How many times have we called clients, or been called ourselves as customers, and we start out the call by saying, “I was just checking in?” Just checking in is fine for personal calls to friends or family, but when it comes to business, it is a sign to me that there is no real purpose to the call and it can actually be quite distracting as opposed to supportive of the relationship.
In this week’s video, we talk about making calls with a purpose, and preparing for client calls around four possible themes . . . power, profit, problem solving and personal passion. The idea is that if we do not have something to add to any of these categories, we are not really prepared for the call and should not call until we can touch on one of them.
So let’s say that we are going to call a client who we know has an ongoing issue with hiring good employees. In this case, if within the context of the call, we are able to provide him with a viable candidate we know or even a top recruiter we have heard about, we have gone from “just checking in” to giving him the “gift” of some potentially valuable information.
Same goes for connecting to someone’s personal passion. Let’s say you know one of your clients is a Paul McCartney fan and you have just heard he has a concert scheduled in a few months in your city. You can then include that “gift” in your conversation to her and perhaps even plan to go to the concert together.
The key is “giving.” Every time we talk to a client . . . every time . . . we should be adding a small gift to the discourse. I promise you that if you do, your calls will always be welcomed and remembered.
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