493 | How To Really Connect With Your Clients

Joel Fortner 0:00
On today's episode identify the disconnect between you and your clients that's coming up next.

Chris LoCurto 0:15
Welcome to Chris LoCurto's show where we discuss leadership and life and discover that business is what you do, not who you are.

Joel Fortner 0:27
Well, welcome to the Chris LoCurto's show, folks, as you can already tell, this is not the voice of Chris LoCurto's. This is the voice of Joel Fortner that, from time to time loves to come and highjack the show when I can. I have a rubber mallet that I walk around with and I just strike Chris with it. Just when I'm feeling like I want to get on the mic. But now this is Joel Fortner, the president of deployment Group President of the Chris Accardo team. And I am here with the infamous and illustrious, handsome and wise Brian Alex, welcome back to the show my friend.

Brian A 1:02
You had me an infant infant in the good way my in a good way. Yeah.

Joel Fortner 1:10
In a good way.

Brian A 1:11
My infamy. Here we are.

Joel Fortner 1:14
Brian's back on the show with a another how to episode where we pose a question from from somebody a listener or a client and try to give some practical advice in a few short steps. So Brian, why don't you lead us into what in the heck are we talking about today?

Brian A 1:31
Oh, it's always a surprise. It's always a mystery. So glad to be back. And and to be you know, the folks at home don't get to see your beautiful face, I'll say, and nor will they industrious. I got illustrious, but yeah, beautiful face. But I get to I get to have that pleasure. Thank you. Thank you for having me back. So if you are new to the show, then let me set up what these how to episodes are for basically, what we have been doing with these these are short, short, or I should say episodes built around a single pivotal question of how to accomplish something mostly geared towards leaders we do delve in, sometimes into the personal life side of things. Today, we are talking about how leaders can tend to struggle with really connecting with the needs and desires of their clients. This is a huge hurdle, obviously towards making sales, whether you're in a service industry or you know, producing widgets, for example. So maybe you've got a business and you're you're selling devices or something and providing a service, whatever. Yeah, you probably got into the business because you were you're good at that service, you were interested in that particular product fine. But somewhere along the way there can develop a gap between you and the client times change needs change, things evolve. You get caught up in as we talked about here all the time, leadership, crazy cycles, and just the the minutia, the daily grind, et cetera, et cetera, there can there can be a burgeoning gap in between you and the client. And, you know, I'm not saying everybody but probably it's easy to begin seeing that new number, that new client, that new interest that comes through as a means to an end and you lose the connection, you want to add we're going to talk about how to regain that how do you emotionally or how do you really connect with clients? I'll give you an illustration. I remember working for a Bible publisher of all things in Nashville years ago, and I had a pastor call me about a certain study Bible and oh my gosh, he was so detail or I'm a high C but he was detail oriented and he wanted you know the gold gilding and he wanted this kind of note and not that and this font and and and I began to get frustrated and you know in a sales position, it was my job to take that information and to help him make sense of the product that he was wanting to you know, for us to produce he wanted us to build and print it and somewhere in the conversation it all of that frustration. I think my my attitude, my poor attitude, my poor sales skills, Chris has pushed me for years to get into sales. I absolutely hate sales. But at some point there was some frustration it showed through and let's just say the call ended abruptly I eventually had to call and apologize i and here's the deal I looking back on that. I had zero connection with the guy i i understood that he wanted us to do something but for me, there was a you know, a sense of frustration a burden. There was a It was just a means it was something I had to do to knock off. And you know, when when we have that zero connection, you know, there may be other team members out there that maybe even leaders, either you're in the wrong position, or you've got the wrong skill set for what's being asked. Or maybe you're just immature like I was, and the client ends up getting treated poorly. Well, this is not a great plan for maintaining where you are now for growing for scalability, there's all these kinds of things that come in. And so that's what we want to talk about. And I know you've got some great ideas along this line. So I've got my pen and paper ready, I'm ready to take notes how to really connect with clients and not lose sight of their value.

Joel Fortner 5:45
Yeah, so it's like with everything in what you're unpacking there, ultimately, comes back to the leadership and the culture of the company. It's that it's like when, when your example like when you were struggling with the customer, you look at what were your actions, and what were your attitudes, we defined culture as actions and attitudes. So all the actions on your team, all the attitudes on the team, all need to be led, trained, communicated, in forced accountability, taught, gone over again, repeated, praised tough conversations around it, so that we can create the culture that we're really after. So that we minimize or eliminate anything that goes against the culture of service that we want to have. So we're gonna get much more into this on today's episode. So when we come back what you can do to enhance the relationship with your clients and customers, and why that even matters right after the break.

