Recovering from a tough business cycle, industry downturn, worldwide pandemic, or any other significant event that sent you veering off course takes a lot of energy and effort. You and your team have to spend time and energy on all aspects of your business, including finances, knowledge, staff, communications, and leadership. At some point in the process, you may have even contemplated a pivot.
Throughout all of this, your business needs to maintain and build relationships with the outside world: it’s where the money comes from. It’s an aspect of marketing that people often think of as separate from the branding, content development, and online communications that many agencies are deeply focused on. However, those public relations - and individual relationships - are deeply important to the maintenance and growth of your business.
Think of your website and content marketing as your initial introduction to the individuals who may decide to work with you. Whether they found you through a search, a referral, or they are meeting you next Tuesday for a chat, they are going to hit up these parts of your business to get some information.
From there, however, it’s all about people and connection.
Your Business Relationships
In a world where digital connections are far more common - and almost overwhelming - a real, live human connection is endlessly valuable. Remember back in the day, when our physical mail was far too much and email was new and exciting? Now, physical mail is so unusual that it captures your attention, while we bemoan the explosiveness of our inboxes.
It’s like that.
The further we get from regular human interaction, the more valuable it becomes. Everyone has access to your website. Everyone has access to your social media. Anyone, with a small amount of effort, can find your email.
But who actually gets some of your personal time... regularly?
Those people feel special. Those people feel connected. Those people refer to you, buy from you, and add you to their business circles. Those people move your business forward.
Mindfully Building Your Connections
Think about the people in your existing business circles. How do they help you move forward... and how do you help them? It is a two-way street after all.
If you were to add someone new and useful to your business circle, what qualities would they have, and what value would they bring to your business? What value would you bring to theirs?
Who is already working with the people you want to work with?
It’s vitally important that you are treating these relationships as genuine relationships. You should like these people, and they should like you. It should provide value to both of you, whether it’s because you:
Refer business to one another
Share mutual clients/customers (act as strategic partners and therefore, work and communicate well together)
Create ideas together
Connect each other to other influential people
Relationships are key to how humans work. We’re community creatures, whether we’re people who are invigorated or drained by social interactions. We all value those relationships where everyone is valued and able to support each other.
Value these relationships, the people who are in them, and they will value you.
Getting Connected
Once you’ve determined the type of people you want to work with, now is the time to figure out how best to connect with them. Who do they hang out with? Where do they hang out? What’s important to them about their own connections? What would make them want to hang out with you?
Go the extra mile and research the people you want to get to know. Understand what is important to them by researching them online - there is so much information out there! You can learn a lot about a person’s values by paying attention to their websites, news articles, interviews, and social media.
From there, you can build a strategy to find a way to connect with them. Maybe someone you know can introduce you, and you could invite them for a drink or meal (in person or online). Maybe they’re volunteering at a charity event or on a board - where you could also volunteer. Maybe they’re teaching a program or a webinar where you could ask insightful questions, to be followed up later. Maybe they regularly attend professional or educational networking events that you could also attend.
Remember that when you attend a networking event, speak on a stage, or engage in any other public activity, the goal is not to collect as many business cards as possible or book as much new business as possible. The goal is to make one great connection. Have one fantastic conversation. Learn one new thing.
This approach takes some of the stress out of those events. It lets you calm down and be a real person. People prefer interacting with real people. They want to know the real you, that kind person with values and hopes and dreams... not that weird person tossing out business cards and talking incessantly about themselves.
There’s a variety of ways you can connect with people. The important thing is to be genuine, valuable, and demonstrate that you’re putting effort into it. Everyone likes to be treated as though they are special, and your connections are special. They can help you redesign your business, learn new skills and information, break into circles you’d never thought you could enter before, and, of course, bring you business.
You should put as much effort - if not more - into your business relationships as you do into your client and customer relationships.
Hot Tip: If you are trying to connect with people by telling them how they can help you, it’s not actually all that compelling. This is especially true when they are very busy, very influential people (the ones you really want to hang out with). Consider, instead, how you can help them. Trust us, the invitation to have your brain picked is not an exciting one.
Staying Connected
You’re busy. They’re busy. We’re all busy.
Now that we’ve established that, it’s easy to understand that when someone carves out time to see you regularly, remember things about you, and think about how to help you, you feel important.
When you feel important to someone, they (as long as you like them!) feel important to you. You start to become invested in their success. You think about them when you’re talking to someone else.
You help them grow and succeed.
You want your business connections to think about YOU in that way. You want them invested in you. This means that you must invest in them - by showing up, and continuing to show up.
Treat your regular connections with your business relationships the same way you do your customers or clients. Send them articles or information that you know they, specifically, would enjoy (not the ones YOU want them to read). Send them connections and clients that would help them. Invite them to be on a panel with you. Ask them to join a charity event with you.
Set up a task in your system to reach out to them on a regular basis (every two months? Three?) to have a 1:1 conversation, coffee, lunch, or dinner. Set up group events with people who all enjoy each other. Build a genuine network.
All relationships take effort and consistency to be successful. Whether those relationships are with your customers, clients, business partners, strategic partners, family, friends, or spouse, to get value out of them, you must put value in.
Your strong business relationships will help you recover from every downturn. Show people that they are meaningful to you, and when they see you struggling, they’ll step in to lend a hand.