4 Simple Business Relationship Builders for 2011
Approaching the year end for most of us is a daunting task. We spend a lot of time trying to plan for the incoming year and assessing the current year. I have been thinking about specifically what things that I did accomplish this year, things that faired well as it relates to meeting my business and ministry objectives. And those things that did not fair so well. I think we should also be thinking about what things we need to actually do to meet our goals in the year 2011 and what things we need to simply to do better. In all that I am assessing and planning the one thing that has really been on my mind is the importance of building authentic relationships. Building relationships that go far beyond a networking experience. Relationship building, I believe for 2011 will be the key for an increase and true advancement in any business endeavor. Seeking out individuals and creating powerful collaborations is what I believe will allow all parties to take their business initiatives to the next level.
I plan to implement a coaching model that teaches individuals how to construct business strategies that are more relational. We should be creating and making efforts to get to know the individuals that are behind the wheel in the marketing place. We should begin to listen more effectively to those people who drive the business goals for an organization. And then we should take that information and begin to create products and services that have a balance of both the needs and the wants. This approach will alleviate a lot of time spent developing products that our patrons, clients and customers have no interest in.
So the question is, what type of things can we infuse in our business models that will allow us to begin to develop more functional and authentic relationships in the marketplace?
Here are my recommendations:
#1 Bring back the survey. Creating and conducting a concise survey to your industry niche is a great way to listen and build relationships with prospects. Making sure you ask short and relevant questions so that you will have exactly the information needed to introduce new products and services or even bring old ones back or maybe even revamp them if necessary.
#2 Create a mastermind group. The mastermind group is simply a group of individuals coming together who have similar interests to talk and converse about their ideas and concepts for doing business in area of interest.
#3 Create feed back opportunities using social media. Interfacing your business with FB and Twitter is a great way to solicit feedback from prospects not to mention a way to listen by investigating the posts of prospects.
#4 Integrate online and offline forums. We don’t need anyone to tell us that millions of people spend a lot time online or that there is steady increase of online sales but face to face and online venues together should be offered so that you have opportunities to connect with others on both levels.
These are few of my suggestions for building authentic relationships. I also need to mention that I began a list of potential individuals that I can actually do some viable joint venture projects with and now I am beginning to strategize with them to see how I can help them take their business endeavors to the next level and vice versa.
What do you think? What are some ways you can begin to build authentic business relationships for 2011?
