Business Relationships

Are you cultivating the right business relationships?

In this post, we will explore the different levels of business relationships.

There are many types of relationships; family, friends, neighbors, colleagues, etc. There are also many levels to those relationships - some are deep, while others may be at a surface level. This forms the first axis.

The second axis in a "business relationship" is the business axis - how much, how frequent, how profitable, etc. This can be measured as it is defined by transaction, based on the nature of your business.

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To form an understanding of "business relationship", ideally, we want to have the best of both - relationship and business. Those who we have a deep relationship with, but are not (or have no intention of) doing business with, we shall discard in this perspective (naturally, as we are exploring the business aspect).

Looking at the above, there are four categories of "business-relationship" that a person can fall into. Let's make it relatable by considering the list of contacts you have in your phone.

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For the first category, we name it "Stranger".

The people here are the ones that you have no relationship with and you are not doing business with. It would be silly to consider this group as your main stream to get business from. You may have them in your phone contact list, but seriously, it will take a whole lot of effort just to ring them up and have a meaningful conversation about your goals, let alone ask for business.

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The second category are the ones that "Exist".

They are slightly better than strangers because you have an existing relationship with them. How strong of a relationship, not sure. At least you can ring them up to say hello, ask them how they have been and start up a conversation without feeling awkward. The best you can do about people in this category is to tell them that you are now in business (anything you say beyond that could potentially change your relationship status - don't say we didn't warn you).

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The third is the "Transact" category.

This is where you have people that you do business with but haven't yet built a relationship with.?

They may recognize your face, know your company name, but nothing more. They not only include your customers but also your customer's circle. Most of your vendors could be here too - apart from your money, they might not really need you. For your business, you should seriously consider building a better relationship with them if you haven't started to do so.?

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The fourth and the one that we highly encourage you to grow is your "Network".?

This group of people has the potential to expand beyond just contacts in your phone. This is your golden geese! Take care of it well, and it will produce you results beyond your wildest dreams - provided, you have a strategy!

What you want to do is, to have a strategy that helps you to move people in your network from one level to another deeper level of relationship that consequently generate more business for you. Ask yourself:

• How can I build people's confidence to refer and pass you more business?
• What can I do, to make it easy for people to know, like and trust by business?
• What can I do to have more committed people to refer business to me?
• How can I reciprocate the relationship? What can I do for the network?

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Remember, a strong tree can resist the stormy winds with a root system that goes deep into the ground. Similarly, a network that is big and broad but has no depth will not be fruitful in challenging times.

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Happy networking and all the best!