Hospitality is not just for hotels...

Back in 2011, I went on a life changing trip with my mother to India. It was a business trip for her and she had taken me along as a treat.When we arrived at the airport, I was struck by how congenial the business owners we were meeting in India were. I thought "well, we have only just got here." I was operating with my normal Nigerian cynicism. However, after spending 8 days with them, I learned that hospitality in business is not just about running a hotel. Being extraordinarily friendly and generous to your clients can help your create a strong bond that will inspire loyalty and generate growth for your business.

Here are a few other things about running a small business from them:

1. It is possible to have a business meeting that is not driven by money: Over the 8 days we spent with them, it was very rare for us to discuss money. You are probably thinking "how is that even possible?" It is possible because our host focused on the other values that doing business with them brings. They were more of tourist guides than they were business people trying to sell a commodity. If there was any experience they thought we should have, they not only recommended it, they went out of their way to make it happen.
2. Honesty! Honesty! Honesty!: They were very upfront about the quality of what they were selling. They provided us with aggregate market information from all of the other clients selling their products. Even, when we said we trusted them, they insisted we try out the product for the short term, analyse the information we had been given and get back to them when we could make a thoroughly informed decision.
3. Treat your clients like family: When they kept saying they treat their clients like family, my mother and I were really sceptical, until I fell ill. They went above and beyond to ensure that I was comfortable. They ordered in the right food and got me medication to help. It would have been easier for them to simply have kept at a sympathetic distance.
4. Keep in touch: Even a year after we went to India, these businessmen still make sure that they stay in touch with us. They have kept up with the progress in my life as much as they have kept up with the sale of their products in the market. They have even been known to send small gifts occasionally simply because they want to show they remember us.
5. Be Invested in Your Clients' Success: This may seem obvious to some but not to all. The better your clients does the better you will do as a result of increased patronage. Our hosts were all about maximising the success of my mother's business. For them, they were not interested in a one-time transaction, so they are very much invested in their client's success.

I know the de-facto response to these five points might be that they are probably making so much money in the transaction that they can afford to do all this. The question I pose to you is this, "When was the last time you met someone that had the upper hand in a transaction in Nigeria, and still did all of the above?" I am sure, just like in India, such people are few. The rarity of these gestures is what makes them such great learning points.