Good business relationships are the lifeblood of your business. Having a good relationship with those people you work with inspires trust and loyalty, whilst a good relationship with your customers and clients instils trust and respect.

It’s therefore crucial that you learn how to effectively build better business relationships, if you want your business to expand and grow. Here’s ten top tips to help you get started.

#1: Set aside time for your relationships

If you want to build better business relationships, you need to set aside regular time to maintain those relationships. This isn’t just about staying in contact with someone and meeting for coffee etc – although that is a big part of it – it’s also about staying up to date with what’s going on in their business and industry, as a whole.

#2: Become a connector

Look to share your connections, to help each of them build better business relationships. Build a collection reliable people around you, so you can connect the best people with each other and become known as the person who has both valuable contacts and trusted resources.

#3: Find common ground

Look to build common ground with your contacts – those mutual interests, values and beliefs you share. These don’t have to be work-related, so there’s plenty of scope to find mutual connections, hobbies and preferences.

#4: Learn to listen and not just talk

People love to talk about themselves and their businesses, so take the opportunity to practice your listening skills and let the other person do the talking. Not only will you build a stronger relationship with them, you’ll also come across as someone who is genuinely interested in the other person.

#5: Be positive

Staying positive will help keep the energy light and high. It also ensures people will like spending time with you, as it helps them become more aware of how good positivity makes them feel.

#6: Give because you can

Giving always makes you feel great, as you’re helping another person. Whether it’s advice, knowledge, time or attention, always give what you can freely, with no expectation of receiving anything in return. Business relationships are built on trust, and being able to give, without any strings attached, is one of the quickest ways to build trust in a new relationship, as well as establishing you as an expert in your niche.

#7: Be authentic in all business relationships

When you’re building business relationships, it’s really important that you come across as genuine. One of the best ways you can do this is to show who you really are, without putting on any facade or act.

#8: Always be respectful

This doesn’t apply to just the person you’re building a business relationship with – it applies to anyone you encounter or speak about. Belittling or deriding a competitor or talking negatively about another person, is not only disrespectful to the person you’re talking to and about, it also shows you in a very poor light too.

#9: Be interested in the person, not just their business

If you’re taking the time to build a business relationship, you need to show you’re interested in them as an individual, not just for what their business can do for you. We’ve all been to networking events where someone finds out what your business entails and, if it’s of no interest to them, starts looking for someone else to talk to. Not only is it rude, it’s also embarrassing for the person on the receiving end.

#10: Show your appreciation

Finally, make sure you’re always appreciative of the people you meet. This isn’t just about showing gratitude once they’ve helped you in some way – it’s about showing appreciation to another person for taking time to be with you.

We all have busy work and home lives, but building solid relationships is key to feeling appreciated and valued. It’s only through the art of building better business relationships that we can effectively grow and develop – as an individual and as a business.

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