Wine, Business and Success…It’s About Trust
I try not to work on weekends, leaving these days instead for family and the home. But, when duty calls, I’m in the office. Like today. I’m preparing to give a presentation to a potential client on Monday.
The art of pitching work is not something that has fast and hard rules associated with it. It is very much something you do by feel. More often than not, I find myself in the offices or the cellar of a winery. They want to know what I bring to the table. What capabilities I have. This is what’s most on their mind. But what they aren’t thinking, yet what always weighs heavily in their decision to work with Wark Communications is if they like me and if they FEEL they can work with me.
Monday I’ll present to an organization that would provide me with tremendous challenges and great professional rewards. The organization takes in to account a number of regions, vineyards, wineries and personalities. The potential project is one that will have broad consequences.
So, I’m here giving the presentation a great deal of thought. And it occurred to me
THE SUCCESS OF WARK COMMUNICATIONS IS BUILT NEARLY ENTIRELY ON TRUST.
-Good public relations practitioners aren’t that hard to come by.
-Great industry and media contacts are hard to develop, but there are a number of people out there with them
So…
-I’m hired because clients feel they can trust me.
-My industry contacts are still stellar because I’ve proven myself trustworthy
-My vendors are happy to work with me because they trust my integrity
-I’ve learned to trust my intuition in determining what will have the most impact promoting my clients’ wines and services.
I’ve decided that rather than bring all the digital bells and electronic whistles to the presentation, I’m going to arrive with a few company background packets and myself and that’s it. Nothing else. And I’m going to simply chat with the review panel about my company and the state of the wine industry. My skills and talents and contacts needed to do this work are not in question. But if they feel like they can trust me, they will feel comfortable working with me, and Wark Communications will have a new client.
Success seems very closely related to trust. I’ll go back and back to the same winery to buy that Zinfandel without having tasted the new vintage because I trust them. Fermentations’ readers come back because they trust I won’t waste their time. Communities and families flourish based on the level of trust that resides among their members. Politicians get re-elected based on the trust their constituents have in them.
Trust me. This is all true.
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