Getting to Know Your Client

OK, it’s just easier to sell umbrellas when it’s raining. It’s easier to sell them in England than the Sahara (unless to block the desert sun). The more you know about what your client needs, the easier it will be to sell them your product or services.

Advantages to Learning what Your Client Needs

1. You may discover things you had not thought of that your client needs and you can provide.
2. The terms your client uses to describe their concerns may be completely different than the words you use. Choosing keywords relies on knowing the terms your client uses.
3. Sometimes, what most concerns your client is  something you can actually help them with, but they might not have thought there was a correlation. For example, if I sell lawn products, customers may think they have ‘drought damage’ to their lawns.  I can advertise Grub Control, but if my clients think their problem is drought, they are not going to be interested in my product. I need to tell them it’s a particularly bad season for grub damage. They may know the problem but be mistaken about the cause.
4. Find out the relative importance of different issues to your client. Try to understand both their motivation to solve a particular issue its importance relative to other concerns they may have. If I am a business coach and my client stresses over their business problems, I need to determine if the issues stem from personal problems that first need to be addressed. Let’s say my client wants to do a new-product launch. If her entire life is in organizational chaos, all the coaching in the world is not going to do the trick until she gets a handle on her organizational habits.
5. Know that what your client wants may change over time. Current conditions can also affect what your client wants or needs. If it rains too much, a drought product for the lawn is not an issue.

“The only man I know who behaves sensibly is my tailor; he takes my measurements anew each time he sees me. The rest go on with their old measurements and expect me to fit them.”

—  George Bernard Shaw