KEEP THE MOMENTUM GOING BY NURTURING YOUR PRIMARY CLIENT POINT-OF-CONTACT
In the last post we talked about negotiating with your big client and how to nurture and build on the relationships you are creating. In this post, we will discuss the power your client has and how to utilize that for your benefit.
One of the most important aspects of this is to keep your champion singing your praises. This refers to the ally you created within the company and who needs to stay loyal to you for you to continue a profitable partnership with your client. You can keep your champion going by offering number of things to show appreciation. Some of these things are:
Share the limelight. Include them in your company’s success stories and internal or external communications.
Help them thank their company with new products and services. Offer to expand the “Super-user” relationship.
Further emotionally connect them to your company. Invite them to speak at your booth at a convention or at your conference.
Know when to leave them alone and stay out of the way of their day-to-day operations of their business.
Keep your “family” happy—Don’t forget to stay in touch with the other members of your client’s team and take their overall temperature routinely.
Now that you have some ideas of how to build and maintain solid relationships, the whole idea is to continue to seek out people to build these relationships with.
These are all great ways to feed your alliance. You need to go into a relationship considering the things a big client can offer you besides money. These can include:
The opportunity for your business to expand
The opportunity to learn from the experience and find ways to grow
The opportunity to improve your processes, systems and other means of doing business
These are some of the best ways to keep your alliances going strong and your partnerships fresh and contented.
If you need help with any of these tactics, contact us directly for great tools and resources that can help you every step of the way.