When I was in college, I had a roommate who loved to fish. Near our campus was a city park that had a small lake. On one end of the lake was a beach where people could swim under the watchful eye of a lifeguard. In the middle of the lake was a bridge for the footpath that joggers used to run through the park. On the far end of the lake was a boathouse where you could rent a canoe by the hour. On one particularly warm day near the end of our spring term, the fishing itch really got to my roommate and the two of us set out for the boathouse and rented a canoe. We each tossed a fishing line into the water and proceeded to lie back at opposite ends of the canoe and soak in the sun. Both of us then fell asleep. As we slumbered, our canoe began to drift away from the far end of the lake. In fact, we drifted under the bridge and ended up at the beach in water that was about thigh high. I just remember waking up to a group of children who had surrounded our canoe and were looking down on the two of us – the lifeguard shouting over a bullhorn, "step away from the boat!”

If you feel like your business is adrift in its own little boat, you are not alone. It is difficult to find your direction when there are so many uncertainties about the future. Are we on the verge of another downturn in an already sluggish economy? What is the federal government going to do in regards to taxes? What if they decide to do another stimulus? What if they decide to take over another industry that is key to your business? Should you hire more employees or downsize your workforce? Uncertainty is the fog that keeps business from charting a clear course and moving forward… and there is plenty of uncertainty on the waters right now. How do you navigate all of this? There are some keys to keeping your business from drifting in these uncertain times. For the sake of our nautical theme, let’s call them oars in the water.

Oar #1: Relationships matter

For all of our advancement in electronic communications, here is a very important message: your relationships with people matter more than your price. There is a shift that is happening in the business workforce right now. There are generational differences in the way we deal with people. The retiring workforce from the Baby Boom generation tended to segment life into categories: work time, family time, time with friends, etc. There was an emphasis on doing business just as fast and efficiently as you could, which left little time for building relationships during work time. That was the sort of thing you did during your family or friend time. Business time was impersonal. The primary driver during the years the Baby Boomers were actively running business was price. Think about the businesses that have become big during the Baby Boomers’ time at the helm of the business ship. Big Box stores supplanted mom and pop small businesses. How did they do it? It was not based on better quality or superior customer service (which is all about relationships with your customers), it was with a cheaper price. Why are so many of our electronics produced overseas? Because they can be made cheaper overseas than they can be domestically.  It does not matter that we don’t know the people who produced the gadget, the relationship does not matter. But the lines that defined the Baby Boomers’ existence are beginning to disappear. Younger workers do not live a segmented life. For them, all things are happening at the same time. They don’t necessarily see a distinction between a friend they will spend time with after work and the customer they are dealing with at work. All of the sudden, the relationship becomes the driver of the sale. You would be very wise to recognize this and to learn how to build stronger relationships with your customers, especially the younger ones that are coming up to take the place of the retiring Boomers.

You may be thinking that sales has always been about relationships. But what I am talking about goes beyond the normal sales/client business relationship. I attended a conference a few weeks ago that encouraged business leaders to become mentors to the next generation of workers. This was more than just showing them the ropes of running a business – a glorified internship. This also involved other areas of life, like helping them through marriage difficulties, giving advice on matters of the heart, finding out about their financial situation and helping them form a budget. If you are middle aged or older, that sort of thing might make you uncomfortable, but it resonated with the younger crowd that was in the room. They welcomed the involvement of an older man or woman to give them guidance. I bring this up as an illustration to my point: relationships matter. What one generation considered crossing a line of personal and business is being welcomed by a new generation that desires very transparent relationships. And those relationships will be the driver of commerce in your business.

Oar #2: Merge marketing and customer service

For years, marketing and sales departments have operated together. It makes sense because one leads to the other. However, the new reality is that marketing and customer service have to merge. Why? For one, in these times, you cannot afford to lose customers because they are unhappy with your products or services. But you also don’t want the world to know that one of your customers had a bad experience. With the myriad of ways that electronic interactive media has made everyone’s voice heard, you must try to fix the problems before the disgruntled customer expresses his disgust to the world. There is little you can do if something like that goes viral. Social media is the responsibility of marketing, but there is a huge customer service and satisfaction component to successful social media marketing. Marketing and customer service have to work together to follow up with your customers after the sale to make sure they are happy. In doing so, it gives you another marketing opportunity. Just as you cannot afford to have an unhappy customer who walks away from you, the happy client offers you the opportunity to purchase more from you. If there are ancillary items or services beyond the initial sale, working with customer service puts you in first position to upsell your current clients.

Oar #3: We can’t wait on the government to fix the economy