How to have lasting relationship with clients?

By:CD Mohatta

Clients are the most precious assets for a business. Without clients, there can be no business. With poor quality of clients, the business will be poor and if you manage to get very good clients and retain their loyalty, your business will only go up and up. This all sounds very exciting. But it is not easy to get very good clients and all the more difficult to retain them. After all, whatever you do, your competition is trying the same and may use better techniques to get business. Are there any innovative approaches to client relationships?

We are talking about direct sales in this discussion and not about selling merchandise to large consumer base. For example if you are a contractor maintaining air conditioners in clients work places. Or a direct seller of computer hardware to business buyers, and all such businesses where your sales to individual clients are large, and you are in direct contact with clients.

The first need is of course client satisfaction. If the client is satisfied with your response time, after sales service and can depend on you, pricing may become secondary. All clients do not buy from a supplier whose sales at the lowest price. If your product cost is a small percentage of clients total expense or if your product is essential for your clients, you are onto something good. How to retain such clients despite all the competition? What are the other factors than client satisfaction?

Relationship is one such other major factor. Do you relate with your clients only professionally, or are very good friends? Both these extremes can hurt. For a long-term business relationship, good friendship is not good for health of your business. Any problem in the personal friendship will directly affect your business. What if you relate to your clients mechanically in a professional style totally devoid of personal touch? You know the answer yourself.

What is needed is a relationship that does not border on personal friendships, but crosses mechanical approach. A fine balance between personal and professional.

Digg del.icio.us Blink Stumble Spurl Reddit Netscape Furl

Article Source: http://www.articles2k.com

CD Mohatta writes for business ecards for www.ecarduniverse.com. You can also see his text on love ecards
and popular screensavers.

Top Public Relations Articles
1). How to Become the Most Interesting Conversationalist Around By : Tim Wright Learn exactly how to become the most interesting conversationalist around - and attract people like never before!
2). Finding the Right Equipment Supplier Paramount to Success in the Restaurant Industry By : Kingston Amadan Most companies with any degree of overhead know that finding the right supplier of products necessary to run their business is of the utmost importance. For most businesses, it can mean a substantial savings and reduce the headaches often associated with searching for a reliable equipment dealer. For restaurants, however, finding the right equipment supplier can mean the difference between success and failure in the industry.
3). How To Turn the Spotlight On Your Company In a Top Newspaper By : Sharon Dotson Article tells readers how to get publicity by writing letters to the editor.
4). How to have lasting relationship with clients? By : CD Mohatta Clients are the most precious assets for a business. Without clients, there can be no business. With poor quality of clients, the business will be poor and if you manage to get very good clients and retain their loyalty, your business will only go up and up. This all sounds very exciting. But it is not easy to get very good clients and all the more difficult to retain them.
5). Public Relations - and what it means for your Franchise By : Walter Raleigh The First Rule for building a Successful Franchise Business is to establish a great PR operation. You need to build a good reputation and as quickly as possible. You have to understand the value and the overwhelming benefits that flow from having an impeccable, transparent and reliable reputation so make this a major goal, as the continued success of your franchise business depends on it.
6). Change Your Tone - Media Coverage Shouldn't Be Toned By Software By : Chris Morrison The world of PR is benefiting from dramatic changes in the way media coverage is being delivered electronically to your computer desktop or PDA of choice. Perhaps the nuisance of ink on your fingers is being replaced by a bad case of "BlackBerry thumb" -- but nevertheless getting your media coverage electronically has never been easier or more mobile.
7). What is Human Resources Consulting? By : Maureen Cook Human Resources: sounds depersonalizing, doesn't it, to describe workers in this way? It smacks of older attitudes to the workforce which are now seen as increasingly outdated.
8). Protection from Protectors By : James Hayes This article discusses the vulnerabilities and security holes introduced by security suites, the very programs that are supposed to protect a PC, not make it more vulnerable!
9). It's More Valuable Than Money - Your Community. By : Dannielle Brantley When you're enjoying dinner and dancing at your company's annual event or that Mojito at your associate's loft you are building something more valuable than your business bank account..."
10). Come Boldly! By : Ann Stewart Ask Him for whatever you need!

New Public Relations Articles
1). Guerrilla Marketing By : Jaci Rae How you can use guerrilla marketing, tips, tricks and ideas that will help you make money and sell online.
2). Your Expertise is Boring! By : David Avrin I see your lips moving, but all I hear is “Blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.” I know it’s not what you want to hear, but quite simply, if you are a speaker, author, consultant or other "expert" I see being interviewed by the news media, your expertise just isn’t very interesting. Information is a dime-a-dozen and yours is no different. So in this age of round-the-clock, on-demand, blue tooth, on line, high def.
3). One of America's brightest leaders and thinkers By : eyelogic Marshawn Evans, J.D., has garnered a reputation as an inspiring, articulate and intelligent orator. In the same mode as multitalented trailblazing women such as Oprah Winfrey, Katie Couric, Tyra Banks and Kimora Lee Simmons, Marshawn is a: media personality, distinguished entrepreneur, passionate youth advocate, inspirational speaker and up-and-coming litigator.
4). Are You Ignoring Your Customers' Requests? By : Willie Crawford Copyright 2006 Willie Crawford Many Internet marketing experts will tell you that the best way to find out what your customers want from you is to ask them. While that may be true, I believe that an even more accurate way is to just listen to what they're telling you, and to what they're asking you for. To illustrate my point, I'll use a couple of examples from one of my own niches.
5). Send Business greeting card this holiday season By : thomsonchemmanoor The holiday season is around the season. There are lots of cards and gifts being exchanged, with lots of money being spent in the air. This is the season to be jolly, and also to make others jolly through greeting cards and phone calls. When the holiday season comes, one starts deciding on whom to send business greeting cards to, and on whom not to send cards to.
6). How to Create a Better News Release By : Robert F. Abbott Many organizations and businesses want media coverage of their activities, and at the same time many newsrooms are looking for local (or even national and international) topics to cover. If you're belong to an organization that wants coverage, you can increase the odds of getting it by following a few simple news release (or press release) conventions.
7). Public Relations - and what it means for your Franchise By : Walter Raleigh The First Rule for building a Successful Franchise Business is to establish a great PR operation. You need to build a good reputation and as quickly as possible. You have to understand the value and the overwhelming benefits that flow from having an impeccable, transparent and reliable reputation so make this a major goal, as the continued success of your franchise business depends on it.
8). How to Remove Barriers To The Sale By : Bernadette Doyle Copyright 2006 Bernadette Doyle When a client is thinking about hiring you, two major questions in their mind are: ‘Can this person deliver what they say they can deliver?’ and ‘Will their approach work in our particular business?’ The trouble is no client can really answer these questions until after they have hired you. And that’s the catch 22. This is a major stumbling block which can delay if not totally grind the sales process to a halt.
9). Public Relations Strategies For Manufacturers and Industrial Suppliers By : Conrad Bailey By Conrad Bailey What you are about to read here is not what you would expect to learn about marketing industrial products via public relations, or what you would normally find from other PR sources. The reason is because the majority of public relations articles you'll find online are nothing more than hidden sales pitches from PR firms that offer advice based on what's best for their agency - and not the client.
10). Communication & Corporate Social Responsibility By : Robert F. Abbott In the past few years, the anti-corporate movement (including those opposed to globalization) has gained a bit of steam. What many people in the movement promote now is called Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR), the idea that corporations should be responsible to all of society and the environment, as well as to shareholders. It's a shame they've gained momentum.