Mark Stevens advises: Instead of saying ‘thank you,’ show customers some real appreciation by giving them your time.
My firm’s best and most productive business relationships are born when a client enters the room thinking they know what they want, and using experience, insight and intuition, we prompt them to change their mind.
The goal is never to be contrarian for its own sake, but to celebrate your client in such a substantive way that you care enough to:
- Invest in the development of a wiser solution than what the knee jerk response would be.
- Take the risk of displeasing the client at the outset because you don’t agree with them.
- Engage in something far more powerful than a vendor relationship by transitioning to a collaborator. The fact is, the process of collaboration not only leads to an unusually close affiliation but opens doors of opportunity that are richer and more sustainable than those driven expressly by the desire to make a sale.
Celebrate the customer in the true sense of the word and the economics will take care of itself.
Mark Stevens is the CEO of MSCO, a results-driven management and marketing firm, and the bestselling author of Your Marketing Sucks and God Is a Salesman. He is also a popular media commentator on a host of business matters including marketing, branding, management and sales. He is also the author of the popular marketing blog, Unconventional Thinking.
via Entrepreneur.
