As the leader of your business, you invest time, effort, cash and resources in fine-tuning your company to produce the perfect product, cost-effectively and on time. With all this great progress are you enjoying the rewards of higher sales revenues, greater profits and great customer retention?

If not, there will be a reason so let’s ask another question… What have you done to fine tune the way you engage with your customers?

In the same way that things change quickly in the world of production, efficiency and technology, things also change quickly in the way customers operate. This means that it’s just as important – some say more important – to refresh the way we manage the relationships with our customers.

Unlike the machines and the technology in your business which behave consistently and predictably, your customers vary greatly in terms of their needs, expectations, behaviours and drivers.  As a supplier, your company’s ability to manage these variables to the benefit of your business is critical. We call this the “Critical Edge” and it requires constant honing to stay sharp.

Companies that manage this well have customers that place more business with them, pay higher prices and are more likely to endure the occasional error or blip in service. Customers like this are more likely to help you out when you need it because they value their relationship with you. Companies that don’t do this well are compared on price, service, quality and frequently fall down the pecking order in the customers’ eyes as being a commodity supplier.

Make a STRIDE^© in your customer relationships

Just because the customer relationship is full of variables and intangibles this does not mean that it should be left to chance. It requires a process just like other aspects of your business and this process consists of distinct parts that can be improved.

The first of these elements is “Satisfaction” or in other words, “Understanding and Meeting Expectations”.

Outstanding Account Managers have a clear understanding of what is expected of them. This includes what their clients expect such as a faultless service, speed of response, expertise & advice, trust, integrity, leadership, commerciality, approachability, a trusted partner who looks after their interests and let’s not forget being enjoyable to work with.

Let’s look at what is expected from your company’s perspective. You will expect your team to grow their customer business, win profitable orders, accurate forecasting, have great customer knowledge and to be an exemplary ambassador of your company.

Many companies do not clearly communicate these expectations to their teams and most do not remind them of these and simply leave it to the ‘experience’ of the individual to have this clarity. Unfortunately, this clarity gets lost over time and periodic reinforcement of this is critical to hone this “Critical Edge”

Our STRIDE© Customer Engagement programme covers all of the key components of customer engagement including how the role breaks down into tasks, how your company wants to be recognised, what impression your customer has of you, what makes you different (and better) and what evolution looks like for your long-term relationship with each of your main customers.

We share with you our expertise in modernising this ‘Critical Edge’ of your business by embedding techniques, tools and methods to help you become the supplier of choice for your customers. It revolutionises the way you interact with your customers and helps you to become that supplier that wins the more attractive orders, at higher prices and that benefits from the preferential light in which your customers see you.

The STRIDE© program forms part of our wider ADVANCE methodology and is a great introduction to the strategic development of your company.

Fine Tune your client relationships –  Contact us to find out more

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We all know that excellent customer service and delivering good value for money are critical to the success of any business.  However, if you wish to retain and grow your clients and become part of their future plans you will need to do more.

Printing businesses have a reputation for providing high levels of service and response for their customers. Unfortunately, this quality of service is not always rewarded with customer loyalty and the relationship can appear one-sided.

The relationship you have with your clients is critical to ensuring you retain their long-term business and widen your service offering to them.

In this article, we share insight into how you can strengthen your client relationships and move things onto a strategic footing so that your business is treated as a business partner and enjoy long term stability and growth.

Lead the relationship – 7 key steps

There are reasons why clients treat some suppliers like partners and others as just loyal servants. One of the main reasons is that they believe their supply partners offer them something unique and of value that they can’t easily get elsewhere.

Look at how clients hold in high regard their chosen agencies, consultants and advisors and you’ll easily see the difference.  This behaviour is driven by the client’s belief that these companies have a positive influence on their business. If this is the type of relationship you want then it is critical to be seen as a positive influence on your client’s business.

Here are four of the seven key steps you can use to drive the relationship in a more strategic direction.

1. Change your mind-set about what you offer

If your mind-set is that your company is a ‘great product supplier’ then this will drive the behaviour of You, your teams and your business and you will absolutely be perceived as a ‘great product supplier’.

Unfortunately, there are many great suppliers out there and if you want to be treated differently, finding ways to be more valuable to your client is a great place to start.

2. Think what you can do to help your clients become more effective:

• Ideas – Are there ways you can improve your clients’ communication to their audience?
• Simpler process – Can you simplify the front-end process to make your client’s job easier?
• Better control – Using technology, applications, providing greater visibility to help your clients manage their campaigns?
• Faster, easier, lower cost – What can you do to help get your clients get more from their budget?
• Technology – Is there anything you can do or offer to automate, streamline your client’s workload?

3. Make ‘friends’ in higher places

If your contact within your clients is with senior stakeholders it is likely that your relationship will be more secure. Having a clear strategy of adding value, ideas and business intelligence for your clients will help you to attain and retain these senior relationships and pave the way to selling a wider range of services.  Of course, this approach will seldom earn you face time with the CEO of your client but will help foster closer bonds with board members as they see you as an enabling partner.

4. Be ‘IN’ your client’s business

By imagining you work in your client’s business, it becomes easier to understand the difficulties they face, come up with ideas and ways that you can help them address these difficulties. At the very least, try and find ways of helping them get more out of their budget.  Every department head has a budget and your help with this is a great way to build trust.

That’s the foundations in place

Having covered these four steps you can then begin to work on how you structure your day to day interactions with your client and embed these techniques with your client-facing teams. In later articles, we will cover steps 5-7 including

5. Techniques to align your account management with your strategy
6. Successful engagement with Marketing and Procurement professionals
7. Using formal reviews to develop strategic engagement with senior stakeholders.

Some Dos and don’ts

For those businesses that are already doing many of these things we recommend running through a check list, review your original objectives and assess your progress so far.

Be willing to adjust modify as you see fit as this is an evolving process. Even businesses that are doing many of these things usually fall short on some so you are bound to find something that needs more attention.

On the other hand, if you are just starting out on this process then try to avoid the common mistake of trying to run before you can walk. For example, using all the right words without making sure the day to day delivery is consistent with your message will create a mismatch that your clients will easily spot.

Another common mistake is shying away from reaching out to the senior stakeholders in your clients’ businesses. This is linked to having a clear strategy and offering and there are many tips to help your teams gain the capability and confidence to do this. See our ADVANCE^©programme for more details.

You can start right now

You can begin developing your own strategy right away with the help of our ADVANCE^© supplier evolution programme. In this programme, we cover client engagement in more detail together with six other essential steps that will transform your business by evolving into the marketing services arena.

Future proof your client relationships – Click here to find out more

Margin Improvement are experts in helping Suppliers of Print services to increase their profitability, benefit from stronger relationships with their customers and deliver strategic growth.

We tailor our proven methodologies to your business to ensure maximum benefit. We deliver these programmes as hands-on specialists or can guide you and your team through a mentoring process so you can decide which is the best option for you.

The post Are you part of your client’s future? appeared first on Margin Improvement.