If you are in a client facing role in a professional services organization, sometimes it can be difficult to provide value if you don’t fully understand the scope of your clients’ business. The key to achieving a long-term client relationship is to become viewed as an indispensible extension of their marketing team, rather than as a vendor of services. Here are 10 tips that you can use to get to know your client better so that you can succeed in delivering the most value to their business:
1. Friend the Company on Facebook
2. Follow the Company on LinkedIn
3. Subscribe to an RSS newsfeed with the client’s company name as a key word
4. If a public company – read the Annual Report; track their stock movement
5. Bookmark their website and visit it regularly. Register on the site (if available) and make notes on the customer experience as you navigate through the site.
6. Purchase an item from the company, make a donation, interact as a consumer and note the experience.
7. Know the names of your clients’ biggest competitors and track them as well
8. See what groups/associations they belong to and track them
9. Subscribe to industry publications like DMNews, Target Marketing, 1on1 Magazine, B2B Marketing, and/or client specific industry sites like Pharmaceutical Marketing Research Group (PMRG)
10. Get added to an internal seed or sample list if available for emails, SMS and direct mail.
To build client engagement, you need to be engaged. So get engaged!
