Sales and Sales Management Blog

Building Client Relationships
By Jerry Acuff

Does any aspect of selling deserve more of your attention than building client relationships?  Most of us would agree that client relationships are the backbone of our business.  They are the key to referrals and the possible insulation from competition and a down economy.  Three things to consider about client relationships are:

• How do we build them with people we do NOT naturally connect with?
• How do we maintain them?
• How do we leverage them?  

How Do We Build Relationships With Those We Do NOT Naturally Connect With?

The fun part of selling is meeting those people that you just click with right away.  Their kids are the same age as yours or you went to the same college or you are from the same home town.  Conversation flows easily and you leave your first meeting thinking about how much you enjoy your job and meeting new clients. You don’t need any advice on how to connect with these people.

But what about those with whom we do not find a natural connection?  What about the client that seems stiff, bored and totally indifferent to your attempts to find common ground?  Maybe they don’t follow your favorite sport, don’t read the same things you read and don’t seem very interested in discussing family or personal life.  Now what?

Ask the right questions. Find out what is important to this person and then let them know that you have a genuine interest in them.  Almost everyone is interested in talking about themselves and most people have something that they are passionate about.  If you can find out what they value and get them to discuss it with you, it is highly likely that you will find it interesting and you will be on the right path to having a real connection with them.  Maybe you never had an interest in Civil War reenactments and thought they were a little strange.  But after your new client explains how he was finally able to connect with his aloof teenage son after taking him to a reenactment at Gettysburg, suddenly you see this hobby in a new light.  Maybe then you ask him to tell you a little more about his son and his face lights up.  It was all a matter of asking the right questions…

Three Steps to Building a Positive Relationship

• What you think: your mindset
• What you ask: the information you gather
• What you do: the actions you take

What You Think: Your Mindset
Believing that relationship building is crucial and that, if done well and often it will increase your chances for fun and success is a must. You must also believe that the person you are trying to build a relationship with would want one with you. If you believe they wouldn’t want a relationship with you- you will be right. You also need a mindset that you have something to offer any potential relationship. If you believe otherwise, valuable business relationships will be difficult for you to build.

What You Ask: The Information You Gather
Until you know who and what the person treasures (and act on this information in a way that demonstrates that you care) you are at a relationship impasse.  One way to start the dialogue flowing is to ask someone, “So where did you grow up?”  This is a question that often brings back a flow of (hopefully) positive memories of their hometown and their answer will likely reveal something about them that will lead to your next question.  For example, the answer may be, “I grew up in Kitty Hawk, NC, where the first flight ever was flown by the Wright Brothers.”  To which you reply, “Do you have an interest in flying yourself?” And the client then tells you all about getting his pilot’s license when he was 19 and flying across country at 25 with his new bride.  Now you know what he is passionate about and this leads to building the relationship with your actions.

As a guideline to remember which questions to ask, think FORM. 

F is for family or questions about parents, children or siblings.

O is for occupation or questions about what they do, what they would like to do, what they are studying, or what they like best about their job

R is for recreation or questions about what they like to do in their spare time

M is for motivation or questions about what motivates them in life.

What You Do: The Actions You Take
Your actions differentiate you from other people.  Many other sales people may have the same information as you but do nothing with it.  This is the value of Inexpensive, Unexpected, Thoughtful Actions. IUTAs fall under several categories and are likely to help you connect with your clients and differentiate yourself from all of the others.  Suppose one of your new clients is grumbling about the tedious planning of his daughter’s upcoming wedding.  You mention that you and your wife went through the same thing a couple of years ago and the next time you see him, you bring along a couple of your daughter’s wedding planning books for him to pass along to his wife.  He is surprised you remembered and thrilled to have something like that to bring home that night.  He is not likely to forget the simple gesture.

Maybe you call to arrange a meeting and your client’s administrative assistance mentions the client can’t make it that day because he is sitting as a judge at the Italian Food Festival. The next time you see him you bring along the homemade mozzarella from the Italian market down the street.   He is blown away by your attention to detail and his whole demeanor changes as he starts the meeting.

These IUTAs  can be focused on important dates, family names, important events, personal goals or milestones, favorite foods, schools attended, important places, vacations or children’s accomplishments just to name a few.

In order to maintain these relationships that you have built, remember to take a few important steps.  Understand the lifetime value of a customer by making the time to maintain relationships and keep in contact with others.  Help others succeed whenever you have the opportunity and reach out to your customers even when you are not in need of help.  If the way you connect with people sends them a message that you are willing to make the time to stay in touch, they will naturally conclude that they are important to you.  You can maintain relationships with personal notes, phone calls or letters but less time consuming (and more up to date) is with email, notes on Facebook, LinkedIn or Twitter or text messages on a cell phone.  With the technology available to us today, it is easier and more efficient to stay in touch with people on a more constant basis.  These small contacts are likely to pay huge dividends to your business in the long term.

These are just a few ideas on how to build and leverage the client relationships that truly are the foundation of our sales success.  By paying just a little more attention to the details and making a more concerted effort to stay in touch with people, you will differentiate yourself from others by the depth and quality of your relationships with people.  There is no downside here and any and all efforts you make to build and maintain relationships will eventually pay you dividends in one form or another.

Jerry Acuff is the CEO of DELTA POINT in Scottsdale, Arizona. DELTA POINT works with sales and marketing leaders to implement innovative ways to sell and market in today’s crowded marketplace. Jerry has been featured on MSNBC and also in Sales and Marketing Management Magazine, Wall Street Journal On-Line, Investors Business Daily, Managed Care Pharmacy Practice, Fast Company, Selling Power and, Selling Power Live. He is currently on the advisory Board for the Marketing Department at Northern Illinois University and is on the Board of Governors for the Athletic Foundation at the Virginia Military Institute, his alma mater. For over 20 years, he has spoken and consulted extensively on the issues of sales and marketing excellence in the pharmaceutical industry. Jerry is the author of 3 books: The Relationship Edge, The Relationship Edge in Business and Stop Acting Like a Seller and Start Thinking Like a Buyer all published John Wiley and Sons.

————————————————————————————————————————————————————-

Like What You See Here?

If you like what you see on the Sales and Sales Management Blog, I encourage you to either:

Save it to your RSS Reader

or

Subscribe to my POWER SELLING newsletter where twice each month you’ll get a full length article designed to help you increase your and/or your sales team’s sales.  Just shoot me an email at pmccord@mccordandassociates.com with “subscribe” in the subject line and your name and email address in the body and I’ll get you subcribed, and since I hate SPAM as much as you do, I’ll never sell, lease, rent or give your information to anyone—EVER.