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This guest post on building better business relationships is by Chelle of itmightbelove.com. If you haven’t visited her blog I would recommend doing so you wont regret it. You can also go to the Guest Posters page and read up on her Bio and see her other links.

One of the things I write frequently about on itmightbelove is building solid relationships. What many people probably don’t realize is that many of the techniques I share on IMBL for dating are actually successful networking and business marketing strategies I’ve picked up through my experience working in the real estate industry.

I started out in real estate thinking typical marketing strategies would help me sell houses: putting ads in the paper, sending direct mail, cold calling…after a few months of failure I realized these things don’t sell houses or gain clients effectively (I could spend $200 on mailers with zero return!). Meanwhile, the breakfast club I met with once a month started bringing me regular customers for the price of a cup of coffee.

It didn’t take me long before I stopped advertising completely and decided to solely focus on building business relationships with the people I met instead. It can take a few months before you start seeing results with this unique marketing strategy – but it will drastically improve your marketing efforts if you keep in mind these tips below:

Start off Small:

You only have to meet 3-4 new people every day for a month and follow up with them before you have over 100 new people referring business to you. It isn’t about the quantity – it’s about the quality. You’re looking for people who like to communicate, may have their own business needs to share with you, and are open minded to possibility. Do this consistently for a few months, and soon you’ll be networking with more people than you can keep track of.

Join Local Organizations:

Your chamber of commerce, nonprofit groups or clubs with similar interests as you are all good places to start. You can volunteer for a good cause, be active in your community or even resort to knocking on doors. If there’s not a group near you – start one.

Be Personable Online:

With blog directories, forums and hundreds of social networking sites, it’s easier to reach out to people online than ever before. But before you start adding friends with wild abandon in all of these places, take some time to send personalized messages and leave thoughtful comments first. Sending copy and pasted messages will turn a lot of people off or worse, they’ll call you a spammer and ban you from the site.

Be Consistent:

You have to regularly follow up with someone in order to build a solid relationship. If you meet someone, make it a point to stay in touch with them every few weeks. Ask them how they are and what they’re doing – they’ll naturally ask the same of you. Visit their blog regularly and set up a system to remind you to stay in touch with them.

Provide Exceptional Service:

Customer service is a dying art. It doesn’t matter where I go anymore – the service is just terrible. When I do meet someone who actually takes time to listen or help, it leaves a long lasting impression. Don’t get so tied up in rules or fighting over a few dollars that it causes you to lose business.

Create a Referral Program:

Once you have business relationships and loyal customers established you can reward those who send more business your way. Offering things like gift cards after a sale, future discounts or other rewards will make people feel appreciated anytime they send you business.

Show Some Pride:

If you’re not confident in your business or stand behind it, nobody else is going to either. Everyone you know and meet should be aware of what you do. Add a signature line to your outgoing emails, hand out business cards (hint: if it’s plastic they will be less likely to lose it/throw it away) and routinely talk about what you do in a positive manner.

Learning to build solid business relationships takes time. You won’t have instant success. But if you do these things you will find within a few months that marketing suddenly became a lot easier and business is growing. More importantly, your clients and others you work with will come to respect and trust you.

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