Imagine being able to create relationships with your clients or customers that provide so much value that they could not run their business or go through their day without you. This would make you indispensable.
Some common definitions for indispensable, include:
- absolutely necessary, essential, vital
- not subject to being set aside or neglected
Take a minute and think about the partners who are indispensable to the daily success of your business. Some of your indispensable partners may include:
- Your internet provider
- Your bank
- Your marketing company
- Your primary supplier of production materials
Now, think about your business and the value you provide to your clients/customers. How indispensable are you? How difficult would it be for them to switch to another provider?
Once you create indispensable relationships, you unlock the power to grow your business faster and easier. Think about it. What if every client/customer who ever did business with you:
- Kept coming back and using your services forever
- Continually spent more money with you
- Told everyone they know how great you are
In this article, we provide the critical keys to creating truly indispensable business relationships.
Two Key Elements of an Indispensable Relationship
- Essential Benefit – they provide a specific and essential benefit
- Great Value – for the cost, they do something better than other options or which others cannot
An essential benefit is something necessary. It is something that you feel you that you need to have or receive. After all, if the benefit provided is not essential, the relationship cannot be indispensable. The word essential can be somewhat subjective. Some people feel that their morning Starbucks fix is essential, while others may not.
What makes something a great value can also be subjective. A great value often has nothing to do with the price of a product or service, although these are often somewhat related. Value has to do with the quantity of resources (time, energy, money, effort, etc.) which is required to receive the specific benefit. The greater the perceived benefit received for the resources required to acquire that benefit, the greater the value.
Read our article: Current Marketing Trends – The Rise of Customer Service
The Challenges of Creating Indispensable Relationships
Every business owner loves the idea of creating indispensable client/customer relationships, but it isn’t easy. There are multiple challenges to achieving the status of indispensable:
- Establishing your organizational mindset
- Understanding your client/customer
- Creating your unique/extreme value
- Continuously reaching higher
As we explore each of these together, we have outlined how to overcome these challenges and give you the tools for creating indispensable client relationships.
Free “Creating Irresistible Client Relationships” Discovery Session
Establishing Your Organizational Mindset
The first step to achieving any extraordinary organizational objective is to set the goal, catalyze a clear vision, and secure the commitment of your team. Without extreme clarity and commitment to this goal, an organization cannot evolve beyond simply delivering good customer service.
Everyone in the organization must understand that the organization’s goal, and the resulting goal of every individual, is to create indispensable relationships. To achieve this, every experience – from your marketing to your new client onboarding, from sales to collections, from your new hire training to your customer service delivery – has to be aligned. Each person must know that their job is not to simply meet your customer / client expectations, or even to provide the best level of service, but that your organization’s goal is to create truly indispensable relationships. This becomes your critical measure of success and the goal of your strategic and tactical decisions.
Understanding Your Client/Customer
This requires a constant dialogue to truly understand:
- Their challenges
- What they value in a relationship
- Their specific needs
- What you can do to transform the way they think about someone who delivers the products and services you provide
How can you, through the intentional experiences you deliver, constantly create moments of positive surprise and revelation for them?
If you simply sell a good product or service, you can have a successful company. However, if you help your clients/customers achieve their specific goals or solve problems in a way that no one else can, you become indispensable. To do this, you need to intimately understand your client/customer, their goals, and their most pressing challenges.
Creating Unique or Extreme Value
You cannot become indispensable without creating unique or extreme value for your clients/customers. If all your competitors are providing exactly the same products or services, or even if they seem close enough, you may find yourself competing for sales based on price.
However, if you can create a unique value that no one else can offer, or even if you are able to provide an extreme value that is very rare, you can become indispensable.
As we stated above, “The greater the perceived benefit received for the resources required to acquire that benefit, the greater the value.” By understanding your client/customer and their challenges and goals, you can begin to increase the benefit you provide to them. Some simple and easy ways to increase the value you provide might be:
- Providing education by experts to help with areas in which they are struggling
- Creating easier systems and processes to better meet their business needs
- Meeting with them regularly with the intention of helping them become more successful
The value you create for them does not need to be tied directly to the product or service that you provide to them. The goal is to transform their mindset or the idea of what a company should be to help them better achieve their goals. If you are able to create unique or extreme value for them, you are on your way to becoming indispensable.
Read our article: Current Marketing Trends – Transparency in Marketing
Continuously Reaching Higher
Creating indispensable client/customer relationships is not a one-time initiative. It requires constant evolution and commitment. As anyone in an industry raises the bar, your competitors will copy you. They will attempt provide similar value. The key to achieving and retaining your indispensable status is to outrun everyone else in this race.
Once you create a leadership position, most competitors will not be able to deliver the level of value you provide, but they may come close. With your commitment to continually reaching higher and accelerating, soon you will find yourself so far ahead that no one else can match what you are doing. You can define the category, lead, and become the company of choice, even if your prices are a bit higher.
Creating Indispensable Relationships FAQs
Achieving this has many benefits:
- Repeat business and increased client retention rates
- Decreased price sensitivity and increased margins
- Increased referrals from your clients/customers
- Industry recognition and thought leadership
- Greater ability to attract the best and brightest talent
How do I begin this process?
Meet with your top clients and learn more about their goals and challenges. If you can identify ways help them achieve or solve these, you will be on your way.
What if I just sell a simple product or service that is readily available. How can I become indispensable?
First, you must change your mindset! If you believe that you just sell a simple product or service, you cannot become indispensable. You must believe that you are going to create a unique or extreme value for your clients/customers that sets you apart from everyone else, and then you must commit to achieving this goal. As you change your mindset, what you need to do will become clear.
How Should You Use This Information
The goal with all our content is to help you enjoy growing your company faster, smarter and easier.
By reviewing the challenges and the steps to overcome these in your business, you have the tools to begin creating irresistible client/customer relationships. Start implementing these in your organization and you will begin enjoying some amazing benefits.
Conclusion
Creating truly indispensable client/customer relationships provides a business with multiple, game-changing benefits. Achieving this status is not easy and takes a continuous commitment to succeed. We hope this information helps you begin this journey. Please let us know how this has helped you.
About Webolutions and a Special Offer
Webolutions is a full-spectrum business consulting and strategic implementation company. We help businesses across the country identify and effectively bring their unique story life, allowing them to scale faster, smarter, and easier.
Our specific areas of expertise include:
- Differentiating Brand Development
- Marketing & Communications Strategies
- Customer Journey Planning & Implementation
- Enterprise Website & Application Development
- Systems Integration
- Organizational Development Strategies
- Team Alignment & Performance Solutions
- Business Performance Intelligence Systems
Special Offer – To speak with one of our consultants about creating irresistible client/customer relationships for your company of at least $5 million in annual sales, call us at 303-300-2640 and request a Free Creating Irresistible Client Relationships Discovery Session. During this 30-minute introduction, we work together to help you better understand these steps, share ideas and insights, and help you start outlining your plan. You can also email any questions to info@webolutions.com.