Ep. 218 Profitable Client Communication

Develop long term, loyal clients. Joe Pici has mastered the art of building positive relationships with others and provides solid advice on skill with people. 

Voice over:

Get ready for an unfair advantage over your competition. This is The Sales Edge podcast. Where globally recognized sales expert and trainer Joe Pici helps you sharpen your skills for booking more appointments and closing more deals. And now here’s your host Joe Pici.

Joe Pici (JP):

Welcome to The Sales Edge. This is podcast number 218. Have you ever wondered, Is there a process of procedure or protocol for how And when and why we connect with clients? and so today we are going to go into depth on that, welcome to the sales edge, this is Joe Pici your host and thank you so much for Pici and Pici is speaking coaching training consulting, firm recapturing lost revenues for our clients, lost clients, lost momentum and Lost culture and also sell more virtually.com. That is our membership platform in every Thursday night for a little very little money. I’m out there live, you realize that you and I could coached live every Thursday night for an hour downloads e-courses, so much and we invite you to be part of that. But, as we’re moving forward today, I’m really excited about this podcast. You know, for the past six to eight months, I’ve been doing a lot of coaching and Consulting with, with present clients, former clients new clients and something keeps coming up, and it’s about communication.

Communications with clients. now in No way shape or form, Am I telling you how to run your business. In So many processes in business, A salesperson might pass off an account to an account manager and in some cases that works Well, in some cases not, I don’t want to step on any toes. However, I would recommend that the salesperson stay engaged with that client, okay? And And I’m going to get into some processes, some procedures, some, just how to its of the whole communication. The first thing we need to understand about being great communicators, with those clients is to engage in active listening skills. So many times, I’ve heard people say they just don’t listen, so how do you actively? Listen and, and there’s so much good information out there. We have a course on active listening but one way Is to take notes. And the second way is to clarify and by clarifying you are saying back to that person what they said. So your first one is active listening skills. The next one is that follow-up conversation through email or know you’ve had a live call. You’ve had that Communications and now followed up with a note, followed up with an email, get some highlights. Hey John, This is what we covered today is always good. Good to do that. It also gives you what what we say the paper trail. next is to be extremely positive. Your position in their life is to be proactive positive, you know, leading the charge. Let’s not dump negative in any way, shape or form into our clients. Here’s another thing, never ever, ever pour anything negative about what’s going on inside your company inTo a client that’s poison. As said, Nick Saban says that’s rat poison. So I want to stay away from that consider your tone number four watch your tone When you’re speaking. Let’s not be harsh. Let’s not be sarcastic. Let’s not have that Tone in our voice were we’re angry. You know, that’s just comes through and so we want to be careful of our tone. You might want to record yourself some time and just listen to how you sound. Next is prepare for questions. We all know that when you make that call, there’s going to be questions. I’m going to talk to you about a little bit of how to handle them, but prepare for questions. Don’t be shocked by them. Next, be very concise, we’re not calling him to waste their time. I like to call it polite. Directness, let’s be polite. Let’s be direct, but let’s be concise.

From there, We’re going to move into, let’s be In clear, we don’t want to confuse anybody, you know, one of the biggest challenges in any type of communication is people, get confused and decisions are never made by confused mind. So everything we say, has to be extremely concise and extremely, I was on the phone with a client yesterday who pulled in a third party and what we were able to accomplish in 45 minutes was unbelievable. Because the three of us were clear and concise and they already had questions They were ready to ask me. So it was a very beneficial conversation and the next one is always to be polite. You’ll never assume that you get away with them be polite. And I think that’s something that’s missing in our Communications. I think we’ve lost that, that politeness and so if you need to understand polite is pull that up. In the dictionary and you’ll see some real bullet points on what it is to be a polite person. Now, from there, I want us to understand how important it is for us to be professional. Yes, you’re going to have relationships that go on and on, however, there is a certain amount of professionalism that are how close you are to that client. That needs to be executed. You see, the minute you drop your professionalism, then familiarity We will breed contempt and they’ll just stop listening to you. Now, after professionalism, I like to talk about the very patient. When you’re communicating, you want to have a level of patience. You want to have emotional control, never react, be proactive, never be caught off guard, but be very patient and after patients never, but never, but never Argue with a client.

I see this all the time. I see conversations getting elevated. I see people beginning get into an argument with a client. Now, I’m not telling you to be a doormat, but I am telling you you don’t want to argue. This is a death wish. This is the beginning of our relationship going away. This is how you lose clients. When we lose our emotional control and we get angry. And we argue that client is on their way out the door. Now, after that, and these are all bullet points. Getting from clients. These are the things I’m hearing from my clients about things They would like to address when I’m working with their team’s. next never, but never blame other people for anything going wrong. The blame game is the I do a talk, I’m a do it on a podcast, the four levels of the declining business and the fourth level that is when the business is going away, you’ve lost the clock. Is when we begin to blame other never ever get into the blame game from there, never make excuses. Now there’s you can have reasons but there’s a difference between a reason and excuse and so be very careful. We don’t become in the magic of thinking big, excuse-itis people don’t like when you they’re confronted or you can you get you confront Them with an issue. In the first thing you do is you make an excuse that is the beginning of losing their respect and their trust after that never ever, ever, ever ever interrupt. Now, for some of us who tend to be a little bit more fast paced and our brain is always spinning. We can tend to interrupt. I’m telling you, people do not like being interrupted and I don’t care. They’ll y’all, they’ll cut you slack and they’ll kind of giggle and you’ll pretend it’s not a problem, it is a problem and when you interrupt you’re stepping on someone you are hurting their feelings, you are disrespecting them. And so the idea of being a great listener, the idea of really hearing everything.

