How well do you really know the people you work with?

The “real-life” way of business is dying out. Gone are the days when meetings were done in person and boozing and schmoozing your ideal clients was common practice. But I’m still a bit old-school when it comes to building business relationships. I like to keep in touch, meet up at network events or have a face-to-face catch-up over beer. Because of this, I like to think I know my clients, colleagues and partners pretty well. And I do… But something happened recently that reminded me that even if you think you really know someone, they can always surprise you!

As you know, I like to build long-term relationships with both my clients  – but also with my suppliers. If you work with me and you do a good job, I’m in it for the long run. One of my suppliers has worked with me for nearly 8 years now. We have regular conversations on the phone, we’re in contact via email a few times every week and we’ve met up in person many times too. If you’d asked me if I knew her well, I’d have said absolutely. I know about her business, her kids, her husband, her hobbies, her holidays… 

But she recently sent me an email that surprised me… In emailing about a project she was completing for me, she happened to mention that she had spent the weekend competing in a fencing tournament and had come in 4th place. And this really surprised me. You see, I knew she did archery and circus skills, but I had no idea she even did fencing, let alone that she was competition standard! I might have been a little more careful in our conversations if I’d known how adept she was with a sword! Only kidding… 

But it got me thinking… How well do we REALLY know the people we work with? How well do we really understand our customers? As a business owner, it’s easy to think that we know what our customers want. We know what drives them, what frustrates them and what makes them want to work with us… But do we REALLY? When was the last time you dedicated some time to understanding your customers’ needs, ideas, pains and behaviours? Could your understanding be old, out of date or just way off the mark in the first place? In this fast-changing world, it’s important to remember that it’s not only industries and systems that are shifting, but people are changing too. We have to proactively keep up not only with innovations but with our understanding too… 

So how about you? Have you found out anything surprising about your prospects or clients? And how are you making sure that your ideas and knowledge of the people you work with are up to date? 

I’d love to hear your thoughts…