People are busy. I don’t know anyone who is not currently busy in their own right. With this in mind, how do you effectively manage a business relationship with a busy person? First of all, let me clarify what it means to ‘manage these relationships’. I am not talking about constantly being in contact with people through mass media such as e-news, flyers, magazines, twitter, social media etc. I’m talking about creating and managing real business relationships.

Taking into consideration the fast pace of everyone’s lives, it is not hard to stand out if you do the right things. The title of this post sums it up; little things will make your business relationships more personal and warm as well as enjoyable – what’s the point of having relationships if you’re not into it anyway??? One of the best quotes to sum this up comes from one of my hero’s, Dale Carnegie – the line from his book ‘How to win friends and influence people‘ is:

‘Become genuinely interested in people.’

You can’t fake caring. In a fast paced society, taking a genuine interest in people and caring about them will ultimately create lasting relationships.

So let’s pause for a moment in our busy lives and remember some old-school tactics that show you care.

• A simple note– Caring is knowing a client has a function on a Thursday night and sending an SMS on Thursday morning wishing them good luck. It’ll take you all of 30 seconds to send the message, and I guarantee you that it will make their day and add to their excitement.
• Memory - Remembering your client’s kid’s names and asking how they are. Remembering that your client was going on a holiday last time you spoke to them, and asking them how it was. Memory deserves its own dedicated blog entry. If you have a rubbish memory… write it down! This is what a CRM system is for – if your company doesn’t have one, start your own.
• Be interested – Ask them how their business is. Become genuinely interested in their success – this will build a relationship that spans across multiple careers.
• Thoughtful surprises – Turn up to the meeting with a bottle of water for them – if they are stressed, bring them cake… Your care will build more rapport in five minutes than five thousand e-newsletters.

These are a very small snippet of ways you can better manage business relationships. Remember that you can’t fake it, but you can prepare yourself for it. If you are asking how things are and are clearly not interested it will come through in your body language and tone. If this is you I suggest you get out and start meeting people – learn how great and rewarding social interaction can be.

In short, busyness prevents the little things, the little things are caring and caring creates relationships. If you know anyone who could gain value from this please forward it on and watch yourself and your friends start to effectively Manage Business Relationships.

In case you have been living under a rock for the last 10 years ‘The Sims’ is a computer game based around regular people doing regular things – it’s like a dolls house filled to the brim with some of the best artificial intelligence ever created.

In order to be successful at The Sims you need to be able to manage relationships. In this game your success in your career is directly correlated with 3 things.

• Your health/Wellbeing – Are you going to work tired from staying up all night? Are you hungry from not eating? – This will affect your success.
• Skill set – Do you have the right skills for the job? If you take the career path of being a Chef, a requirement for the job may be that you need 6 culinary points. If you only have four points, your Sim had better get cooking!
• Relationships – Finally and most importantly are relationships. Whilst skill set is specific to your career, your social currency will directly impact your ability to get a promotion – to hit the next level you may need 2 or 3 additional friends.

If being successful means maintaining relationships, and you want to be the CEO, you have a lot of relationships to maintain! It is important to note at this stage that Sims don’t differentiate between personal and professional relationships. However, as posted in The Theory of Relationship Management they still need to keep a hold on all of them.

So how does a Sim maintain a relationship? Ultimately they keep in touch with their friends. If they have similar interests, they can get deep in conversation and become close friends. If they don’t have much in common they’ll usually just shoot the breeze about the weather etc.. A Sim needs to call their friends on the phone consistently and chat away to keep things strong – they will throw parties or functions to get them all together and then party their way to a better relationship (kind of like a corporate lunch/dinner).

And at the end of the day if they neglect their friends… just like regular life, they lose them and their likelihood of a promotion becomes more difficult.

So how do you manage a relationship?

As a sales person, so much comes back to ‘how much I can sell,’ however I believe that this statement is redundant and belongs somewhere back in the 1940’s. The question today should be ‘how many relationships can I maintain?’

First off let’s define relationships – there are two kinds; personal and professional. Personal relationships are your family and friends. Professional relationships are those related to your career or investments, i.e. clients, staff, managers, suppliers etc.

The truth is, a person can only manage so many relationships before they start letting people down. Whether they are personal or professional is inconsequential. Someone who is a workaholic and works very hard to manage all of their internal and external business relationships will often let their personal relationships down by constantly canceling at the last minute or not answering messages. Similarly, those who place a higher value their personal relationships, will often have difficulty growing and maintaining their professional relationships, which may hinder their professional advancement.

Technology has certainly made it simpler to communicate with your contacts; however it has also created greater transparency and higher expectations for immediate responses. There are very few excuses you can use for not returning a phone call, or if a facebook post remains unanswered. With this in mind it is important to understand that the amount of relationships that you can manage will directly correlate with your success as a business person – that’s networking.

Over the coming weeks I will be discussing ways to better manage these relationships, and the great success that they can bring.

I received this quote through one of my social network feeds a couple of days ago and loved it so much that I wanted to share.

“The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible – and achieve it, generation after generation”. – Pearl S. Buck

The success that Generation Y may often achieve, hand-in-hand with the heat that they often receive, can be summed in the above quote. Adidas said it in 2008, ‘Impossible is nothing.’

How often has someone over 30 said to someone under 30, “You can’t do that, it’s not the way it’s done! Steps need to be taken… Processes need to be followed… blah blah blah.” In the words of my generation, ‘whatever.’

To me, this quote is a mantra that everyone could benefit from following, regardless of generation. If you consider all things to be possible, you’ll act accordingly; confidently. Confidence and determination are the keys to success.

Next time you are approached by a person with an idea, don’t think about what’s wrong with it, think about what’s right with it – don’t be so hasty to filter it through your tried and tested value system. Consider that today’s buzz words are creativity and innovation and consider its application.

Likewise, if you are approaching someone with an idea, don’t let a ‘No’ stop you from doing it. Do it anyway! If it works, great! If it doesn’t, then it was a good learning curve and maybe you could revisit the idea in the future. Don’t be discouraged. It took Thomas Edison 1000 attempts to get the light bulb right. He had confidence and determination, and he succeeded.

Embrace your inner Gen Y next time someone approaches you with an idea – the power to say yes or no is life changing to people around you.