Sales Strategy

Could your clients be your best prospects? 

Here’s a strategy from the world of professional services.  The most successful bankers, accountants, and consultants catalogue their personal knowledge of their clients in fuzzy files.  They periodically review what they’ve collected about their clients so they can provide personal attention to their interests and build a stronger personal bond.    

Here’s how you can build fuzzy files for your clients:

First, develop a list of personal and professional facts that you would like to know for every one of your clients.  Some of my favorites are their hometown (where they grew up), hobbies, schools they graduated from, and countries they’ve visited.

Next fill in your fuzzy files.  You might start by asking a couple of questions the next time you see your clients.  Then, every time you talk to that client, update your file to fill in any missing blanks. 

The last part is acting on the information you’ve collected.  Make it a habit to forward interesting stories you read on the web that relate to your clients’ personal interests.  It costs nothing and demonstrates to them that they are important to you.

Here’s a couple of tips for turning your clients into your best prospects:

• Create a file for every client, with a list of pre-determined questions.  Anything from a paper form to a sophisticated database will do.
• Review your fuzzy file every time before you talk with a client and update it afterwards. Personal tidbits have a very short half-life in your memory, so commit what you learn to paper. 
• Don’t be patronizing or fake.  You are systemizing your ability to be thoughtful about your clients’ interests, there’s no reason it can’t be real