Today’s businesses are learning that building trust with customers is no easy feat. Today’s customers don’t trust brands as they are concerned about a company’s actions, especially in matters of social responsibility and environmental footprint.
Customers are more likely to use Ad Blockers when they feel that a company is trying to sell to them.
So what does this mean for marketing?
Well, for Tristan Ahumada, it means that it’s time to lead with kindness and approach marketing to be kind to your clients. Kindness is one of the core principles that Tristan operates his companies with.
A Bit of His Background
Tristan Ahumada is the creator and CEO of Lab Coat Agent. He created the company in 2014, which started it as a Facebook Group. Lab Coat Agents is a Media and Education company that helps other real estate agents adopt the best practices for lead generation and technology. Tristan started his company with a passion for real estate. “My experiences in real estate exposed me to the challenges in the niche. I wanted to help agents throughout the world overcome those challenges by offering free resources to help them grow their business,” he says.
Tristan grew the online community with the help of his co-founder Nick Baldwin and the core group of moderators for Lab Coat Agents and by 2019 the group had over 80K members. The group presently has over 136K members and consists of real estate agents, brokers, vendors, industry insiders, and experts. The online communities he has built have over 500,000 professional real estate agents across all platforms. All these people collaborate to create the best systems for maximum lead generation and lead conversion. The group is also an excellent place to explore the science of real estate as members share tips and techniques that help them grow their businesses.
Tristan married at an early age. He felt that he had a lot to prove, as most people kept telling him that he would never make it. However, he attributes his success in real estate to being married at 19 years as it gave him the drive to prove people wrong and accomplish much. Tristan currently lives in Southern California with his wife and two kids.
What Leading with Kindness Entails
We are constantly bombarded with technological solutions that offer efficiency in conducting various business processes. As such, we have developed a strong dependency on technology to do a lot of the work for us. In some cases the relationships with our consumers may suffer, but does this mean that kindness will be affected as well? According to Tristan, kindness offers businesses a rare opportunity to build strong cultures and establish strong connections with their target audience. He states that kindness starts when the leader develops self-awareness. This awareness helps you appreciate your capabilities and limitations. It also helps you develop empathy for others, embrace differences, and keep an open mind.
Leading with kindness is essential as it helps you seek a connection with others and build enriching relationships. This is important because, on your way up, you need to build a network of business partners, you need a strong customer base, and you need a team that’s willing to go out of their way to complete the projects. However, you can’t achieve all this with the traditional command-and-control approach to leadership. Today’s world no longer responds to command-and-control as employees will seek other job opportunities, and your customers will leave your brand for your competitors. What you get with the traditional approach to leadership is a high turnover rate, high job frustration, and low customer loyalty.
Do you want to outcompete other companies? Then you leverage kindness as your best weapon. Focus on your staff and the consumer, don’t focus on your competition. This means continually seeking out ways to show kindness to your employees, customers, and business partners. You can show kindness to customers by being socially aware. Take advantage of the online platforms to build an online community where you offer support to your customers. You also show kindness to your customers by providing excellence in your service. Make it your goal to go above and beyond to meet the needs of your customers. When you do that, your customers will reward you by recommending your brand to others. Statistics show that 77% of customers are likely to try a new product after learning it from their friends and family. As such, you have to build credibility for your brand by leading with kindness across all social platforms.
Tristan Ahumada is the Success Magazine People Editor, consults Fortune 500 companies and currently sits on different boards for tech companies. He also travels the world as an international speaker and frequently speaks at national and international events. You can learn more about this visionary entrepreneur via his personal website here.