Frequent client contacts are a must. Successful producers will tell you that business and professional clients should be contacted, formally or informally, at least once a month. What's more, since helping you build your business through on-profile referrals must be an acknowledged part of client relationships with businessowners and professionals, don't hesitate to ask for names on a regular basis.

Business and professional market clients expect their advisers to provide a lot of service, to share information on a variety of topics, and to anticipate, rather than just react to, problems. This puts the burden of communication on you, but also creates opportunities for frequent client contacts in addition to planned periodic reviews.

This is good news, since timing is often critical in these cases, a "keeping-in-touch" phone call or e-mail message can put you in the right place, at the right time, for the right reason. What's more, the more often your name is in front of clients, the harder it is for the competition to get in through the back door.

The techniques for providing client service and managing client relationships in the business and professional market are essentially the same as those used in the individual market. In both cases, to become a profit center for your business, client-building and service activities must be carefully managed…which means working from a plan!

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