Reading the title of this blog you might think, “Why would I not want to be comfortable with my client?” Or, “I have a great relationship with my client.” These are great responses, as you should want to have a good relationship and be comfortable in terms of communicating. But I am talking about getting to that point in your relationship where you might be getting lazy. For example, you could relate this to the point in a relationship with your significant other where you start to leave your clothes on the floor, or wear sweatpants to the movies. YIKES. This should never be the case with your client.
On a recent weekly call, I was speaking to a client who I have been working with for about seven months now. I have run these calls by myself a few times, received text messages from one rep when a chat feature we use to communicate was not working, and called his cell phone when he did not answer his office line. We are definitely at the point in our professional relationship where we are able to correspond quickly and get things done that need to be done. The business is happy with our work at AG and I like working with the client, but that does not stop the inevitable fact that on occasion I have to catch myself before I get too comfortable. Uh-oh! But don’t worry; there are ways to avoid this phase.
1. Continue passing quality leads. The most important thing to remember is to keep up the quality of work and leads passed over. You do not want to lose a client who you have a great relationship with because of poor lead quality. Campaigns might change and your targets might shift, but this is not an excuse to slack on lead quantity or quality.
2. Check your messaging. Taking a step back from day-to-day dials and looking at your script, email messaging, voicemails, and collateral you arm yourself with once in awhile can be helpful in making sure you are up-to-date with your product or service. Partnerships form, products are added and subtracted, and talking points can change. Every once in awhile it is worth your time to connect with the marketing and sales contacts and discuss ways to improve your calling efforts. They should be willing to speak with you as they are paying you to create conversations and initiate potential deals.
3. Call at different times during the day. I’ve mentioned this in past blogs, but changing the time of day that you call into your target lists can help with lead quality. For example, you might have more luck catching C-level employees at the beginning or end of each day, while directors are usually available around lunchtime. It all depends on the industry and size of these companies. Try to connect with as many people as possible to get the whole picture of their organization’s pains and needs.
On my recent client call, one of the reps asked that I continue to dig deeper into pain points to not only discover what solutions the prospects would be interested in, but what pains we would be addressing with those specific solutions. This made me realize that I might be getting too comfortable with my project and started to make me rethink the lead quality. It is a good time for me to step back and revisit some things that I have not looked at in a few months in order to stay fresh and make sure I am getting all of the information I need from my conversations. Another item that was brought up on the call with my client was the way information was passed over from myself to our client before an introductory call. I had changed the format recently, but had forgotten to include one section regarding certain pain points. I had not realized how critical this was for them to review, and so we spoke about it and now I have added that back into the write-ups.
It is extremely important to develop a relationship with a client so that you are both getting what you require for a great working relationship: we receive information and knowledge in order to have the best quality conversations for our clients and they receive introductory calls that lead to deals. If you have other ways to stay fresh that have worked in the past, feel free to share with us!
