Give, give, give – ten ways to add value to a customer

In the last couple of weeks I hope I’ve sold you on two key thoughts:

1. Half the battle is turning up
2. The battle is less bruising when you’re talking with old clients

We talked last week about some things you could discuss with your old clients. But rather than call “out of the blue” (always a little suspicious when it happens to me), what about some good reasons for the call in the first place? Before we cover those, there are three golden rules to this process:

Rule 1: It is about them, not you

Rule 2: You are calling to solve a customer problem, or grow their business. You call has NOTHING to do with you and your business…

Rule 3: Shut up and listen. You won’t understand their challenges and opportunities unless you do.

Even then you may still find them defensive in the face of your cold call. So to help get you past that, here’s my “Top 10 Reasons to Call”. These all offer good paths to a wider business discussion, offering openings directly relevant to your client’s own business – critically, these take you out of cynical prospecting and into a closer reflection on your client’s current state.

1. You’ve noticed market changes (maybe regulation) that will directly impact your client – your call is a courtesy to inform them on the change and brief them on possible impacts
2. You have a case study from another customer you think could be of interest – there may be something in the piece to help generate growth
3. You have launched a new product and want to explore possible benefits to your customer
4. You have launched a new product, and valuing your customer’s opinion, would like them to give feedback to incorporate their views in your roadmap
5. Utilise the fact you are now outside of their business to provide a different or unique insight they may not be seeing. Offer a learning from another sector that may be of use.
6. Invite them to an event that will help their business
7. Update your customer on any improvements to the service since they last used it, especially if you lost them originally to service issues
8. Update them on their performance metrics versus the rest of market, utilising Aztec/Nielsen data for FMCG’s, or global trends, industry insights, and market surveys etc
9. Offer to make a professional introduction to another party who could help their business – connect two or more of your customers
10. Use data on your customer and other similar customers to provide insights to help find areas where you can add value 

KS