Do you remember how you treated your very first client?
You probably spent hours each day trying to stay in contact
with them – through phone, e-mail, text or whatever other form of technology
you had available at that time. You were
interested in getting to know everything about them, personally and professionally,
and made yourself available to them whenever they needed you, right? Why?
Because you knew that they were all you had. If they left, you would have been left with
nothing. It is imperative that we do not
lose that line of reasoning. View every
single client the same way that you did the very first one. Get to know them like the back of your hand;
find out their needs and do whatever you can to make sure that they are
met.
The last thing that you want is for your clients to feel the
need to go anywhere else for something that you can provide. Become a one-stop convenience shop for all of
their vocal needs and services. Think
about every other successful business today. When they realized that they did not have something that their customers
needed, what did they do? They found a
way to get it!
Why did McDonald's start selling chicken sandwiches and
salads? Why did Wal-Mart expand into
"Super Centers" with garden, grocery and even automobile
departments? Have you noticed that the
local convenience store up the street is starting to carry more and more
products every time that you shop there?
These companies understand that, as professionals, we have
to struggle in order to stay relevant in our industry. This is true even if it means that we have to
branch off into other industries just to enhance the quality and efficiency of
our own services. If you cannot do
something for a client but know someone that can, introduce your client to the
"other" services that are offered by your company?
If you are a male but your client needs a female for a new
voiceover project, introduce them to the other voices that you have available on your roster. You might be scratching your head, saying
"But I don't have any female voices
on my roster!" If not, then you
better find one! There are plenty of
websites available today that can connect you directly to freelance voiceover artists looking for work. Facebook is a great tool for this as well. Put
these sources to work for you. The goal
is to make sure that your clients only have one name in mind whenever they need
the services that you offer – yours!
Building this type of rapport with your customers and
clients will make it much easier to ask for referrals and even ask for more
business from them. They will be able to
clearly see that they are more than just a number to you. They will strongly believe that you do not
view them as expendable assets or mere pawns on a chess board that can be given
away to the other side without causing any significant damage. They will be able to see that you truly care
about them and their needs and will be willing to do whatever it takes to show
you just how valuable you are to them as well.
Remember the Academy Award-winning film, Jerry Maguire,
with Tom Cruise and Cuba Gooding, Jr.? I've only seen it like 89 times! In this
movie, Tom Cruise plays a successful sports agent that has an epiphany
inspiring him to focus more on truly appreciating each individual client by
focusing on their individual needs instead of focusing too much on having an
abundance of clients because the only thing that you care about is the
commission. Even though his character
was chastised and criticized for this and literally had to start his business
over again from scratch, he was able to build a more solid foundation based on
quality instead of quantity that created a path for him to be achieve an
astronomical level of success in the near future!
Have the Jerry Maguire mentality. Be willing to do what your competitor's don't
so that you can live the life that your competitors won't! If you view all of your customers as
expendable assets, what happens when they are all gone? You are completely out of assets! If your customers are nothing but mere chess
pawns that you allow to be taken easily, then your game is going to end much
sooner than you think.
Keep in mind the words of Kenneth B. Elliott, Vice President of sales for the The Studebaker Corporation who said that
"a customer is the most important visitor on our premises. He
is not dependent on us. We
are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He
is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an
opportunity to do so."
Remember that your customers are the reason why you exist as
a professional. They are your
family. Their projects are your
children. Your clients are your keys to
personal and professional success. Take
care of them now or someone else will be more than happy to take care of them
later!
