Roses are red, violets are blue romancing your clients will get you more sales and that is true.

Okay, I might not be the greatest poet but I do know this: You must romance and develop personal relationships with your clients. The reason why: It has tremendous persuasive power and it’ll give you an unfair advantage in business. And, when you have personal relationships with your clients, rather than just “strictly business” type of relationships, it helps you close more sales.

Believe it or not, your clients are not just looking for the “cheapest price” when they’re deciding to buy (no matter what they say). There are other factors that must be taken into consideration, such as “how well do they like you.” Let me give you an example. If you were competing for business at your best friend’s place of business and a complete stranger were competing against you, who do you think would win?

Well, unless you were running a second-rate business and your best friend knew it, you would probably win. Why? Because your friend has a personal relationship with you.
There’s more at stake here than just making the sale. If you lost out on making the sale, your friend may not be your best friend any more. You would feel that your personal relationship should’ve been more important than any “price” advantages someone else may have offered. And guess what? Your best friend would have the same pressure on him. He would buy from you because your personal relationship is more important to him.

Now, what if I can show you a way to always make your clients your best friends. You would always have an advantage when competing against someone else because you would always have a personal relationship that would be in your favor. Well, that’s what this issue of the Sales Magic newsletter is all about, developing personal relationships with your clients, so you will always be the top choice. I have used the word “romancing” because the techniques I’m going to tell you about have a romancing nature to them (plus it just sounds better).

HOW DO YOU ROMANCE A CLIENT?
Simple. You use marketing tools. You’re a busy person. You don’t have time to develop a personal relationship with all your clients. So, you must use marketing tools to help you. Let’s talk about some of the marketing tools you can use.

PERSONAL LETTERS AND NOTES
One tool you should be using is personal letters. A personal letter is the perfect way to establish a personal relationship with someone. A personal letter allows you to have a conversation with the reader (even if it is one sided). It allows you to communicate what’s going on in your life and to update the reader with any new information you want them to have. Have you ever seen one of those war movies? You know the ones I’m talking about. The soldiers have been off to war and they haven’t been home in a long time. They’re all sitting around and then here comes the mail person. All the guys are excited and they start to crowd around. Each guy stands excitedly waiting to see if he got a letter from home. Once he gets his letter, he immediately tears it open, finds a comfortable spot and reads each and every word. He may even share a paragraph or two with a fellow solider. People love getting personal letters. People love reading about other people’s lives and learning what’s going on in their lives.

HOW THE WORLD’S GREATEST SALESMAN SOLD 13,001 CARS
The Guinness Book Of Records named Joe Girard the world’s greatest salesman 12 times. During his fifteen-year selling career, Joe sold 13,001 cars, all retail. One of Joe’s secrets to selling so many cars was building relationships with his thousands of prospects and customers. He did this by mailing them a letter or note — every month! And when it was time for one of his prospects or customers to buy a new car, they called Joe.

SHOULD YOU SEND PERSONAL LETTERS AND NOTES?
Yes, you should. When should you send them? Every chance you get. You can send a personal “Thank You” note after each business transaction along with your bill or invoice. You can send a personal note along with a birthday card or an anniversary card. These little personal notes will do wonders for establishing your relationship with your clients. It makes you a real person and gives you a “personal touch.” Most of your competition will not be giving a personal touch. They’ll send their bill, get their money and be on their way. There’s no emotional contact, no feeling involved. It’s just another printing job. By using personal notes, you’re going to set yourself apart from others in your market. You’re going to touch your client’s emotional heart strings. And when your clients are ready to buy again, they’ll call you. You’ll stand out from the crowd as an individual, someone who really cares — a friend.

USING PERSONALIZED POSTCARDS
This next tool I’m about to tell you about is from super star salesman Tom Hopkins. Tom is very well known in the real estate market. He knew how to create very loyal clients. He could often get clients to use him again and again. Now, considering that people buy houses every five to seven years, building client loyalty is no easy feat. Tom often had to romance his clients for five years or more, before they would do business with him (now that’s what you call a long prospecting cycle).
One of the techniques he liked the most was to send out personalized postcards. Now everybody knows about sending out little “reminder” postcards to remind clients that it’s time to do business with you again. Those are nothing new. Those techniques will stimulate some business, but they will not build a relationship with your client. Tom Hopkins however, has found a way to use postcards to build up his relationships with his clients.

Here’s what he does:

When Tom goes on vacation, in additional to all his regular luggage, he also brings two additional things with him. He brings his client list, and a big stack of postcards. On the plane ride to his destination, instead of dozing off or reading a magazine, Tom starts addressing his postcards with his clients’ names and addresses. He also writes a brief note on the back. The note might say something like…

Dear Mr. Client,
I was sun bathing on the beach in Mexico and I was just thinking of you. When I get back, I’ll have a present for you.

Tom Hopkins

Tom fills all of his postcards out with the same simple message and mails them when his plane lands at the airport. He now has the rest of his vacation to himself.
What’s the present? The present might be some inexpensive little gift that he’ll buy for all of his clients. These little gifts will cost hardly anything. He can give the client a gift which strengthens his relationship with them and it also gives him an excuse to drop by and see if they want to do some business. Pretty slick, don’t you think? And guess what, it works too.

What other ways can you think of to romance your clients? More importantly what methods are you using or going to start using?

Kick butt, make mucho “DEE-nero!”

~Dave Dee
Founder, The Psychic Sales Institute