Understanding business relations
I have recently come accross a study by The Good Relations Group revealing what factors top senior executives consider before making decisions related to any technology purchases. From the 145 executives who took part in the survey:
- 93% expressed the importance of working with an honest vendor,
- 91% said they made purchases based on personal recommendations,
- 73% of executives seemed more likely to purchase a product based on the perception of a strong brand.
These results reminded me of Helmut Heinrich Waldemart Schmidt who stated once that markets were like parachutes: they work well open. This is true for B2B communication, as well: relations work well if they are open. They help us to open doors, to draw attention to developments, to build long term partnerships. If trust based on good relations determines partner relations, the necessary requirements of business satisfactions, such as the price and quality of products or services, do not play a pivotal role. Here B2B is more of a H2H –Human to human - relationship.
As an example: you visit the coffee shop, you have usually done every morning in the past six month, and upon entering the shop you are greeted with the same smells, same, furnishing, same colours but still something is changed: at the counter you are welcomed by a robot who does not care you’re a loyal customer, that you have lactose intolerance, it does not chit-chat with you about your day, it does not add that extra kindness to your morning. For the robot your are just one customer paying for a coffee. So, are you going to return next day? Probably not.
Successful business owners also consider trust, loyality and good relations a corner stone of entrepreneurship. " The reality is that business relationships are just like any other relationship. They require some effort to maintain and they must be mutually beneficial. As in any relationship, you must be willing to give, share and support, not just take or receive." says Michael Denisoff, who is the founder and CEO of Denisoff Consulting Group in Redondo Beach, California.
Sources:
https://www.watermarkconsult.net/docs/Watermark-Customer-Experience-ROI-Study.pdf