Your Appreciation Strategy

In thinking about appreciation and a strategy for it the focus is being put on understanding first what a mindset of appreciation can mean for you and your success.  It’s unlikely that appreciation here needs much of a definition… Instead, developing a mindset for it and putting the thankfulness factor forward in all of your business and personal interactions will bring huge returns to you.

In respect to referrals, over time you’re going to find that some introductions you receive won’t have much value or turn into clients for a whole host of reasons. Yet remember, you’re the teacher here and when you get a referral or introduction, you always must show gratitude to the giver. 

Add to that for each referral you get you always want to provide the giver with feedback for how things turned out, good or bad, and ways the giver could do it again or improve the next time.

Imagine saying something that motivates your relationships to keep bringing back better and better introductions to you because you’re always grateful for what they do and teaching them what a perfect introduction looks like for you.

For myself, I don’t advocate showing appreciation by paying for a referral or successful closed new client. My reasons all center around not wanting to put a price tag on my relationship investments with my referrers. I’m going to be 100% all-in on our trust and support so to my mind adding a cash reward puts a value to this effort that can’t fit its worth. 

In building an appreciative mindset tho’, I’m always seeking a way to say thanks with meaning. One of the best ways I’ve found to do that is by bringing a great prospect to my referral sources. There’s many other ways to do that as well that are both tangible like saying thanks with a gift card, a book, a referral or less tangible like just continuing to show interest in the topics of personal interest of your referral sources.

So make appreciation a lifestyle and work at showing this every day as you interact with people. This will make you more visible, more likely to attract others towards you and become the kind of force that people want to help and work with in many areas of your like. 

To help you get started, I’ve included in this week’s lesson one of my favorite exercises called the Appreciation Challenge. Nothing will so simply illustrate the power of appreciation than your completing this exercise!