Three years ago we decided to extend our house.

This decision was not taken lightly. I for one, cannot stand chaos, and I dislike any sort of disruption to my usual routine. But, we had an urgent need to turn a series of small rooms into one bigger room – to cut down on the continual shouting of “MUM!” from one room to another, more than anything else.

We spent several months working out the details, having plans drawn up, and ensnaring planning permission. Then we started to look for a builder.

Our key criteria for selecting the builder were: ‘comes recommended’, ‘good value’ and <ahem> ‘likeability’.

I feel a bit daft even typing the last one.

But, yes, strange as it may seem, above ‘availability’, ‘safety’, or even ‘good-workmanship’, we decided to select our builder based on how likely we were to want to have a pint with him of an evening.

Those of you who know my husband won’t be surprised to hear that the last measure was his suggestion. For he specialises in being an absolute genius. And, this combined with his ability to boil his ideas down to such absolute common sense, means that at first glance they seem ridiculous. However, when you poke about with what he has to say, you realise that he is, in fact, usually right. That’s why I call him Confucius (I don’t.)

Anyway.

The bit of brilliance that my husband had stumbled upon here was the fact that I (specifically ME, as I am the one who works from home) was going to be stuck in the house with this person (and often two fractious children) for six months. I would be living intensely in their orbit, as they were going about the business of wrecking and then rebuilding my house. Knowing how much I hate chaos, he realised that picking a builder that we knew I could get on with, was critical to the success of the project.

He was right, it was hell on wheels, but, thankfully, having a builder that I didn’t want to set on fire after six months of seeing each other every day made it a whole heap easier.

Now, finally, I get to the point. And here it is: don’t underestimate the power of ‘likeability’ when it comes to finding new clients.

This is especially true for service-based businesses; it’s often the person that we like the most, and have the most respect for, that we chose to work with. On occasion, we might make this selection without even properly evaluating their actual ability!

Building a deep, human, connection with as many of your potential customers as you can could be the key to converting prospects to customers and creating a steady flow of revenue in your business.

But, when there are so many potential customers out there, many of whom you’ve never even met, and you are only one person, how can you do this? Well my friends, there are a few marketing tricks (correction, not tricks – TECHNIQUES – it’s science, not magic) that you can employ to do this en masse.

As luck would have it, there is one way that you can find out more about these techniques. And, as it’s January at the time of writing, I have a little post-Christmas-need-to-find-an-alternative-source-of-joy-besides-chocolate-and-sausage-rolls type present for you today.

It’s new and hot off the press.

To find out just how to short-circuit the process of developing a great relationship with your prospects visit this page to download your own, free copy of The Marketing Architect’s Guide to Building Connection with Your Dream Client.

You’ll need to hand over your email address, so I can send it to you, but in return you’ll get 8 tried and tested steps to building a deep connection with your audience. It’s my failsafe approach to building an emotional bond with your community, so that strangers engage with your business enough to become your customers, and your customers become your best salespeople.

Here’s the link again.

Happy New Year dudes. And, if you ever need a builder, thanks to ‘Confucius’, you now know the best way to choose one.