How do you measure the value of your business relationships?  I hear a lot of people in the business world say “yeah, I know that guy/gal”, I’m sure you say the same thing or have heard others say this.  I always wonder what it means to “know” someone from a business perspective, so I created a range of 0 to 5 to measure the strength of a business relationship.  I find that a strength of a relationships is tightly correlated to the amount of time you spend together.

• 0 – the person doesn’t know who you are or your emails land in their spam filter 🙂
• 1 – the person will answer your emails within a one week period and/or will remember your name when you run into them at events
• 2 – you grab coffee with this person a couple times of year
• 3- you grab lunch with this person a couple times a year
• 4 – you grab dinner with this person a couple times a year
• 5- you are actually friends, meaning you spend time together on weekends, going to sporting events, golfing, vacations, etc

Most of the people who say “I know this person”, their relationship falls in the 1 or 2 category.  How strong are your business relationships?