Know Your Customer

The key to building relationships in sales is knowing your customer. Taking a vegetarian to a steakhouse for a business meeting won't exactly put you on the road to success. In a recent article, networking guru Andrea Nierenberg related a few similar gaffes that you won't believe:

-- An organization was pitching UPS for their business and "Fed Exed" over the materials...

-- A group was trying to sell SONY and showed up for their meetings with Dell computers...

-- A team was sitting down to meet with people from Visa and when asked to open their wallets, everyone had credit cards from the competition....

"Carelessness and not paying attention to close detail can make or break us," says Nierenberg. "We can have the most amazing presentation; the most polished presenters and the 'state of the art' materials - yet if we forget who we're talking to, everything else is lost."

To avoid making embarrassing mistakes like the ones above, Nierenberg suggests you make a detailed personal profile for each of your clients. Build it up over time with everything you learn about them, and you won't make the mistake of paying with an American Express when it's time to take those Visa execs out to dinner!

Here are just a few of the topics Nierenberg adds to her client's personal profile over time:

Spouse/children's names
Pets
College or grad school
Likes/Dislikes
How you met
Likes/Dislikes
Prior Job
Vacation interests
Favorite foods/restaurants
Hobbies/Interests

Andrea Nierenberg is the President of The Nierenberg Group, a business consulting firm that specializes in customized training, workshops and keynote addresses that equip business people to find, grow and keep the clients that are key to their company's success. Learn more at her website, www.selfmarketing.com