5 Tips To Build Better Business Relationships
No man is an island. We’ve all heard this old saying at least once in our lives. Well, I believe the same is true for our businesses. You want and need business relationships to inspire you, move your business forward, create referral pipelines, and collaborate on projects.
Even in the early stages of business, a great business buddy can keep you accountable when you need to finish projects, find your first client, or hire your first team members (all real-life things that business buddies helped me do). Business relationships can also blossom into real-life friendships, and what can be better than finding like-minded people to go to happy hour with you or a meditation retreat if that’s what you’re into.
So how do you find and build better business relationships? Here are 5 tips for doing just that.
Tip #1. Think of Your Network, not Networking
If you ask most people how to build relationships in business, they will answer with one word, networking. The problem is the term “networking” can bring up angst and fear even in the most extrovert personality types among us.
The truth is traditional networking sucks. It’s all about big rooms, name tags, and awkward conversations around tiny tables. But it doesn’t have to be that way.
Instead of thinking of networking as a verb try shifting it to a noun. Think about who you already know aka “your network” and expand out from there. Ask the people in your network to introduce you to other people who might be great business partners for you, and don’t limit yourself to just your immediate family either. Consider old classmates and service providers like your doctor or lawyer. Letting them know what you do and who you serve, can lead you to introductions and partnerships that you never expected.
Tip #2: Even In Big Rooms, Get Curious
Here’s another truth. At some point in your career you will end up in a big room with a name tag at a networking event, but the conversation doesn’t have to be awkward. I’ve found that my awkward feeling often relates to how I think the other person is perceiving me. Am I interesting enough? Am I asking the right questions, etc.? However, once I stopped focusing on me and starting getting curious about the other people in the room, things completely shift.
Instead of just going through the motions, now I make it a point to get curious about other people at those events. I ask about their work, their families, and their hopes and desires for the future of their work. Some people are more willing to engage than others, but doing this little trick has helped make those events feel a lot better for me.
Tip #3. Stay Humble
I think I’ve met more than my fair share of pretentious, arrogant so and so’s in my career. I can’t figure out if law school creates arrogant so and so’s or if they are simply drawn to this profession. However what I’ve learned from my experiences dealing with pretentious types is that the no one is impressed not even the person behaving like a pretentious jerk.
No one likes arrogance, and they will behave accordingly. I’ve seen many an assistant “forget” to do something just to prove a point to a supervisor who thinks he runs the show. People are people and should be treated with respect no matter what. If you remember this, you’ll go far with building relationships.
Tip #4. Be Yourself and Get Treated Like Family
In Joseph Sugarman’s book, Triggers: 30 Sales Tools You Can Use to Control the Mind of Your Prospect to Motivate, Influence, and Persuade, he talks about the power of familiarity in selling. He writes, “[e]ven the words familiar and familiarity have the word family in them. People feel most comfortable within their own families. They feel confident and trusting and allow themselves to be more vulnerable.”
People feel the same way in business relationships. We live in a social world and are most comfortable with people they know you. This means that you have to let people know the real you if you want to attract business partners. To let people know the real you, resist the urge to take on a “business persona” and learn to embrace who you are. This means communicating your values and ideas along with injecting your true personality into your business and communications with potential partners. People want to do business with family, and for better or worse, family members are always real with one another.
Tip #5. Shoot For The Win-Win
One of the reasons I switched from prosecution to entrepreneurial law is that I was tired of win/lose game. Despite the concepts of justice and zealous advocacy, there were too many times where the case came down to winning or losing based on one legal maneuver after another. It was a constant fight, and it was exhausting. The same can be true in business. If you want to build better relationships, stop trying to beat everyone. Instead, try to find ways to create value for everyone involved. If you help someone else win, they will definitely want to return the favor.
Think there should be a bonus tip on relationship building? Let me know in the comments below.