A few articles ago I wrote about the importance of listening to help develop better relationships. Careful listening leads to better understanding of our customers, and in my last article I posed the question “What Is The client’s Notions And Why Should I Care?” Both of these approaches are largely predicated on the fact that [...]
How do we develop a strategic customer relationship? What are some of the things that we need to do? Experience has taught me that to be successful it starts with understanding what your customer wants. So many times I’ve observed people that go to see customers and all they’re interested in is getting the customer to [...]
I love Christmas. I was brought up in a family in England where my mother revered it, worked hard at it and made it a wonderful and memorable experience for all of the family, every year.She surrounded us with Christmas festivity and atmosphere. We had decorations all around the house and always had a fairy [...]
How can we evaluate our current relationships, measure progress and adapt for something that is so subjective?A few years ago I was dealing with a major account in the Quick Service Restaurant (QSR) business, aka fast food. Their senior management was changing on a quarterly basis and had been over the year. Companies go through [...]
I was with a potential client a few weeks ago at a meeting and was observing a conversation, actually more of a debate. It was getting quite heated and, as it approached boiling point, I interjected a quick quip that stopped them both in their tracks and they laughed. It was a tension reliever moment. [...]
I was meeting with a very successful sales consultancy company last week and we were discussing the kind of typical problems they come across working with their clients.They described a few of situations they had faced and we spent some time talking about ways to overcome them and what advice they provided. Copyright: mackoflower / [...]
A few weeks ago I was the lead speaker in a workshop entitled “Landing More Sales”. While I was preparing the inevitable PowerPoint deck to support my talk, I was struggling to find the right visual to portray difficulties that can arise with dealing with customer relationships.I don’t know whether you are like me or [...]
I was talking to a friend of mine last week who had recently joined the partner marketing group in his company. He was excited about the move and he was telling me about some of the partners they were looking at. Copyright: ximagination / 123RF Stock Photo I asked him some questions, as we consultants [...]
Listening…it’s such a passive action that most of us just don't do it!If we are not driving, we are sleeping, and if we are at work we are texting, e- mailing and talking...but rarely listening and I mean really listening. Copyright: iqoncept / 123RF Stock Photo Listening appears to be a declining skill because listening means [...]
Taking the boss with us to see the customer has so many potential downsides doesn’t it?What I have found is that in many cases either to impress the customer, or us or just to show they can, they will voluntarily give away profits or upset the customer. Years ago I took my boss with me when [...]