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.