If you’re an entrepreneur who has a business online, I would wager one of the most thought-about strategies you delve into daily is how to make your business successful.
This is the common denominator that connects us all, no matter what niche you have chosen, or what your target audience is. We are all striving for success. Knowing this, while there are many strategies that make us different, the one which connects us all in business is the power of building relationships.
A great relationship built on behalf of your company could mean sparking the interest of a brand ambassador, a bridge to a new group of clients, or a killer recommendation. The potential of building relationships is to the moon and back, and I would wager you already know this.
But what you might not know is there are “right” relationships you could be building your brand. Do you understand the differences? Relationship marketing is a time-old tradition that has been profited on by many smart entrepreneurs. The ones who succeeded understood how to determine which relationships were the right relationships to pursue.
For this article, I sat down with Moshik Raccah, Founder, and CEO of Silo, a networking and relationship-building platform that allows you to share your expertise with new friends and establish a great first impression for your business.
Here are the 3 ways he explained you can in which you can create the right environment to build a powerful relationship for your business:
1. Communicate Frequently
One of the foundational principles every business owner must understand is the power of communication when it comes to building relationships.
Mr. Raccah explained when you are at the potential person’s top of mind with whom you want to build a relationship, they are more likely to remember you. Consequently, building a top-notch relationship doesn’t happen overnight, and some people get this part wrong, even though they DO communicate.
More often than not, their communication comes in the form of an email or message asking you to share their article or hire them for some kind of expertise they say they have.
Honestly, you hardly ever bite, do you? One of the reasons you don’t is because you don’t know, like, or trust this person. Frequent communication where this person congregates is your best option. While you may not be speaking to them directly, perhaps someone has asked a question on their social media post in which you can answer.
It’s little things like these that allow the person in question to remember who you are when the time comes to reach out and make an introduction or an offer to help them personally.
“Be genuinely interested in everyone you meet and everyone you meet will be genuinely interested in you” – Rasheed Ogunlaru
2. Develop Mutual Respect
As a business owner, it’s easy to fall into the trap of always wanting people to do something for you. Naturally, you want your business to become successful and if you’re not moving forward, it may feel like you’re sliding backward.
In this scenario, Mr. Raccah says in order to create a great business relationship you have to have mutual respect for your colleague. Unless someone is referred to you by a trusted business associate, this portion of relationship building can take some time to develop.
For them to have trust and respect for you, and you for them, it takes time to prove ourselves over and over in the business world. In any case, if you’re trying to build relationships for the right reasons in your business, you will learn that consistency is the only tool you will need to accomplish this aspect.
Lend a helping hand that has nothing to do with your business success. What happens when someone develops trust in you? More than likely, you have proven yourself trustworthy over and over again. To establish this, you must be willing to help someone else build their business.
This also falls into the Reciprocity Theory developed by Robert Cialdini, where he shares how doing favors for others will, in turn, create favors for your business because the person feels compelled to return the favor to you.
To develop mutual respect means you have to learn to give a lot and take a little over time. This could even mean you know someone who would click perfectly with another colleague of yours. Make the referral and share the relationship. You never know who is friends with someone that could propel your business forward faster than you ever could alone.
3. Serving is Selling
Probably the most powerful part of my conversation with Moshik Raccah was when he described how business owners should be serving their customers and colleagues. In 2010, Trendwatching.com came out with a trend brief that highlighted how brands who were on point with serving others created a shift in selling which is now adopted by a lot of other businesses today.
If you want to make an impact on someone’s life and draw them closer to your business, serve them. When you educate, help, and inspire others with your expertise or knowledge, you are slowly building a bridge for them to connect with your brand and service.
How can your business service its prospective clients and customers today? Social listening is a powerful tool you can use to help you monitor keywords and notify you when your services are needed on any platform. Serve others through engagement and conversations you have on a daily basis. Don’t keep your secret to 100,000 page views from your audience, share how you’ve done it and the steps they need to succeed too.
“If you’re lucky enough to succeed, it’s your responsibility to send the elevator back down.” – Kevin Spacey
Building relationships are going to be the perfect strategy your business should adopt and evolve over time. There will always be opportunities for you to shine and create a valuable impression on someone who needs it today. Just like the massive oak tree, the only way it’s going to fall is if you chop it one stroke at a time.