Building Better Business Relationships in the Age of AI  🔗 **Source:** [Building Better Business Relationships in the Age of AI](https://share.snipd.com/episode/660ca73e-9071-4081-8c84-6958fef406e6) ## Highlights - **Relationships Become More Valuable Amid AI Noise** - AI-generated noise is pushing people toward either trusted relationships or direct algorithmic answers. - As feeds become less personal and more overwhelming, people increasingly shut off channels that lack human credibility. Transcript: Zvi Band Yeah, it's a great question. I think about this a lot because on one end, there's Jeff Bezos has this line of like, always focusing on what won't change. And yes, we are deeply social creatures and we will always rely on human beings and human relationships for various different aspects of our life. I think what has changed to your, is everything else, right? So case in point, if you and I were to open up LinkedIn, we are no longer seeing individual posts by people that we know and trust, but two things have happened. One, algorithms have gotten better at feeding us information that we think is going to be better and more relevant for us. So we're no longer seeing what John's posting. Instead, we're seeing what Zvi, what they think Zvi will want to see, which includes like other stuff and ads and everything like that. But then the other thing that's happened is, to your point around AI generated content, the sheer amount of content and information and signal being thrown at us is more overwhelming Than ever. And we are having a hard time discerning what's human, what's not. And unfortunately, I think what more and more of us are doing is we're just choosing to shut off the signal, right? If we're getting inundated with so much noise, we're saying, hey, how can I unsubscribe from this channel in general? And what comes in? Relationships. John Jantsch That are now promoting themselves as, we'll block out all the other stuff. There was a commercial. I was watching a football game last night, and there was a commercial. And this woman was having coffee with a friend, obviously. And they had all these other distractions outside the coffee shop coming. But she was able to just block them out with her phone. It's some setting on her phone. And I think that what I'm getting at is, I mean, I think we're actually now having to use devices to really shut all that noise out as well. Yeah. Zvi Band And I think as part of that, that's why I think there's, and I think about this from a marketing perspective too, I think one of two things are going to happen. We will rely on relationships or we're simply going to go to an algorithm to get the exact information we want or need, right? Like why, for example, would I search a recipe blog and go through pages and pages of ads, for example, when I can just ask ChatGPT for a recipe? Or if John says, hey, make this, I'll make what John has. And there's so many examples. So I think we're either going to rely entirely on AI for answers. ([Time 0:02:41](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9915152f-8c15-48b0-a692-3d2a6e056f7a)) - **Memory Limits Make Relationship Systems Necessary** - Relationship tools compensate for limited human memory so professionals can preserve mindshare with people they value. - Zvi Band’s core principle remains knowing, liking, and trusting people continuously, despite constantly forgetting personal details. Transcript: Zvi Band Yeah. So I think the core idea of both products, both Contactually, which we sold and now Relatable, is this idea of Mindshare, that we all have people in our lives that we know, like, and trust And want to make sure that those people know, like, and trust us continuously. However, we only can retain a certain amount of information in our head. And so if we can't remember what we had for breakfast two weeks ago, we're not also going to remember the people that we met. So I think the core of that is still the same. Contact actually, obviously being built back in 2012, had relied on the technology that we had back then and the tools. What I'm eager and what I've been really diving into with Relatable over the past few years is how can AI actually help us be more and more human and take a lot of the admin burden of building And maintaining relationships off our plate so we can do what we do best, ([Time 0:05:52](https://share.snipd.com/snip/335b1e8c-b6fc-4921-b526-d3d8280fe658)) - **AI Note-Taking Helps Humans Stay Present** - Zvi Band uses meeting recordings to capture details such as John’s four-day weekends and surface useful connections later. - Offloading note-taking lets him stay present and notice human signals that transcripts cannot capture. Transcript: Zvi Band The way I think about it is I think the more in two ways, one is the more burden AI can take off our plate, the more cognitive capacity we have to care. So like one of my favorite examples is I'm a huge fan of meeting recorders. I have a meeting recorder join every one of my meetings. I have a drop into my notes, my notepad. I have it drop into relatable and extract the personal details. Like for example, that John, like you take four day weekends and all those details become