Be Different or be dead

December 15, 2011

4 easy ways to know if you have a great customer relationship

Source: Pexels

4 easy ways to know if you have a great customer relationship.

Building deep trusted relationships with business clients is critical to the long term success of your organization.

But how do you know if you are making any progress?

Here are 4 clues to tell you if you are on the right track or not.

1. You are always invited to your customers’s strategic planning meetings

They value your opinions on the issues facing their organization.
They know that you know their business. They trust your intentions. They honor your strategic skills and experience. They view you as a friendly ‘expert from afar’.
You are a valuable member of their direction-setting team.

2. You have ‘an office’ on their premises

A close presence exists between you and the client. It may be a physical presence where you actually have an office on the client’s premise or it could be a virtual presence where you are listed as one of their team members.

They want you accessible. Close at hand. To bounce ideas off. Test some ideas. The ultimate expression of trust and value is real estate owned by the customer; given to you.

3. Your customer never issues a Request for Proposal when they need a solution

Why bother? They have so much trust and faith in you that going out to get others to submit a bid on what they want is seen as a waste of time.
When your customer needs something, you are already on it.

There is no need to involve other suppliers. You take action. You deal with it seamlessly.

4. You are never referred to as a salesperson by the client

Your currency in their organization places you among their leadership team.
Labels are meaningless.
You are their trusted colleague. Their partner. Their friend.

It’s one thing to say that your objective is to develop deep relationships with your clients; it’s quite another to achieve it.

Observe how the client treats you and it will tell the whole story of the relationship.

Cheers,
Roy
Check out my BE DiFFERENT or be dead Book Series

• Posted 12.15.11 at 10:06 am by Roy Osing
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