Yesterday, I overheard our creative director James speaking to a client about a new website project.
Over recent years, James has built a great rapport with this client; that’s clear as the conversation turns from work to family to sport then back to work again. As the discussion about the web project unfolds, James asks a couple of questions. First, he wants to know what plans the client has to develop her service offering. Secondly, he asks her to imagine her business and services two years from now, and how it may differ from today.
These seemingly insignificant questions may not seem relevant to the website project, but over the next few weeks this conversation will resonate with James. It triggers him to start thinking about what extra value he could offer the client to facilitate her business’ success and exceed her expectations.
The best marketing strategies always look towards building meaningful relationships with people that are sustainable over the long term as opposed to be striving for short term goals.
We find the best way to develop business relationships is not to simply try and make a sale for today but try to unearth what the client will need tomorrow and then work out a way to deliver it to them.
Here are our top 5 tips to help you better understand your client:
1. Actively listen to what your client has to say.
2. Understand their goals and aspirations.
3. Build trust and mutual respect to help develop a good personality fit.
4. Train your mindset to ‘always offer value’.
5. Tell stories by sharing real life testimonials and client case studies.
Think about why you are in business. Is your priority to make a profit? Or is it to make a real difference to the peoples’ lives you meet along the way? If your goal to succeed comes secondary to that of your clients’ success, it’s pretty clear that your priority is to matter and not to just sell.
