10 Ways to Build Relationships with your Existing Clients

Networking and Business Development is about building relationships. It is important to remember that this includes nurturing your existing relationships with your clients and customers.

There are 10 simple things that you can do to help build your relationships with those clients:

01. Do a Great Job in Delivering a Service to Your Existing Clients

Start with your day job. Deliver what your client is expecting you to deliver. Do your day job and do it well!

02. Learn More About Your Existing Clients

Learn as much as possible about your client so that you have context for your work. This will include keeping up to date with your Client’s news and what is going on with them. This will include doing your research. This will also include chatting with your Client Contacts and finding out more what they are doing right now, what is important to them and what challenges they are facing.

03. Find Ways to make your Existing Client Contacts “Look Good” in their Business

Think about the extra value stuff you can provide to your clients. How can you help your client contacts look good in their own business and how can you help them deliver on their goals and objectives.

04. Keep up to date on your existing clients’ markets

Another way to continue to learn as much as possible about your client is to keep up to date with the market that they do their business in by reading their trade and industry press.

05. Set up News Alerts for your existing Key Clients

Set up Google Alerts or other News / Keyword Alerts for your key clients. These should be all the clients that you deal with on a regular business so that you are kept up to date with what is going on with them right now.

06. Expand the Number of People you know at existing Client Organisations

Look at each of your key client organisations and map out the contacts that you know. Who do you know, who do you want to get to know, who do you not know? Work out how you can expand your reach and plug any gaps that you find.

07. Be the “eyes and ears” for your team and alert the relevant people in your business to opportunities and/or problems at your existing clients

Part of keeping your ear to the ground and learning as much as you can about your client contacts is to also become the eyes and ears for your team so that you can easily identify and take action when opportunities present themselves.

08. Identify Talks and/or Briefings that you could provide to your existing Key Clients

Your business will always be preparing updates, briefings, articles/blogs, training/webinars etc. Keep tabs on these on a regular basis and identify those that you are writing/putting on that may benefit your Client Contacts, or where none of them are relevant, think about those that you are not already provided that you could provide.

09. Invite existing Client Contacts to join you at relevant internal and external events

If you are hosting or attending events, consider inviting your client contacts along where the topic may be of relevance to them.

10. Arrange and Participate in Social Events for existing Key Clients

Finally, where you have a key client relationship with a team. Why not arrange and participate in social events with these clients to help you network with them and get to know them better.