Relationship Marketing requires constant and non-ending attention. I often refer to it as Relationship Farming because, much like in farming, you always have a lot to do. There is never a time of the year when a good farmer will be able to do nothing. Sometimes you have to work even harder.

That’s what Relationship Marketing is like. In real life farming, you’re always planting, cultivating, nurturing, weeding, harvesting or other tasks. Yet, this is the joy of seeing something grow that you have brought about with your actions. Yes, you have to trust nature. But working with it on your own brings about the joy.

The same principles of farming apply to Relationship Marketing. You are always in one of the various stages of establishing, building or maintaining relationships. This is where the challenge comes — you’re never “there.” You’re always in the midst of something. You’re working to make contact with that person. You’re sending out your blogs, your posts, your tweets, etc., etc. trying to make contact with, well, new contacts!

Then once you’ve made contact and they go through the Know, Like, Trust ladder, they eventually want to engage with you. That is the goal in business. The goal in farming is harvest. The goal in business is to create a customer.

A customer is defined as someone who is purchasing what you offer. Until they reach that stage of “have purchased,” they are not a customer but a prospect. Until you reach harvest, you can’t count the acres of corn you thought you would have. Something about chickens and counting before they hatch!

Remember that establishing, building and maintaining relationships in business is an on-going and never-ending process. Some might find this frustrating. However, it is also exhilarating when we see the result! Seeing a harvest is the beauty of farming — and in Relationship Marketing.

So, what do you think? I’d love to hear your comments and how this works for you. What do you find helps to maintain Relationship Marketing in your efforts? What works best? What doesn’t work? I’d love to hear from you. Thank you for your comments. I know it will help others.

Here’s a video that discusses this. I did it a while back but have had a lot of good comments on it. It is about Relationship Marketing and how it relates to farming. What do you think? Are they related? I look forward to your comments.

Rory Vaden is a fabulous man with great ideas on how to implement discipline in your life. His book, Take The Stairs, is about doing what you know you need to do and how to make that happen.

Recently, I had the opportunity to interview Rory and ask about how we get that discipline to do what we know we need to do —- even when we don’t want to do it. Rory gave me some great ideas that you can experience in this short video. Watch this and learn about getting discipline in your life — and why. You’ll…