B2B Relationships: Impact your Business Positively With Just Your Phone
One easy way to grow your Martial Arts School’s business is to create B2B relationships, also known as Business to Business Relationships.
A B2B relationship refers to a business that is conducted between companies, rather than between a company and an individual consumer.
B2B relationships are very important for every business, which is why you should want to improve those relationships you have with other companies.
You may be wondering how to even begin this process. To start improving your B2B relationships you just need to stay up to date with the companies that you work with and everything happening in your industry.
These relationships don’t have to be with companies you are already involved with, you can start one with other companies as well. Just think about all the different companies in your industry and start by following their social media and commenting on their posts.
Benefits
Some benefits of having close business relationships can bring rapport to your company.
It also brings in referrals from those people, which means more clients and customers.
You can also gain benefits from reaching out to competing companies. Reaching out to these companies can show your clients that you are the bigger person and want to have peace with others.
To maintain a B2B relationship follow these tips below:
1. Be Personal
It can be hard to truly get to know someone unless you are genuine and personable. Getting to know someone on a personal level makes them trust you or your business.
Becoming personal also shows the person that you care and that they are more likely to be interested in your business.
Treating someone like they are already your friend can help to make them feel more comfortable partnering with your business.
Making the conversation fall back on the person you are talking to and not making it all about you makes the conversation more personal.
Having a B2B relationship builds rapport with a business or organization that connects to you as the owner.
For example, a martial arts school could partner with a school since they share a passion for childhood development. They can also partner with a church because of similar values.
Just partnering with a company or organization that has similar values to yours can turn into a B2B relationship.
2. Join Online Discussion
Joining online discussions with other businesses can bring notice to your business. It can also let your clientele know that you take the time out of your day to have conversations with people.
These conversations don’t need to be about your business; they can be about something else that interests you.
If your business has social media accounts, responding to comments shows your followers and clients you care. It also shows that you notice what they have to say.
Following and interacting with community-based social media accounts using your brand can humanize your brand even more.
This would mean social media accounts from your community such as schools, police departments, fire departments, rec centers, your mayor, etc.
Being active in your community by being active on social media with their accounts.
Especially be interactive with anyone you are partnering with.
Social media is not only about promoting your business but using social media to your advantage will help you to gain more relationships.
Social media has so many different platforms that let you speak to different audience types and create those B2B relationships.
Always remember, “It’s who you know, not what you know.”
3. Common Success
It is always exciting when your business is successful and thriving. However, not everyone gets the praise they deserve.
Focus on the success of others just as much as you celebrate your success.
Celebrating someone else’s success stories shows that you and your business care about others and not just personal success.
If funds are available to send small gifts or postcards, something as simple as a handwritten letter goes a long way.
4. Keep in Touch
Take the time to take your business relationships offline.
Keeping in touch with the people you are starting a relationship with, makes the relationship stay intact rather than fading away after one conversation.
It can be hard to do this when you are a busy business person, but simply sending a text or a 5-minute call on your way to work or home from work can make all the difference.
You keeping in touch can make all the difference and maybe that person will become a client or help your business grow further.
Take the step to message someone on your own time…
Also, sending a simple “Happy Birthday” message or holiday message will make your relationship more personable. Not only sending a message but sending a video of you saying “Happy Birthday” can bring it one step further. People enjoy it when businesses are up-to-date with others’ lives. Sending a simple flower arrangement, card, and cake to that person can make their day even better.
You may feel that you don’t always have time on your hands to just keep in contact with many people. Coming up with a system can help to save time and make it easy to stay in contact with those relationships.
Bonus Tips
Some other tips are to make sure your business has great customer service. This can make all the difference to someone when the business itself cares about someone else’s difficulties.
Partnering with other businesses allows you to make other business relationships with higher-up companies or allows you to be a leader for smaller companies that need guidance.
Taking it to a more personable level will help you, as a business owner make the relationships you need and want for your business.
At Grow Pro Agency when it comes to clients we make sure they feel like family. For holidays, birthdays, anniversaries, etc. the agency sends strawberries, flowers, and cards. We want our clients to feel as a part of the company as possible.
Just sending a bouquet of flowers for a school owner’s anniversary whether that anniversary is for the school or for their relationships, we want them to know how much we care about them.
With Covid-19 Zoom has become a widely used platform for catching up with people all across the world. Using Zoom to catch up with friends is a great way to stay up-to-date with long-distance relationships.
Conclusion
After starting a business it can be hard to find the motivation to reach out to people every day, but it will change your business for the better if you try to level up your relationships.
