Freelance UK:
How To Build Successful Business Relationships
No matter how good your skills and experience or your product/service, the key to your long-term success is your ability to connect with other people. You will have heard the phrase "People Buy People" and psychologically it is true. We tend to buy from people we like and trust. Think about the time that you have bought a product or service yourself. Yes, its cost, quality, lead-time and ability to meet your needs will all have a bearing, however chances are that the salesperson's ability to understand your needs and connect with you will be one of the major factors in your decision to buy. In a survey of why people chose to move their business from one supplier to another, 65% stated that it was because "someone upset them". This is further backed up by the fact that 85% of the joy we have in life involves another person and 85% of the bad times we experience in life similarly involve another person. Reflect on your own experiences and you will probably find that this holds true. So, relationships with others are extremely important when you are selling your skills, experience, product or service to others.
So, what is it that makes your relationship with others sometimes "click" immediately and other times create friction? Well, it is the fact that we are all unique in the way we see and thereby interact with the world around us. Right from birth, the way we behave will be based on a number of factors - your genes, certainly, but also your experiences, especially in your formative years, of the culture you were brought up in, of your family life, education, religious beliefs and life events. Each experience, whether good or bad, will influence how you behave in future situations. The Talmud, an ancient Jewish religious document, used a phrase subsequently quoted by Stephen Covey in his book "The Seven Habits of Highly Effective People" - "We see the world not as it is but as we are." So, when you build relationships with others, the probability is that they will view things and consequently behave in a different way to you.
These differences in people were observed as far back as 500 B.C. by Hippocrates, the Greek physician. He recognized that his patients, who might be visiting him with similar ailments, behaved in different ways, which he classified into 4 groups, based on, as he believed, an excess of different bodily fluids. The Cholerics were tough-minded, direct and seen as natural leaders. The Sanguines were outgoing, optimistic and fun-loving. The Phlegmatics observed from the sidelines and tended to comply with others' demands and finally the Melancholics liked orderly lives and were prone to mood changes. In the early 20th century, Swiss psychologist Carl Gustav Jung recognized similar differences and his studies revealed that they were caused, not by bodily fluids but by our psychological preferences.
Just like we have a preference for the way in which we fold our arms or which hand we write with, so too do we have preferences for the way in which we interact with others. Are we introverted or extraverted? Do we focus on the task, or on our relationships? Do we stay in the here and now, or see the future potential of a situation?
Insights Learning and Development Ltd, based in Dundee, has taken Jung's work and developed a Personal Discovery Profile recognized as being one of the most accurate in the market place, that enables individuals to understand in greater detail their preferences. "There is no change in the world that does not start with self", wrote Jung. So, in order to understand our relationships, we must start by increasing our awareness of ourselves, our needs, our limitations, the impact we have on others. By so doing, we start to understand how we differ from those "not like us" and can learn to value the differences and devise usable interpersonal strategies to meet their needs better and connect more effectively with them. This is important stuff for personal development, but also for organizations that wish both to harness the different skills that the different preferences exhibit and to connect more effectively with their customers. The use of colours in the Insights model makes it easily understandable and memorable and hence brings long-lasting benefits in its application from both an individual and an organizational perspective.
If you are interested in finding out more about the profiles and training provided, please contact The Colourworks (www.colourworks.com), an Associate of Insights Learning and Development Limited, who will be happy to supply you with further information.
