Sales reps, business leaders, companies, teachers, and parents all try to gain the loyalty of their audience. The sales rep from customers, the business leader from the team, the company from its employees, the teacher from students and parents from their children.  Gaining loyalty is paramount to accomplishing goals and creating the kind of legacy most of us would like to leave behind.

If you cannot secure the loyalty of others, it will result in failure in all walks of life.   In the business world it costs seven to ten times as much to acquire a new customer than it does to retain a loyal customer.  A five percent increase in employee retention can result in as much as a twenty five percent increase in profit.  Failure on the part of parents and teachers to gain the loyalty of children and students also has a tremendous negative impact on society, leading to immeasurable disfunction.

The question of gaining loyalty and how to go about it, often becomes convoluted, however, a quick review of philosophy and history can sum up the it up simply and easily.  Contrary to what seems logical when trying to win loyalty from others, it is the most often the giver, who becomes more loyal rather than the getter.  Think about it.  Parents are forever trying to gain the loyalty of their children, they sacrifice, giving more and more all the time, and yet, it is the parent who’s loyalty grows over the years.  Loyalty to their children becomes so intense that it lasts a lifetime; some will even bankrupt their retirement funds for their child’s well-being.

John McCain famously said, “In prison, I fell in love with my country.”  McCain’s captors tortured him to get him to denounce the United States, but the more they ridiculed his honor and patriotism, the more intensely he felt about the USA.

To summarize what he believes is one of the most important lesson of Machiavelli’s, ‘The Prince’, Chris Matthews wrote, “Loyalty to a ruler grows in direct proportion to the sacrifices made on his behalf.”  In his latest book, ‘Jack Kennedy: Elusive Hero’,  Matthews says the Kennedy Party and Bobby Kennedy in particular, understood the loyalty dynamic.  Each time a person inquired about joining the Kennedy Party machine they immediately had a job to do, beginning the process of building team Kennedy loyalty.

Sales reps and sales leaders focus on the amount they are giving as a barometer for gaining customer loyalty, but a philosophic and historic review suggests that we re-think this strategy.  Of course we have to provide the things customers deem valuable, but will alone not gain the loyalty of the customer if they are not giving in return.

We must engage our customers and team members. If they are going to become loyal they have to give also.

Giving is the path to loyalty.

Dirk Gorman,

Capable leadership LLC,