How to Nurture Business Relationships
With the increased reliance on technology and automated tools, many marketers and business owners lose sight of what drives business growth—relationships. It’s easy to dismiss human connections when you have social media, apps, and other software for marketing. But knowing how to nurture business relationships is critical to building and expanding your business.
According to the 2017 Gallup State of the American Workplace report, organizations committed to strengthening business relationships had a 20% sales increase and a 10% customer metrics increase. (These aren’t numbers to scoff at!) Of course, every business is unique, but this shows that other methods aid business expansion.
Why Strong Business Relationships Matter
“People buy from people. People make a business succeed or fail. People don't buy from buildings or corporate policies directly. When one business partners with another, you focus on mutual success.”
Putting effort into building and strengthening business relationships can significantly benefit every organization. After all, success is a group effort. On top of the relationships you develop with your internal team, you need to consider those you develop with your clients and partners.
Here are some key reasons to focus on strategies for how to nurture business relationships…
Gaining and Retaining Clients
Running a business is all about engaging people and forging relationships. It’s a fact you need to keep in mind if you ever want to succeed as an entrepreneur. From your employees to your business partners to your customers, your connections bring your business together. Let’s face it— an organization is bound to fail without these personal and business connections.
It’s not enough to try to win over customers. You need to attract new customers while retaining the existing ones simultaneously. In the book Marketing Metrics by Paul Farris, the author states that 60-70% of repeat customers are more likely to purchase from you again. You can generate more business from existing customers than first-time ones. In fact, the first-time buyer conversion rate is only around 3%.
“Over 80% of customer purchases are made because of a relationship with a business instead of a relationship with a product or service.”
Successful relationship building is the critical factor that spells the difference. If you have gained customers, you must know how to strengthen business relationships to keep them coming back.
Fostering a Positive Customer Experience
Building a solid relationship with your clients and partners is the lifeblood of your customer service strategy. Fostering a positive customer experience is more important now than ever in post-pandemic times. For example, 72% of customers who participated in an Accenture study said they expect companies to know and address their needs.
What does this mean in your quest to learn how to nurture business relationships?
It means you need to learn to pay attention to customer feedback and seek ways to gain insight to improve your products or services. Cultivating a positive experience for them can unlock success potential.
Expanding Your Brand Reach
Building relationships with customers and partners is not just about making direct sales. It’s also about boosting your brand, especially in the eyes of your target audience.
Maintaining a positive relationship within the community you serve unlocks opportunities to gain new customers. Community-facing events for your business also support your existing brand awareness campaigns.
5 Tips on How to Nurture Business Relationships
Business relationships aren’t all that different from personal relationships. The same principles apply to maintaining them. Just as you put effort into relationships with friends and family, you must do the same with your business partners, customers, and other business connections.
Here are some of our top tips on how to nurture business relationships so that you can forge meaningful connections and expand your business…
1. Be Authentic
Authenticity is crucial when it comes to forming business connections. You shouldn’t fake connections with a business partner or client because the truth will come out. It could also ruin your business reputation if you’re forming connections for your sole benefit.
The goal is to earn the trust of your clients and business partners, and the only way to achieve that is to be authentic. It’s also easy for someone to spot when you’re feigning connections.
Show genuine interest in people you’re trying to build a connection with. This connection must go beyond just business matters. Take time to get to know them personally and to connect with them on a deeper level. Making yourself relatable is the first step toward attaining more peers and business connections.
2. Give First
A healthy and beneficial business relationship is a two-way street. Your customers and business partners would be more likely to connect with you if you offer something of value to them. Don’t be afraid to give value first!
“The most common mistake businesses make during the relationship-building process with another business is that one business owner becomes selfish. A give-first mindset is the right move.”
One of the easiest ways to establish a solid business connection is to share the content of another business on your social media networks. Or, you can give a shout-out to other local business owners in your area. The goal is to build up one another and contribute something to your local community or industry.
Your intentions must be clear about why you’re doing this. Don’t expect something in return. When other businesses and people see your genuine effort, they will reciprocate it. That’s how you master the art of knowing how to nurture business relationships.
3. Maintain Communication
That said, a single post or share on social media is not enough to build strong relationships. You have to make an effort to maintain that communication with fellow business owners, partners, and customers.
You can connect with them on other social networks like LinkedIn. Or you can share their posts on your social media pages, especially if you think it would be useful to your customers or other business partners. This also benefits you because you’re offering value to the people that are part of your existing network.
The point here is to make an effort to stay in touch with your business partners and clients regularly, not just when you need something from them.
4. Know Your Value
Knowing your value is one of the most overlooked aspects of figuring out how to nurture business relationships. It’s essential to understand what you bring to the table and be able to articulate that to your partners and clients. Remember, there’s more than one party in a relationship, and you need to hold up your end to make it a mutually beneficial one.
Ask yourself the following questions:
- What problem can you help solve?
- What connections can you leverage?
- What resources do you have available?
- What expertise can you offer?
- What common ground do you share?
5. Make Them Feel Valued
Using a personalized approach to maintaining relationships in your business is always to your advantage. So, go the extra mile to make others feel special. Of course, this tip on how to nurture business relationships may need to be adjusted depending on whether you’re interacting with a business partner or a client.
For example, send a virtual card to your partners on their birthdays. Give customers a discount code to shop on your site as a birthday present. The more personalized the approach, the better it will be in cementing your relationship with them.
Why Authenticity Is Key
Genuine business relationships happen when you focus on what value you can offer to the partnership rather than what you stand to gain from it. Staying authentic to your brand is one of the secrets to being successful at making real, lasting connections with customers and business partners.
In terms of knowing how to nurture business relationships, there are so many reasons why authenticity should be the focus:
- It boosts your business brand as being influential and reliable.
- It creates a strong business relationship built on the foundation of trust.
- It inspires engagement within your organization and those you’re connected with.
- It builds a deeper connection with your existing customers and makes it easy to bring in new ones. As a result, it transforms clients and partners into brand ambassadors and referrers.
- It delivers more value to your products and services.
- It elevates your business to withstand competition.
Takeaway
Like other relationships in life, knowing how to nurture business relationships takes time and effort. Understanding the nuances of creating business connections is important, so you don’t come off as trying to take advantage of others for your own gain. Without these meaningful connections, there’s no room for your business to thrive and grow.
“Build relationships with complementary businesses that align with your company culture and values. You’ll be in a better position for it.”
If you want to get professional insight and advice on developing a suitable marketing plan and building stronger business connections, schedule a free consultation with us!
At Viral Solutions we are committed to seeing YOU succeed. It is our goal to grow your business with proven digital marketing strategies that will help your business for the long haul.
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