Business Relationships - Are they worth the time?

In today's day and age, we're all busy, right?  I mean we can use that excuse 'til the cows come home, but the reality is that everyone is, so it's not really an excuse anymore is it?  We live in a technological age, and we rely upon our Blackberries, iPhones, and PCs and Macs to communicate more and more.  Don't get me wrong, I consider myself a huge techie, and I can't live without my Crackberry; I communicate everyday through texts and emails.  However, I have to consciously make an effort to meet with my clients face to face.  An email and text are great, but I am confident that in order to build a solid relationship one must be willing to meet in person.  This also means calling our clients back on the phone which, if you're like me, find extremely difficult sometimes.  

Relationships are what make or break a business.  Our company, Lockard Companies, was founded in 1951, and our growth has been based solely upon business relationships.  If you know me well, you know I like to use the phrase, "it takes a long time to build a reputation, but it only takes a day to screw it up."  Isn't that true?  I mean, the purpose of building relationships doesn't mean to just carve your piece out of a deal and run.  It means to grow the pie, dig deep, and learn from the other person.  People continually ask me, "how in the world are you getting all of these business opportunities?"  My answer always seems to be the same - relationships.  In fact, I believe in relationships so much that I have asked our managment team to think about adding relationships as one of our company core values.      

I had the privilege of serving as chairman of the Networking Advisory Board of the CCIM Institute a couple of years ago, and one of the things that I had to keep hitting home is that people do business with people they know, like, and trust.  Does that happen overnight?  Absolutely not!  We must build upon our relationships.  There are a lot of people that I have been building relationships with for over the past five to ten years, but have yet to do a deal with them.  Should I give up on those relationships?  Not in a million years!  It takes time.  Isn't it true that good things come to those who wait?  If we go into a business relationship expecting to get something out of it immediately, we are sorely mistaken, and you should probably consider the relationship already dead.  Don't go into a business relationship asking what can I get out of it, rather ask yourself what can I give to this relationship to make it better and grow.  If it grows, everyone wins, and future business is usually inevitable. 

Be willing to invest time with someone today - it's definitely worth it!