New Networking: Building Relational Capital

Presenters:

Leida Speller, CFP, ChFC, Partner, Solutions Architect, The Piedmont Group

Marcy Thomas, CCIM, CCMS, Portfolio Manager, Asset Management, BB & T now Truist, Grandbridge Real Estate Capital, LLC

Relationship Capital is one of the categories under intellectual capital that focuses on the intangible value present in all relationships.  This can be described in the types of relationships that you have built with your customers, partners, suppliers, community, government, media, institutions, groups and people who have an interest in the success of your organization. In the daily operations of your business, it involves the continuous sharing of knowledge, the solving of problems and the creation of connections.  Overall, you want to create good customer service, send a clear marketing message, treat your customers as long term partners and build a reputation. 

The conversation started with defining relationship capital in the following terms:
Define Relational Capital 

• Building Relationships You Need to Be Successful in Business
• Leveraging Relationships
• Strategies for Collaboration

Relational capital is one of the three primary components of intellectual capital, and is the value inherent in a company’s relationships:

• Drive sales, innovation, efficiency
• Studies measure entrepreneur impact
• Subset attempts to quantify relational value

A Strong Relational Capital Eco-System Requires

• Placing high value on relationships
• Understanding trustworthy and long-standing relationships are important
• Maintaining open ways of communicating, negotiating and working together
• Overcoming common fears

. Build new relationships by diversifying your networks

• Force yourself to go beyond people in your immediate network
• Nurture real relationships with one supplier, customer and “competitor”
• Seek out relevant people from unrelated organizations, like media or government

Give as much as you expect to get from every relationship

• Effective business relationships require reciprocity
• Offer and deliver help, connect people, or share information
• Fosters feelings of satisfaction and willingness of others to respond when you’re in need

. Selectively spend quality time on key relationships

• Spend time with your most important and productive relationships
• These relationships generate returns in the near and long-run
• Avoid the trap of idle discussions and ego building

Keep your focus on the local social and business landscape

• Pay attention to bonds, loyalties and networks that characterize your community
• Recognize the norms, values and preferences that shape the behavior of the people you need
• This will help you form a durable and effective network that you can maximize for your business interests

Apply your time, brand and resources to key social issues

Build a constituency of relationships with people who have shared beliefs, interests, and ambitions.  Collaborating with others on solving shared social problems will turn them into engaged advocates of your business and make them your most powerful allies in building other relationships.

Prune, renew and reshape your networks frequently

• Nurture people relationships critical to your organization carefully and often
• Push contacts whose usefulness has diminished over time into your inactive network
• Regularly identify new relationships that are vital to the future of your business, and define strategies to build these connections

Points of Caution in Relationship Building

• More relationships are not always better. Highly successful business leaders don’t necessarily have larger networks. Be selective about the associations you form, listen carefully for situations where you can add value and derive value, and prune the rest.
• Over-investment in relationships can take precious time away from focusing on the technical elements of your business. Invest your time wisely in balancing the demands of market awareness, new technologies, and future organizational strategy.
• Sometimes strong relationship networks can shut out new people and new thinking, insulating you from fresh input from the “outside.” Introducing new elements into your network will generate new perspectives, new experiences, and positive change.

Business ownership is a fundamental engine for wealth creation, and the value of these businesses, measured in annual revenue, can demonstrate the extent of the pro tability of the business and the potential for wealth creation. Not only do women own businesses at a lower rate than men, but businesses owned by women also have signi cantly lower sales than those owned by men, on average in every state.