How Rituals Can Increase Sales   

A routine keeps you doing the same thing and getting the same result, while a ritual may appear to have you doing the same thing, but because of the dynamic inherent in the activity, it results in positive and sometime dramatic change.A Harvard study found that, “Unlike the routine habits or obligations people feel they must get done, relationship rituals are pleasurable experiences that hold significance, acting as symbolically meaningful signs of a solid and happy partnership.”

The Harvard article ‘discovered’ something that most of us have already known: Relationship rituals are powerful commitment devices.

The article states, “Rituals have two key traits: They involve a repeated pattern of activity that continues over time, and they have shared symbolic meaning.”

That is why such networking functions and groups as BNI become so effective. They involve more than an obligation but rather that relational obligation.

Such rituals also cross over into such iterations as golf or even hunting.

One study cited in the article found “64 percent of the rituals involved consumption of a good or service.” Going out for Starbucks coffee is an example. Even going out to support the same charity event can bring about a shared and deeper commitment in a business relationship.