Building Relationships with Clients

From the way you handle the follow-up with prospective clients, the first job with a new client to the “keeping in touch” with current clients is set by the tone and the code of behavior you have developed for the client/creative relationship.  Building relationships does not just “happen” for you. You need to keep your fears from overcoming good business sense.  You need to keep your clients coming back and paying your price.  You need to become more aware of the courtship and bonding in the creative/client relationship. You need a plan to go beyond the sales call.

“But I don’t like sales” Yes, I hear this everywhere I teach my self-promotion workshops but here is the big news, this isn’t about what you like-it’s about how the clients feel. You may not like selling but clients may not be that crazy about buying! Most clients don’t like to be the bad guy and turn you down and reject you.  Very few clients are trained in any way to hire and work with freelancers. Often they are your fellow-creative types.

 For years I had the privilege of teaching the “Managing Creative Services” for Dynamic Graphics Training. We had two hot topics; how to hire staff creative and how to hire freelance creative. I was always surprised – at each and every class- how stressful most clients find the entire “being sold to” process of interviewing and hiring.

One way to take the stress level down and help build client relationships is to research your prospective client’s needs and approach selling as a partnership. Your “sales pitch” – whether in person or in promotions - should let clients know who you are and most of all, what can you do for them? Today’s professional creative services client is looking for someone they can trust to produce what they need, when they need it, within their budget.

What Do Clients Want From You Today?

One way to approach “selling” is to look at what clients really want in today’s economy and marketplace. This is especially true when we are talking about prospective clients, people that have not yet worked with you. For the prospective client, the first most important factor in building a relationship with them is for you to be recognized. To get recognized you will need to have a marketing message representing a unique niche or specialty, technique or style.

Then, you will need to help them recognize what you can do for them with a good marketing plan that consistently presents this message. You need to get a good marketing mix going with direct mail marketing, email marketing, blogs and updating your web site.

In addition, clients today are looking for more services that meet their broader image needs. Here is how one client -- an art director at an ad agency -- lays it out, “I need artwork for 100 pages on a client's web site. That is a huge amount of content and I need it fast. This is much more than when we did ad page spreads. To be my image provider, I need a photographer who can also be a videographer to provide both my still and video clips for my clients' web sites. Now, I need a series of images not just an image.”

Help Clients Decide to Hire You

Once you have a good marketing plan to broadcast your marketing message to build recognition then you take the next step and look at developing the relationship. I would recommend you start with a handful of names pulled out of your targeted lists. They can be current clients you have not seen for awhile, prospective clients that have already seen the portfolio or prospects that you just know (in your heart) need to work with you. You can build on the non-personal relationship from your mailings with a personal relationship from information gathering. Start by paying close attention to your client’s web sites and the work they are doing. Take note of the news releases on their web sites, awards they win, new people joining their firm, their publicity in trade publications on new products or services they are launching.

Then you can go to the next level and when you have personal conversations, correspondence or emails, there will be a give and take of information between you and your client. Information is a very powerful marketing tool you can use to build client relationships that lead to sales.  Remember, just mailing a promo or email does not constitute a dialogue; it must be a two way flow of information. You can help clients decide to hire you by helping them get to know you.