Always Get the Name of the Dog: How Knowing Your Clients Makes You a Better Consultant
When I was 15 years old, I worked at a shoe store. The store was in a small country town, where everyone knew everyone else – and everything about them. Because of that, the shop assistants tended to know our customers very well. We knew where they worked or went to school, where they shopped and what they liked.
Mrs Rose was one of our customers. She was a lovely woman that I knew well because she was a teacher at my local high school. From my time serving her in the shop, I also knew that she wore a size 42 (size 12) women’s shoe and often struggled to find shoes in her size, especially in styles that she liked.
One day, the store received one pair of size 42 shoes in a style that I knew she would love. I really wanted to set them aside for her and give her a call, but I was also a little bit scared. I didn’t want to seem pushy or salesy or risk her being annoyed. I thought about talking to my manager, but being the nervous teenager and not wanting to get into trouble, I was also worried that she’d tell me to leave them in stock so that they could be sold to whoever wanted them.
After umming and ahhing, I decided to approach my manager. I told her that we’d got these shoes in, and I thought they’d be perfect for Mrs Rose who I knew struggled to find shoes to fit. I asked, ‘Would it be pushy to call her and offer to set them aside for her to come in and buy?’
My manager looked at me and then asked, ‘What would be the caring thing to do?’ While I thought about it, she said, ‘Setting them aside and giving Mrs Rose is absolutely the right thing to do. She may not want them, and that’s OK, but offering them shows her that you’re thinking of her, you know her and you want to help.’
So I set them aside and called her.
‘Mrs Rose,’ I said, ‘I know you like this style and your size has come in. It's no pressure but I set them aside for you in case you'd like to come look at them. I didn’t want you to miss out.’
Well, to Mrs Rose, it was like Christmas had come early. She said, ‘I’m so glad you called me first! I definitely don’t want to miss out! I’ll be in this afternoon!’
My manager had taught me one of the most important lessons that I’ve had in my business. And that’s to know your customer and to confidently approach them with offers that can help. Not just because I want to make another sale, but because you care. And understanding this is vital for any business, but especially in the consulting practice space. The better we get to know our clients, the better we can help them – and the better consultants we will be.
How to be a Better Consultant
We all strive to be excellent at our jobs. And yet, I’m often surprised when I ask my clients who will buy from them, and they stare back at me with blank faces. They might reply, ‘HR managers.’ But when asked which ones, they don’t know. So then we dive into their databases and they'll identify a specific HR manager, Mary. So then I ask what they know about Mary. But even then, it’s almost nothing.
Why it matters?
The problem with this is that if we don’t know our customers, we don’t engender any loyalty from them. But repeat customers are great (vital) for business. Research found that the longer the relationship a customer has with a provider, the more money the customers spent over a given period of time.
Having a relationship and connecting with your customers is important if you want to know how to be a better consultant. It may feel uncomfortable at first, but it will always be of benefit to your customer base.
This is yet another reminder that we have to be attention out!
How to be a better consultant – get to know your client
One of the most foolproof ways when learning how to become a better consultant is to get to know your client. This is not coming from a place of being nosy, but from being interested. Knowing more about them will help you to tailor your offer and solve their problems. And the only way to find out this key information is by having conversations with them – they have all the answers!
Here are some tips for how to get to know your clients!
Always Get the Name of the Dog
Digital marketing pioneer and Wall Street Journal best-selling author Ann Handley set out a fantastic list of 40 time-tested tips that never go out of style. While it’s aimed at journalists, the tip taking out the #1 spot is applicable to all of us who want to learn how to be better consultants: always get the name of the dog.
But what does this mean?
Well, the idea is that if you manage to get all of the client’s personal details down pat, even down to the name of their dog, then you know enough about the person. When you know the name of the dog, you should also be able to answer whether they are married, have children, where they live and, of course, if they have pets.
The Mackay 66
Business leader, speaker and seven-time New York Times best-selling author Harvey Mackay has spent many decades touting his golden rule of selling – know your customer. He believes that having an established relationship with the person you’re selling to is crucial in business.
In fact, Harvey believes so strongly in knowing your client that he developed The Mackay 66 Customer Profile. This is a report that outlines the 66 things you should know about every client you work with.
It covers everything from their sports interests and a favourite place for lunch to their personal goals. Once again, it’s not about prying but a way of encouraging you to talk more deeply with them and helping you get to know them over time. This is so crucial in your learning how to be a better consultant.
Nurture Your Existing Clients
As Richard Branson once said, when it comes to nurturing your customers, the key is to ‘set realistic expectations and then exceed them, preferably in helpful and unexpected ways’.
Too often consultants single-mindedly chase new sales opportunities, and in the process lose sight of the clients they currently serve. We all know that sales are crucial to business, but have you stopped to think about who the people are that you need to be selling to and how you can remain connected to them after they have bought from you?
There are three types of sales meetings you should be having each week to help increase your revenue growth.
Your Top 150s Meeting – this is about keeping connected to your existing customer base.
Database Meeting – this is finding out who the top openers of your communications are and finding a way to help them.
Creative Sales Meetings – this is brainstorming as a team to find ways to connect, build relationships and solve problems.
Systems are Key
Working in a shop in a regional town, it’s easy to get to know your customers. In the same way, when you have a small business you can pretty easily keep on top of them as well. But once your business grows (or you move from a regional town to a city), it becomes much harder to know everyone in the same way.
This is where good systems come in.
When dealing with a lot of clients, you need to be able to make notes and keep them on file for when you need them. As Harvey Mackay says regarding the Mackay 66, you need to guard this information and be sensitive to how you use it and who has access.
Steps
If you want to know how to be a better consultant, follow these steps:
Have you looked at the top 150 customers you have?
Who do you not know well enough?
What do you need to do to get to know them better?
I’d love to hear your thoughts on how you get to know your clients...