“Get closer than ever to your customers. So close that you tell them what they need well before they realize it themselves.”

Steve Jobs

This quote stresses the importance of deep client understanding and proactive engagement with your business practices.

This is all about client proximity. It's about anticipating their needs by closely monitoring their behaviors and preferences. It's all about building meaningful and authentic relationships.

Establishing a strong connection fosters trust.

To transform your sales, you must prioritize your client relationships. You must prioritize gaining a clear understanding of their needs.

Those in sales who can not only meet but exceed expectations, will ultimately drive success and growth in a highly competitive marketplace.

Transformation requires action. And this is what has me concerned about many in sales.

In our time together, I’m not here to show disrespect, cast judgement nor point fingers. This comes from conversations, messages and even observations within the teams I work with.

Where's the spark? Where's the drive? The same drive you had when you first started your career. Many of you must and I mean must step away from babysitting a portfolio of business as you walk around like your backside doesn't stink.

Yes, my sales friends, babysitting. It hurts but let the truth be told.

What would happen if you lost one of your largest accounts?

When’s the last time you’ve grown within your client base. Are your clients helping you to grow your business? What do they crave from you?

If you'd like to transform your sales results, then I encourage to you to eat feedback and critique for breakfast.

Your first mirror moment:

• What have you done lately for your clients to help them grow their business?

HEART OF WHAT MATTERS

How many of you right now actually understand and I mean truly understand what your clients want? How about what they really desire? How many of you are delivering what they really want?

Begs the question... How many of you even know?

This is a massive gut check time, isn't it?

Let's stop for a moment, as all of you place your thinking caps on. Are you ready?

I would like for you to think about the top 20% of your clients, however you define them, got it? Now, think about how much they mean to you and your company.

What would it mean to you and your company if you started to lose the top 20% of your client base that is probably generating 80% of your sales revenue?

If I had a dollar for every time I've heard, “We service the heck out of our customers. They’ll never leave us.” "I own this account." "They love me, they're not going anywhere." All of a sudden, a cold dose of reality sets in, a competitor walks away with one of your clients and no one ever saw it coming.

Right now, I'm asking you to think differently, act differently, and carry yourself differently. I know you work hard for your clients. You take them seriously. You provide great service and yet some still leave, why?

Let's be real for a moment... Your competitors are calling on your clients and you know it.

They're ripe for the picking if you simply fail to take care of them, listen to them, love them, learn from them and even grow with them.

A failure to pay attention and suddenly, a long list of little things develops, things begin to fester over time and before you know it, you’ve been replaced with a shiny new sales professional.

Sounds a bit familiar, doesn't it?

If you fail to continually enhance the client experience, don't be surprised if they look elsewhere for new experiences.

If one of your goals is to transform your sales, then pay close attention to the following client engagement tactics. Implementing these will skyrocket your sales results.

Grab your copies of the books that will transform your sales results

IDEAS TO DRIVE YOUR SALES

Without meaningful action, you will remain stuck in a complacent set of sales being. You all know what I mean by this. You just simply go with the flow as you hope and pray for better sales results.

The ideas that will be shared with you... All I ask is that you keep an open mind, can we agree to it?

This all starts with the mindset you have towards your clients.

Think back to the top 20% of your clients that are driving 80% of your revenue... You must keep them happy and overly satisfied. This is all about knowing what they want, what they crave and what they care about.

The consummate sales professional is constantly and consistently looking for potential roadblocks and landmines within the top 20% of their client base. They consistently crave feedback from their clients. They leverage this feedback to identify key areas for improvement. It's this improvement that transforms their sales results.

Forget the Wheaties, Oatmeal, or the All-American Grand Slam, a Selling from the Heart Champion eats feedback for breakfast.

ENGAGEMENT TACTIC #1 - FEEDBACK

The late great Jim Rohn once said,

"One customer well taken care of could be more valuable than $10,000 worth of advertising."

The elite sales professionals understand that they are the CEO of their own business. They place their clients at the forefront of everything, as they satisfy their needs, keeping them loyal to their brand.

If you fail to continually discover what your clients think about you and your service (not your company's), you'll never be able to give them the best experience they deserve.

