Building Business Relationships in 2018

If you haven’t already thought about building business relationships, now’s the time to do it right.

You have to focus on it from an organizational perspective and develop strategies to creating the perfect network for your brand.

When you develop these relationships over a few years, they start to pay off year over year.

Auditing and analyzing

You should start off by analysing what really drives your business.

You should focus on creating that steady source of business development and take a look at what drives the most number of referrals, sales, and closure. The drive could be different from business to business, but it impacts the way that we function as a business network.

What really differentiates one set of clients who don’t seem to respond, and another that’s gaga over your prospecting efforts?

It’s not only about the quality of service or product offered, but something deeper. It has to be with how well you connected with them.

Understanding their requirements, listening to them, and creating a valuable connection with them is key.

It boils down to one thing – building better business relationships.

You can start off with a content marketing approach, or even attending large scale networking events. You need to go to these places with strong intent and create a valuable impact on their minds when you meet them.

Building the right relationships

Ever since the dawn of creation, we created relationships by offering value, and that’s still true till this day. If you don’t offer anything and expect everything in return – then your business relationships will dry out sooner than you think.

The key here is to create a consistent connection with your colleagues and co-workers, and not simply focus on the value that they provide.

You can help them out in many ways and create a valuable impact on their lives through the help of relationships. You can provide them assistance via your network and vice versa.

A savvy networker can figure out the best ways to network quickly, but you don’t have to be that good. You should be mindful of what value different people provide and connect the two based on recommendations. It’s really simple to implement and the returns are multifold.

In B2B sales, relationships are the main reason why some companies succeed, and others don’t. It’s also the reason behind many past failures affecting future successful outcomes because of the fact that your network may be interconnected.

This is why its key to create a positive impact on you network and develop relationships that last longer than expected.

Technology and lack of contact

With the rise in technology, we may have an inclination to send a tweet or an email to someone we want to connect with. This couldn’t be far from the truth.

The most effective way to connect with someone is via the phone.

If you feel like it’s necessary, then picking up the phone isn’t a bad idea.

It should really be explored as a salvageable method to save relationships that haven’t been rekindled over many years. A phone call separates you from your competition, as most of them would just be copy-pasting email templates.

A call or a face-to-face encounter really helps from time to time.

The other aspect to keep in mind is trust.

When we meet someone for the first time, we have a tendency to not trust them easily. Unless there’s instant chemistry and you feel like you’re bonding over a few words, you should keep at it. Continuing to reach out to them and connecting over the phone and face-to-face, is the number 1 to developing an existing network.

You should invest time and money into this activity and showing your appreciation for someone goes a long way.

Customer Service

Good customer service matters.

When you start to deliver a few key products or batches with high satisfaction ratings, you can develop trust with that brand or business.

You must have thought about your current phone, TV and internet connection and how you stick to one provider for long-term unless they screw up.

You feel hurt and betrayed by this faceless entity.

Relationships through networking, work the same way. You don’t want to hurt or offend anyone, and you want to focus on delivering value both in the product/service and the way you treat someone over customer service.

Trust gives you retention which ensures that your customers are happier longer.

The fallacy of inaction

Often, we resort to our default decision making systems and we don’t go out of our comfort zones. We don’t take action and expect different results while doing so.

This is where business need to get out of their bubbles and explore new opportunities via their networks. That’s the way to make a difference in your business for 2018. You need to explore your network and create valuable impact in their lives to be able to do so in yours.

It's not all about building a community of like-minded people…

It's about taking action and connecting with someone to build a “business” network.

You shouldn’t be satisfied with inaction when it comes to your existing network. You should meet with individuals that are hardworking, have demonstrated value and those that can provide you with the help you need in the future.

Whether that’s networking with billionaires or vendors who outsource CRM software, you pick the battles you want to win and what benefits you gain from them.

The challenge is in the implementation and that’s where a lot of small businesses start to fail. You need to be consistent and putting in the right kind of effort to building your brand from the ground up. It all comes down to choices. What choice would you make for your business –

#1 Doing nothing – If you’re not interested in growing your business, you wouldn’t do anything and stay in your bubble.

#2 Doing it by yourself – You can network, and work, and deliver on projects continuously until the cows came home.

#3 Outsourcing – Like Tim Ferris said, outsourcing is the key to growing your brand’s network.

Conclusion

When you take a decision to finally commit to building a business network, you end up feeling vibrant and energetic about your overall growth.

Building a business network should be on your priority list in 2018.