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Client or Customer? Does It Matter?
Do you have clients or customers? One creates a foundation for a sustainable business, the other just gives you a momentary income.
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Client or Customer? Is It Important?
By Paul McCord
Do you have clients or customers? Many salespeople, business owners, and
companies use the terms interchangeably, simply meaning someone who has
bought from them. But the difference is crucial to your success in building a long-
term, profitable business.
The dictionary definitions begin to make the difference clear:
Customer: An individual or group who buys a good or service
Client: An individual or group who engages professional advice and guidance
Which of the above do you want work with? Someone who buys because you
happen to have the good or service they need, or someone who relies on your
professional advice and guidance?
In reality, I think the concept of client goes well beyond simply relying on
professional advice. I believe a true client relationship involves a relationship.
The idea of client means an individual or group who trusts, whose needs and wants
and circumstances are intimately known to the professional giving the advice and
guidance, and where there is frequent and open communication between the
parties.
On the other hand, the concept of customer is an individual or group that makes a
purchase based on convenience, price, accessibility, or some other factor, including
persuasion or pressure. These are not necessarily one-time buyers. They may, in
fact, be repeat buyers–maybe on a very regular basis. But their purchasing
decisions are not based on their trust of and relationship with the salesperson.
Guidance and advice is minimal or even non-existent. Contact with them is
occasional, often through nothing more than a newsletter, a direct mail piece, or a
once a year phone call.
Take a close look at your client database.
· Which of your clients do you know needs an additional product or service of
yours? I'm not talking about, "everybody needs the Wiz Bang X3 product." I
mean which of the clients in your database do you know well enough to
KNOW you have a product or service they really need–and exactly what
product or service it is they need, and their specific problem or issue that it
will help them solve?
· Which of your clients are you comfortable calling and asking for referrals, for
a testimonial letter, for a recommendation on LinkedIn?
· Which of your clients would you not hesitate to use as a reference without
asking their permission if needed because you know without question what
they will say?
· Which of your clients can you point to and say without hesitation that they
trust and respect you? Not, "I think," or "I believe." But you know without a
doubt they trust you. If your answer is all, you've either not given the
question much thought or you're fooling yourself.Those people in your database that you can give a positive answer to every one of
the above questions are your clients. The rest are customers.
Clients stay with us over the long haul because their purchase isn't based on price.
They didn't buy because we happened to persuade them to make a purchase they
later regretted. They didn't purchase because we happened to be in the right place
at the right time. They bought because they see us as being trustworthy; giving
advice and guidance that is valuable to them and helps them make wise decisions.
Our relationship is more important than a few dollars. Convenience is secondary,
trust and respect is primary.
We all have customers. And we have customers that for whatever reason we don't
want to be clients. They may have more demands than their business justifies, we
may not work well with them, their needs are so small and infrequent they don't
justify the time and energy investment.
Nevertheless, if you want a sustained, profitable business, you must concentrate on
creating clients, not customers. You must identify those customers and prospects
that should be–must be–your clients, and then you must invest the time and
energy to build the relationships with them that will create a true client, not a
customer.
Simply making a sale and adding the name to your database isn't going to create a
client. Sending an occasional newsletter or making an annual call isn't creating a
client. Persuading someone to buy something doesn't create a client.
Clients are created through establishing a relationship, not sold. Clients are
relationships, not sales orders. Clients are men and women who can count on
you–and you can count on them. Clients don't have to question your integrity or
advice–and you don't have to question their loyalty.
Yet you can never be so comfortable with a client that you take them for granted.
In fact, if your client is really a client you wouldn't think of taking them for granted
because you have both a professional and emotional commitment to them. You're
primarily concerned about their welfare, not your profit. One arises out of the
other.
Clients are not lost because of price or convenience. Clients are lost because the
relationship has broken down, the trust has eroded, their sense of your interest in
their welfare is gone.
Search your database and determine who is a client and who is a customer. Decide
who should be moved from customer status to client status and begin creating the
long-term relationship with them that will create the loyalty and trust that will
provide you with the foundation of clients you must have for your long-term
success. And then focus your attention on finding prospects that you want as
clients, not just customers.Paul McCord is a leading authority on prospecting, referral selling, and personal marketing.
He is president of McCord Training, a Midland, Texas based sales training, coaching, and
consulting company. His first book, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales
Success through Client Referrals (John Wiley and Sons, 2007), is an Amazon and Barnes
and Noble best-seller and is quickly becoming recognized as the authoritative work on
referral selling. His second book, SuperStar Selling: 12 Keys to Becoming a Sales
SuperStar has just been released. He may be reached at
pmccord@mccordandassociates.com or visit his sales training website at
www.mccordandassociates.com or his highly popular blog
http://salesandmanagementblog.com
Copyright 2008, Paul McCord. May be reproduced without change, with proper attribution
and brief bio. Notice of when and where article is to appear to
pmccord@mccordandassociates.com
By Paul McCord
Do you have clients or customers? Many salespeople, business owners, and
companies use the terms interchangeably, simply meaning someone who has
bought from them. But the difference is crucial to your success in building a long-
term, profitable business.
