Sadly, not putting in the work (and time) toward building long-lasting, profitable and life-fulfilling business relationships quickly puts you in the back of customers’ minds.
This means your quarterly reports and annual income will gradually plummet. How? Because a business is run by many minds, talents, and natural skills. Successful people—Gates and Allen or Jobs and Wozniak, for example—worked together to build their global empires. None of them could have made it as far as they have without having solid business relationships.
There are a couple of reasons why building relationships is profitable for your business. What’s more, there are some steps you can take to make yourself more inviting to potential business partners, not to mention friends.
“Opportunities don’t happen. You create them.” —Chris Grosser
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Hire Better People
“Hire people that are better than you and then leave them to get on with it.” —David Ogilvy (the grand master of advertising)
You want people on your team who know what they’re doing. If at all possible, you want decision-makers.
Searching business indexes for the people your business needs is an activity that’ll pay off for you in spades. These indexes give you direct contact with numerous people who may be exactly the people you’re looking for.
Furthers, hiring people who are better than you is the smart way to go. These are the people who will get the job done right when you don’t know how. What’s more, you never know who is better than you at something until you give them a chance. Fortunately for both of you, as well as your organization as a whole, you can learn as the relationship develops. Just don’t get in the way of their progress. Allow those business relationships to develop in their own way.
Hiring someone better than you at a specific position, task or account gives you more opportunities to learn about that specific task. Additionally, when you do, you indirectly fan that individual’s intangible need to feel important and valuable.
Take Notes
“Successful people do what unsuccessful people are not willing to do. Don’t wish it were easier; wish you were better.” —Jim Rohn
Do you know many people in your industry who are willing to take notes? Do you know anyone in business (at all) who keeps detailed notes?
Sir Richard Branson has admitted that he is an astute fan of detailed note-taking. Keep notes on everybody you meet. Then put those notes into your address book or contact system.
This makes keyword mining a whole lot easier. Further, mining your notes will come in handy when your company is launching a new product or service. Use it to find people in the target audience for that launch.
Additionally, keeping detailed notes on people you meet will give you further opportunities to know them on a more human, personable level. This is never bad for business. One of the reasons Franklin D. Roosevelt was so loved in his time was because he made it his business to remember the first names of everyone. This was true of strangers, new partners, and even the staff who worked for him.
Conclusion
In the end, it’s your business. No one is going to make you follow these guidelines for building more solid, profitable and spiritually beneficial business relationships. Your life is your own.
However, reject this advice at your peril. Doing so will make you look like someone who is uninterested in people. And who wants to be around someone who doesn’t want to be around people?
