Disclosure: This post may contain affiliate links, meaning we get a commission if you decide to make a purchase through our links, at no cost to you. Please read our disclosure for more info.
Last Updated on January 20, 2024 by Work In My Pajamas
As every professional, successful, and reputable business owner and manager knows and understands, the key to running a company is communication, communication, and, you guessed it, communication.
However, what some people fail to remember is the importance of communication, not just between employees and managers, but the extreme significance of building a strong working relationship between employees and each other as well as constantly working to improve the relationship and connection between your company and your fellow business associates.
Here are six tips for building strong working relationships to help improve connections with your business associates and competitors:
In This Post:
1. Wine & Dine Them on Your Company Card
There is perhaps no more relaxing environment where you can talk business in a relaxed and informal setting than a meal in a local restaurant, ideally located on neutral territory halfway between your respective businesses. Additionally, treating your invited luncheon companion to their meal does not have to be as expensive as you may think, especially with the copious availability of discounts for local restaurants, such as Omaha Steaks coupons.
2. Be Genuine with Your Advice & Counsel
As in areas of your personal life, being authentic when it comes to your business communications with associates and potential clients and customers will naturally increase the sense of integrity of your business in the eyes of all. Additionally, you will be afforded the same genuine and authentic counsel from your competitors when they see that your advice was measured and sound and they benefit from your teachings.
3. Patience Really Is a Virtue
Cast your mind back to college or, indeed, the very first day in a brand-new place of work. It would not be a false statement to assume that the connections and bonds you and your colleagues or classmates created were formed instantly, overnight. Just as back in your school days, cultivating a strong business relationship with fellow companies and business directors takes a great deal of time, patience, and compromise.
The benefits far outweigh the blow of any compromises you may have to make, and you will be thankful for your strong relationships, especially in times when your business is not flourishing as much as either it was or it could do.
4. Encourage Collaboration with Each Other
In the same way that a glowing reference from an employer can make a supreme difference to the employability of an individual, so too can a business referral from a fellow competitor and, if perhaps your company is approached by a customer or client whose needs you are unable to fully satisfy, referring them to one of your competitors may seem one of the ways to commit career suicide, but in fact, is the best thing you can do.
In this way, you will build on, and more importantly, retain for a long time the trust of the customer, grow in integrity in the eyes of both the customer and your competitor, and will no doubt be afforded the favor in reverse sometime in the future.
5. Attend Networking Events in Your Local Area
The greatest advantage of the existence and growing popularity of and interest in business networking events is the opportunities they afford you in terms of learning about, introducing yourself to, and even collaborating with your competitors. Networking allows you to connect and make long-term business working relationships, not to mention the often-underrated value of knowing where you sit in terms of strengths and weaknesses within the hierarchy of your particular industry.
Other incredible benefits of regularly attending industry networking events, especially in and around your local area, include but are categorically in no way limited to:
- The generation of referrals, which in turn leads to an increase in business sales
- The presentation of opportunities of which you simply wouldn’t encounter otherwise
- The significant increase in your general business profile
- The overall enhancement of your brand
- The exposure to new ways of thinking and new approaches to business management
- The social benefits to making new friends and hiring highly experienced colleagues
6. Learn to Absorb & Act on Constructive Criticism
There is a huge, vast expanse of difference between constructive criticism and destructive criticism, with the former being of potentially incredible benefit to your business model and the latter being completely unconstructive and could even potentially be damaging to your peace of mind.
Criticism is one of the fundamental and unifying tools to improve your business model, and it is vitally important that you take on board such advice and tips, especially when they are delivered in a tactful way from a respected competitor in the same industry. Criticism opens the door to re-evaluation and improvement, and as a result, can be a catalyst for a significant increase in productivity and efficiency.
