Courting Contacts Into Customers

Courting contacts into customers is a long, slow dance … more like the olden days of courtship than the frenetic pace the recently popular floss.

And much like a courtship, care and patience are needed to nurture relationships toward your desired goal. Developing acquaintances into prospects, allies and supporters — and potentially into customers — takes dedication, focus and commitment.

So pleased to make your acquaintance

Conventional marketing wisdom references the rule of seven: that a prospect needs to be exposed to your message seven times before acting upon your offer. While our digital era enables this exposure more easily, it can also be more challenging to build trust, rapport and gut-level confidence in the match.

Consider courtship in past generations. An admiring suitor may have requested permission to walk a lady home from Sunday services or offered a hand to guide her descent from a horse-drawn carriage. Fostering a relationship was a courteous and unhurried process.

While building business relationships in today’s world is less genteel, respect and patience are as key to the process as diligence and persistence. Nurture relationships through personal and authentic interactions.

You are your business

Just as the suitor of olden days gained social status from his family’s position in the community, your personal credibility is intricately bound to your company reputation. Follow these steps for a civilized approach to achieve the seven marketing touches.

One: Earn respect for your company and brand through leadership roles and community involvement. Two: Increase visual exposure and reputation with sponsorships and recommendations from others. Three: Demonstrate authority with a strong online presence, valuable tools and content that conveys expertise.

Pause and inhale … the power of grace

Four: Keep manners at the forefront. Even in today’s unfiltered era, the hard sell is a turnoff. Whether it’s an obtuse networker whose elevator pitch takes triple the allotted time, a fast-talking attendee who commandeers the conversation or the maniac who doles out business cards at speeds reminiscent of a casino dealer – none of it is endearing. Aim for fewer — but more meaningful — conversations to cultivate authentic connections. For service industries in particular, relationship building is essential to business growth.

Surprisingly, the best way to become memorable (in a good way) is to not talk about yourself. Instead, ask questions and spend more time listening than speaking. Learn about the other person — their history, how their business works and what their struggles are. Stay centered in the conversation; maintain eye contact and be attentive.

How does your behavior make the other person feel? Valued and acknowledged. Your time investment builds rapport while also helping you to gain knowledge to more effectively personalize your ongoing outreach.

Nurturing to deepen the connection

Five: As you gain a sense of which contacts may be valuable connections, strengthen the relationships by investing in them as you would a friendship or courtship. Proactively look for commonalities, offer resources or introductions that may be useful, and be thoughtful in your interactions. Consider extending an invitation to join you at an event of mutual interest, or meet in person over coffee.

Six: Capitalize on digital opportunities to develop promising relationships further. Keep in mind that the most valuable connections you make may be complementary businesses, strategic partners, sounding boards, allies or referral sources, as opposed to direct clients.

And that memorable 7th marketing touch

Seven: Onboarding is an activity that shouldn’t be reserved exclusively for clients. As you build a pipeline of contacts at various phases of involvement and interest, apply a disciplined process to ensure you’ve checked all the boxes for promising prospects, allies and partners, including …

• Add their contact information to your contact management system
• Follow and seek opportunities to engage on social media
• Sign up for their blog or email newsletter
• Create calendar follow ups to proactively keep in touch
• Set up Google alerts to stay abreast of news about their company or industry

The path to court contacts into customers may have the rise and fall qualities of a traditional waltz … but focused commitment and respectful outreach could lead to a promising future together.

Need a dance partner?