Member Article

Building the best possible relationship

Charlotte Hogg, Britain’s Personal Best ambassador, looks at achieving your best in business.

When thinking about being our personal best, some of us will reflect upon the relationships we have in the working world - the way we treat the people we work with, how we engage with our clients and how many people value us as part of our industry or the wider business community. I am certain that there are many of us that would like to be better at building meaningful connections, harnessing relationships and having a strong network that helps us reach our impossible.

The question is, how do your build a professional network that has the power to make what seems impossible, happen? Oli Barrett who was once cited as the most networked man in Britain seemed like the best person to ask. Besides having the largest professional network in the UK, Oli also took speed networking to the Globe, is Co-Founder of the Co-Sponsorship Agency and is genuinely passionate about making valuable connections.

Oli makes networking seem effortless. His connections are always thoughtful, his relationships are always maintained and the events he runs are always worth working late for, travelling across London or putting on your nicest pair of shoes for the day.

So what are the secrets to this man’s success? How do you become known and loved by everyone, how do you make business seem effortless and how do you make your network work for you?

Firstly, Oli says, it is important that you do your research. To make meaningful and powerful first impressions, it is essential for you to understand the key people you are likely to meet at events, what they are up to and what will be important to them. The internet is a great tool for this, from simple searches through to setting up google alerts on key ‘targets’ or trends. Fifteen minutes research before an event could make the time you spend there fifty times more valuable so ensure you do something - even if it’s a quick search on the train. It you arrive unclear or unsure of your audience, Oli’s advice would be to listen - and listen hard. You will make a huge impression, he says, if you can empathise with someone’s current challenges, solve their current problem or suggest or introduce the service or person they have been looking for.

Oli believes it is important to give before you receive when you are trying to build strong business relationships. Oli says that it is essential to have the confidence to believe that the majority of people in business are genuine and if you give them something, whether it be your time, advice, service or even an introduction, they will be keen to return the favour at some point.

Thirdly, if you go to the effort of building relationships, make sure you find a way to maintain them. This could be as simple as flagging a link to your latest blog post, sending someone a personal tweet or simply sending an email to let someone know you are thinking of them. There is no doubt that the entrepreneurial journey can be challenging, and often lonely and it is great to know that we have a few friends who are with us for the ride - make sure you let people know that you are one of them, and part of the community.

Number 4. If someone is busy, in demand or have been away, don’t worry about sending an email twice. Oli often reminds people that when you are starting out on your business journey, making the first few steps and making a hundred or so calls just to get one reply, it seems ridiculous that you could ever miss emails. And yet, as your business journey goes into full swing, you can read emails and forget you ever received them. You can open something and think ‘I will reply to that later’ and sadly, later just never comes. So Oli is right, don’t take no response as a bad response - you can always send a gentle reminder if you believe you can have a meaningful conversation with the recipient. The final thing Oli shared with us is that you should always take long shots. The reality is that the worst thing that can happen is nothing.

If you think that, through Oli’s insights you may be able to do a better job of managing your business relationships and are inspired by Britain’s Personal Best, why don’t you give it a go and make building the best possible network, yours. You can register your personal best challenge at www.whatsyours.org to get support and motivation from the campaign.

Find out more about Britain’s Personal Best at www.whatsyours.org

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Britain’s Personal Best .