Clients come to you because they have unsatisfied needs and wants and they are looking for you to fill them. They need someone they can count on, they want high quality maintenance at a fair market value for the service provided, and so on. The key to satisfying their needs is simply understanding. The better you understand their needs and wants, the better the chance that you will meet, and then exceed them.
Aspire to understand unconditionally. Unconditional understanding on your part will improve the chance that there will be better mutual understanding.
Don’t wait for them to understand you, seek to understand them.
Clients buy, and stay with, a service provider for their reasons, not yours.
Better understanding can be gained by doing the following:
Relentlessly seek to understand your client. Whether they try to understand you or not is unimportant. Dale Carnegie said it best when he stated “You can make more friends in two months by listening to other people than you can make in two years trying to get other people to listen to you”
Always assume a client needs to know more. It’s easy to see that they have more to understand, harder to see that I do. By being understanding, you hold the key to their perceptions, which is the key to meeting their needs.
Never assume a client’s needs are met. Just because you are “doing a good job” by your standards, if you are not in touch with theirs you may be missing the mark.
Listen between the lines. Your clients will reveal their perceptions, interests, and values, but they will be easy to miss if you are too busy focusing on your own.
Ask yourself, “What do they really care about?”. Understanding what a client cares about increases your ability to avoid some problems and resolve others.
Also know that the Needs evolve over the engagement cycle. The needs during the Sales Cycle are and will be different than they will be during the Service Cycle
It’s easy to be a leader in your business when you are following your clients.
“Save yourself some time ••• Just see things MY WAY!!”
-Lucy Van Zandt to Charlie Brown:
Be Well, Do Good Work, and Keep In Touch.
Fred Haskett
To Learn More Contact Fred at TrueWinds Consulting
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