10 minute read
17 Essentials for Building Strong Business Relationships
Having a network of strong business relationships is essential for a healthy, agile enterprise. Every business needs to build relationships with people across the whole SPOTLIGHT INDEX range of prospective business contacts, including customers, workers, investors, vendors, peer operators, other kinds of companies in the community, government representatives, and others. Fortunately, for business leaders looking to build strong relationships, their power sweeping enterprises need, the necessary basic business relationship-building skills listed below can be learned.
If the importance of good business relationships needs further emphasis, consider that research by Harvard University, in conjunction with the Stanford Research Center and the Carnegie Foundation has concluded that around 85% of success in business appears to be due to people skills. (See the Additional Resources section below for the research link.) So, let’s look at what good business relationships look like, and how to go about building those for your commercial pavement sweeping company.
WHAT ARE THE SIGNS OF A GOOD BUSINESS RELATIONSHIP?
A business relationship is an involvement that should be mutually beneficial to the parties over time. There are some recognizable characteristics of good, sustainable business relationships: n Mutual Respect — Both parties value each
n
n
other’s ideas, wisdom, and input. You can work together effectively to determine creative solutions based on your combined insights. Mutual Trust — You work together well because you can communicate openly and honestly share your thoughts, and energy is not wasted worrying about the other’s trustworthiness. Mutual Care — Both of you take responsibility for your actions and words. You’re both careful with your comments and avoid letting negative emotions from impacting one another.
n Mutual Openness — You communicate with each you know that is most likely to be able and willing other freely, and you prioritize building a stronger to help them. Build your relationships with people relationship by consistently offering each other whom you can expect to do the same for you. open and frank discussion. 2. DEVELOP YOUR EMOTIONAL n Mutual Receptivity — You are both open to INTELLIGENCE (EI). opinions that differ from your own. You take time Take time to do some reading on EI, the ability to to listen to each other and carefully consider what identify and understand what emotions (your own the other says in making the relevant decisions. and others’) are communicating to you. Increasing 17 WAYS TO BUILD STRONG your EI enables you to recognize the emotional and BUSINESS RELATIONSHIPS other factors that shape their thinking, including their Fortunately, mere deeply held values, desires, willingness to meet new people and engage in Especially for your and concerns, and it helps you find common ground on which reciprocally helpful employees, helping to build relationships. relationships with them them feel supported is 3. DEVELOP EMPATHY. is all you need to launch essential for building In addition to understanding your process of business the emotional drivers of other relationship building. Of mutually beneficial people (as discussed above in course, there are some long-term working #2 on EI), you need the ability basic soft skills, listed relationships. to understand the challenges below, which you’ll need they face, to appreciate their to help you successfully positions and situations as form and sustain lasting you strive to develop mutually relationships with your new contacts. helpful relationships with them. Especially for your Here are 17 ways to make the most of your employees, helping them feel supported is essential opportunities to establish and cultivate mutually for building mutually beneficial long-term working beneficial internal and external business relationships relationships. for your commercial power sweeping service: 4. RECOGNIZE YOUR NEEDS IN THE
1. FOSTER RECIPROCITY. RELATIONSHIP.
All good relationships are balanced in give-and-take. Clearly define your pavement maintenance company’s Helping others get what they need and want nurtures need(s) in the business relationship you want to people’s will to be helpful too. So, nurture reciprocity establish. Likewise, do you understand what the other in information sharing, providing resources, and other person needs from you? These needs should be as kinds of help. For example, when someone tells you well defined as possible, to build the most mutually about a challenge they’re facing, try to think of who productive and beneficial relationship possible.
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5. ASK STRAIGHTFORWARDLY mutually beneficial relationships. Be selective in
FOR WHAT YOU WANT. choosing prospective relationships in which you and INDUSTRY NEWS Overcome shyness about asking clearly for what you your new contact can add the most value to one want, to avoid leaving people stuck guessing. For another’s businesses. example, it may feel too difficult to ask for funding. But, 7. REACH OUT TO COLLABORATE ON obscuring your actual need makes communications A BIG SOLUTION TOGETHER. even more awkward, Collaboration is an organic especially if the response Routinely evaluate relationship-builder. When is insufficient and you find yourself having to ask again, ASSOCIA potential new business TION INSIDER challenges emerge, call together more directly, to get what relationships that are key people on your team to collaborate on developing and you need. 6. REVIEW AND RESHAPE YOUR important for the future success of your business aligning a set of objectives and then on brainstorming
BUSINESS CONTACTS potential solutions. Leverage SPOTLIGHT NETWORK. INDEX the experience and unique
Routinely evaluate potential new business relationships perspectives of participants, and develop new that are important for the future success of your processes, new product ideas, new policies, or another business, and create straightforward outreach plans relevant new way of operating to benefit customers, for establishing these new connections and building workers, investors, and other stakeholders.
8. NURTURE KEY RELATIONSHIPS.
Spend sufficient time on your most important business relationships, including your best customers, highestperforming employees, local business operators, and other community leaders who can make the biggest positive impacts for your company. Don’t let yourself and others get stuck in irrelevant chit chat and ego-boosting. Focus largely on ways to cultivate mutually beneficial relationships.
9. EXPAND YOUR EXTERNAL NETWORK.
Leave the office, and meet people you with whom you need to make new business connections. Introduce yourself. Offer to help when needed. This is the first step in building a relationship with each new customer, supplier, local competitor, remote peer sweeping business, and other relevant persons (perhaps in local government, media, etc.) whom you’ve contacted.
