Crush it with your Clients

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Clients

In all my years of B2B sales, one thing still reigns true. People work with people that they like! Relationships are everything in business. No matter the industry, sector, or field, strong working relationships often result in long term retainers or partnerships that can be fruitful to all parties. But let’s not put the cart in front of the horse… first, let’s find out how to nurture these relationships into continued business.

This article is not about acquisition or lead-generation, but the more important part of your business, retention. If you’ve paid to market to them, paid overhead to effectively service them, then you better be ready to keep them as a consistent client. Managing client relationships can be as easy as happy-hour beers, or rough as an SOS pad across your backside. So I put together a brief run-down showing you how to crush it with your clients, in hopes you will develop mutually beneficial long-lasting business relationships.

BEHOLD…

HERE ARE 5 TIPS TO “CRUSH IT WITH YOUR CLIENT”

Chain of Command

CHAIN OF COMMAND

This goes into the research and discovery phase. Let’s assume at this point you’ve already been in contact with the right people to ink the deal. Now you need to find out how their chain of command works. You’ll be surprised how most companies are leaving traditional top-down thinking and now bringing more cooks in the kitchen. Let’s say you started working with the VP of Marketing, but the Director of Marketing signed the contract, and we know that the CEO is highly involved in all creative matters. All of these executives live in different areas so you’ll be collecting notes from multiple parties, not one collective. Information like this can go a long way internally for the best project management practices. Knowing their checks-and-balances gives insight into the company’s culture and the extent of your relationship. This should also help while corresponding and understanding their general protocol(s) for operations and processing. Doing your homework and targeting the right brands is always the best start, so get to it.

Get in the Trenches

GET IN THE TRENCHES

This goes into the research and discovery phase. Let’s assume at this point you’ve already been in contact with the right people to ink the deal. Now you need to find out how their chain of command works. You’ll be surprised how most companies are leaving traditional top-down thinking and now bringing more cooks in the kitchen. Let’s say you started working with the VP of Marketing, but the Director of Marketing signed the contract, and we know that the CEO is highly involved in all creative matters. All of these executives live in different areas so you’ll be collecting notes from multiple parties, not one collective. Information like this can go a long way internally for the best project management practices. Knowing their checks-and-balances gives insight into the company’s culture and the extent of your relationship. This should also help while corresponding and understanding their general protocol(s) for operations and processing. Doing your homework and targeting the right brands is always the best start, so get to it.

Remember, your client hired you for a reason and we all must work together to make sure that they’ve made the right decision for their company

"Rowls on Set"

  • LEARN THE "ROWLS"

  • KNOW YOUR "ROWL"

  • GET IN THE TRENCHES

Laugh

LAUGH

When we are on-set with clients (or working closely with them), we make sure to set the tone for the day. Keeping an upbeat, positive personality usually carries out to your team and client as well. Show up early, dress comfortably and get ready to get to work. Your client will be stoked on how responsive and helpful you were. They’ll be even happier if you can keep them laughing. With any job, time flies when you’re having fun. You don’t have to be a stand-up comedian, but make sure there are tons of smiles and don’t take yourself too seriously.

Overshoot (Over Deliver)

OVERSHOOT

In a market driven by deliverables and deadlines, sometimes it helps to over-deliver to provide flexibility and options. In our field of commercial video production, we’re often on tight schedules and we tend to only shoot what we need. With the cost of memory cards still declining, it doesn’t hurt to let’er roll an extra few minutes. Content is everything and being able to have multiple cuts to fill voids in your campaign(s) is always a plus. The more, the merrier… Right?
I dare you to give your client a free deliverable next time around. Throw in a custom intro-card, or make them an infographic they can use on all their social, just give them something extra. Not only will it make for a more fulfilled campaign, but also show that you understand your client, their brand and their needs. In turn, this provides up-sell opportunities down the road. Here’s a list of some valuable content you can sneak in for your clients.
Valuable Content

Takeaways

TAKEAWAYS

After a long day it proves valuable to take time and reflect on the day or project. I do this personally, but this is extremely effective with your internal team or team and client. It’s an opportunity to lay out all the good and bad from the day in an open format while it’s fresh on everyone’s mind. Maybe there was something that worked very well and we now implement that into our workflow. On the other side of the spectrum, something could have been done more efficiently so let’s address it now and prepare for the next time. Lessons learned are a great way to end a day of working with your client. Now out to dinner you go for beers and tacos.
IMG_0107

Sure, clients like the seasonal Christmas Card or the New Years gifts. But they really like you and your company for what you provide them.

Most importantly, be cool, be creative, give a damn!

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