S2-Ep9 | Getting started in Business Relationship Management with Hannah Cooper

In this episode, Richard Pharro, CEO of APMG International, talks to the knowledgeable and ever-enthusiastic Hannah Cooper, who is a Business Relationship Manager (BRM) in the National Lottery Community Fund.  She started in the beginning and was instrumental in building the role from the ground up.  Shaped by her strong partner-focused style, Hannah explains to us the importance of the BRM role in ensuring Relationship Management isn’t just transactional: warning us of the loss of organic conversation, and what that does to the heart of a business. Checking in with people doesn’t just strengthen your relations as a manager but provides key holistic insights as to how the organization is doing. We hear her debunk the common misconception that you need to be a subject matter expert to become a BRM: even though Hannah came from a background of IT, she believes in terms of technical skills, they are not compulsory in order to do the job well. It’s about knowing who you have around you, knowing how to redirect work, and knowing the context. Hannah’s biggest takeaway is; don’t throw solutions at people, but listen with the intention of understanding their needs and concerns: ultimately you’re the one responsible for seeing where proposals fit into the strategy. Finally, we hear Hannah explain why the BRM role is key in challenging the norm on the crucial topics of today, from Data Management, Environmental, to co-benefits, for her, it’s about changing the employee mindset. In keeping with this, Hannah ends by giving us her top three bits of advice to anyone starting in the role and tells us the key to having an agile, courageous, mindset is to acknowledge “that you won’t and can’t always know everything”.To find out more about the thing’s discussed in this episode and Hannah herself, follow the links below:More informationBusiness Relationship Management Professional Training and Certification BRM Institute Hannah Cooper LinkedIn