It’s important to treat each one of your clients like the individuals that they are. If you incorporate these 7 tips into the way you handle business, your relationships with your clients will soar!

1. Find the line between humble and professional.

Your client hired you for a good reason: you are good at what you do. You have convinced your new client that you have the skill and expertise to maximise their success and increase their profits. But, clients can sometimes be difficult and think that they know more. It’s important that you first hear what they have to say and listen to their ideas properly; thereafter, come back with your hard hitting facts, incredible knowledge and groundbreaking ideas.

2. Stay on top of the ball.
Meeting deadlines is really important. If you can’t meet a deadline, no matter what the reason may be, you must keep your clients up to date and informed of what is going on, why, and what you are going to do to fix it. Clients are people too, and if you present good charisma, you will not put a bump in their confidence towards you. That brings us to our next point.

3. Keep the ball rolling.
It is undeniably important to keep track of your leads impeccably well. Sometimes you read an important email and tell yourself you are going to get back to it as soon as you have formed your words properly; but then never do. If you struggle to maintain good control over your clients and other potential income, it is best you get a proper lead management system. Communication skills and response time will make or break your success!

4. Be over-excited.
Make it a personal goal to stay up to date with your client’s industry; inform them if you hear of anything concerning in the news and converse with them about interesting facts and points that you find. Having a lack of genuine interest will deter you from learning about your clients’ industry, so you have to always remain enthusiastic about what they do and how you can help them.

5. Dominate their goals and dreams.
Sometimes your clients don’t know exactly what they want, and don’t realise what they can have. It is up to you to be the pioneer of their ambitions, and steer it towards future success! Practise reading into the type of client you are working with and help them find solutions to problems they didn’t even know they had.

6. Encourage adaptation.
Remember that what doesn’t change is destined to disappear. Practice flexibility in your line of work and enlighten your clients on the importance behind adapting to new trends, considering new management strategies and updating to better business intelligence software.

7. What the bill?!
Present your clients with a clear proposal from the beginning and don’t stray away from it, even if the going gets tough; avoid random and inconsistent invoices. If you want to track ad-hoc work that you do for your clients, rather log your work on an online programme like Toggl. Then you can demonstrate the time spent on them in one concise report, instead of updating them on random occasions of extra time spent working.

Find out more on How Big Data Can Determine What Customers Want.