Grow Smart Blog

Business is not just about sales – it’s about creating a repertoire with your clients. It’s building a relationship with them. Knowing them as a person, not just trying to convince them that whatever your product is, it is what they need.

The act of making a sale is actually the easiest part of the process. More difficult is taking the time to build a positive client relationship. But, if you have taken this time, and if the product is one that they are truly interested in, your efforts will pay off in their loyalty.

Some simple tips on establishing this relationship:

Listen to what your client is telling you. It sounds so easy – just stop and take the time to listen. But all too often we find ourselves so short of time, we don’t want to talk about anything that doesn’t directly relate to making the sale. This is the wrong way to approach the problem! Instead, set a little more time aside for your client meetings, and try to spend a moment, if appropriate, chatting sociably with them. It may be the smallest thing, but if (for example) you find out that both you and the client have been – oh, I don’t know – base jumping off of some certain cliffs in Mexico, you’ll both remember that fact. Our minds have an amazing ability to remember the strange little details. If 20 people came to you tomorrow, introduced themselves, and one person took the time to chat, and told you something crazy that they did last week – who would you remember? Of course, the same approach does not work for every client, but this is the entire idea – you listen to what they are saying, and craft your sales approach so they are actually interested in listening to you.

Another easy, but often forgotten, way to help is to start remembering names, and using them. The human psyche demands that we actually are someone, an individual who stands out from the crowd, who is not just another nameless blob wandering down the street identified only by a number (such as our credit card – which all too many people seem to be after.) When you meet a client, get to know them – their name is a great place to start. USE IT. There are many tricks to remembering names (a quick search on Google turns up thousands of little tricks from people all over the world), but one easy idea is just saying the name out loud. Most people remember things better if we say them out loud, and saying them more than once helps solidify that in our memory. And if you can remember someone’s name, be it after a week or two years, then you immediately stand out from many businesses.

There are of course countless other things that can be done to help you get to know your client, and to help them get to know you. The trick is being able to adapt to any situation – whether the meeting calls for a more formal approach, or if it’s taking place in a more relaxed environment. If you have any tips that have worked for you, or want to leave some suggestions for others reading this blog, just leave a shout in the comments!