Chris LoCurto 6:52
Hey, folks, a couple of years ago, I was visiting with a client, and the CEO said to me, Chris, we're not going to hit our goal. I asked him what he meant. And he said, We're gonna miss our three year revenue goal coming out of strap plan by a few months, I didn't realize it at first, that he was having a little fun with me by saying they were about to triple their company in less than three years. How freaking awesome is that? Folks, these are the kinds of results that businesses get by coming through our four day strat plan event. On average, we find $2.1 million worth of revenue in the next 12 months that the company was not planning on. And this event is for all sized businesses. If you're small, medium or large, it works for every single business, because it's not industry specific. It's about gaining all the information about all the things inside of your business that are holding you back from success, and then giving you a plan and a process on how to walk that out and be successful in your business. By discovering the things that are holding you back. It helps you get to all of those goals that you've been planning on for a long time. So if you're ready to get the perspective, you need to solve what's holding you and your business back. So you can grow faster than you need strat plan. To learn more, go to Chris accardo.com/strat plan. That's Crystal curto.com/strapline.

Joel Fortner 8:29
So welcome back before the break, we were talking about Brian's story where as he says he's self described himself as as being immature in handling a customer. Well, that just reminds me, it's like, you know, there's been this kind of saga in the Fortner household for a little while, or was for a few months that we the home we just sold and we moved recently. Well, Mary Beth is at home all day. She's a mother of four young kids, and she was without a dishwasher for three months. So a lot of people in the world never have dishwashers. And they're like, you know, no big deal. But let me say this, you know, how we build our lives around systems and rhythms and conveniences and equipment and processes that work? Well, all of a sudden, long story short, is it took forever to get the dishwasher fixed. And it's just a symptom of the company's culture. And it seemed that no one was taking responsibility. This should have been solved long before it was a nightmare with a warranty situation with really one of those big box retailers. I won't mention the name because I don't need to you know, slander a company. But it's true these things happen. We were very poorly served as customers of this company. And now if I

Brian A 9:43
remember correctly, because you kept you kept having these updates on our team meetings and yeah, I think we were all feeling the pain along the way. Didn't like oh my God, not again, not again, but it seemed like there was just this lack of some Buddy, taking the responsibility. It's true. It's it felt like all along though they might send somebody or somebody would pass the buck or, and you know, yeah, you can you have these moments I think and and there's this clairvoyance that comes because you think, oh, dear Lord, I hope that I'm not treating my clients and customers in the same way. Because this is, was hell, this is just hell.

Joel Fortner 10:27
Yeah, exactly. So when you talk about culture, and you talk about connecting with your customers, this has to start at the top, it has to be led. And then ideally, we hire the right people that embody the right culture, in order to serve people at the level of care and connection that you're wanting within your company, depending on your mission. So do we take this this, for instance. And here's what I encourage all leaders listening to do? Paint the picture of what you want your connection and your service to your customers to be? and lead your people to accomplishing that vision of what does the service look like? Or what should the result look like? So in this example, if the result is we want a very bitter, disgruntled, frustrated couple at home, that is now never wanting to do business with us, again, this particular big box retailer successfully achieved it, or do we want the customer to be taken care of where we maintain our reputation, we keep their business, we end up with a positive review at the end, whatever it may be, we have to shape what we want the result to look like. Otherwise, we end up with this gap. So we have this whole thing we teach on things like K IRAs, and leading your team to accomplish results in their job is that you want to have the K IRA because it clearly paints the result that you're looking for what success and winning looks like. That way you don't end up with what we call the task result gap where people are doing stuff. But the result is poor. There were a lot of people in this example that were doing lots of things, lots of tasks, lots of action was being taken, but the result was never being accomplished. And so there was an action or a task result gap when it came to this particular company taking care of the customer that mean, especially Mary Beth Fortner.

Brian A 12:26
Yep, that's as you're as you're talking, I'm thinking about my situation. You know, we just did an episode. A couple of weeks ago, it was entitled, Why can't I just have a job description. And Chris, and I took a deep dive on K IRAs, and I'm thinking back to my situation at that publishing house, I didn't have a carry. I wasn't on board necessarily with the mission. Maybe the company was intriguing as a whole. But what I was doing on the team wasn't of interest to me, I became frustrated easily. I don't know that I was in the right position. And I was never really trained on the culture and the climate. And so everything that you're saying, I can actually put myself in go kind of a checklist. Yep, yep. Yep. That's what was happening to me. And as a team member on that, you know, sales team, I began to treat this particular customer poorly, at least on that occasion. And and we can see then the things that we're factoring in filtering in to create that situation, in addition to having the trigger was my immaturity, right, but all these other components, in that circumstance, in my environment, in the culture of that company, were set up for my failure. And ultimately, yeah, we lost that client.

