10 Steps to Long-Term Success
The precasters and business experts
interviewed for this article shared the following
10 tips for long-term relationship success:
-
Keep open
lines of communication with your key contacts and/or
the company itself.
-
If possible,
get to know those key players in a personal setting
away from work.
-
Conduct
an annual review of the partnership or relationship
to ensure that each party’s goals and objectives
are being met.
-
Involve
your customer in your business by inviting them
to meet with your own suppliers and business partners.
-
Focus on
identifying the customer’s problems and then
looking for creative, “no preset rules”
solutions. Avoid discussing payment or profits until
you find a workable solution.
-
Involve
your employees in the process. Employees that are
not in direct customer-serving roles often come
up with the best ideas, mainly because they have
no interest in selling and aren’t compelled
to try to protect their reputations.
-
Devote resources
to that customer segment where your potential for
increasing share is high.
-
Look out
for the customers’ needs 100 percent of the
time. If it takes long days or long weeks to meet
their demands, do it.
-
Talk to
your customers and communicate to them the fact
that you’re in this for the long haul and
that you want to meet all of their precast needs.
-
Lastly,
don’t be shy about asking for your “unfair
share” of a customer’s business.