Is the beginning of not interrupting. But I can tell you, there are certain Behavior Styles. The moment, you interrupt them, they will begin not to engage with you. And we don’t want that to happen. So, that’s a big one. Now, another one is take responsibility. So when you’re communicating with your client, when things are not going perfectly own up, Take the responsibility. I didn’t say, take the blame, I’m sorry, this has happened. John, I’m going to be responsible for getting this, right. You many, you own, the responsibility that is the beginning of reducing conflict from. There always put, always be honest, tell the truth, you know, it’s funny because I was with some coaching clients Friday and I said, God, I don’t worry about me. I will never like, because I’m old and I don’t have to remember. And so when you lie you have to think. What did I tell them? Just tell the truth. People want the truth. They want transparency, they want honesty from their set expectations. There’s three things when how and why you’re going to communicate with them at the next time when you’re going to call him back, okay? How maybe I’ll followed up with an email and why am I communicating back with you?

There’s always a, there’s always a when how and why and setting future expectations and in communicating with your client, do it often and be consistent. So now you have I call that the tactic list. Now I’m going to give you some must call them non-negotiables and I listed a few of their okay? Some things that you just do that, you know is going to help you be more effective in a communicator. Number one, any negotiation should be done face-to-face or on the phone, and I hear ya, but you don’t understand our business. No. But I do understand people. If you have to negotiate with a client, do it face-to-face or do it in the phone at all costs? Number two, never ever, try to resolve a conflict through an email. So any conflict resolution needs to be resolved over the phone through, Zoom, okay? Or face to face.

It needs to be in real time and misunderstandings happen in texting, okay? An emailing and that’ll only enhance conflict. The third one is anytime you have to adjust a pricing structure, okay? Anytime things have to be adjusted in pricing, this needs to be done live face-to-face. Or on the phone, you don’t just drop a bomb. We’ve had an increase in materials. We’re going to Have to pass that on to you. I don’t think that plays well next anytime you’re selling I believe selling needs to be done live telephone, Zoom face-to-face. Not through an email, not through a text. But again, this is these are all Joe isms and I just believe that to get traction, The whole communication thing with a client is vitally important. How you do it. next, Keep your clients informed so many times in a project. There’s things that happen, don’t go silent, stay alive, stay in the now, pick up the phone, call your client and say. Okay, we’re going to have a two-week delay. I’m going to take responsibility. I’ll keep you informed at all time. Now, of course you’re going to hear stuff. You don’t want to hear.

Argue, you don’t have disagreement, you don’t blame people. Those are all the tactics, you would lose and always, but always keep them aware of timelines for everything. So now, you have tactics, now, you have must are non-negotiable. So what do you get when you do these things? What are the benefits of communicating with your clients? Consistently the right way. Number one, You’re going to develop loyalty, loyalty comes from great Communications, there’s nothing better than a loyal repeat client. Number two, you’re going to build trust. You know, when you break a trust, you may lose a client. You may never be able to rebuild that trust. great Communications consistent Communications with our client will build Trust. number three, You can prevent and/or solve problems just by communicating you. I always ask people in our sales training, how many people like bad news and nobody raises their hands. You want bad news to come to you. If your client is disgruntled, if something isn’t working right? You want them to tell you, not your competitor and number 4. It’s going to provide Clarity, you’re going to take the confusion out of everything that’s going on. Number highest, you’re going to provide focus. Focus is Direction. Where We Going? What’s the next step? These are all. The benefits is another one. You’re going to create deeper and deeper relationships.

You know, there are certain industries out time out there. The only time they connect with their clients is during renewal time, that’s just not a way to run a good business. If you’re looking to build a loyal, repeat client base from there, you’re going to increase engagement. When you pick up the phone, you’re going to want to talk to you because you bring value. Another one is It’s going to improve and increase teamwork between the companies between you and that client. You’re going to create a cohesive team. Instead of you being a vendor, you’re going to be part of their Solutions. It’s going to deepen, deepen, deepen, Rapport, and Rapport is the deepest relationship You can have in business. from there It’s going to increase new business at the end of the day when you’re connecting With people you stay top of mind. and with a couple phrases, I’ll cover in in some future podcast. You can upsell sell more and get more business. Is it’s got you’re going to bring that client value and that’s the key to everything bring value. And the last one is you’re going to grow your brand. So As we begin to understand the whole dynamic of great client Communications you Got to set a tactics and goals and you got to set of really skills, then you have your must dos. These are things that if I were a company, this would be on, this would be on a chart. This would be in my account management room. This would be in my sales room and then knowing the benefits that come from great Communications.

So, as we wrap this up today, I’d like you to take out your phone and I like you to go into your text box and I want you to put the word sales Edge, and then send that to five five, six, seven, eight, that’ll take you to Pici and Pici. That will take you to a splash page. Yeah, there’s five free e-course videos but the second area down there is links and information on the sell more virtually.com membership platform. The reason we put this together is, not Everybody can consistently afford to coach of me on an ongoing basis but they like to get to me once a week and a live format with a group. Do a mastermind, get some coaching, get some training, also ebooks. More e-courses are coming it’s a great product. There’s also eBooks on there and links to our sales as podcasts. If this is a value for you, can you like it, can you share it? And can you make a great comment? Mint on it. Thank you. This is been podcast 218, This Is your host, Joe Pici.

Voice over:

Thanks for listening. New episodes will air each Tuesday and Thursday. So make sure to subscribe wherever you listen to podcasts and give us a five star review. The Sales Edge is sponsored by Pici and Pici Incorporated. A firm which provides training, consulting, and keynote presentations. Empowering corporations and individuals to attract and retain quality clients, for higher revenues and growth. Make more money in sales, speak with Joe in person by calling 407 947 2590 or visit www.piciandpici.com