10e20 Blog

Why nurture a client?There is nothing more valuable to a business than its existing clients; not one thing. First thing in the morning is the client and the last thing at the end of the day is the client. Why? You can generate more business and fatter profits buy nurturing them and taking good care of them. Your current clients are one of the best sales and marketing tools available. Why? 6 words: Word of Mouth and Repeat Business.

By nurturing your client you can improve your ROI on sales and marketing spend by lowering your client acquisition costs (CAC). The more new business that you can generate with current clients, the less you’ll spend on salespeople’s salaries, direct marketing, advertising, PR, media buying, search marketing and client intake / service costs.

One of the best things about a current client who is nurtured is that they refer new business through Word of Mouth (WOM). This referral business by Word of Mouth is easier to close than other leads and is usually a much higher quality business lead.

When you nurture a client, they talk about it. They talk to their clients, colleagues, friends and family about the great service that they receive from your company. This leads to new business and propagates. Word of Mouth is more powerful marketing than anyone could ever purchase, conceive or deploy. Word of Mouth rules the day and while it’s not free, it’s probably the lowest cost form of marketing and provides great ROI on client acquisition costs.

When you nuture your client, your building loyalty and they come back to you over and over.

So what are some handy ways to Nurture the client relationship?

Treat your client like family, with meaningful attention, care, respect:

1. Be puncutal: If you promise your family that you’ll be at brunch on Sunday at 12 Noon sharp, you’ll show up on time. Do the same for your client. And if you going to be late, you’re going to call and find a damn good reason to explain why you are late. Your time is worth money; so is the their’s.
2. Understand their day to day routine: Find out everything about their business and do as much research on where they’ve been and where they are going and what their day consists of. You’ll be in a better position to solve their business problems if you do this.
3. Keep in touch on a consistent basis: on phone, email.
4. Buy them a gift on special occasions: Birthdays in particular. Some people say they hate celebrating birthdays, but deep down everyone wants to be recognized for the day that they arrived into this great world of ours.
5. Send them a hand written note.
6. Share an interesting article online.
7. Invite them to connect in a database - Linkedin? Make them part of your world.
8. In passing, ask them how their family is? Did they mention a wedding, new-born, vacations etc…ask them how it was, how it went, what they thought and how they are involved. Do not ignore this stuff.
   

Take an interest in personal stories, hopes and aspirations:

If you know your client likes golf, ask what type of clubs she’s using or where she likes to play? You’ll build a personal bond and they’ll know you understand who they are. Are they training for a marathon? Ask them if they’ve reached a milestone. Explain how you are interested in running as well. You need to connect. If you don’t connect, your goose is cooked.

Stroke your client’s ego:

Pump up their ego and you’re on their team automatically. And the next time you speak with her and she says that she did not play golf well over the weekend, as her what her score was and regardless of what it was, tell her “mine was MUCH WORSE!”

When you see your client and their company mentioned in good press - forward them the article and let them know you saw it and took a great interest in it. If you tell them about it before they tell you about it, they’ll know you are on the ball and they’ll feel inflated.

Listen and learn:

Let your client speak and let them teach you a thing or two. When you listen to your client, you learn their needs and you can serve them better. Take any signal seriously, no matter how small or insignificant it may seem.

Deliver results and provide value:

If you promise a result, deliver that result. Do not stray from this. If you are not going to deliver, hedge yourself and let them know well in advance. Chances are, you’ll get time enough to make up for it, if you are nurturing in other areas. Constantly assess your relationship to make sure that you are providing value. As soon as someone feels they don’t have value, you’re done.

Always be ethical:

Don’t try to take advantage of client relationships by leveraging anything in unethical ways. Always provide a client with the information that they need to make appropriate business decisions. A client in the dark is bad client. Keep everything up front.

Go above and beyond:

When you go above and beyond your allotted commitment, you’re nurturing and you’ll be paid back many times over. Don’t go too far with this though. Make it worth it.

Be Responsive

Don’t make a client wait a week for a response to a question.

Develop Trust

Provide insight, guidance and solid advice. When you provide accurate business insight they’ll see you as a member of their team. They will trust you more, leave key decisions to you and be more loyal to you and your company; your products and services.

Make a Positive Impression

Be clean, neat, dress well and match the mode as best as possible. No one wants to be associated with a dirt bag.

Be well mannered. Use table manners and greetings and salutations to their maximum. Don’t act corny or over the top, just proper. a la Emily Post

Enlighten them to wholesome issues and subjects that they are not yet aware of, or have not explored business or personal. Open their minds to positive and important subjects. Share something new.

Maintain a sense of humor, but be relevant, don’t abuse, overuse and don’t be vulgar, ever! PC.

In correspondence, do your very best to pay attention to detail, spelling and grammar.

Barter with Care

If you end up bartering do this with care and caution and only if you are willing to lose the relationship. Try to get as much as possible in writing.

Refer and Introduce

Refer your client to other beneficial products and services that are not associated with your company or your work. They’ll appreciate the solid advice and direction, and it will likely come back to you in the form of something positive.

Show Your Face

It’s the old adage; a picture is worth a thousand words. I believe a seeing a person’s face is worth time and money helps to nurture your client relationship. Make sure you are visiting your clients on a regular basis. If geography and travel pose limits, show them pictures and videos of you and your colleagues. Share your work world with them. Put your pic in an email signature - they might save it in their outlook or personal device, so that you are part of their world. Suddenly they know you, remember you and you’re indispensable.

New, repeat and referral business from current clients is so much cheaper to acquire than new business from a prospect, cold call or client off the street. They know your products and services have used them before and have likely benefited and can be easily sold to again. You have the process with that client nailed and you’ve invested the time to get them on board.

That’s why I’m a big fan of nurturing your current clients and gaining repeat business from them. It improves their business and your margins. In nurturing your current clients they gain more from you and you’re on your way to fatter profit margins, smoother business operations and long term success. By nurturing your client you’ll gain tangible bottom line business results and the client’s business will thrive as well leading them to refer and come back for more business. It’s a real virtuous cycle and a win-win for both parties.

Some Interesting Resources and 1 Quote:

Emily Post’s The Etiquette Advantage in Business: Personal Skills for Professional Success, Second Edition (I’ve not read this but it looks good)

The Business of Consulting: The Basics and Beyond by Elaine Biech (I’ve not read this, but it looks good)

A tool from ProcessSpecialist.com to calculate Client Acquisition Costs and associated ROI.

A quote from Mr. Gavin Ingham: “Most salespeople make a sale to a client and then move on to the next one. Most clients think that salespeople only ring them when they want to a) sell something new or b) renew their contracts.

If someone only rang you when they wanted to sell your something or get you to commit to a new contract what would you think about them? What feelings and emotions would you associate with them?”

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