Networking Insight

What are the Benefits of Building Strong Business Relationships? by Jaguar PC

 

Whatever your line of business, the ability to build strong, long-lasting relationships is likely to be a key factor in determining whether you will be successful for any length of time. Like relationships in any area of life, finding the people you want to be close to and build one with can take a long time, and it might need a lot of effort on your part to ensure that it continues to work.

What are the key relationships that businesses should look to establish, why are they so important, and what are the best ways to maintain them?

Customer Loyalty

If you don’t have a relationship with your customers or clients, then you don’t have a sustainable business. It really is as simple and as brutal as it sounds. It doesn’t matter whether you are a B2B or B2C company; if you can’t get this right then you’re nowhere.

Why is customer loyalty so important?

When you are looking for new customers, you need to be able to demonstrate what you do well. What is the better option? The business that has had a core of customers loyal to them for months and years, or one that doesn’t have many regular customers? We know who we’d be dealing with.

Building customer relationships is easy, and is based primarily around providing quality products or services, and being a great communicator. Get those two elements right, and you’ll be well on your way.

Building Business Bridges

One type of relationship that businesses often neglect are those with other businesses. While you’re not going to want to buddy up with a fierce competitor, there are ways you can work with other business, for example those in your local area, so that mutual benefits are enjoyed.

This might mean giving recommendations to customers who are seeking the service of another business, or even marketing a selection of their products or services through a referral or affiliate program. Mutually beneficial business relationships will be formed quickly and easily if you’re willing to reach out and talk to others.

Making Your Business Grow

Such relationships can have a huge impact on the growth potential of businesses. Let us look at businesses in a local area, for example. By forming a local business council, for example, these companies can work together to find ways of better targeting the local community so that everyone receives greater exposure. This will often happen as a consequence of a major retailer, such as a supermarket, moving into the local area, but there’s nothing to stop it being a powerful alliance at any other time, either.

Taking the point further, small businesses could agree to work together in shared space, or split the costs of common sundry supplies, for example, both of which will free up cash for the business to use to stimulate growth or invest in other areas.

The Opportunity is There

Opportunities to benefit from such relationships are staring businesses in the face, there just seems to be a reluctance to take advantage of it. If your business has the chance to work with another which will have benefits for you both, reach out, discuss your ideas, and move forward. It could be the most productive thing you could do for your business.

This article is written by Jaguar PC, providers of managed VPS hosting with 24/7 professional support and daily backups.

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Getting Tangible Business Out of Networking by Steve Fretzin

Recently I had the pleasure of meeting with one of Chicagoland’s top networkers. This gentleman is very well connected and admired by many business people. He enjoys meeting new people and is the kind of person who gives selflessly to almost everyone he meets. After about thirty minutes of discussion, he confessed something very interesting to me. He said that he wasn't getting enough tangible business for the time he was investing in his networking.

This problem is an unfortunate reality about networking that most people face. While giving is still the most important element of networking, doing so without a smart strategy can lead to poor results. To better understand a strategy as it relates to networking, consider a talent scout. A talent scout doesn’t randomly head out into the world searching the streets for a new actress. He also understands that true talent is rare and that most of the people he meets will not end up becoming a star. In networking, we encounter the same challenges as the scout. Approximately 90% of the people we connect with are not going to end up becoming valuable strategic partners. They simply may not have the right set of contacts or business focus that you need in a strategic partnership. In order to properly scout out the best and brightest people to partner with, here are the four key criteria for a solid networking partner:

1. Must be Likeable – In order to create a long term and productive relationship with another business professional, it is imperative that you actually like one another. Finding someone that you could be friends with will help out tremendously in building trust and becoming friends.

2. Must be Trustworthy – While it may be difficult to discover in an initial one hour networking meeting, try to give your new prospective partner a few tasks to work on for you. This will help you to better understand their ability to follow up and stand behind commitments. Missed calls or rescheduling multiple appointments are warning signs that this person may not follow through very well or have enough time for you.

3. Must be an Expert – One of the worst feelings you can have is referring the wrong person to one of your friends or clients. If you have a clear understanding of someone’s skill sets and their ability to follow through, it will help you determine if they are referable. Look for online recommendations, testimonials, and an overall track record of accomplishments.

4. Must have a Network – As you can imagine, it’s difficult to obtain referrals if your new friend doesn’t know anyone. Find a new strategic partner who is “wired in” to the marketplace. Although the average person has an average of over 200 connections, someone with many high level connections will fast track your success in building your business. As a best practice, create a mental or physical check list as you’re meeting new people. Rate them on these four criteria to help you determine which new connections will provide you with the most value. As an avid networker myself, it’s my nature to meet with everyone and try to help them all out. While this approach might be a terrific karma building exercise, it’s not the most effective networking tactic. Keep in mind that your most precious asset is your time. By networking with intelligence, you will manage your time and expectations of others more successfully to achieve the best results.

About Steve Fretzin

Driven, focused and passionate about helping business professionals reach their full potential, Steve Fretzin is a Chicago area premiere business coach, speaker and author. He provides one-on-one coaching, group training and seminars through Sales Results Inc., a company he founded. In addition to Sales Results Inc., Fretzin oversees Team Discovery, LLC, the American Club Association, and Networking Monkey, LLC, the number one ranked portal on Google for Chicago area networking events. In addition, Steve is the author of Sales- Free Selling, which explores the lives of three business professionals who are struggling to make it in a competitive and negatively-charged environment where traditional methodologies of selling are simply not working.

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Social Networking Humor

EFactor Presents: Food Frenzie - 4/24

Below is information about an upcoming event that I co-organized in Chicago.

Are you an aspiring restaurant owner or chef? Either way, your business is built around the idea of serving great food and drinks at the highest level of customer satisfaction! During this panel discussion, learn from some top-notch hospitality industry entrepreneurs on how they grew their successful ventures, the steps they took to get them where they are and keep their customers full and happy.

After attending, you’ll have insights on:

• Where to begin
• Gaining customers at the right locations
• What's the right price
• Marketing your brand and integrating social media

Entrepreneur Speakers

• Matt Matros, Founder, Protein Bar
• Bill Reeder, President, Campus Cooks
• Julia Stamberger, President & CEO, GoPicnic
• Kim Shambrook, President & Executive Chef, Bespoke Cuisine Event Details

Event Details

• Date: 4/24/13
• Time: 6-9pm
• Location: Catapult Chicago, 321 N. Clark St., Suite 2250, Chicago
• Price: $10 early bird, $15 regular, $20 at door
• Sponsors: EFactor, Catapult Chicago, Taylor Group Insurance Agency

For more details and to register, go to http://www.efactor.com/foodiefrenzychi

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