What are these three critical factors in building relationships that can help you be successful in life and business?
A lot of the time, we’re talking about how you can get started, starting a business online and even offline. Becoming a real estate investor is all of these different things.
The goal is finding your path and deciding what you want to do. However, the one key component to all of that is relationships. They go hand in hand—if you have the right relationship, you can conquer anything you want.
My coach always told me to sprint, maintain, and go faster during high school track days. These are vital to understanding how to build successful business relationships. There are going to be three different phases.
Look at this in the track world. When you’re running on the track, you get out of the gates as fast as you can. Then as you’re running, some people start to fall off, but you have to continue to maintain. In the end, you see that only one person wins. It’s a close race; a lot of the time, it’s not.
So let’s put that into terms of relationship building.
The Sprint - Initiating Relationships
I always like to think of this as getting out of the gate or initiating the sprint. It’s your initial speed. You’re thinking about how many contacts you need to make, what rate you need to run at, and the like.
Think about it: the more connections you make, especially whether it’s business or just life, the more opportunities you get to build business relationships. The newer your ideas or fresher your content, the more clients you get.
When you’re sprinting, you have to think about how many new contacts you can make every day. Similarly, when you’re thinking about these things, you have to think about your purpose as well.
- Where am I trying to go with this?
- Am I trying to get a new job?
- What are the job fairs out there?
- Am I trying to get the word out about my new book that’s coming out?
- What are the mediums for podcasts, TV, and radio shows?
- Who are the contacts that I can make?
- Does somebody already have my audience?
Someone out there already has the people I’m trying to surround myself with within their circles. That’s one of the benefits of making contacts. So you have to ask yourself, “How many can I make?”
There’s a song out there by Drake, with the line, “No new friends.” Unfortunately, you can’t live off that analogy in business, especially in real estate. It would help if you had people because the more meaningful connections you make, the more opportunities you create for yourself.
Maintain - Maintaining Relationships
You’ve sprinted and made a lot of new contacts in the process. Hopefully, these contacts will become friends or even acquaintances as time goes on, right?
That means you’re now in the maintaining part. That means you need to find a way to stay in touch with these people.
It could be through social media, although it can become a distraction if not done right. Social media is a positive platform for you as a real estate agent because people are sharing parts of their lives there a lot of the time.
You can also use social media to build customer relationships.
It could be a new job opportunity, travel plans about to travel, a unique marketing opportunity, or a network marketing business. You now have to figure out how you can value them.
For example, drop them a direct message and say, “Hey, I know you’ve just started your own business, and I would love to help you guys out for at least the first 90 days just to get your feet off the ground.”
Think about the potential challenges you might encounter along the way. You’re going to find many people in life as you maintain those relationships, and some may not want to go further. They’re not bad people; they’re simply content.
They become comfortable with where they are in life. That’s something that might frustrate you. A lot of times, as a small business owner, you might want to start a new venture.
You want to create a podcast. You want to do something that you’ve never done before. So who are the people you’ll go to first?
Family, friends, or other personal relationships? They might not have the same mindset as us, have different interests, or even be comfortable working a nine to five.
They might think you’re crazy for choosing to start your own business and leave a secure job with a pension or a 401K.
Therefore, you must understand that not everybody will be on the same path as you. There might be love as you’re maintaining, but you aren’t really seeing any returns on your relationship-building efforts.
Unfortunately, there’s little to zero growth there. If you want growth and business success, change has to come. There is no growth without modification, and there’s no change without pain or some type of loss.
Often, the tough choice for us is to let go of those in our circle because we feel like they might be keeping us stagnant or not providing the support we need to go after our dreams.
So we feel like rather than going after it and creating friction or leaving these people behind, we’d rather stay and pray they change. The harsh reality is you can’t change anyone but yourself. I know it sounds basic, but it’s true.
You have to work on yourself and hope and pray that they’ll come along. You’re not going to get somebody else to change because their mind isn’t where yours is. You got to be comfortable with cutting your losses and moving on.
Building successful relationships requires sacrifice. Doing this allows you to move faster. What are some of the ways you can go more quickly?
Go Faster - Harnessing The Power of Social Media
Use social networking sites to create or find business and professional connections. They’re perfect for finding like-minded individuals and excellent contacts to develop possible partnerships.
You can find these networking groups through hashtags such as on Twitter. You’ll find information about things you’re passionate about and people with a similar mindset.
Build Your Network
Facebook groups are great places to find your online contacts or mentors. If you’re new in business, look for something for small business owners.
For example, if you’re in San Francisco, look for small business owners of San Francisco. This way, you can communicate with those people, have a pleasant, friendly conversation, and build long-lasting business relationships.
Digital networks are also perfect for growing customer relationships. Many businesses have tapped into the internet, creating pages and accounts to interact with consumers.
You get valuable customer feedback in the process that will help you build better business relationships.
Get Someone To Hold You Accountable
To develop successful relationships, you need to associate with people with whom you’re on the same page. You’ll need someone who will hold you accountable when building relationships, someone who will push and inspire you.
Look at marathons and the people who usually win them. A lot of the time, they’re either Kenyan or African. Why? They are a close-knit community that motivates each other.
I read that 90% of all marathons have been won by Kenyans, right, which is crazy. But if you think about why that is, it’s mostly because they motivate each other. Once they go and win the Olympics or the gold, they come back to their tribe.
Apply this concept to your real estate business and business relationships. Go back to your community. Share everything you’ve learned at conferences and networking events.
Doing this empowers, encourages, and allows them to be exposed, enabling them to have another level of engagement in their posts.
Moving faster might sometimes mean leaving some people behind. That being said, you shouldn’t be afraid of that because it means you’re getting closer to your finish line.
It’s not exactly the end of the race; rather, it’s creating separation to achieve more success.
Bottom Line
Relationship building doesn’t require any skills or talent. On the other hand, you will have to work on your communication and mindset. Assess that situation and, more importantly, evaluate your progress and networks.
They say that your network is your net worth. As a young entrepreneur, you have to figure out how to build more meaningful relationships and use those relationships to push you in the right direction. Successful business relationships are the backbone of any brand.
Relationships with customers are equally important. Client satisfaction guarantees you free word of mouth marketing. I hope this information is helpful, despite whatever stage you might be in. It could be a sprint, maintenance, or focusing on going faster.
I would love to hear your thoughts on this topic, so shoot me a message on my socials. Remember, in the dream, we trust, but you have to take action.
