Relationship Mapping for Business Growth
Alison Morgan is a highly regarded Sydney 1:1 Business Coach who coaches online with clients in Melbourne, Perth, Sydney, Brisbane and well beyond.
With 7+ years private Business Coaching, Alison has worked with over 500 Small Business Owners to help them set up, grow, evolve and become successful.
Alison also has a boutique Branding & Graphic Design studio, Sticky Studio.
Growing your business doesn’t need to be overwhelming. In fact, if you sit down and become really focused what you need to achieve, finding the pathway to move forwards can be simpler than originally anticipated. (not in all cases, but in many!)
An effective way to invigorate interest in your business is via relationships. There are a variety of ways to harness relationships so they work for both parties - working best when tailoring it to the individual business.
I must note here, it is really important not to harass people. It’s fine to reach out and follow up, then leave it there if there is no response. The reason is generally because the person is particularly busy, they don’t see a synergy or the circumstances aren’t right. That’s absolutely fine. It’s best to move your attention elsewhere.
You'll also notice that as your business grows and you become elevated in your role (or at least you should do), it'll become a necessity to depend on others for help and assistance.
As a Business Owner and Leader, mapping your key relationships to help understand how to best nurture your contacts is extremely helpful. Relationship Mapping is really great when you're working on a new project, launching a new element to the business or when you’re facing hurdles in the business.
Before reaching out to any of your contacts, it's important to know the following:
What you are specifically asking for
How can you make it easy for them to make a decision
How can you structure it so it doesn’t take up too much time for them
What’s in it for them?
What to do?
Use a large piece of blank paper and identify what you want to accomplish. If there is more than 1 goal, you may need to create several maps.
Write a list of people that may be able to support, assist, provide a role. This list may include a range of people from those providing word of mouth, referrers, other Business Owners, employees, contacts via social media.....
Specific Action Plans
Through this process you are likely to identify that you need to strengthen a variety of relationships through spending more time together, rewarding or nurturing through invites, events, chatting over the phone or gifting. This is why continually nurturing your contacts and looking after them on an ongoing basis is really important. Plus they often become part of your friend network too which is an added bonus!