Do you ever find yourself being asked the same question over and over again?

One of mine is ‘How do you keep finding your clients, where does your business come from?’ The frequency of this question has gone up lately as we are all trying to work out how to respond to the ‘tough economic conditions’

My initial answer is always, ‘I’m not sure, it just seems to happen, somebody calls, I get an email, it’s been like this for 7 years.’ On reflection my answer is probably not very helpful. People are probably asking me to find out what the ‘secret’ is, or hear about our sales process or ‘prospecting pipeline’.

Having thought about it for a while, I realized there must be reasons ‘it just happens’ and at the risk of over analyzing it struck me how I ‘think’ about sales and winning new business. I DON’T!

What I DO think about is the people I meet, I wonder how they are, whats going on for them and do my very best to stay in touch however in-frequent. The email/call I must make 20 times a week is ‘Hope you are well, fancy a coffee and catch up?’

I love meeting people, listening to their stories, sharing ideas and contacts, having my thinking stretched, asking questions and I think this is how ‘just happens, JUST HAPPENS!’

A very successful client of mine said to me the other day that she hates it when people just ring her up when they want something. This person has a phenomenal network, holds various non-exec positions and is a leader within one of the biggest companies in the UK. She still likes it when people contact her to ask ‘how are you doing?’ It made me think, how often do I do that?

I know it’s not as simple as this, but I DO believe that RECIPROCATION is one of the most powerful forces, what we give out we get back. Being myself and being true to myself is fundamentally important to me and I love working in the commercial world, so my question is ‘How do I sell and keep my cash, conscience and character?

Here are 4 questions to ask myself?

• What assets do I have, how might they be really useful to someone else?
• Who is having it ‘tough’ what could I bring? (We all value more the relationships we develop through the difficult times)?
• Where am I best investing my time, energy and focus?
• When did I last create real value for someone else, without thinking of what I was getting back?

Here are 4 things to do that cost little or nothing other than a small amount of time:

• ‘I just called to say.’ Maintain relationships even when you are not getting anything from it, just ring to say ‘how are you doing’ and actually be interested in the answer.
• ‘Thinking of you’ Remember the present you got that was absolutely perfect, how amazing is it when someone sends us a book we would really love to read, or the article that helps us with just what we were working on.
• ‘Nothing Down!’ Exchange what you have, do business as it was done 5000 years ago, learn, benefit, from what you both have to bring.
• ‘Phone a friend’ Be a ‘Maven’ share your contacts; sometimes meeting the ‘right’ person is all I need.

So how are you doing, thriving, surviving or diving?

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