Taking a Passionate Interest in Our Clients
One of the fellows who inspired my book, “Mr Shmooze,” likes to tell his salespeople:
“If you know a customer’s passion, and pay attention to it, you can find the key to any client’s heart.”
And do you want to know what is so great about people, which presents aware salespeople like us endless relationship growing opportunities?
The almost infinite amount of passions our clients have! All we have to do is ask.
To prove this point, at the end of my workshops, I like to ask people to describe their passions. Here is a sample from some of my notes:
- Golf
- Skiing
- Wine
- Food
- Cooking
- Baseball
- Coaching
- Dirt biking
- Hunting
- Gardening
- Fishing
- Acting
- Singing
- Traveling
- Classic cars
- Fitness
- Running marathons
- Poker
- Fantasy football
- Special Olympics
- Children’s hospital
- School boards
- Hockey
- Basketball
- Stamp collecting
- Woodworking
- Painting
- Writing
- Art
- Opera
- Football
- Horses
- Shooting
- Karate
- Movies
- Watching Netflix
- eBay
- Swimming
The list goes on and on. People are absolutely fascinating . . . they are so diverse and they are always passionate about something.
One of our jobs as salespeople, is to find out what our clients are passionate about and to join them, whenever possible, at that special place in their hearts. Nothing but good can come from connecting with our clients relative to their passions.
This week, review your client and prospect list and see if you can name each person’s passion.
And a great way to find out is to ask the following question:
Client, you obviously have an intense position here. What do you do in your spare time to recharge your battery?
Once you find out, feed those passions with books, articles, bulletins, events and by introducing them to like-minded people over lunch or via common emails.
The power of this type of outreach is incredible!
Relationship Selling is Key, Even During a Crisis
There is a mirror image, a flipside if you will, to the challenges the current economy brings to you as salespeople.
That is, it is the best time in years to take customers away from your competitors and here is why.
Energizing the Super Power of Your Rolodex
The many people who are involved in our Mr. Shmooze community are interested in dynamic customer relations. Most of you spend a lot of time trying to enhance those relationships both personally and as a smart and enjoyable way to do business. But how do we know we are actually making progress with our customers for all the energy and activity we are putting into it. Here is something we like to do to add some discipline to the process.