10. PRACTICE ACTIVE LISTENING.
People respond best to someone who is truly listening to them. That’s why every business leadership article and formal course emphasizes active listening as one of the top requirements for success, even though they need to listen seems obvious enough. But, it’s not a natural skill. It takes focus to listen at a deeper level and ask questions that reflect that greater level of interest in what someone else has to say. So, work on your listening skills until you find you’re listening as much or more than you’re talking.
11. SPEAK IN POSITIVE TERMS.
Being a positive person helps strengthen business relationships. People are not inspired by chronic negativity. For example, don’t engage in gossiping (saying negative things about other people). It causes people to mistrust you and damages your reputation. Instead, work to resolve conflicts directly, by speaking to the involved parties personally about issues.
12. LET YOUR BRAND STAND FOR SOMETHING MORE.
It’s great that your brand stands for commercial power sweeping service quality. But your good name can represent more in the world. Building relationships It takes focus to listen at a deeper level and ask questions that reflect that greater level of interest in what someone else has to say
with other business leaders who share your social and/or environmental concerns by collaborating on initiatives brings opportunities to work together toward solutions and engages you and your collaborator(s) as co-advocates. It’s an ideal way to help your community and build important business relationships too.
13. DON’T EXPECT THINGS TO STAY THE SAME FOREVER.
Do not prioritize consistency over innovation, when a strong opportunity for the latter presents itself. If continued on page 12
you discover a possibility that you believe could help INDUSTRY NEWS advance your business, reach out for discussion with people in your company who are in a position to contribute ideas and start collaborating. Encourage risktaking, and use the opportunities it generates to foster internal business relationships with your team members that can lead to innovations that advance your shared goals.
16. APPRECIATE PEOPLE.
Be grateful for the value of other people to your business — and show your appreciation for anyone who helps you. We all want to be acknowledged and appreciated. So, from your vendors to your lenders, it’s important to let people know that you recognize and appreciate their work to help your business. It’s essential in strong ASSOCIATION INSIDER relationships for each person to feel appreciated by the
14. IDENTIFY YOUR other.
COMMON GOALS OR 17. SET AND MANAGE
MISSION WITH ...maintain boundaries PROFESSIONAL YOUR INVESTORS. Just delivering one after appropriately for BOUNDARIES. Occasionally, business SPOTLIGHT another quarterly or annual INDEX your internal and relationships can drift off track presentation of your financial external business and begin to compromise analysis can work against priorities. So, maintain your goals of building relationships... boundaries appropriately for strong relationships with your internal and external partners and investors business relationships, to ensure who are critical to the future of your business. It can that productivity, quality, team cohesion, the business be very impersonal, too formal, and take on an air of mission, and recognition of distinct professional roles “you/them” instead of “us.” Talking about your mutual are all preserved. If necessary, assert formal boundaries, goals and mission can help build a sense of team with to manage limits on your business social interactions. investment stakeholders that can inspire them to want FURTHER, DEVELOP YOUR PEOPLE SKILLS. to connect more to the business. It’s a cliché that strong relationships of any kind 15. DO THE WORK TO MAINTAIN begin with strong interpersonal skills. Evaluate your YOUR RELATIONSHIPS. people skills. How effective are you in communicating Establishing new business connections is just the information? Managing conflict? Obtaining agreement? first step. Commit the necessary time and effort to Inspiring people? In addition to the areas of focus listed maintain the communications framework necessary to above, there are other interpersonal skills that you sustain those all-important business relationships. This may find it helpful to work on. Abundant information is the way to strengthen them into powerful generators resources are available on the web to help you of highly effective cooperation and help when needed. strengthen your people skills in any areas needed. Whether it’s two-minute stops to praise a worker for a NOTE: Maintaining difficult relationships that may job well done, or taking a peer business owner out to require more specialized management involves the lunch, or sending a text to thank a vendor, reaching out development of additional skills that cannot be covered is the core of relationship-building. here.
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AT THE END OF THE DAY...
To succeed in business, it’s necessary to cultivate robust bonds with individuals and groups internal and external INDUSTRY NEWS to your power sweeping business, including employees, partners, investors, customers, vendors, government representatives, and others. The above essentials can help you develop good relationships with people associated with your business. However, keep perspective. Excessive time investment in cultivating external business relationships can be counterproductive. So, be sure to balance the demands of operating your company to meet market demands and fulfill all other parts of your larger business strategy with your need to spend a reasonably modest percentage of your total time on relationship building. SPOTLIGHT That said, your business relationships empower you to recover from setbacks and losses and to take new risks and innovate. Your business is not operating in a vacuum. It takes a community. So, embrace your role as part of the business community, and make the most of your professional relationships inside and outside your company.
Additional Resources https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/opinion/ct-ptbhoagland-smith-skills-st-0820-20170820-story.html https://www.inc.com/martin-zwilling/6-strategies-for-buildingrelationships-you-need-to-succeed-in-business.html https://tech.buzzfeed.com/building-great-products-by-buildinggreat-relationships-7d36d4027929 ASSOCIATION INSIDER https://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthaharrington/2017/06/30/howto-build-strong-business-relationships/#466ebc8a356f
Sources https://www.chicagotribune.com/suburbs/post-tribune/opinion/ct-ptbhoagland-smith-skills-st-0820-20170820-story.html https://www.inc.com/martin-zwilling/6-strategies-for-buildingrelationships-you-need-to-succeed-in-business.html INDEX https://tech.buzzfeed.com/building-great-products-by-buildinggreat-relationships-7d36d4027929 https://www.forbes.com/sites/samanthaharrington/2017/06/30/ how-to-build-strong-business-relationships/#466ebc8a356f
Mark Powell: Used Sales Manager After Hours Phone: 336-689-4879 / Fax: 336-869-9979 www.cesrefuse.com TOLL FREE 800-239-7796
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