Plug Into Your Customer

Susan Clements

Executive Director, E-Myth Benchmark

“To understand the heart and mind of a person, look not at what he has already achieved, but at what he aspires to.” – Kahlil Gibran

Your clients are your lifeline to success; through their success you will find your own. Discover and learn everything you can about them––their hopes, desires, needs, risk tolerance, and goals. Be committed to reconnecting them to their goals as you work together to help them make the decisions necessary to achieve them.

Learning and discovering all you can about your clients is accomplished through well thought-out questions and listening with an open, caring, and nonjudgmental point of view.

Questions can be asked without the questioner learning anything. If your questions become rote methods of steering your clients to a predetermined destination, you have lost the most powerful relationship tool available to you. A well-crafted question is an elegant entrée into a high impact conversation if:

• you really care about the answer
• you’re willing to let go of what you think the answer should be
• you’re open to exploring conversations outside your client’s comfort zone
• you don’t already know the answer
• you listen to learn and remember what you learn.

The conversations you have should always be about your clients first. Your products, your services, your interests, and your accomplishments will not mean anything to your clients until they feel you care about them first. When your clients feel that you know and understand them, they will connect with you and be open to hearing what you have to offer. 

As you work with your clients and listen for what is meaningful to them, you will understand how to design your relationship with them. Remember what you learn, and leverage your clients’ words to connect them back to their goals as often as possible––letting them know that you know them. 

This method of affirming your clients is not a trick or a cute sales tool; it is a serious commitment to caring about and honoring their needs. Know them and they will be your clients for life. There will be times when you may be the only person willing to connect a client back to the dreams he or she is afraid to hope for anymore. 

Learn, Discover, Remember––Connect your clients to their Goals.

Susan Clements is Executive Director and co-owner of E-Myth Benchmark, a business coaching company serving businesses in the United States, the Caribbean, Canada, and the UK.  As a business coach Susan has steered client businesses through growth initiatives, sales and marketing strategies, management restructuring, personnel issues, customer service challenges, and action plans for growth and change. Leveraging a personal and professional experience platform of business ownership and management of businesses in both the private and public sector, Susan has designed a revolutionary coach training and delivery system that tools E-Myth Benchmark coaches to actively engage in results based coaching with business owners, leaders and managers leading to greater freedom and flexibility.  E-Myth Benchmark provides E-Myth Mastery Impact™ business coaching, business management and leadership workshops, trainings and seminars. Contact Susan at www.e-mythcoaching.com or sclements@e-mythcoaching.com.