A common dilemma I see among people is this – should we focus on business relationships or should we focus on relationship business?

Many times, I’ve come across such people when they approach me saying that they have faced a loss in their business.

My first response to them is usually in the form of a question, “Why did you lose business?”

The answers I receive are usually simple and straight forward like, “Our competition, pricing, quality, our behaviour” and so on.

So I ask them, “Who are the clients that don’t leave you and go?”

All of us who are in business have clients who have been with us from Day 1. And let me tell you, we have all made mistakes with them – in fact, we’ve made the worst of mistakes – but still, they stay with us. That’s because we have a valuable relationship with them. Yes, we have made mistakes; yes, we have made a lot of mistakes with them – but they still stick with us because we have a relationship that takes precedence over business.

One simple takeaway from this example is that, instead of focusing on getting business, we need to focus on the process that gets us business. And that process is building relationships that are lifelong and meaningful.

So, my dear friends, if you are in business, start to focus on how to build relationships. It’s these relationships that will get you business over a period of time.

Building business relationships? No, build relationship business!