Finding a reliable supplier or a regular customer is one of the best things that can happen to you in business, and once such relationships are established, nobody ever wants to lose them. All too often they do go wrong, though, or it proves impossible to get the association to that stage in the first place. Why? Research suggests that the reasons are the same in most cases. People don’t just want good prices, good quality products or reliable payers. They want the whole process to be as straightforward as possible, with no difficult decisions involved. Achieve this, and you may find that your B2B relationships flourish.

Be clear

One mistake a lot of businesses make when buying from or selling to other businesses is not being sufficiently specific. There’s a reason for this: we live in a culture where it’s considered rude to be specific, where we’re used to making allowances for small mistakes and we expect other people to do that for us. While this easy-going approach may be great for socialising, in the business world, it’s asking for trouble. Spelling out the precise details of what’s being offered or requested makes things much simpler all round and ensures that there’s no need for any time-consuming back-and-forth. Using clear language also helps – you don’t always know who will be involved in making decisions, and they might not even have English as a first language, so keep it simple.

Make it easy

Just as your communications should be easy to understand your trading process should be simple to navigate. When you’re selling, you need your customers to be able to find what they want, place orders and make payments as quickly and straightforwardly as possible. If they’re looking around a warehouse or working their way through a computerised sales system, make sure there’s always a human being there to help if they get stuck. Use a simple template to create an online invoice that is consistent with your branding and easy to understand. Set up a phone number where you can always be reached if something comes up, such as a problem with a delivery or the need to change an order.

Understand business structures

When you’re working with another company, bear in mind that the deals you offer are unlikely to be decided on by the person you have contact with. In small organisations decisions tend to be made jointly by the founders, whilst in large ones your proposals may be passed through several departments before they’re approved. It’s unusual for the initial negotiator to advocate on your behalf, so you will have to pitch something that appeals to the people who are actually in charge. Do some research and try to find out who they are and what their priorities are. Keep your proposals simple so that there’s minimal room for disagreement because when people disagree, they usually end up abandoning the plan.

Feedback

If the people you’re dealing with send you a feedback survey, complete it as soon as possible – most people don’t bother, so they will value your response. In the absence of a formal request, ask the individuals you’ve worked with if feedback would be useful. Always be constructive about it. People don’t like being criticised, but they do want to know how they can be more successful, so if there’s something you think they could do better, make the suggestion, and make it clear that you still feel positive about the relationship overall. Whether or not they end up adopting your idea, they will usually be pleased that you’ve taken an interest and made an effort to be helpful.

Listen

Just as you should be feeding back to others, you should listen when people send feedback to you. Being in business is a continual process of learning and improving, and if you show an eagerness to do this, that’s something that most people will respect. Send out feedback forms of your own to make it easy for people to let you know how they felt about your process. During discussion, let it be known that you’re interested in what they have to say. You don’t need to worry that this will make you look like an amateur. It’s reasonable to note that every B2B relationship is different and you want to be ready to adapt so you can do the best possible job for everyone.

These simple steps can help you get a lot more out of all your business relationships and connect with organisations in a way that takes account of their complexities, just as you would with individual people. It could be the first step on a much more successful journey for your business.