Building relationships in your profession is the foundational key to your overall success. There are many types of relationships you will need to build to be a successful business owner, marketer, project manager, or whatever “title” you possess. By building strong, positive relationships, you will lay the ground work to help build profits, retain clients and employees, and build a strong company culture. Regardless of your title, you can help grow business and excel in your career.
There are several different types of relationships that are important to build, but forming a strategy in building those relationships is a great place to start. Over the next couple of months, nu marketing is going to do a series of relationship building blogs. As a professional, you build relationships with prospects, existing clients, past clients, co-workers, and industry or strategic partners. (Stay tuned for our definition of an industry or strategic partner in an upcoming blog.) All of these relationships will add profit to your firm, but you must be strategic and intentional in your efforts.
The secret to being strategic and intentional is as simple as setting goals and writing them down. Take each one of the groups of people I mentioned above (i.e. prospects, existing clients, past clients, co-workers, and industry partners) and make a specific list of these contacts including company name, full name, email address, and phone number. Think about the people you can help, but also think about the people that could help you. You want to create win-win partnerships with these groups of people. By making a list, you will be more focused and intentional with your time and efforts. Many of the daily tasks you will be doing will be dictated by this list you’ve created.
For example, as a principal or owner in your firm, you want to increase employee retention. Make a list of all your employees and engage with each one of them once a month (whether this be coffee, lunch, or a quick 30-minute meeting) just to catch up and see what you or someone else in your firm could be doing to help them. Sometimes it’s just as easy as saying, “Thank You” and recognizing their hard work and contribution to the firm. Obviously, some firms are too big to do this, but this can still be done within your office location or within the team you consistently work with. Ask about their job but also ask about THEM, their family, hobbies, and vacations. People enjoy talking about themselves. By building relationships with co-workers and employees, they are more likely to be engaged and contribute to the overall success of the firm. If you have higher employee retention by completing this exercise, then you spend less money recruiting and more time on something else that contributes to the success of the firm, therefore adding profit to your bottom line.
Building strategic relationships helps your business and your career. However, it doesn’t happen overnight but the investment in these relationships is priceless. As you think about these groups of people, think about how you can deepen those relationships and bring more value to them. By forming this foundation you will create a win-win partnership by building these strategic relationships.
Nu marketing provides strategic plans and marketing plans for architecture, engineering, construction, real estate, and manufacturing businesses. We can help take your company to the next level. Call today or visit our website at www.numarketingllc.com to learn more.
