B2B Sales Tips: Surprise, Delight, and Cultivate Lasting Client Relationships
We hear about delivering value every day. What if we reframed this to think about how to surprise and delight our clients or team? I believe this is a lost art.
Every client or prospect has jobs they need to complete in their work and personal lives, and not all jobs are equally important. Some tasks are extremely significant and serious, and some are not. They are directly impacted by pains they want to avoid and gains or outcomes they would love to achieve.
Let’s think about the unexpected gains we can create for our clients. These go beyond what is an essential component of a project or job and are potentially something clients would never have come up with on their own.
Surprising and delighting clients isn’t about moving mountains. Often, it’s the little things that cultivate client relationships and add value. If you work in marketing, CX, or other professional services, you’re probably no stranger to the phrase "surprise and delight." It might be considered an old-school phrase, but it's still very relevant to nurturing relationship building, the foundation of B2B sales.
Things like:
Handwritten notes 🖊️
Helpful reminders ⏰
Unexpected small acts of kindness or gifts 🧡
Celebrating clients' special events 🎉
These little things can make a big impact and set you apart from the competition without taking much time or budget.
If you shift focus from the little things to thinking a bit bigger, understanding how you create value for your clients beyond ROI can also become part of your secret sauce. The key here is to describe or measure this as concretely as possible. For example, if a client wants better performance as a desired outcome, ask how that will be measured. “You would love to see an increased performance of more than x.” When you understand how exactly customers measure gains (i.e., outcomes and benefits), you can design better gain creators in your delivery, resulting in outstanding experiences. This becomes your secret sauce.
Infusing Your Personal Style
I have incorporated my energy, positivity, and enthusiasm into my secret sauce, and I choose to bring that to every interaction I have with a client, prospect, or team member. Don't get me wrong, I don't always feel sunshine-y and positive, but I am genuinely happy to hear that I can brighten someone's day. When I show up for them, it matters. Hearing it come back to me never gets old.
How do you surprise and delight clients? Connect with me on LinkedIn, and let’s start a conversation.