This is a guest post from Yvonne A Jones. Yvonne A Jones is a Solo Entrepreneur and Direct Sales Relationship Marketing Coach. She is a Skin Care & Beauty Consultant with 9 years experience and works at cultivating long-term relationships with Customers and Clients through the use and promotion of Send Out Cards, a relationship-building web-based tool. Yvonne also blogs at My Success Circle Online. You can also follow her on twitter at @YvonneAJones

Recently I heard someone comment that if you expect someone to do business with you right after a 3-5 minute exchange, it’s like expecting a marriage at the end of the first date. It’s been repeated so many times and in so many way that it has now become a mantra – People do business with people they know, like and trust. This statement applies to both offline and online Sales and Marketing.

Getting to know you, learning to like you, and building trust are all emotional reactions. These emotions can only be developed over time; time during which a relationship is cultivated and developed. Think of a farmer who takes a barren plot of land, tills and fertilizes the soil, plants the seed, care for the seedlings and growing plants so that eventually he reaps a bountiful crop. We have to develop the mindset of a farmer in cultivating relationships. Here are four suggested ways to do this:

• Be authentic. Show that you are a real person with emotions and imperfections. Do not be afraid to reveal some of your weaknesses and how you overcame them or corrected them (to the degree that you are comfortable). People will be drawn to you as they will see that you experience challenges similar to theirs but you prevailed, and so can they. What is more, because you revealed some of yourself, they will understand that you trust them; in turn they will give you their trust.
• Listen to others. This may be easier to implement in offline settings with direct contact, but with a little ingenuity can be applied to online Marketing using surveys, e-mails, opinion polls, and feedback to questions.
• Thank people for their input. A comment on your blog, a response to any of the above in 2) a compliment or other positive interactions in Social Media, like Twitter. Send a follow-up e-mail, a Thank You card or a Direct Message giving acknowledgement.
• Provide assistance in solving a problem. Send a free report, a free CD, a link to a free Teleseminar, or perhaps a link to another person’s website who may be in a better position to provide the needed help.
  When you give first your potential clients will understand and appreciate that you really care about others and providing value. The result is that you will more likely have people who want to do business with you and who may actively seek you out so that you become the one who is hunted rather than the one doing the hunting.

Please feel free to post your comments on the topic. I’d love to hear your thoughts.