Strategies for Business Growth - Part 2

Posted by jpayne on January 28, 2009 under Business Growth |

What Businesses Can Do Differently

Strategies for Business Growth

Strategy 2:

Build Strong Client Relationships

It has always been essential to develop strong client relationships, but in today’s economic climate it is vital and could prove to be the difference to survival.

What can you do to build relationships?

1. Understand your client’s perspective.

In order to do this successfully, you need to listen to your clients. That means listening and not hearing what you want to hear or even worse, putting spin on their words to fit your own needs. Work to their agenda and ask questions that are going to forward your client’s position and not your own.

2. Speak your client’s language.

It is a myth that clients want to be wowed by your corporate language. To be honest, they’re just not interested. Their bottom line is that they want to understand what’s in it for them and how you are going to help them, in simple plain English. The best sales people will know that instinctively and will present in a language that is familiar and comfortable to their client.

This may be far removed from the way their organisation talks about the same subject, but what is more important - the sale, or corporate-speak? Which one pays the bills?

3. Go that extra mile.

How often have you done something for your client just because? Everyone will bend over backwards to help a client if a sale is imminent, but what about building the relationship? Do you as an organisation know what your standard service is and do you know what your ‘extras’ are or should be? Do you know when you should be employing those extras?

Not knowing may allow your competitors an entry point. It is the responsibility of everyone within your organisation to be providing A1 client service. However, it is the responsibility of the management team to ensure that client service is part of the culture and not something that is wheeled out when a sale is on the horizon.

The words ‘corporate humility’ are becoming more familiar to organisations nowadays, especially larger organisations. We are all reliant on our clients, but it is time to start treating them as one of our most valuable resources.

Action:

Listen. Speak your client’s language. Go that extra mile. Value your clients

Julia Payne Associates provides consultancy and coaching to SME’s and FTSE 500 companies. Contact us to discuss solutions that make a clear difference.