Building a Strong Business Relationship

Building a strong business relationship is a skill that can go a long way to help you reach your goals and make more money. But people aren't born with the skills they need to build these relationships. Getting there requires, not just knowledge, but practice. 

One big challenge many business people face when building relationships is the fear of rejection: they don’t know what kinds of things their potential contacts might dislike about them, so they avoid making any moves too boldly and risk turning potential contacts off altogether. Here are five steps you can take to break that pattern and get back on track towards building those relationships in order to earn more money.

Step 1: Identify and Analyze Your Prospects' Needs

To build a relationship that will yield significant results, you need to know what your ideal client wants. The first step in doing this is to identify and analyze your prospects' needs. By understanding just what they do and do not want, you can be very specific in the kind of services you offer them and make your products more likely to sell. This is true not only with products that are sold directly to clients (such as a consulting or coaching service) but also with other services they need, such as website development or graphic design work. 

Step 2: Find the Right Time and Place for Your Presentation

It's important when you're selling something to your ideal client to make sure that presentation takes place during a time when there are no interruptions. Often, these are times of the day or days of the week when your clients do not need you or have time in which they can engage with you, so it's important to plan accordingly. If they do need something from you, they've planned ahead and will make all necessary arrangements. 

Step 3: Prepare Your Timeline

The second step in building a relationship is preparing your timeline. How much time you allot for each phase of your relationship will vary, but it is important to plan ahead so you don't miss a beat. For example, if you have a three-month relationship that includes phone calls and letters, and every letter or phone call takes an hour (which is very common), you must make sure that each communication is either 10 minutes or longer, or find a way to reduce the amount of time spent at the beginning. 

Step 4: Have An Active Listening Mindset

The third step in building a productive business relationship is to have an active listening mind set. Too often, we come into a meeting or phone call with our mind already made up on what is going to happen. It's important to remember, however, that you have no way of knowing for sure how the other person will respond to your presentation unless you are actively listening. An active listening mindset allows you to follow the cues and feedback from that individual so that you can figure out how best to proceed with your business relationship. 

Step 5: Go Back To The Beginning Of The Relationship

The final step in building a strong relationship is going back to the beginning. Often, as you are starting to build a stronger relationship with your client, you may find he or she is not interested in what you were trying to sell them. At that point, you may want to think about how the relationship has been going and whether or not it is still worth continuing. Once that decision is made, you can always try to change course if the situation calls for it.

You can find more information in my book "The Billionaire Maker" including this chapter on building relationships.

Building a strong business relationship is a skill that can go a long way to help you reach your goals and make more money. But people aren't born with the skills they need to build these relationships. Getting there requires, not just knowledge, but practice. 

One big challenge many business people face when building relationships is the fear of rejection: they don’t know what kinds of things their potential contacts might dislike about them, so they avoid making any moves too boldly and risk turning potential contacts off altogether. Here are five steps you can take to break that pattern and get back on track towards building those relationships in order to earn more money.

Step 1: Identify and Analyze Your Prospects' Needs

To build a relationship that will yield significant results, you need to know what your ideal client wants. The first step in doing this is to identify and analyze your prospects' needs. By understanding just what they do and do not want, you can be very specific in the kind of services you offer them and make your products more likely to sell. This is true not only with products that are sold directly to clients (such as a consulting or coaching service) but also with other services they need, such as website development or graphic design work.

Step 2: Find the Right Time and Place for Your Presentation

It's important when you're selling something to your ideal client to make sure that presentation takes place during a time when there are no interruptions. Often, these are times of the day or days of the week when your clients do not need you or have time in which they can engage with you, so it's important to plan accordingly. If they do need something from you, they've planned ahead and will make all necessary arrangements.

Step 3: Prepare Your Timeline

The second step in building a relationship is preparing your timeline. How much time you allot for each phase of your relationship will vary, but it is important to plan ahead so you don't miss a beat. For example, if you have a three-month relationship that includes phone calls and letters, and every letter or phone call takes an hour (which is very common), you must make sure that each communication is either 10 minutes or longer, or find a way to reduce the amount of time spent at the beginning.

Step 4: Have An Active Listening Mindset

The third step in building a productive business relationship is to have an active listening mind set. Too often, we come into a meeting or phone call with our mind already made up on what is going to happen. It's important to remember, however, that you have no way of knowing for sure how the other person will respond to your presentation unless you are actively listening.

Conclusion:

The final step in building a strong relationship is going back to the beginning. Often, as you are starting to build a stronger relationship with your client, you may find he or she is not interested in what you were trying to sell them. At that point, you may want to think about how the relationship has been going and whether or not it is still worth continuing. Once that decision is made, you can always try to change course if the situation calls for it.

You can find more information in my book "The Billionaire Maker" including this chapter on building relationships.

By cultivating valuable relationships with customers and prospects, trusted advisors create opportunities for their businesses and themselves that wouldn’t have existed otherwise.