Its All About Courtship

There are still those who will tell you that sales is all about timing and price. However, today most slaes professionals will tell you that selling is all about service and relationships. These are the ways we set ourselves apart from the competition. I'm not knocking timing or price. After all, many sales opportunities appear only during brief windows and if you miss that window you've missed the opportunity no matter how good your service or potential relationship. As for price, you have to be reasonably competetive. I stress the word reasonably because in most cases you don't have to be the lowest bidder. As I mentioned in my last few postings, most of the clients you want want Ritz Carlton service and are willing to pay for it. Why? That brings us to courtship.

Courtship is the way we communicate to someone that we value them. While value can and should be communicated verbally, it must be communicated through action. Everyone wants to feel valued. Our favorite restaurants are often not the fanciest or most expensive and, sometimes, not even those with the best chefs. Often, they are those restaurants that make us feel welcomed and valued; where they remember our name, our favorite drink, even our favorite dessert. Really good ones remember our birthday and anniversary and make a big deal of it when we come on those dates. They also provide consistantly excellent service and quality.

Manitaining any relationship depends upon constant, consistant courtship and when the courtship ends, the relationship soon follows. This is true of marriage [the major reason for "falling out of love" is the end of the courtship at the marriage alter -- "Well that's done, I don't have to worry about that anymore."], friendships, parent child and, of course, clients. Once you stop courting your clients you will find them vulnerable to someone who does.

Whether you intend to or not, every day, in every way, you communicate to others how much and in what ways you value them [if at all]. The major reason for creating a client service matrix is to establish a consistant program to court your key clients and communicate how important you feel they are. Make certain that the message they receive is the one you mean to send. Thanks. kfg