It is a known fact that with today’s consumers, the more you can engage your clients and prospects, the more likely they are to respond to you and stay with you as a client. And the more they’ll buy. A mistake often committed by business owners with their client and prospect list is only communicating with them when they’re trying to sell them something, then wondering why their response rate is low.

It’s kind of like when you’re dating and you meet someone you’re interested in. You don’t go straight for the big prize right out of the gate. You have to build a rapport first and try to develop some type of a relationship. Most people aren’t patient enough, or willing to do the work when it comes to their customers. It’s best to get them engaged somehow, someway in your business – regularly giving them helpful information for free and asking how that may help them. Also, occasionally having a promotion they can be involved in where they don’t have to buy is usually a hit.

Questions to Ask

Here are a few of the questions you need to answer about your business to help direct you in getting them engaged. Some may be modified a bit depending on who it’s intended for:

  1. What keeps your customers/clients/patients up at night?
  2. Can you describe your PERFECT customer?
  3. Can you describe your WORST customer?
  4. What questions do you get most often from customers? CRITICAL
  5. What’s a dirty little secret in your industry?
  6. What’s your favorite customer success story? People respond to stories better than info.
  7. What’s the funniest/craziest thing that ever happened to you in your business? Another story opportunity.
  8. What’s scariest thing that ever happened in your business?
  9. What’s the #1 reason a customer would NOT do business with you?
  10. What can you teach your customers to do (for free) that would help them solve a chronic problem or save them money or time?
  11. Are there other services, providers, and/or products that you can recommend to your customers that would make their life easier?
  12. Is there “conventional wisdom” in your industry that is just plain wrong?
  13. What things is your company NOT good at?
  14. Why did you get into the business you’re in?
  15. What’s your most embarrassing customer service story?
  16. What are you doing in your industry because “that’s what everybody in the industry does?”
  17. What’s your favorite part about coming to work everyday?

 

What Do Clients and Prospects Want?

These are questions for you to answer and designed to help get your clients/prospects not only engaged, but to get you to think about your business and your customers. It can also serve to help you identify how you might help them. What product or service would they buy if you had it to offer?

Question number four is especially important; paying attention to that can help you develop services that your clients/customers/patients/prospects are saying they want, need and will pay for. Often delivering those services or products will improve customer retention and increase the size of your average sale.

Question number four can also give you insights into how to get your customer engaged with your business.

 

Is there one, single secret to success of such overriding importance that, if concentrated upon exclusively, will literally change a person’s entire life experience and results? What is it?