It's their opinions about the experience they have with you that’s helpful information to use to adjust your support to fit their needs more accurately.

At this very moment... How do you know if what you're doing is working with the top 20% of your clients? How do you know if they're happy with their experiences with you? What do they like and dislike? How well are you keeping up with what's going on inside their company?

I encourage you to dig in and ask:

• What can I do differently?

• What can I do to improve or enhance my service to you?

• What can I do to help you do better business?

I'm asking you to rock the boat on this one because a comfortable mindset with these clients is a terrible thing to waste.

Think of the all the competitors circling the top 20% of your client base just waiting for the right moment to reel them into their establishments of paradise.

Let's take this to the vulnerable next level... I double dog dare you to ask:

• If you could change one thing about our interaction, what would it be?

• What words would you use to describe our current working relationship?

• What am I doing well that you'd like for me to continue?

ENGAGEMENT TACTIC #2 - CARE

"People don’t care what you know until they know that you care."

Theodore Roosevelt

Sales is serving and serving is sales. To serve is to care. It's caring deeply about your clients, the people who buy what you have to sell.

Listen up... here's a secret, I encourage you to capture the hearts and minds of the top 20% your clients.

In Selling from the Heart fashion, it's about giving a rip and truly caring about helping to solve their business challenges, goals and concerns.

Showing the top 20% that you care, is not about being mushy and gushy or about pixie sticks and rose petals, it's about being human, being real and being your authentic self, every step of the way.

Your clients are asking so much more of you than they ever have before. I bet they're holding you to a higher degree of accountability. Would you agree with me on that one?

If you fail to nourish and continually bring meaningful value, I flat out guarantee that somebody else will eagerly step right in.

Deeply invest and authentically care about the experiences you provide to these clients.

Watch what happens to your relationships. Watch what happens to your sales. Watch what happens to your referrals. Watch what happens to your long-term sustainability with them.

ENGAGEMENT TACTIC #3 - CONNECT WITH MEANING

We live in a coherent and interconnected world. Connection is the glue that binds us. It’s often said that connection forms the foundation of any relationship. It's the basis upon which all else is built. Without true connection, I believe there is no relationship.

Transformation requires commitment. Create more meaningful connections with these clients by:

• Becoming more open, honest and respectful.

• Asking more meaningful questions that go beyond surface-level conversation topics.

• Creating moments of shared understanding by expressing your personal perspective and being willing to be vulnerable with them.

• Creating the space for authentic connection, growth, and transformation by engaging in healthy assertive business conversations.

How many of you are truly connecting with the top 20% of your clients?

You must make them feel like you really care, and this means stop looking at them through your dollar signed glasses.

Your second mirror moment:

• When was the last time you shared with one of your clients how you really felt?

We as humans want to be heard, we want to know that we matter, and we just want to be loved (or even just liked). The same can be said for your clients.

Heartfelt conversations lead to connection. For this to happen, you must be present and be in the moment.

These clients should be made to feel like they're the only thing that matters. Speak from your heart. Lead from your heart. Many can tell when you’re being sincere or not. When you start communicating with authenticity, you'll find that the trust meter soars.

Connect with meaning by digging in and asking heartfelt questions such as:

• What do you truly expect and desire from me?

• What do you value?

• What matters the most to you?

• What can I do to better serve you?

THE INVESTMENT

Integrating feedback, caring and connectivity becomes jet fuel for building meaningful client relationships with the top 20% of your client base.

If you hunger to achieve true sales excellence, it can't just be about you. It must be bigger than you. You must be driven by a personal mission to make your clients business world better.

• You must intensely care.

• You must have compassion.

• You must connect with meaning.

I get it and let's stop the excuses. I'm here to tell all of you that you can do better. It's up to you and you only.

Are you willing to do the work that no one is doing?

Your success in sales is not just about closing more deals, where you sit on the sales totem pole, or the size of your last commission check; it's about how well you use feedback, how much you care and how well you connect with your clients.

Watch what happens to your relationships and watch what happens to their loyalty.

To everyone in sales… Meaningful and credible relationships do matter.

Originally published on Larry Levine's LinkedIn.