The dictionary definitions begin to make the difference clear:
Customer: An individual or group who buys a good or service
Client: An individual or group who engages professional advice and guidance
Which of the above do you want work with? Someone who buys because you
happen to have the good or service they need, or someone who relies on your
professional advice and guidance?
In reality, I think the concept of client goes well beyond simply relying on
professional advice. I believe a true client relationship involves a relationship.
The idea of client means an individual or group who trusts, whose needs and wants
and circumstances are intimately known to the professional giving the advice and
guidance, and where there is frequent and open communication between the
parties.
On the other hand, the concept of customer is an individual or group that makes a
purchase based on convenience, price, accessibility, or some other factor, including
persuasion or pressure. These are not necessarily one-time buyers. They may, in
fact, be repeat buyers–maybe on a very regular basis. But their purchasing
decisions are not based on their trust of and relationship with the salesperson.
Guidance and advice is minimal or even non-existent. Contact with them is
occasional, often through nothing more than a newsletter, a direct mail piece, or a
once a year phone call.
Take a close look at your client database.
· Which of your clients do you know needs an additional product or service of
yours? I'm not talking about, "everybody needs the Wiz Bang X3 product." I
mean which of the clients in your database do you know well enough to
KNOW you have a product or service they really need–and exactly what
product or service it is they need, and their specific problem or issue that it
will help them solve?
· Which of your clients are you comfortable calling and asking for referrals, for
a testimonial letter, for a recommendation on LinkedIn?
· Which of your clients would you not hesitate to use as a reference without
asking their permission if needed because you know without question what
they will say?
· Which of your clients can you point to and say without hesitation that they
trust and respect you? Not, "I think," or "I believe." But you know without a
doubt they trust you. If your answer is all, you've either not given the
question much thought or you're fooling yourself.Those people in your database that you can give a positive answer to every one of
the above questions are your clients. The rest are customers.
Clients stay with us over the long haul because their purchase isn't based on price.
They didn't buy because we happened to persuade them to make a purchase they
later regretted. They didn't purchase because we happened to be in the right place
at the right time. They bought because they see us as being trustworthy; giving
advice and guidance that is valuable to them and helps them make wise decisions.
Our relationship is more important than a few dollars. Convenience is secondary,
trust and respect is primary.
We all have customers. And we have customers that for whatever reason we don't
want to be clients. They may have more demands than their business justifies, we
may not work well with them, their needs are so small and infrequent they don't
justify the time and energy investment.
Nevertheless, if you want a sustained, profitable business, you must concentrate on
creating clients, not customers. You must identify those customers and prospects
that should be–must be–your clients, and then you must invest the time and
energy to build the relationships with them that will create a true client, not a
customer.
Simply making a sale and adding the name to your database isn't going to create a
client. Sending an occasional newsletter or making an annual call isn't creating a
client. Persuading someone to buy something doesn't create a client.
Clients are created through establishing a relationship, not sold. Clients are
relationships, not sales orders. Clients are men and women who can count on
you–and you can count on them. Clients don't have to question your integrity or
advice–and you don't have to question their loyalty.
Yet you can never be so comfortable with a client that you take them for granted.
In fact, if your client is really a client you wouldn't think of taking them for granted
because you have both a professional and emotional commitment to them. You're
primarily concerned about their welfare, not your profit. One arises out of the
other.
Clients are not lost because of price or convenience. Clients are lost because the
relationship has broken down, the trust has eroded, their sense of your interest in
their welfare is gone.
Search your database and determine who is a client and who is a customer. Decide
who should be moved from customer status to client status and begin creating the
long-term relationship with them that will create the loyalty and trust that will
provide you with the foundation of clients you must have for your long-term
success. And then focus your attention on finding prospects that you want as
clients, not just customers.Paul McCord is a leading authority on prospecting, referral selling, and personal marketing.
He is president of McCord Training, a Midland, Texas based sales training, coaching, and
consulting company. His first book, Creating a Million Dollar a Year Sales Income: Sales
Success through Client Referrals (John Wiley and Sons, 2007), is an Amazon and Barnes
and Noble best-seller and is quickly becoming recognized as the authoritative work on
referral selling. His second book, SuperStar Selling: 12 Keys to Becoming a Sales
SuperStar has just been released. He may be reached at
pmccord@mccordandassociates.com or visit his sales training website at
www.mccordandassociates.com or his highly popular blog
http://salesandmanagementblog.com
Copyright 2008, Paul McCord. May be reproduced without change, with proper attribution
and brief bio. Notice of when and where article is to appear to
pmccord@mccordandassociates.com
