5 Tips to Establish Better Business Relationships
Tuesday, July 2, 2019, 6:00 AM | Leave Comment
Regardless of how capable you are, in the business world, you just can’t make it alone.
This means that you’ll have to rely on others in various fields and of various roles in the overall market.
For instance, when it comes to fundraising, you depend on the investors and partners.
When it comes to various services you need to establish a better business relationship with your vendors, agencies that you’re outsourcing to and, at the end of the day, even your customers.
With that in mind and without further ado, here are five tips that could help you out with this task.
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Start with transparency
The first thing you need to understand is the importance of transparency in the business world. For instance, some retailers display prices of their products without taxes or shipping costs in order to make them appear cheaper and in this way conceal their true price.
The problem with this method lies in the fact that once the buyer finally makes the purchase, they’ll notice that they’ve paid substantially more and feel tricked.
There are numerous such instances where you can seemingly deceive your investor or your partners but starting a business relationship based on a lie is never a good idea. This is especially true with those who rely on return business.
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Don’t make promises that you can’t keep
The second thing worth mentioning is the fact that your reputation might just be one of the most valuable assets that you have in the business world. For this very reason, you need to avoid making promises that you can’t keep.
Think about it, being able to honor what you’ve promised is seen as a default value, which means that you won’t really get any credit for it (it’s what you’re supposed to do).
On the other hand, if you fail just once, your reputation might be ruined for good. Keep in mind that words of this travel like wildfire and that this is one of the best examples of negative WOM (word of mouth).
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Rely on written contracts
When it comes to determining people’s rights and obligations, setting payment patterns, guaranteeing the authenticity or determining jurisdiction, it’s always smart to rely on written contracts.
In the present-day business world, no one expects you to make verbal contracts, which is why insisting on putting these things on paper is never seen as an insult or a preposterous proposal. Relying on written contracts is particularly great for those who work through vendors.
Here even simple vendor contract templates can be quite effective. The reason why this is effective in building better business relationships is because a contract is there to protect both parties.
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Deliver in time
In the business world time is money and the reasons behind this are fairly simple. You, as an individual or an organization, are just a small cog in a massive machine. The service you perform is directly tied to the services of others and if you fail to deliver on time, everyone else will start lagging behind as well.
Think about it, in the manufacturing industry, for instance, you depend on your suppliers to deliver raw goods, employees to produce enough units in time and vendors to successfully sell these products. If any of these entities fail, everyone is set back, which is why everyone will appreciate you as long as you can deliver on time.
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Pay respect to everyone
This last thing isn’t exclusive to business relationships but relationships in general and what you need to do is learn how to respect others.
First of all, respect everyone’s time as if it were your own. This means that you need to arrive on time and come prepared. Just because they’ve agreed to sit down with you and discuss your plans it doesn’t mean that you can make it worth their while. Try to actively listen to them and participate in the conversation without interrupting them.
Also, try to make your non-verbal communication (like your behavior, facial expression and stance) demonstrate respect and genuine interest in them. Everyone has a story that they’re eager to tell, so instead of waiting your turn to talk, be ready to listen.
Conclusion
In the end, being good with people is a trait that can help you make your dreams come true with greater probability and reliability. However, like always in life, relationships take time and effort to build. Unlike with personal relationships, however, you don’t get the privilege of working with people who you like 100 percent of the time. Still, if you keep things professional, you can make all of this work to your benefit.
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Dan Radak is a marketing professional with eleven years of experience. He is a coauthor on several websites and regular contributor to BizzMark Blog. Currently, he is working with a number of companies in the field of digital marketing, closely collaborating with a couple of e-commerce companies.
