Too often, companies and organizations treat their constituents as ATM machines, viewing them transactionally instead of relationally. Below, here are a few tips on how to relate to clients better:
Get to Know Them
Learn about their interests and what motivates them. This is a deeper analysis of a client relationship instead of just figuring out what they need on the surface and trying to meet those needs. Learning about their interests could lead to other tangential sales opportunities.
View them Relationally
If you only reach out to clients when you need something, then you’re essentially ignoring them. These people are reaching out to you for sales because they need help getting/achieving something for themselves or their business. Actually viewing this as a relational process will allow you ot better understand their needs.
Do Your Homework
You have to know your own business, products, competition, and learn about the client. Not only will this show you are prepared, it shows that you care about the person on the other end and are trying to find them the best solution for them. This may mean that it might not be with your company, but you better the client by serving them well.
BoweryJE22
These are awesome tips. It’s easy to forget sometimes that in the world of sales today, the salesperson needs to develop relationships with prospects in order to take a more consultative role. Just like relationships with family and friends, the salesperson-client relationship should be genuine and not motivated only by self-interest.
These are great tips. It can be super easy to lose touch with the relational side of sales, especially when building up a list of clients. You are improving their lives with the products or services you’re providing them and you should focus on how you can continue to improve their lives to continue a healthy business relationship.
These are good tips that I could definitely see being very effective in the workplace. I really do think that now it is very important to be connected to the client because of how easy it is for them to look up things themselves.
These 3 tips are a great thing to keep on the back of your mind when meeting new p=clients or new people in general. I really like how the picture uses examples of relationships so the person viewing it can compare each step to the step in a relationship. I might have to save this picture for future reference.
Great article. I like the way this chart relates the steps by several different names. For example, calling it speed dating, going steady, and then the committed relationship.