Great relationships don’t happen by accident. You may initially meet someone by chance. For example, I met my wife by a chance occurrence and we have a great relationship. In some cases you may be seeking out a specific relationship. Whatever the case, when you are communicating with people about your business, what are your intentions for doing so?
Connections come from different groups of people with entirely different intentions. For customers, they want to know how you can improve their lives. For employees they want you to help them feel a sense of purpose and importance. For partnerships, they want to know how you can help them move their business forward.
These are all completely different conversations that need to be managed. The irony is that with all the ability that we have to mass communicate, our society demands one-to-one conversations more than ever.
In today’s world, you need to respond to people who comment on your blog. The public wants you to engage them on Twitter and Facebook. If I raise a concern, I want you to respond to it. Engagement isn’t just polite. It’s vital.
Yet for all we know about what today’s social network wants and needs, there are still businesses that set up social media accounts and don’t use them. There are still plenty of businesses that have people comment on blog posts that don’t reply. There are still plenty of business that leave perspective clients at dead ends in their business.
Today’s business environment requires more intentional communication. You can’t build relationships without having a plan. Here are some questions to ask yourself about your communication:
For Business Partnerships:
What do you want from the relationship? Do you know and understand what the other person wants?
For Employees:
What does your employee hope and dream for? Why do they work for you? How often do you discuss their progress?
For Customers:
Are you on social media platforms? If so, do you have specific plans on how you will engage the public and what the next steps are? Have you defined your loyalty loop? How can you keep you customers engaged in your business after they have made a purchase? What can you tell them about your industry that they may not know? I could go on but I will stop here because I think you get the point.
When it comes to building meaningful relationships for your business, ask great questions about what it is that these relationships want and need from you. Stay connected. Take every opportunity to stay in touch that you can. Have a plan.
That’s how you build meaningful relationships in your business. That’s how you create intention.
How do you build relationships in your business?
Comments are closed.