Summary -Checklists For Success

WHO NEEDS BUSINESS CONNECTIONS ANYWAY?

Task-awareness is fine, but being passionate about people will take you further faster.

Do people mean business? Yes!

The two main reasons why you should harness the power of personal connections are:

Your company will be more successful. It will stand out ahead of its competitors.

You will progress further and faster along your career path than someone who doesn’t.

Personal recommendations speak volumes and are more impressive than the best CV.

Developing successful relationships at work means two things:

internally (within the organisation or profession)

externally (among clients, work providers, suppliers).

In both cases, it helps to be confident and have extrovert characteristics.

R For Relationships

Relationships – Why build them? Two reasons: because it’s practical and profitable. The most successful people are the best connected.

Recognition – Creating impact when you meet people. Never underestimate the power of first impressions.

Recall – If someone can recall you easily to mind, you’ve made (hopefully) a favourable effect when you first were introduced.

Reaction – One of the things you are hoping for is a positive reaction when you encounter them again.

Respect – Aim to gain their trust. The ability to cooperate with and assist others is vital. You will then earn respect. Don’t forget to show it to others in return.

Responsibility You should take responsibility for your business relationships. That will keep you in control of your personal network. It’s worth a lot to you – don’t let others mess it up.

Everyone has their own group of personal contacts -their unique network. How many people are in yours? Do you value it? How do you use it?

Here are some ways in which it can be used:

as a research aid, for information gathering

as a link to new clients or markets

to advance your career by seeking influential people.

Key Stages In The Brilliant Business Relationships Process

Strategic networking requires the following action steps:

Reviewing your existing contacts and connections.

Updating these.

Identifying who you need to get to know better.

Seeing how much knowledge you have of these people and how much they know about you.

Seeing what gaps there are in your company’s network and how it is planned to fill these gaps.

Looking at the policy/action plan regarding corporate events/entertaining.

Considering a regular review meeting for business relationship development.

Developing your rapport-building web/establishing targets and measuring results regularly.

Checking if any recent ‘customer satisfaction surveys’ have been carried out.

If they have, analysing the information they yielded and the use that was made of it.

How To Maximise Success And Continue Development

Vary your approach to relationship-building. Here are five ways:

Business Network Connections

By designing and building a unique business network system you can track the effectiveness of contacts, collaborators, strategic alliances, complementary firms, products and services. They can add value in so many ways.

Connecting Individuals

By harnessing the power of personal connections you can utilise to your best advantage networks, connections and relationships. Individuals can offer tailored introductions to you to help you with your career progression or business development.

Connecting with customers

If you use your individual connections wisely you can develop connection strategies to win, retain and develop new business. By means of regular audits of existing and past customer relationships you can win new projects and open up new markets.

Connecting with staff

Be passionate about relationship-building within your company and empowering individuals and teams. It is possible to deliver outstanding results by encouraging connections between employees and employers.