Networking: 2 Minute Training #3: Give Your Clients Something to Refuse

Networking: 2 Minute Training #3: Give Your Clients Something to Refuse

As a business networker, you probably know how difficult and annoying it can be to be to feel cornered. Nobody likes that feeling. When you’re networking, or at a networking meeting, getting cornered is usually a low-pressure affair. When dealing with a client, however, you need to make sure they feel like you are bringing them the best choices you have, and not that you are forcing them to take the only thing you have to offer.

At Dockery Design, we have found over the years that the best way to keep a satisfied client is to make sure they feel valued and in control of their business. This is especially good if your business is creative and creatively bent.

When you approach a business, (either at their request, or when making a pitch) and you only have one choice prepared, its pretty much an all-or-nothing game. Your client can choose to take it, and validate the time set aside for the meeting, or they can choose to leave it, and consider it time wasted.

With only one item to choose from, your client will almost always feel that they are forced into a decision. When you can step to the plate and offer your client multiple choices, they will begin to feel empowered. When more than offer exists, you clients feel that THEY are the one in control. They feel they can make the real decisions (however limited or extravagant), and that the control of the business relationship is in their hands.

Always give your clients something to refuse, be it a secondary offer, an extra add-on product, or an extended-service offer. Keep your clients happy, keep them feeling in control, and you will have a long and pleasing client relations.