How to Leverage Your Client Relationship to Increase Your Sales

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Many business owners or staff who work in a customer service job have an excellent opportunity to leverage their relationship with their customers and clients. If you are looking to differentiate yourself from other job applicants, make it a point to discuss your personal commitment to servicing customers during your job interview. People in leadership positions value the relationships their employees build with their customers. They know developing a solid relationship with your clients and customers doesn’t cost anything, but pays tremendous dividends.

Just last week, Maureen, our insurance agent, called to let us know that our home and auto insurance was coming up for renewal, and wanted to go over our policies and see where they could give us the best coverage and save us the most money. For years and years when our policy was up for renewal, our former insurance company would not contact us, but simply send us a bill. Not with our present insurance company. Maureen actively contacted us a month in advance and asked us if we wanted her to call us to go over our coverage. She then made a commitment to call us back to discuss what our options would be. True to her word, she followed up and helped us get the best price with the best insurance carrier.

How about you in your business? As a business owner or a customer service representative, what could you be doing with your clients and customers to build the relationship you have with them? It costs 6 times more to attract and sell to new clients and customers than it does to keep the ones you already have. Yet, so often what businesses and organizations do, is ignore their present customers and go out and use a shotgun approach to blindly advertise to attract new customers and clients.

By developing a twelve month client and customer relationship strategy, you can create a plan to develop them into lifetime patrons. The key here is to have a plan. Far too often, decision makers in small businesses and larger companies do not have a clear idea of how they are going to build a life time relationship with their present customers and clients. They seem more intent on reacting to the crisis of losing them, rather then preventing them from leaving for their competitors. Don’t let this happen to you and your organization. Whether you are a small or mid-size business or a non-profit, keeping your clients through a solid plan makes good business sense.

One of the best ways to do this is to schedule regular meetings to put together and maintain a twelve month client and customer relationship strategy. Get everyone’s input. That includes front line employees, office managers, salespeople, technicians, accountants and anyone else I have not mentioned. When you are able to tap the creativity and the resourcefulness of all of the people in your company, you will be able to come up with the best ideas and put them to work in ways that gets the kind of result you need and want for your company or organization’s success.

Tom Borg is a consultant in leadership management, team building and customer service. Please see more of his blogs go to businessworkforceblog.com and csjobsblog.com To view additional job postings go to Nexxt
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