really helpful because that means that the next time I'm on a call with you, I could be hands off. I'm not writing down a bunch of notes. I can be fully present and focused on you and not thinking in my head, okay, let me write these notes. Let me write these details. Let me think about these follow-ups. And then later on, because that brain now has all the information, all the connections that I've ever had, it can say, hey, I met someone who's actually thinking about taking Fridays Off, but is really worried about the jump. Oh, maybe John would actually be like a great person to me. Right. And so that's where I think it can actually extend our cognitive capacity and allow us to care as much as I think we'd like, but oftentimes fall short. John Jantsch And you're saying AI is doing a lot of that because it's, it may be capturing things that you wouldn't even necessarily note and then is able to cross-reference those in a lot of ways. Is that kind of how you're described? Zvi Band Exactly. That's one of the perfect examples. Now to build on that though, I think this is where, because the admin burden is taken off, like you and I don't have to be sitting there like court court stenographers, like taking every Word that happened in the conversation. We can then not only be more present, but like actually allow ourselves to really start noting things that wouldn't necessarily pop up otherwise. Like I find myself on calls these days, actually like focusing more on like, do I like this person? Is there some kind of connection? Do I see that person smile when they're talking to me? And AI can obviously take the transcript and can have the details, but it's not going to pick up those little bits and pieces that I think only a human can. ([Time 0:07:40](https://share.snipd.com/snip/34983283-4fb6-4e95-a55a-1ca87d4e9dd8)) - **Ask Better Opening Questions** - Replace routine small talk with questions that invite meaningful personal answers. - Zvi Band asks about the week’s highlight instead of weather or traffic, creating a deeper conversational direction. Transcript: Zvi Band Talking and speaking about now is things like instead of recording notes and then like how to log in into your database, just assume that's going to happen. And instead it comes more down to like the soft skills, like how to have a conversation, even just what you and I did, where you open up a call, not asking, hey, how's your day? How's the weather? How's traffic? Blah, blah, blah. But actually, like, what's been the highlight every week so far, because that completely changes the direction of a conversation and like, creates a much more deeper personal relationship. ([Time 0:10:50](https://share.snipd.com/snip/df21425d-454c-47a1-8c22-68a98e846d52)) - **Turn Networking Into A Daily System** - Treat relationship-building as a repeatable operating system rather than an occasional New Year’s resolution. - A relationship system organizes contacts and supplies daily actions for maintaining important connections. Transcript: Zvi Band Way that Relatable is built, it's built as a relationship OS, which means it has all the components you need to build and maintain deep relationships. And yes, I'm a solopreneur myself. So I have to maintain a lot of different relationships for my business and my interests and all the investments I make and everything like that. At, at a core, what it does is it brings in all of your relationships from all sorts of different places and helps you stay organized. And then every day gives you actions that you can take to be able to better maintain those relationships. And John, I think the real switch behind it, and I think this is what I coach a lot of people into, is I think you and I think everyone knows and agrees, and this is what you said at the top of The call, that relationships are really important. But very few make the jump from it being like a New Year's resolution to it being like something I strategically execute on a regular basis and have a system behind. ([Time 0:12:00](https://share.snipd.com/snip/253372d8-dcf2-4ebb-9636-cb4addca0d70)) - **Use Three Questions To Guide Outreach** - Use three questions to guide outreach: who do I know, who should I contact today, and how should I nurture them? - Search by context, such as valued Dallas contacts not reached in a year, to make networking actionable. Transcript: John Jantsch Exactly. Zvi Band And I think it's purpose built for the exact thing that you brought up, where you have the desire for and the energy to be able to build relationships. But what should I do right now, right? The three questions we always help make sure that we, our software can answer is, who do I know? Who should I talk to today? And what should I do to nurture that relationship? And so we can help surface things like, hey, here are some past clients that you really like who you haven't spoken to in three months. Here's an email that we can help you draft that you can reach out to them today. If you're traveling to Dallas, you say, hey, who are the people that I know and like in Dallas that I haven't spoken to in a year? We can help you answer those questions. You can say, all right, who are the digital marketers that I know