Boost your business partnership.

grow your business through partnerships

Last week we held two SME clinics whose main agenda was how business people can manage their online clients as well as manage their company websites. Although this was the case on the agenda, many questions were fired at us in regard to customer satisfaction. It occurred to me that among the challenges that SMEs have, managing customer relationships when the relationship gets shaky was key.

Many are the times when a business people resort to ignoring their clients calls or even pretend not to be in business after an inter business hitch. I have herein given a simple structure through which you can follow in making major business decisions especially when you have things not working well with your business allies.

You need to understand that although to some extent, you might be the cause of the problem, or alternatively, your ally is the one to blame for the miss being, conversation is the best solution for such cases and this move should always be the first.

In cases where the representative for the other firm is answerable to a superior, they are on the spot over the same, they may resort to a fight mode rather than fight for you. Employees will always try their best to be out of blame especially when they are in the center of such a mix. In such cases it is advisable that you resort to conversation as instances like these require a conscious mind and understanding of the situation at hand.

In such situation, you need to focus on the business relationship in terms of savings and the value of the relationship. You can as well decide to take the blame for such cases where the business relationship depends on the complainant then fix the issue at hand before it gets to the superiors. However, if the choice you make is most likely going to affect your relationship with other business partners, then you need make a decisive choice but without being compromised.

This also calls for a well thought financial impact on your business. In cases where a negative aggression may ensue, leading to a break of business relationships, you need to creatively think about the possible loss of revenue then compare it with the temporal negative impact that it may have on your business then weigh the two. If the direct negative impact is smaller compared to the impending ones, then you can alter the relationship and vice versa.

You need to know that businesses are built on the existing relationships therefore if the other party seems relaxed on the issue, then you therefore need to know that they don’t value the relationship. It is important to note that as much as you are putting so much into ensuring the relationship stands the other party could as well be playing part in the same if the relationship was a two way one.

Once you have established these aspects in your business relationships as well as the two way benefits, on value and revenue, you can now plan your actions. Many business fail in this process due to inferiority basically brought through poor judgment and quick reaction.

When making major business decisions, a good entrepreneur needs to take time, focus on consistent communication and internal business research before taking the leap.

Entrepreneurial pick

Find the value in a business relationship and then find its value to the business