Make sure they are happy, so they keep buying. From you.

“So, Alon, what should I focus on throughout a relationship with my existing clients?”

This is a question I was asked by the VP of Client Success, who was sitting next to me on one of my recent flights, right after we sat down and introduced each other.

Wow, diving right in.

"Make sure they are happy", I replied.

“And how is that going to help?” she pushed.

"Well, if they’re happy, they will keep buying from you. Hence, you want to focus on making sure they are really happy. The challenge, of course, is finding out what Happy means for THEM. After all, each person you have a business relationship with (and relationship in general) is motivated by a slightly different type of happiness. And going back to what I keep harping on – how do you know what makes them happy if you don’t know them? So get to know them, get to know what moves them, what gets them emotionally moved, and make sure they are happy."

“That sounds heavy, Alon” she said with a bit of a sigh, realizing there is no easy fix here.

“How do you approach that? How do you even start?”

"We can start with the basic commonalities first. It has been proven, time and time again, that if a certain set of emotions is not met by the seller, the likelihood of the buyer acting on it decreases substantially. And yes, this stands across industries and types of products.

This means that at the very minimum, you want to make sure there is some fulfillment of emotional needs on the buyer’s side. Some basic level of the beginning of Happy. Think of it as an entry level to stay relevant. And what better basic emotional need to fulfill than trust?

First, show them they can trust you. From there, you dive deeper into their specific set of emotional needs."

“So, how do you know Alon? What are THEIR specific emotional needs to make them happy? Beyond just that basic trust?”

This flight is going to be interesting, I was thinking to myself at this point…

"You cultivate the relationship. Not the opportunity."

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"People don't care how much you know until they know how much you care."

— Theodore Roosevelt

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"Most customer relations folks I am working with (Account Managers, Client Success Managers, etc.) are pretty good with the basics. However, they seem to have a hard time maintaining and increasing it over time. Cultivating a relationship, getting to know them, opening yourself up to them so you understand their true needs better, is a hard thing to do. And if you don’t do it over time, the result is…churn.

A Harvard Business Review article from 2015 cited that “At the most basic level, any company can begin a structured process of learning about its customers’ emotional motivators and conducting experiments to leverage them, later scaling up from there.” I truly believe that no DISC or any other characteristic analysis could tell you in advance what motivates them, what their emotional need is, and what makes them happy. Only over time, when the trust and openness levels are at a certain level, will you know."

“That makes sense. And so, once I got to a certain level of trust and openness, was that it? Does it stay up there?”

"Unfortunately, no. Just like any great brand, you must continue and remind your customers about your offerings, your value proposition, and more. The big brands do it via ads, commercials, etc., but you, you need to do it via available means such as LinkedIn, emails, and…speaking with them. Once you stop being relevant, they will simply look elsewhere.

The super interesting element of a long-term relationship with a client is that many times, you do not know when they will pull the trigger on the “buying more” part. And this is exactly why you want to constantly stay relevant. Constantly build more trust and openness. Constantly seek to know more about them and what makes them happy. And then, when the need arises and they are triggered to buy, they will come to you. Only you."

“OK, so, assuming this period where I am learning more about them and getting it is potentially a long period, how do I proactively stay relevant?”

"Great question. In one of his studies, Ken Roberts, Chief Innovation Officer at Forethought, talks about “…humans require an emotional detonator to decide (anything) and that laying down a memory is aided by disruption…”

Laying down a memory is what I refer to as the Emotional Anchors. You must lay down these anchors throughout your relationship with your client. Laying down these anchors means experiencing emotional experiences together. It could be at first sharing a favorite sports team win together by talking about it, a child’s graduation by sharing it, and later on by texting them a link to a podcast you just listened to, which got you to think of them. You create those emotional experiences throughout the relationship, and those are your emotional anchors. And you could trigger those emotional anchors again later in the relationship by referring back to them, and hence, making them memories."

Think of it this way:

1. You establish a basic level of trust and openness

2. You both open up more and learn more about each other

3. You experience some emotional experiences together that get you closer and increase your level of trust and openness.

4. This results in a higher brand loyalty and a higher desire to do business with you

I like to think that the competition is always knocking at the door. And if the knock is at the right timing, where there is a need AND I am not there, my client might consider the competition. If I am not CONSTANTLY in the mind of my customer, when the need is there, instead of talking to me, they will open the door for someone else.

Constantly staying relevant, showing interest, always getting to know them better, and letting them know you better will ensure you are there. There when the need comes up, and there when the competition knocks.

When you constantly stay relevant, open up, and show that you care. When you establish trust through emotional anchors and laying memories, you will most definitely make them happy.

Hence, make sure they are happy, so they keep buying. From you.