The Three-Stage Process To Getting Loyal B2B Clients
“Hello, ma’am, hope you’re doing well? X this side.”
“Sorry? Who?”
“X, ma’am. I’m from Company Y. I came by last week to share our brochure with you, and we spoke for a few minutes about our products.”
“Oh, okay, I don’t really remember…anyway, what is this about?”
“Ma’am, I heard that you’ll be working on Project A, and I think we could supply you with the best products for your project. I was wondering if I could come by this week and have a talk about it?”
“This week won’t be possible, call me sometime next week…”
“All right ma’am, and in the meantime, you could have a look at Section 3 of our brochure, it has all the details of the products I’d like to propose…”
“I’m not sure where I’ve kept it…what did you say your name was?”
“My name is X, ma’am.”
“Okay…and you’re from Company Z, you said?”
“No ma’am, Company Y.”
“Oh okay…I’ll get back to you later.”
“Sure ma’am, look forward to hearing from you.”
If you’re in business development, account management or any other client handling role, raise your hand if you’ve faced a scenario like this.
Actually, you don’t need to. I know you’ve faced something like this.
At least once.
When I started out in BD, this was a problem I faced every single day. The clients I called were busy and uninterested, and even when I managed to meet them I was treated with barely concealed condescension (they thought I was a college intern). Even after they realised I’m a fully-qualified manager (though several still addressed me with the informal Bengali/Hindi pronoun, as though I were a kid playing at management), they weren’t that receptive to hearing about products and new launches and customer service from me. Their usual response — “Yes, all right, I’ll let you know if I need something” and drop the topic.
It took me months of effort to get to a point where they saw me as someone to rely on and someone they would call whenever they needed my product. And even then, it wasn’t easy retaining their interest.
I’ve written earlier about what it’s really like to work in BD, and the first thing I talked about was the pain of working with new clients. And believe me, when you’re starting out, client handling feels like the bane of your existence — doubly so because you have to do it, it’s in your job description. It is your job description. And as you keep trying to make headway and keep getting rebuffed, you go home dejected each day and curse yourself for ever considering BD as a career.
Like all challenges, however, that of client handling has an answer. It’s not a one-size-fits-all answer, because every client and every BD executive is different — it’s more of a framework to build client relationships. And it starts with a question.
How do you get your clients to a point where, when they think of your product, they think of you?
You see what we’re getting at? What you need to aim for is becoming synonymous with the product you’re pitching. When the client has a requirement, yours should be the number he dials before anyone else’s. That might seem like an impossibility when you’re having trouble even keeping them on the line for five minutes, but there’s a three-step process to reaching that sweet spot in your relationship with any client.
In a nutshell, you need your client to know, recognise and recall you.
“Wait, that’s it? I’ve been struggling to get even an inch closer to my clients and you’re saying it can be done in three steps?”
I know. I know you think it sounds simplistic, and I thought so myself when I first started thinking about how to approach clients. But as I pondered over it and looked back at my own experience, I realised that all the things I did to solidify my relationship with a client could be classified under these three steps. I just never thought about it from a process-oriented angle before.
When I say “steps”, of course, I mean the stages in the client’s perception of you. First, they need to know you. Then, they need to recognise you — and finally, they need to recall you. Approaching your clients with the objective of progressing from each stage to the next makes a lot of sense — and I’ll explain how you can do it as follows.
Know.
Chances are, a new client has heard of your brand before. They may even have used it before. But you? You’re just a stranger who’s ferreted out their contact details somehow, and you’re trying to sell them something during the first conversation. Ever banged the phone down on an insurance tele-caller? Then you know where you stand on your new client’s priority list.
So here’s how you get them to know you.
Rule number one — don’t start selling from the first go. Ask them, politely, for a meeting time, and keep following up until they give you an appointment (it will almost never happen on the first go).
Once you’ve finally managed to have the meeting (be prepared for at least one rescheduling, and expect to be kept waiting when you do arrive), make it a conversation. Introduce yourself, ask the client about her work, what she likes doing, and then subtly turn the conversation towards business by asking her what she thinks of your industry in general.
Once a bit of camaraderie has been established, then — and only then — pull out your brochures and give them an overview of what you do. If they’re interested, good for you, keep the conversation going. But if not, leave the brochures behind for them along with your business card, and thank them sincerely for their time.
This first meeting is about creating a good enough impression that they won’t object as much the next time you ask for an appointment — if you’re lucky, they could even call you over themselves!
Recognise.
In all likelihood, your company has multiple competitors in your line of business, and all of them would have their own BD executives chasing the same clients you are. Each client, therefore, meets and takes calls from several BD folks like you every day — chances are, she has neither the time nor the inclination to remember them all.
To make that extra impression, therefore, and to get the client to recognise you, it takes multiple meetings and calls. Obviously that’s easier said than done, but there are ways to get through.
One thing you should always do is to befriend the receptionist. That way, if your client is ignoring your calls, you can dial the receptionist and get an idea of when the client will be back in office. Then simply go over and wait. Cold calling like this isn’t always advisable, but with particularly elusive clients, this works (it’s much harder for them to put you off if you’re already there).
In addition, take the extra effort to make your client feel special. Find out when their birthday is and wish them. Do the same for any religious/cultural festivals they may celebrate. Take note of things they say about themselves (one chunk of almost every meeting will be devoted to the client talking about herself), and mention them in future conversations. Show that you’re really there to listen to them — beyond the hard selling — and, slowly, they will begin to thaw towards you.
Recall.
After a good many successful meetings and calls, they may know you by face, name and how you like your coffee.
Great work.
But, are you the first name they recall when they’re thinking about buying your product?
One thing you should take care to avoid is assuming — inadvertently — the role of a listener. It happened for me — some of my clients got to know me well enough, but every time I visited they would supply me with coffee and regale me with their latest activities, their opinions on life, reminiscences of their childhood and tirades against people they dislike. And when they really got going, cutting into their monologue with product descriptions would simply come across as rude. (Think about it — one minute they are telling you about how they were the youngest ever to win some major design award, and the next moment you’re saying, “That’s lovely, sir, now if I could just take you through this new launch of ours…” It just doesn’t work.)
So whenever you meet them, by all means have pleasant chats, but be sure to talk about your products at least once. Don’t interrupt them if they’re talking about other things, but look for ways to take charge of the meeting. Use lulls in the conversation to turn it skilfully round to business — or even look for cues in what they’re saying. So maybe they’re griping about somebody who overcharged them, you can say sympathetically, “That’s truly terrible ma’am, and when I think about how transparent our processes are and how we always give our clients the best discounts in the market!” (Okay, maybe you won’t be that obvious.)
My point is, you need to make conscious efforts to show the client that, for them, you are the face of your product and you are 100% committed towards giving them the best experience possible with your product.
If you keep doing that — if you take every possible chance to talk about your product and why your client will love it, without coming across as a one-track mind hard seller — your client will start remembering you whenever they think about your brand or notice your brochures on their shelves. And, over time, when they need your product for a project of theirs, they’ll remember you well enough to give you a call.
Obviously, it’s not always as simple as moving linearly from Stage 1 to Stage 3. Sometimes your client just doesn’t want to buy from you, sometimes you make a mistake and they develop an aversion towards you and what you’re pitching (more on that in a later post), sometimes they just have a natural inability to remember names and faces (I’ve had clients who didn’t recognise me even after multiple visits). But, by and large, client management boils down to developing a cordial professional relationship with your client, a relationship strong enough for them to consider you and your company each time they need something.
So with each new client you work with, focus on getting them to know, recognise and recall you — and you’re well on your way to becoming their #1 choice when it comes to the product you’re pitching.
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