Clients have a lot of choice when it comes to selecting a real estate or financial professional to meet their needs. And just because we serve a client once doesn’t mean they’ll come back to us when they need a similar service in the future. Client loyalty is scarce.
One important way to create client loyalty is to build a relationship with them. The deeper the relationship, the more likely they’ll be to come back to you for future services. But building relationships isn’t easy – you probably have lots of clients and it’s hard to keep them all straight.
Here’s a tool that can help. It’s a simple list of questions to help you get to know your clients better. Don’t hand over this list to your clients to fill it out and don’t pepper them with all of the questions at once. In fact, not all of these questions can even be answered by the client! Answer as many questions about each client as you can. Then identify a couple of questions that you want to discover the next time you talk to them. Sometimes you can ask the question directly; other times you’ll have to communicate with your client and use clues to discover the real answer.
Use this list as a guide to understand your client better and as a foundation to build a relationship with them.
HERE’S HOW TO USE THE ANSWERS
- Use the answers to build rapport: “Your daughter is in piano? So is my daughter. I’ll watch for you at the next recital!”
- Use the answers to prompt future sales: For example, a child’s birthday might be good reminders to sell insurance or an adult’s birthday might be a good time to revisit their retirement fund.
- Use the answers to start future conversations: “Hey, how did your son’s little league tournament go last weekend?”
- Use the answers to look for referral opportunities: “If anyone in your business networking group happens to be looking for key man insurance, let them know that I specialize in insurance for small businesses.”
- Use the answers to help you understand your clientele and shape your business accordingly: If many of your clients are young families, the products you offer might shift over time as your clients’ children age.
- Use these answers to help you understand how to market your business: Once you have these question lists started for your clients, you can fill out the questions in the blog post 55 questions to answer when defining your sales funnel’s target market. (In fact, you’ll notice that some of the questions below are closely connected to the target market questions).
61 QUESTIONS TO ASK
- What is your client’s age?
- What is your client’s gender?
- What is the your client’s ethnic heritage?
- What language does your client speak as their primary language?
- Where does your client live?
- Who else lives at that address?
- What does your client do for a living?
- What is your client’s approximate income range?
- What are your client’s hobbies?
- What teams, leagues, groups, and associations does your client belong to?
- What kind of music does your client like to listen to?
- What kind of car does your client drive?
- What sports does your client follow?
- What kind of education does your client have?
- What are the things that your client aspires to do? (i.e. Climb the corporate ladder? Give their children the best opportunities?)
- What kind of house does your client aspire to live in?
- What kind of car does your client aspire to drive?
- If your client seems themself in a “lifestage”, what would that lifestage be?
- What would your client say is the next lifestage that they should move toward?
- How can you help them get to that next lifestage?
- What does your client consider to be important to them?
- How does your client define happiness and success?
- What kind of personality would describe your client?
- What motivates your client?
- What fears does your client have?
- What are the problems that your client wants solved in their lives?
- What are the challenges that your client faces in their day-to-day lives? (Unlike the above question, this question forces you to consider other challenges — even ones that your client wouldn’t define as a problem to be solved).
- What value does your client place on family? (i.e. more important or less important than other factors in their life).
- What value does your client place on friends? (i.e. more important or less important than other factors in their life).
- What value does your client place on their work? (i.e. more important or less important than other factors in their life).
- What value does your client place on recognition and status? (i.e. more important or less important than other factors in their life).
- What value does your client place on happiness? (i.e. more important or less important than other factors in their life).
- What value does your client place on fear of loss? (i.e. more important or less important than other factors in their life).
- What value does your client place on money? (i.e. more important or less important than other factors in their life).
- What value does your client place on time? (i.e. more important or less important than other factors in their life).
- What value does your client place on leisure time and activities? (i.e. more important or less important than other factors in their life).
- What value does your client place on peace of mind? (i.e. more important or less important than other factors in their life).
- Who influences your client?
- Who does your client influence?
- Where does your client like to spend their time?
- What are the most important purchases to your client?
- If your client had an extra $100, what would they spend it on? What if they had an extra $1000? What if they won $1 million dollars?
- If your client had a week where they had no work-related commitments, what would they do? Where would they go? Who would they go with?
- What are the top 10 tasks that fill the to-do lists of your client?
- How does your client define the problem that you solve or the need that you fulfill? (i.e., What words to they use? What “symptoms” trigger a search for a solution? Check out this blog post, which gives a closer look at the Audience stage.)
- What does your client consider to be risky? (Time, effort, money, and reputation are the big ones)
- Who will your client have to face if they buy your product or service and it doesn’t meet their needs?
- What other alternatives does your client have to solve their problem or fulfill their need? (Be sure to include competitors’ products and services as well as alternate offerings that aren’t direct competitors but still solve the problem. And don’t forget: Do nothing is also an alternative!)
- What reasons would your client give for not purchasing your product or service?
- How familiar is your client with the solution you’re offering? (i.e., is it entirely new and requires a lot of explaining or is it a very familiar solution?)
- How is your client changing? (i.e., what answers to this list of questions will be different next year or in the next decade, and why?)
- Does your client have a spouse? What is his/her name and age?
- What is your client’s spouse’s hobbies?
- Does your client have any children? How many? What are their names and ages?
- What activities do your client’s children take part in?
- What products/services has your client bought from you in the past?
- What products/services has your client bought from your competitors in the past?
- What products/services is your client most likely to buy next from you?
- What would your client say is the most important reason that he/she uses your services?
- What would it take to get your client to switch service providers and get the same service you offer but from someone else?
- What would it take to lock your client in to working exclusively with you for the rest of their lives?