Now, too often, people think building a business relationship is how you get the business, but I’m here to you that the sale is really the beginning of the relationship. Anyone will buy something once, but in order to stay in business, you need repeat business. I recently had a situation with one of my vendors that made me realize that people really don’t get this.  My vendor, let’s call him Hank, works with me on a retainer basis. I purchase a certain number of services for a set price.  When I exhaust my retainer, he lets me know and I purchase another 30 visits. Now, what this means is I am paying for services upfront before they are rendered, but I have a good relationship with him, so I am not fearful that he won’t deliver.

Recently, he sent me an email telling me that in order to prioritize my work, he wanted me to pay him a monthly retainer, and increase his fee by 25%. He no longer wanted to keep our current deal. As a customer, I was taken back by this, but my first question was, “Have I exhausted my retainer?” He said, “No.” Apparently, only half had been used.  So now, I am trying to understand what he was thinking. He did a few things wrong. It’s fine to renegotiate, but not while you have a contract in place. And if you do want to raise the topic of renegotiation, you don’t start off by telling your client that you don’t prioritize their work. In the end, not only is he not going to get an increase in fee, but we may not do any more work and I certainly wouldn’t refer any clients to him. The most important thing you have in your business is your word, do what you say you are going to do, and do it on-time and on-budget. Sometimes, you will agree to a price that you later regret, but you have to live with it, if that’s what you sold your customer.  Here are 6 more tips to Build A Business Relationship.

1. Contact Your Customers. You should be using a recency strategy in your business. Meaning, you should call or contact your customers within 7-10 days of them receiving your product or service to make sure everything is going well. This is also a great opportunity to ask for a Yelp review or recommendation on LinkedIn if the customer is happy with your product or service.

2. Nurture the Relationship. My best customers consider me a friend. Think of yourself as a farmer. Farmers tend to the soil, plant the seeds and water the plants to watch them grow. Farmers know how to nurture relationships.

3. Remember Your Role in Customer Service. If you sold it, when there is a problem, the customer is going to come back to you to fix it. Are you going to give them customer service or lip service? Don’t pass the buck. Own the issue and fix it.

4. Never Solve a Customer Issue With Email. Never be afraid of an angry customer; give them a call to find out what the issue is and put yourself in charge of solving it. People appreciate a personal contact, especially when something has gone wrong.

5. Look for Ways to Leverage the Relationship. You should always be thinking how I can help my customer more.

6. Do a Needs Recheck, Before You Try to Upsell. Make sure you know what is going on with you customers before you hit them with an upsell. Remember, Serve, Serve, Serve, SELL!

If you are interested in boosting your sales in your small business for 2015, I have an amazing 5 part series for you, How to REALLY Make Sales.  I created it with one of my favorite small business experts, Jeffrey Gitomer, Author of the NY Times Best Seller The Little Red Book of Selling.   You can get your copy today for $197.00 www.getsales14.com

Here’s the overview of what we share in the course:

Order the “How to Really Make Sales” video recordings of all five sessions, including:

Part 1: How to Attract Customers

Part 2: How to Network and Make an Appointment

Part 3: How to Make a Sales Call

Part 4: How to Close a Sale < == one of my favorites!

Part 5: How to Build a Relationship
And as a bonus, I’m including the slide decks Jeffrey and I prepared for the webinars.  www.getsales14.com

“Business Meeting Agreement Customer” courtesy of Ambro / www.freedigitalphotos.net