7 essential tips to make raving fans out of clients
Photo by Kira auf der Heide on Unsplash
Bribing is "dishonestly persuade (someone) to act in one's favour by a gift of money or other inducement.
Now lets work on this definition by replacing "dishonestly" with "honestly"; "gift or money" by "value add". We will get:
Bribing is "Honestly persuade (someone) to act in one's favour by a gift of value addition in them and their business"
Now that my dear friends is what I call Ethical Bribing, it not cheating or confusing someone into buying something but honestly and transparently helping and supporting our clients in their jobs and their business or organisation.
According to the principle of reciprocity, you get what you give. So why not start giving more than what our clients expect from us. These are some tips to improve your clients relationships and exceed client expectations:
be available: be approachable both physically (telephonically) as well as emotionally, have agenda less calls and virtual coffee and lunches with your clients. Speak to your clients as a friend or as family, tell them you are their for them whenever they need support. When they do come to you listen to them patiently and try to help them whatever way you can.
be resourceful: being resourceful is more of an attitude, even when you don't have the skills or knowledge to help your client, you can listen to them and connect them with the people who can help them
be transparent: keep them informed of what is happening and how much of work is getting done also inform them of all the changes that are taking place and take their agreement as well as ideas on the changes
be honest and assertive: if you have made a mistake quickly own it and accept it also if you believe the project or idea will not be the best solution for the client, tell the client immediately, you may lose the project but will win the confidence of the client forever.
be a problem solver: client is never your opponent, client's problem is. While explaining the solution or even while negotiating timelines or fees, keep your focus on the problem faced by the client and the solution and the importance of getting rid of the problem as soon as possible. Do not five up on options and ideas, the more they shoot down the more you bring to the table. Always be the person with ideas and solutions. Always be the "Yes, we can!" person
talk about their KPIs and growth: everyone wants to win the game they are in and will love some help. Your job is to help them win their game. It doesn't matter where they are on the snakes and ladders they will certainly appreciate the right number or a ladder. Best way to do this is to find out what their Key-Performance Indicators (KPIs) or targets are and help them achieve. This can be done through expert knowledge, skills, feedback or just plain old motivation in the right direction
talk about their risks and advantages: we want the benefits and someone else to own the risks. If you can assure them that they are safe in doing business with you and this will lead to their success, then you have just given them "an offer they can't refuse". So go ahead an mitigate their risks in working with you and increase their benefits.
I believe now we are ready to out and start "Ethically bribing" our clients!
All the best and let me know about our experience.
Sincerely,
Syed