Consultants who excel at cultivating client-consultant relationships tend to reach the pinnacle of their careers. Talent alone doesn’t guarantee advancement; opportunities must arise for you to showcase it – customers being one such avenue for this showcase of your abilities.
Be the best consultant possible and deliver extraordinary results, but also focus on building client relationships for lasting success.
Here are five strategies for building lasting relationships with your clients.
- Recognizing Their Pain Points
Consultants are engaged to resolve specific issues within an organization, so it is vital that they accurately understand your client’s frustrations and goals—are they experiencing low revenues in their business, high turnover rates, or difficulty successfully integrating new technology?
Building client relationships starts by understanding their pain points. Doing this effectively depends heavily on communication with them. More will be discussed later. For now, though, this article focuses on communicating and asking clients the relevant questions. You can create different sets of queries for various departments of your company, as the needs and concerns may differ depending on who leads each.
- Implement a CRM system to help manage client relationships
What Is a Client Relationship Management System (CRM)? CRM allows you to store and track all relevant client information. It can also automate some repetitive tasks and the sales process, such as sending pre-written, well-structured emails if invoices are late, nurturing existing clients via drip campaigns and newsletters, and building stronger consultant-client relationships than ever.
Client relationship management software makes it simple to keep in touch with existing clients and gain new business. Though CRM can be invaluable in generating leads and turning them into customers, pay attention to its role in improving both parties’ experiences post-sale.
- Are You Skilled at Client Communication
As consultants offering advisory services, we will explore some steps you can take to enhance client communication. First, contact the designated contact: Many companies assign contractors and consultants as contact points to help them answer your queries more effectively.
Contact them directly before approaching top management or the CEO if you have something meaningful to share. Choose an effective communication channel: Communicating with clients differs significantly from talking to friends.
For instance, texting daily on different social media may not satisfy clients; they prefer email over Slack. If Slack works best for you, do it every time; otherwise, find what fits best. Maintain communication: Many clients appreciate being kept updated as much as possible on the progress of your project. Please do your best to inform them as much as possible regarding its advancement. Keep this in mind when speaking to clients. Consulting professionals may sometimes sound robotic and cold; always add human touches when communicating to avoid this.
- Acknowledging feedback constructively and making appropriate adjustments if necessary.
Customer feedback is an expected practice, whether your organization is a small bakery in its hometown or an international corporation with billions in turnover based in New York.
Professionals, including consultants, may find feedback disconcerting. You must always remain calm and try to comprehend the client’s perspective; clients hire consultants with high hopes for problem-solving services, and their hopes turn into expectations and, ultimately, client feedback.
How can you handle feedback professionally? First and foremost, remember that not all feedback is negative. Your clients may praise your work when receiving positive reviews. For negative comments that require changes or more answers from you, ask what the client wants changed or provide alternative answers. When dealing with unfavorable opinions from clients, remain calm while thanking them for sharing their comments; then, politely suggest they continue with your solution or make appropriate modifications based on what is recommended if necessary and thank them.
- Attract quality clients through an online consulting platform
No matter your best efforts, some client-consultant relationships need improvement. It’s not always the consultant’s fault, either—some clients make life too difficult! It is always better to prevent problems than deal with them later, so using an online consulting platform such as Consultantport to find reliable clients may help avoid misunderstandings and unnecessary hassle.
