Relationship Building Plan- To Grow Sales
This is the time of year when one needs to put systems and processes in place to grow business the rest of Q1 and throughout the year. To do this, set aside planning time by actually blocking it into your calendar in 1 hour or 90-minute chunks. Then honor those time blocks - don't think of them as "extra" time but as important planning time which will help you get to your sales revenues.
Dr. Stephen R. Covey - creator of the 7 Habits and author of multiple books with over 20 million books sold talks about planning as an activity done in the "leadership quadrant" of the 4-box time management chart he popularized. Planning is something that is important but not urgent. Urgent are those last minute items that make you feel like you are in a fire drill - often urgent because they were not properly handled earlier when they could or should have been.
When it comes to building relationships, you must find ways to plan ahead and make this a normal activity in your work week. Relationships are important to build when you do not need anything from someone - since most of us only work on relationships when we NEED something from someone. How about you? If this is how it works for you - you'll need to really block time in the calendar and work in 2011 to build more strong relationships.
Why?
Relationships bring you referrals - when those you know really "get" what it is that you do, and they know and trust you - they most often will refer you and think of you when someone outside of your own sphere of infulence is looking for what you do.
Build strong ties with those you respect, and those who are doing business adjacent to the niche you are in. So if you are a graphic designer, for example, you build strong ties with printers and marketing people, among others. These people are always running into prospective customers and clients who may need something designed better or differently- and they should be referring designers quite frequently.
What does your list look like of business people you can potentially build strong ties with? Next we'll discuss the amazing strength of weak ties, and how this all comes together to create more revenues for you and your business.
Tool suggestion: I love Evernote - it allows me to capture ideas and to-do's in an organized manner both online and via my smart phone.
Have an opinion on this? Please post your comments, so we can have a richer discussion based on your experiences.
Lori Richardson speaks, trains, and writes about improving sales for small-to-medium-sized businesses around North America. Visit Score More Sales for more ideas, tips, and resources to help grow revenues now.
