I often talk about ‘connection’ and ‘engagement’ (in a business context) and how they work together. I believe one generally leads to the other.
Business owners and leaders who feel strongly connected to the purpose of their business are engaged wholeheartedly and with passion.
Employees who find themselves connected to their company’s values and goals and feel a connection with their colleagues are more engaged.
Genuine engagement with clients creates a greater sense of connection and builds long-term, mutually beneficial, relationships.
The benefits of client engagement
We know that, in general, the cost of acquiring new clients is higher than client retention expenditure, and it stands to reason that the chances of up-selling to an existing, happy client is more likely than selling to a new unknown one.
A happy client, you might call them ‘loyal’, will buy everything you have to sell if they can use it, or need it. Your strong ongoing relationship makes them less likely to buy from a competitor. And an engaged and connected client, will feel comfortable to encourage others to buy from you, because they believe in your product or service. They become an extension of your sales team.
How do you build engagement?
To foster a sense of engagement and connection with clients it’s important to factor social needs into our interactions with them. As a reminder, there are five primary social (psychological) needs that can be broadly categorised as importance, certainty, choice, fairness, and connection. Meeting needs triggers feelings of reward, whereas not meeting them invokes a threat response.
When you are dealing with clients, whether it’s in person, virtually or in writing, understanding whether you are triggering feelings of threat or reward and if it is a threat, how to counter these, will go a long way to developing strong, genuine feelings of connection and engagement.
Would you like to help to improve your client engagement and connection? I work with account management teams to identify and resolve key challenges. With an emphasis on creating highly engaged teams who build strong client relationships and sell value to make a profit, I review, streamline, and improve your account management practices and procedures and develop team members to focus on excellent interactions with clients. Contact me for an obligation free chat.
Photo by Madison Oren on Unsplash
