Posted in November, 2009

In Business Relationships That Last, I discuss how the secret to success in advancing a business relationship is through understanding a client’s Relational GPS™ – their Goals, Passions, and Struggles.

And how do we follow the course of a client’s GPS?

We ask questions. We understand what drives our clients by asking really good questions.

How do we “get good” at asking “good” questions? What can we do to sharpen our acumen?

Action Point

Try this exercise. It will help you sharpen your “asking good questions” skills.

1. Sit down with a young person, someone between 5-10 years old (a niece or nephew, son or daughter, granddaughter or grandson) and observe what he or she is doing. They might be playing with a favorite toy or reading a book, or maybe playing game.
2. Ask the child questions about whatever it is he or she is doing for the next five minutes. You’ll see how challenging it gets to move beyond the initial question into second and third questions.
3. Remember, you’re not offering a whole lot of ideas. You’re more or less just asking questions to show the child that you are interested and to keep his or her curiosity in why you’re interested, and to demonstrate that you are sincere, truly interested, and confident.

How far do you get?

Try this exercise. I guarantee you it will help you when you are trying to advance your adult relationships – all through the power of talking with a child. windows server .

It’s only natural – as we advance up the relational ladder, we find a comfort zone with our colleagues, our business partners, our clients and vendors.

What happens though, is that as we get into that comfort zone, it becomes increasingly difficult to advance the relationship any further.

The whole idea behind continuously advancing that relationship is so that we can achieve our mutual goals together – so that we can continue to be aware of where we can offer and ask for help.

Be aware that no matter how established the business relationship is, each business relationship is always in a state of a perpetual audition.

Trust can fluctuate up or down depending on how we handle each interaction. We may be very comfortable with a business partner; however, when we want to advance the business relationship, we need to proactively move the relationship beyond this state.

Action Point

Be aware that business relationships are a dynamic process, in which we are in a state of perpetual auditioning – auditioning for our business partners’ time, their interest, their ability to help us, and ultimately, their desire to deepen their relationship with us. expired sites whois directory