The Tribune

I remember when I was growing up that we had a set of Encyclopaedia Britannicas. This literally made me one of the smartest guys in my class, because I could research things on most topics. Information gave me an edge. Since I am an avid reader, and I had more information, most of the time my projects came out better than my classmates, who had to rely on the books at school.

Today’s children would laugh at the lack of information we had. Yet most people of all ages today still do not know how to decipher the information that is available to them. In fact, in most assignments that I give as a lecturer, the majority of students cannot get past the first page of Google. The quantity of information available is no longer the problem. It is the quality of information.

And people have not changed. They still do not like to read in depth or to analyse. Most would prefer that the information they are seeking be delivered, already analysed, to them. Once they trust that source, they keep going back to it. You see that with political arguments in the US. They have conservative media and they have liberal media. And rarely do the two meet.

It is called their spin. Everybody is trying to prove a point. Any good information can be made to look bad, and any bad information can be made to look good. People who are criminals can be made to look like heroes. And innocent people can be made to look guilty or like your worst nightmare.

The key take away here, dear friends, is when you captivate your clients with good information you become their trusted source. I am assuming that your product or services solve a problem, or meet a need or desire that they have. And that it provides very high value. So I am not talking about feeding false information to clients. I am saying that once people trust you, you should be able to keep them as your clients for a long time provided you give them the valuable information they need.

Constant communication with good and useful information is how you remain ‘top of mind’ with clients. They no longer need to read a book to find out about what you are doing any more. Because of the Internet you should now be able to reach people wherever they are. In 2015, make sure that you concentrate on delivering information into people’s cell phones because that is definitely how most people are getting their information now.

• NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds an MBA from the Kellogg School of Management and has helped small and large clients, both in the Bahamas and internationally. Go to DArcyRahming.com and get his free video training series on How to Get a Paycheck From International Clients While Living in the Bahamas.