In my most recent blog post SalesCooke took a Southwest Airlines blogster to task for not recognizing the critical importance of directly asking their clients about the improvements or enhancements they desire. The purpose of this blog is to further clarify the importance of connecting with your clients to develop ways to improve your service, strengthen the relationship, and enhance the customer experience.
It is a lot easier to increase your revenue with existing clients than it is to find new client relationships to accomplish this. The challenge is that your customers must view you and your business as an ongoing and valued resource for their business. In order to accomplish this, you have to be engaged with them from the perspective of their needs, their challenges, and their business objectives. This is the shortcoming of most sales people and most business owners. Most sales people and business owners are more fixated on what they already know about and what they are already providing to their clients. This was why SalesCooke was challenging the Southwest blogster. There was this component in that blog that said we are constantly striving to find ways to delight our customers. Yet, there was no reference to learning from or asking the customer.
If you are looking to expand, improve, or enhance your relationship with your existing clients, you need to be asking them how to accomplish this. I have found most business owners are reluctant to have these conversations. Yet, these are the most valued and most appreciated interactions. This is where the customer can say to you, the business owner, I love doing business with you, but we would appreciate our relationship even more if you did this for us. Now you know how to improve your offering. You can explore why this is so important to the customer. And, you can demonstrate your commitment to the relationship by enhancing your offering as requested. Looking for the “wow” factor in your client relationships? There it is.
Next time you are looking for ways to increase your revenues, go talk to your existing clients. They know your business–both the strengths and the weaknesses. They also know exactly what they like, want and need from you. Take the time to listen, learn, and respond to them. Your relationship and your revenues will be enhanced by it.