I used to see people end relationships on a really bad note. In this process, I heard those people get told, “You just burnt that bridge.” For those of you who are not sure what this means, it is referring to ending any kind of relationship in a bad way to where those individuals will not want to help you out in the future. Say you are looking for a babysitter, but the only person available is mad at you for something that happened recently. Now this person is not in the helping mood because of your last encounter. This is a burnt bridge. This can also happen in the business world as well.
Businesses really need to make sure they keep on good terms with everybody. You never know when you may need help of some kind. This applies to every area of business. Owners should never bad mouth other businesses including their competitors. Sometimes when companies feel inferior they will talk negatively against their competition. Recently Sprint has put out a commercial criticizing Verizon Wireless about their prices for nearly similar service. Sprint is behind Verizon Wireless in market shares, so this was an attempt to gain some of their customers and amass them in their customer base, for they knew all of the CRM Benefits that the decade has brought. Now imagine if Alltel had done the same before Verizon bought them out. With the buyout, many people at Alltel were able to keep their jobs and work for Verizon. If Alltel had bad mouthed them consistently, they might have just bought them out and fired everyone there.
Sometimes competitors actually work together too. Sometimes companies will specialize in an areas in order to sell to their competition. When two companies work in this capacity, it can save both time and money. Another reason to hope your competition stays in business is that it can help the industry as a whole. Think about two of the biggest competitors of our time Steve Jobs and Bill Gates. When someone says tablet, many people may instantly think of iPads. These have been extremely popular in the technology world. The fact is Bill Gates created the first tablet. Not many people know that because Steve Jobs took that idea and expounded on it to create one of the most popular tech items owned by many today. It reminds me of a game I used to play as a kid. A friend and myself would sit back-to-back and push against each other while standing up. We had to have the pressure against each other to succeed at standing up. In some markets, this same idea is needed. Two companies pushing harder to be more innovative than their competition. This can lead to some of the most revolutionary creations that the world can benefit from.
The main idea is to not make enemies but create relationships that last a lifetime. The lifetime of your company and yourself.
God Bless.
