I'm a big fan of big ideas.

Triggering a lightbulb moment where the client sees a new path can be the most powerful single way to get them on your side and to think of you as their preferred partner.

But that said, big ideas don't come along every week. At least not to me.

What's an awful lot easier is being consistently good.

Showing up every week (or bi-weekly, but let's not start that argument again :) )

There's an urban legend that says Albert Einstein called compound interest the most powerful force in the universe.

He most likely didn't as the quote seems to have first appeared nearly 30 years after his death. But the ability of compounding to take something small and grow it bit by bit until it's bigger than you can ever have imagined originally is still pretty staggering.

And it works with relationships too.

A big impression makes a great start. But what makes the biggest impact is the compounding nature of consistent communication and interaction.

I've seen how powerful it can be to my own cost too.

Years ago I was approached by a sales trainer looking for advice.

He'd just won some work with a law firm and although he was very good at sales training generally he had very little experience of law firms and was looking for tips on how to best work with them and adapt his material.

After chatting with him for a while it dawned on me that the law firm he'd won the work with was one I'd done a presentation for a few years earlier.

At the time they gave me amazing feedback, but they just weren't ready to get started improving their business development.

I'd made a big impression. But I didn't keep in touch.

I moved on to other “hotter prospects”.

In the meantime, the sales trainer who was asking my advice had spoken to them. By his account, he hadn't wowed them or anything.

But he did keep in touch. Every few weeks he'd call or email or meet up with one of their partners over coffee to offer advice.

By the time they were ready to hire someone I was a distant memory and he was fresh in their mind.

The same goes when you're communicating by email, on a regular video show, podcast or live stream.

Showing up and being consistently helpful eventually compounds enough to beat even the most brilliant first impression. 

It something we should all be doing.