and that I have a really good relationship with? Great. Let me go ahead and email all of them a question if I wanted to. So for all the things around your relationships and all the goals and jobs to be done you have, it oftentimes comes down to like, well, who do I know and how do I reach out to them? ([Time 0:13:48](https://share.snipd.com/snip/286f9e44-4773-4b69-a639-485980923af1)) - **Six Months Can Erase Relationship Mindshare** - Relationship recall often decays after roughly six months when contacts have many competing options. - People commonly recommend the last person they spoke with, so staying periodically present improves future referrals. Transcript: Zvi Band Yeah, it's a really interesting thing. I would say there's a key input for that, which is how unique are you, right? If you are the only person who does what you do, right? And you not only are good at that, but you've also been great at building rapport with people. I've seen people reach out sometimes like 10 plus years later because you are known as that person. For most people who, let's face it, have some type of, whether some kind of competition or you know that the people in your network oftentimes know multiple people like let's say a realtor The magic kind of line i've seen is around six months right that once you go past six months especially these days they are it and it's no fault of you or for them but just we are being inundated With so many people and so much messaging and marketing. So again, I can't remember what I had for breakfast last week, let alone the people in my network. So yeah, if someone asks me like, yo, hey, do you know a really great realtor? I'm like, I probably do, but I just kind of go by the last person that I had coffee with. ([Time 0:15:23](https://share.snipd.com/snip/f6962d8c-014c-43a1-b10c-49022049f45f)) - **Clarify Your Relationship-Building Why** - Define why relationships matter before adopting a CRM or networking routine. - Zvi Band’s priorities shifted from funding, hiring, and customers to founders, inspiring people, and entrepreneurial companions. Transcript: Zvi Band Yeah. Honestly, I would say it's usually one of the first steps because I think, listen, you and I are nerds. Like we tend to like say like oh, what's a cool tool I can use or a cool prompt I can try or something like that. I actually find that oftentimes one of the first things they do to get tripped up is not have a clear why in mind. We all know relationships are important, but why are relationships important for you today? So for example, when I was building up Contactually, I very clearly knew that my network was critical for me to help get more funding for our company, to stay in touch with key hires, to Stay in touch with our key customers and prospects and the people that I wanted to work with months or years down the line. Since selling it, obviously my priorities have changed. Now I find myself wanting to stay in touch with other founders, stay in touch with people who inspire me, stay in touch with people that I generally just like and I like want on the entrepreneurial Journey with me. And so because those are different whys, obviously the types of relationships that I put proactive time and effort, those shift over time. So my guidance for people is first and foremost, have that clear why. And once you have that clear reason, like why is this worth my time? Why is this worth money? Why is this worth all the time what I could be spending with my family or elsewhere in my business? ([Time 0:16:55](https://share.snipd.com/snip/9fa6b6ca-fcfa-499e-9ef0-42955c450c36)) - **Maintain Contacts Through Small Daily Habits** - Consolidate contacts, then maintain the database through small daily routines instead of exhausting cleanup sessions. - Reviewing three contacts daily can cover roughly 1,000 contacts annually without creating burnout. Transcript: Zvi Band Yeah, it's a great question. So the first thing that you need to do is get all of your contacts into one place, whether you're using Relatable or another CRM or even just like exporting all of your contacts out of your Email and Google contacts and LinkedIn and putting them on a spreadsheet, whatever, then make a habit of every day going through a few contacts. And I say make a habit of it is because one of the other tripwires that I've seen people fall into, John, is that some people will spend, like, for example, all Sunday, six hours organizing Their database. And they're going, good, I did it. Thousands of contacts. And then what happens next morning? Someone emails them. Right. And all of a sudden, like that database is out of date. And so I find it's actually really helpful from the very beginning to establish a regular routine of just every day working on your database, just like gardening, just like a little Bit on a regular basis. It's a task that will never end. But that's the great thing, because if you do three contacts a day over the course of a year, you've gone through a thousand contacts. Whereas if you spend a weekend on it and you go through a hundred, you're exhausted and you never want to do it again. ([Time 0:18:52](https://share.snipd.com/snip/b4431b49-9b84-4527-82d0-c89ace38eb4f))