When the customer relationship add value to the company

I wanted to share with you a commercial technique I learned couple of days ago while I was listening to a christian speech. I have always been impressed by the oratory skills of priests and pastors in the US, sometimes bringing 20 000 people for their shows.

Anyway, I was listening to this CD in my car (even though I am not really fond of this type of material), and one of the stories.
The priest was talking about a time where he saw a poor asking for money in the street. The church person says he does not like to give money like this because he does not know what the money will be used for (to buy drugs for example, or food?). So instead of giving him money, he decided to go towards the poor person, shake his hand and says him hi.


After that, he asked: "Are you hungry?". And the other responds: "yes"
- There is a Mc Donald's accross the street would you like me to offer you a McDonald's?
- Yes, yes of course.
- What do you like at Mc Donald's?
- The quater pound.
- Really, do you mind if I offer you a quater pound?"

And then he offered the burger and discussed with the poor. Along the discussion, he learned that the poor was an artist, and was painting. When the lunch was done, the poor offered to thank the man a paint he made.

Why do I tell you this story? Because I think it tells us a lot about how to create some consistent commercial offer. In this example, instead of simply giving money to this person (wether it is more than a quater pound, that is not the point), he established a relationship with the person by starting a discussion. And out of this discussion.

Because of this original approach, the priest earned even more than what he expected, which is this tableau.

What this story teach us?

• Establishing a true and honest relationship is the foundation of a great CRM. If the relationship would not have been effective, the person would have not known what to offer.
  
• Instead of only offering an amount of money, like a gift card or a discount, try to offer something to your client more valuable. In this example, what has more value for the client, $6 (the price of the burger) or the fact the person asked him for what he wanted and offered it.
• The relationship has a value for the client. Without this discussion, the gift of the hamburger would not have been as appreciated, and the poor will probably never offered back the paint.

What do you think about this story?
How could we translate that better into a customer relationship strategy?