A Contemplation During Fasting Month for Humanology: Thank you

From academic to the business environment, it is really a challenge. I have learnt all the theories, conducting a practical session to my graduate students. When I applied it myself, I faced great challenges. Thank you to the creator who continues to send me the experts, compassionate people who guide me. Even as simple as a short discussion, it gives a huge impact to correct my perspectives in Marketing. 

I have undergone many challenges throughout the marketing process. However, due to my interest to help and to nurture people, I have never given up.  I learned that customers love it when I could relate to their problems and their needs during the sales pitch. I also learned that I am thankful each time I had successfully made a sale. It’s not just about the money that I made that day, but the feeling of satisfaction when I had helped someone to find what they are looking for and I managed to put a smile on their face when they finally walked out the door. A happy customer expresses his/her emotions through facial expression. The eye region of the face is critical for identifying genuine or sincere smiles. From my experience, the eyes of a satisfied customer tells you everything, and you just know it.

“Thank You, I appreciate your support”, is probably the most often spoken phrases I said when I thanked them. I have to admit that I can smile all day in satisfaction after that sale is made and keep hoping for more. There are of course some of the days that the customers just only enquire and some of them do not even acknowledge the WhatsApp message I sent to them. As I love what I do, I’ll try my best to approach each of them without any expectation whether it would turn into sales or not, also to make sure that they were given enough information to solve and address their issues. It’s normal for a customer to come and go. They have options, and they can choose whatever they wish. I am also a customer, and I understand this process. I am thankful they have the intention to inquire about our programs that interest them so much and can bring them in to understand us better. To my surprise, some of them do come again and straight away send participants to us in a group without hesitation!

If you thank Me, I will surely increase you [Ibrahim, 14:7]

Figure 1: A verse in Surah Ibrahim Ayat 7

 Verses in the Holy Quran Ibrahim, 14:71 (figure 1) said about even if you could show the least gratitude, Allah will increase you in many ways. Allah didn’t mention about being grateful to Himself in the Surah, but you can be grateful to anyone, anybody or anything. For example, being grateful to Allah, to your parents or to have a healthy life. In the context of marketing, being grateful might he to your customers who have helped increase your sales, to your workers who have worked so hard in making the sales, or potential leads for getting in touch with you.

 الحمد لله

Figure 2: Alhamdulillah (All praise to Allah)

Gratefulness is not only the act of saying Alhamdulillah which means all praise belongs to Allah’ (figure 2) it is an attitude and the way of your thinking. The beauty of it is, Allah has promised that He can increase you in anything (Memon, 2015), and the sky is the limit!

From the literature review, gratitude (shukr) is the quality of being thankful; readiness to show appreciation for and to return the kindness. Gratitude also means thankfulness, counting your blessings, noticing simple pleasures, and acknowledging everything that you receive. From my point of view, it means that appreciation towards some acts of kindness from the heart and never ask anything in return in everything you do. It also means that it’s okay for me to have this kind of life or to have this much money, with good health and have this kind of family. We are so thankful for what we have now because some other person out there may want the same life, money, health, and family as what I have, but they just couldn’t have it for whatever reason.

Our gratefulness is towards the people around us that help us to be successful in business. May it be our family who is always there to support our decision, our business associates who keep pushing me to be a better entrepreneur, customers who always trust our choice of training programs and happy with it, my workers who keep pushing for sales every day and take a good care of the shop and my contact of suppliers who is easy to talk to, can be trusted and open for negotiation. And of course to the Almighty Allah S.W.T who gives endless fortune (rizq) every time.

How can I show my appreciation? For example, appreciation to the customers can be done by giving them thank you notes, providing the best service and extra mileage to them such as learning management system, workbook, pre and post-test that was not offered by any individual trainers. Appreciation for the workers can be done by understanding their work-related or personal problems, maintaining good communication and respecting each other, treat them as people, not only as salespeople. Appreciation for the trainers and consultants were done by respecting their terms and conditions, maintaining trustworthiness and have a good relationship with them.

And He gave you of all that you asked for,

And if you count the Blessings of Allah,

Never will you be able to count them.

Figure 3: Surah Ibraheem Verse 34

Besides all these, the most important appreciation is towards Allah, which provides what we have in business unexpectedly as what has been said in figure 3. Despite the ups and downs (which the limited-human-being-mind like me think, and there must be a reason for that), the fortune (rizq) that He gives is beyond expectation. Some of the things we did in business were made easy, and along the way, we encounter people who help us, and without everyone support, it is nothing that Humanology has achieved.

 For Humanology, how we market our programs today have a lot to relate to the ideas and creativity that He gave us. As a verse in Surah Al-Nahl 16:53,

“And whatever of blessings and good things you have, it is from Allah.”

We tried a lot of things in marketing such as trying to produce videos to enable participants to know the program better, to enable the participants to see the trainers in action and to enable participants to listen to the testimonials from previous clients. We even share the message in Whatsapp, social media, face to face sharing, courtesy visits and others. All the strength, creativity and innovation is learnt from Him.

What we did to show our gratitude is through giving back to others (sedekah). We allocate a certain amount of money each month and give it to the one in need such as the poor. We try to find homeless shelter, orphanage and old folks’ home that we can help. Sometimes we also help our relatives or friends who are in distress. We know that only by giving back to others can help us increase abundance in our business, ease our marketing plans and also our lives as a whole. We also know that we must do it with a pure heart without expecting anything. To which of the favour of your load would you deny?

Figure 4: This verse is repeated 31 times in Quran Surah Ar-Rahman

To show the importance of gratitude in human life, the verse “Then which of the favours of your Lord will you deny?” is repeated 31 times in the Quran (Surah Ar-Rahman) (figure 4). It means that we should always be grateful because we know that there are the most powerful force above us that have given us everything that we needed. It means that without it, we would be nothing. We are the only human being that always makes mistakes and needs support and guidance in all aspects of life. Same goes for the way we conduct our business and do our marketing. We have to appreciate small things that can help us achieve more in the future. We have to have good Intentions, try to help others as much as we can, to bring the best in them and ourselves. We have to remember that we are not doing this only for ourselves, but for the betterment of others (giving back). By doing this consistently, we can show our thanks and appreciation to Allah, our creator. As stated in Surah An-Nisa Verse 147,

“Why should Allah punish you if you have thanked (Him) and have believed in Him. And Allah is Ever All-Appreciative (of good), All-Knowing.”

The way we do marketing in business and the way we live our lives as a human is not much of a difference. It relates to one another. The more we set our intentions straight to the right path, the better the outcomes will be. No matter how successful in life and how much money we can make in the business, the act of gratitude could keep us humble because we know Allah is watching. So we have to be grateful and give back to the one in need in return for His favours.

Lastly, we would like to say thank you to those who have supported us, those who helped us grow to be a better company through challenging us, those who have enlightened us to serve you with the heart and soul.

By,

Prof. Dr. Malik Badri

Datuk Dr. Leow Chee Seng