The Synaxis Keystone Marketing System provides a phased approach to the implementation, rollout, and operationalization of marketing measurement tools, web tools, and communications tools.
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How to Think Like Your Client
In relationships, most people at some point wish they could read minds. It would save time and a lot of trouble if you could know what another person is thinking, or at least have insight into their perspective. This is true for client relationships as well.
Anticipating needs and being able to speak your client's language would be a lot easier if you could get inside his or her head. Well, if you do adequate research and pull from your own experience and intuition, maybe you actually can.
Most people rely on day-to-day interaction as a guide on how to relate to someone's needs. If emotions were only surface level, this might work. But if your client is like you, your sister or your best friend, she is going to react to a situation based on years of experience and transition, success and disappointment, and many, many lessons learned. Making the effort to crack this code will pay off when you interact with and respond to your client from a place of knowledge, empathy, and partnership.
Know Your Client on a Deeper Level
When investigating what makes your client tick (or ticked off) you need to have a complete picture of her experience. Find out her career background and skill set. Uncover the level of understanding she has about the business problems she tackles in her current position and why she has hired you to help.
Along with tried and true 'Googling', a great resource is LinkedIn.com, where many people have posted at least a partial professional and educational profile. Take a look at her major in college, the organizations she belongs to and where she honed her skills. If you find that her last company went under or if she recently changed fields, you now have some insight into her perspective.
Next, analyze whom you are dealing with on a personal level. Is she technical or a tech-void? Emotional or analytical? Outgoing or reserved? Is she on top of things or does she seem overwhelmed? Remind yourself of her composite personality before every conversation.
Read. Research. Repeat.
Once the personal perspective is complete, you'll be ready to digest a comprehensive profile of your client's organization, including their mission, target audience, products and services, acquisitions, failures, big wins, financial results and established strategy. Keep in mind that any and all of these things can change so follow this process every quarter.
- Research the company as though you know nothing about them—review their web site, listen to the last analyst call and track the last four quarters of their stock price
- Read the latest press—do they have new products, new clients or a new acquisition?
- Review their competitors
- Demo their products
- Visit their office
- Tour their manufacturing facility
- Summarize your own image of the company for insight into the general perspective on their brand
When you have gone through this process, you will be an expert on both your client's business and relationship requirements. You will be able to proactively problem-solve and anticipate upcoming business challenges and your client's likely response. This will make you indispensable. It's a win- win professionally and you might find you are more astute in your personal relationships as well.
