Encounters: The Building Blocks of a We Relationship

by Steve Yastrow

Writing my new book, We: The Ideal Customer Relationship, taught me a very important lesson: A strong relationship is the best way to differentiate you or your company in your customer’s mind. Products can be copied, services can be duplicated … but strong business relationships are unique. If you want your customer to see you as one-of-a-kind, forge a “We” relationship with her.

I created this e-book to help you implement one of the key ideas in We: The Ideal Customer Relationship, We relationships are built one encounter at a time.

Learning to create relationship-building encounters with customers, as opposed to relationship-eroding transactions, is one of the most profitable business habits you can develop. If you can regularly turn mere customer interactions into encounters, you will see your business relationships grow.

But, creating encounters takes practice. This e-book is an implementation tool to help you with that practice. Print it out, carry it with you, write all over it and, most importantly, use its ideas each time you meet with a customer.

Learn to master the three elements of an encounter: Engagement in the moment, conversation and uniqueness. And, as you do, watch your business relationships improve.

Steve Yastrow

27 pages, ebook

First published January 1, 2007

About the author

Steve Yastrow is a non-stop idea generator, business advisor and author. When he’s not creating new ideas for his books and other writings, he’s thinking about how to apply his ideas to his clients’ businesses.

In 1997 Steve opted-out of a career as a senior marketing executive in the hospitality industry to form Yastrow and Company. Yastrow and Company has enabled Steve to help organizations of all types improve their results through his breakthrough marketing, customer relationship and sales ideas

Steve Yastrow is the author of three books, Ditch the Pitch, We: The Ideal Customer Relationship and Brand Harmony. Management guru Tom Peters says, “When Steve Yastrow writes, I pay close attention.” Peters called Brand Harmony “compelling and powerful,” while describing We as “a superb book.”

As an author, Steve excels at identifying the things that truly matter in business, dissecting trends and blending his observations with philosophy and science. He identifies the questions that are crucial to business success and helps his readers answer those questions for their own businesses.