5 Rules for Nurturing Your Dream Clients

If you want to win your dream clients, you have to nurture those relationships over time. You have to make the deposits that make you known and that make you known as a value creator. Here are 5 rules to help you nurture your dream clients without making the mistakes most sales organizations and salespeople make.

1. It must come from you: I love marketing. But if something shows up in your dream client’s inbox from marketing—even if it has your name on it—it is spam. You are the one nurturing the relationship, so any deposit in that relationship must necessarily come from you. Later, you are going to ask for their time, and you are going to be the one they work with. You do the nurturing.
2. It must not be behind the wall: Let’s say you have some killer piece of content your dream client might benefit from reading and implementing in their business. If you send a link to that content that requires them to enter their name, email address, and phone number in order to download it, you are not nurturing the relationship. Send them the white paper, case study, or idea directly.
3. It must contain a personal note: If the note you send was written by marketing and intended to be used on every email, it is not nurturing. You have to send your communication with a personal note from you, and it’s even more powerful if you know something about your dream client that you can include. Without the personal note, we’re back to spam.
4. It must contain an actionable, valuable idea: This is where some people get a little cross with me. If you send something to your dream client with the intention of making a deposit in your relationship, it has to be something of value. You have to be prepared to share a valuable idea, even though your dream client may use that idea without hiring you. If you want to be know as a value creator, you have to have and a share valuable ideas. Nothing less will do.
5. It must not contain an ask: If you are making a deposit in the relationship, make it. But don’t also attempt to make a withdrawal at the same time. It goes like this: Deposit. Deposit. Deposit. Withdrawal. When you are nurturing, nurture. When you are asking, ask!

This post was written as part of the IBM for Midsize Business program, which provides midsize businesses with the tools, expertise and solutions they need to become engines of a smarter planet.