Building and maintaining relationships with your clients is one of the most important things you can do. Consistently provide them with relevant, useful information. Do this at LEAST once a month. Don't sit back and wait for them to contact you, let them know you're out there! They'll welcome the attention as long as you're providing useful, relevant information.



Establishing and maintaining relationships with your clients builds loyalty.

Stay current with news. Learn a new skill. Research a new product. Keep yourself motivated and educated. Become an "expert" in a particular product.

Never, EVER underestimate the power of relationships, especially where your clients are concerned. If your competitors are working hard to keep and maintain clients, and you're not, don't be surprised when your clients jump ship.

Talk to other professionals in related fields (Attorneys, CPA's, Investment Advisors, Real Estate Agents). Form a network of trusted professionals that you can refer to. Become the "go to" person for your clients, and you'll be providing them with value, not just service. This is also a great way to give and receive referrals.

You should also pursue referrals them from within your existing client base. By providing your existing clients with valuable information, they'll be sure to recommend you to their friends and associates. And feel confident in providing you with referrals.

Encourage your clients to involve you in their long term planning.

Who is your "ideal" client? Determine their specific demographic(s) and concentrate your relationship building efforts on attracting more of those people who fit this description.

Learn everything you can about what's important to your target market. Use this information to focus your efforts on providing exactly what this particular group wants. Or, you can target a particular type of business, and concentrate your marketing and service on what the owners and employees of this specific type business need and desire.

As an example, you could target your marketing efforts specifically to automotive dealerships. Or even more specifically, managers of auto dealerships. Learn all you can about their world. What their concerns are. What issues do they deal with?