless emotionalism and frankly, I don’t have time for all the senseless drama. Also podcasts are powerful for getting relevant information for business today.
• Be Hungry For Solutions. Aggressively use your mind to soak up all the relevant information from as wide a variety of sources as you can. Then trust your marvelous subconscious brain to piece things together and come up with new ideas that are relevant problem-solvers. This builds relationships in business like nothing else. And while you’re hungry for solutions, provide tasty, delicious tidbits for others that will bring them back. Been only offering text? Try video. Try audio. Try ‘teleseminars.’ Do something beneficial to others to break out of the mold. Do something radically delightful, which will make customers “giddy with glee.”

Remember — being relevant is one of the most powerful ingredients in building successful business relationships. Doing this will ensure your own future success. On top of that – you’ll have a boatload of fun!