No one builds a company all on their own. They need staff, the support of friends and family, other companies, to name but a few. Making sure all these relationships are in order will be the key to your success. While it is relatively straightforward to keep your loved ones and staff on your good side — they do have a vested interested in maintaining the relationship — other companies are a little bit more problematic. They have their own concerns to think about, and while they’ll hope that you do well, their reasons for having a relationship with your business in the first place are different. As such, you need to take steps to make sure that you’re maintaining healthy relationships with those other companies. But how do you do this? We take a look at a few ways below.

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Pick Selectively

The best, most straightforward way to make maintaining business relationships easy to manage is to pick who you’re working with well. A company might be able to give you what you’re looking for, but if they’re not the correct cultural fit for your business, then you may run into difficulties. It’s important that you’re not just thinking about what they’re able to do for you, but the deeper philosophies and values that drive their business. If they’re out of sync with what you believe in, then you’ll run into difficulties sooner or later.

Make it Equal

A business relationship isn’t like a traditional customer-company arrangement. There, you’re aiming to please — the lines between how much each party gives is more defined. When it comes to business dealings, the lines become somewhat blurred. For example, you should only take what you give. It should be an equally beneficial arrangement. As such, you can only make demands if you’re ready to accept them, too. While there may be times when one party gives more than the other, if that idea goes on for too long then you’ll eventually run into trouble.  

Treat Everyone the Same

It’s tempting to want to give a lower level of service to a company who isn’t that important to you, but this temptation should be resisted. You should give everyone the same level of respect, regardless of how much they push your company forward. You run the risk of losing a “lower priority” business relationship if you don’t, and who knows how that might hurt your business? Now, that’s not to say you should give every company the same amount of your time. That wouldn’t make any sense. You should pay more attention to the businesses who have a big impact on your company than to those that don’t. It’s just about giving every company respect — for example, answering their calls, even if you’re busy.

Bending Over Backward

Every company in the world makes mistakes. Sometimes, there’s no getting about them. You’re not machines! Fortunately, every company that you work with also know that this is the case — one error doesn’t really mean anything. What is important is how hard you work to resolve the errors you’ve made. That’s the true measure of a company (and also a human). If you’re not bending over backward to fix a mistake, then the other company will rightly question if you’re the right choice. Of course, this only applies to the odd, occasional error — if you’re finding that it’s happening too often, then you’ll need to review your operations.

Give Glowing Reviews

If you love the company that you’re working with, then don’t keep them all to yourself — tell the world about it. Word of mouth and recommendations have shown to be instrumental to a company’s success; people generally prefer the word of other people, rather than the views of the company themselves. You’ll win big favors with the company you’re working with if you promote all the awesome things that they do. It’s not an expected thing, far from it — it’s just a great way to show the company you’re working with how much you value what they do. This approach is especially recommended if they’re a young company who could do with a little bump up.

Learn More About Them

What’s going on at the HQ of the company you’re working with? What else do they do? Where are they going? By taking the time to learn more about who they are and what they’re striving towards, you’ll be able to deepen your relationships with the other business. Additionally, if you know where they’re going, then you’ll be able to think ahead about how the changes they’ll make may impact your company. There are very few downsides that can come from knowing more about the people that you’re working with, so make an effort!

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Invite to Events

Your success is their success and vice versa. You’re in the battle of the business world together, so show some love when it comes to toasting success. If you host an event because you’ve had a particularly good year, then make sure the key players at the company you’re working with are on the guest list. It doesn’t have to solely be events based on your success that you invite them too, either — general networking events and the like are also fair game. Aside from showing that they’re on your mind, this will also allow you to get to know face to face too, which allows for some more personal interaction. And talking of which….

Get Personal

Your interactions with people at the other company will always, primarily, be business. But over time, it’s important that you get to know each other on a more personal level, too. Eventually it’ll become strange if you don’t know anything about them even though you’ve been working with them for years! Now, you shouldn’t take it too far. Grabbing a beer after a conference you’re both attending is one thing; drinking shots until the place closes is enough. The key isn’t to become their best pal, but to at least show — sincerely — that they’re not just a dollar sign.

Pay On Time

No matter how long you’ve been working with a company, you should take that relationship for granted. This is especially relevant when it comes to any payments that you have to pay. You might have a mutually respectful relationship, but that can quickly deteriorate if you miss a payment. Being late once will be no great issue — mistakes can be made — but if it’s a regular thing, you’ll risk jeopardizing the positive relationship you’ve established. To ensure you’re always paying on time, take a look at integrating accounts payable solutions into your business with DataServ. Relationships are difficult enough to manage without adding financial problems into the mix.  

Improve Your Services

The world moves pretty quickly. What was new and innovative a couple of years ago can, in certain cases, seem pretty dated now. As such, it’s important that you’re continually finding ways to update and improve your services. This shows a level of respect for your business partners, because it means you’re not just content with doing the bare minimum. It’ll also raise the bar for the relationship too — if you’re finding ways to improve, then so should they. Plus, it’ll prevent the other company from having any doubts about your operations. A company that’s always looking for ways to step up and improve is always worth having around!

Do What You Say

It’s funny how often the simple things seem to be forgotten. While you can go to great lengths to make it appear like everything’s in order, there’s no substitute for simply doing what you say you’re going to do. If it ever feels like you’re just spinning yarns, the other company won’t wait around too long to see if you’re the real deal or not — they’ll just find a company who can do what they need. If you’re good enough, then you don’t need to oversell what your company can do. Just make sure that you do it!

Know When It’s Done

It’s also worth keeping in mind that not all business relationships are meant to last a lifetime. There may come the point when it feels like it’s time to call it a day. This doesn’t necessarily have to be a tragic thing — it’s just the end of the partnership. If it feels like one of the companies is too big for the other, or the priorities have changed, then pull the plug and move on to other things. It’s much better to end the relationship when it feels like it’s the right time rather than to allow it to drag both companies down.

Conclusion

Relationships are the foundation of everything we do. There’s no-one we’re dealing with other than other people! The stronger your partnerships are, the stronger your company is going to be. As such, it’s worthwhile putting in that little bit of effort to ensure that all the relationships you have are in stable and robust condition. It’ll have a positive influence on everyone involved.