The Best Habit For Your Business

If you're like most business owners, you have plans, and you have priorities. But you wonder if the initiatives on which you are pointing your energy and resources are the ones that are going to have the biggest impact on your business. What you really want is to do is to find the rock that will cause the biggest ripple in your organization, moving you towards your goals. If this is you, ask yourself how your plans and priorities are focused on your clients. Sounds obvious, right. In fact, you might think you're already doing everything you can for your clients, but maybe it's time to be more intentional about getting into their heads. Start talking more often with your clients and make it a habit.

Stories of the Results of Your Work

Open ended conversations with your clients will uncover insights that you’ll never learn in a survey. Talking with clients gives them the opportunity to tell you their story about how your business is helping them in theirs. This allows you to keep in sight those things that are most important to your clients. When you share these stories internally with your staff, you can motivate employees by showing them that the things that they do every day are making a difference in the lives of others.

Related: Get the Case Study Guide - Learn how to Build Credibility, Grow Trust and Close Sales by Telling Your Client Success Stories
 
Unmet Needs Uncovered

Talking with clients can prevent you from being blindsided by a customer departure. Your company can gain a competitive advantage by learning more about your clients’ business, and the goals and challenges that they are facing. The insights you gain can give you ideas on how to expand your products and services, or you can be a resource in their search for a solution. It’s also possible that what you offer has the ability to meet your client’s unmet needs, but they need training or support to realize the full benefit.
 
Marketing Assets Strike a Chord

Client conversations should include your most recent closed sales. While your new client’s buying journey is fresh in their mind you can learn about the trigger that started the search for a solution; who was involved in the decision-making process; the criteria for selection; and what barriers had to be crossed to make a purchase. With these insights, you can tailor your marketing messages so that the story you tell is the one that your prospect can empathize with, and guides them down their path to purchase.
 
Make Client Conversations a Habit

​Open ended conversations with clients have the potential to impact your whole organization from customer service and marketing, to competitive advantage and company strategy. Why would you not want to make this practice a habit? You may not know exactly where the client’s story will lead you, but when you do it with the right methodology, you will make sure that the destination is one that meets your goal for providing more value to the organizations and people you serve. That’s a rock that can cause a big ripple.