Joel Fortner 13:47
Yes, because when we hit on another point here, I can't stress the emphasis of, of teaching care. When it comes to this, what were this topic, what we're talking about today is really connecting with your clients and your customers that there's all this stuff that we can do. There's so many strategies we can do. There's so many books we can read. But if you're if the leadership team and the team doesn't embody caring, like legitimately, genuinely caring for other people, you will never accomplish really connecting with your customers. And you will as the company grows and scales, you're going to end up having this big gap between basically between the result that you want and customers feeling taken care of and how your team is actually operating. This is a massive challenge as you grow your company and as you scale to get all these pieces right, that ultimately embodies man. The magic sauce is having people who truly care not initially in the honeymoon period when you hire them and they come onto your team, but six months, six years later, they still care about the customer and they care about the client. And they've never ever drifted away from it. The best people at this are your highest is your SS, your I, they are that caring, loyal, steady servant. That's why they're so phenomenal at service where other people can get burned out, they need to move. It's like I'm burnt out taking care of people. But bottom line is leaders, you have to define this as a this is part of our strategy for connecting with customers, because we're talking about think about the practical dollar and cents here. What does it cost you to gain a new customer? What is your what is your marketing, qualified lead cost? And then what is your sales lead cost? Think about the money you have to spend in order to acquire new leads. Think about then what is your sales cycle? Is it 11 months? Is it 12 months? Is it one day? Is it one hour? How much money are you spending in marketing strategies and salespeople and sales strategies, and just team in order to acquire new customers, it is usually a ton of money that it costs you. And then we all of a sudden are servicing those people with people that snake and people who don't care. And they don't they're not been trained, there is no clear expectation of service and connection. We don't know how to solve problems, we have people that don't take responsibility for things. And then you've spent nine gazillion dollars to acquire a new customer. And within a blink of an eye, they're gone. And that is your cycle that you're in. And this is where there's a lot of stuff we're talking about and what I'm unpacking here. But this is where when you have this vision, or you have this value of caring, we go back to the very beginning of first starting with who do we bring onto this team? What does our hiring process and our onboarding process actually teach? And What expectations do we set that when we get the right people on the team, we onboard them successfully. Now, we have massive leverage in terms of having a team that cares and can truly serve the customer.

Brian A 17:18
Yep, that's great stuff. Great stuff. Well, as we as we try to kind of congeal our thoughts here distill down to some practical and components, you know, just like what you're saying, it's so important that we're getting the right people on board the team, but it doesn't matter how perfect that person is for the role, how high their S is, and how much they're geared towards taking care of people, if the leader doesn't model that. And if the leader isn't taking care of his or her team, no matter how much that person wants to love and serve others, they're not going to do it very well. And they're not going to do it very long. And so I want to come back around to leaders here. Because there's a real connection between the business as a whole, just like that business that you mentioned, at the beginning, without dropping the name. There's, there's a relationship that was damaged in in how you interacted with several people, several different, you know, humans, we're all involved in you got treated the same way. And you can see, very quickly, that was the culture of the company. Well, the culture comes down from the the leaders. And so there's this relationship between a business and their client. And it is a relationship, it's got to be maintained, nurtured, cared for, in order to grow and develop. And so as a as a client, you know, for my part of it, I don't need to always feel that I'm right. I don't have to always be right. But I do need to know that I'm respected as a person, that my needs matter to the business, and that they're going to take care of me. And I daresay you probably didn't feel that in the poor. Pastor, if you're out there listening. And you remember some guy named Brian, Rob, a publisher tried to get that stupid Study Bible done, and I frustrated you, I'm sorry, again, but you probably didn't feel respected or that your needs mattered or that you were being taken care of. And so let's look at this. I just want to give a couple of introspective questions for leaders as we kind of close out and wrap up here. Do you exhibit consistent care for your clients and feel free to interject here, consistent care for your clients and man, we don't have to be perfect, but we do have to be excellent in what we do, and and providing consistent care is part of the excellence as a business. That's right. Anything that

Joel Fortner 19:48
I think they immediately My mind goes straight back to is getting the cost of getting customers in today's competitive world. And when you finally get One, if you do not have a deliberate strategy to take care of them, you are throwing money down the drain. You're you are just churning through customers, you're driving up your cost to run your business, you're spending so much more money on resources and team than you ever need to. Because you don't have a deliberate strategy and culture built around consistent care of the client. And you're exactly right, Brian, leaders have got to continue to message this and repeat it constantly. It's like going back to anything that comes to culture, it's a matter of how have you defined it? Have you taught it? Do you attack stuff that goes against it? Do you force it at times, and then you do repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat? Because without the customer, we don't have a business? And so I say that to a lot of business owners? And they're like, Well, no, duh, Joel. But does your team think that way? Or do they come to work every day? Thinking that I'm going to do my job, I'm going to earn a paycheck. And just the money is somehow magically there. So many team members do not understand well, how the business actually functions. They don't understand or see the p&l, nor do they need to, but they can come to work every day with an attitude of I'm going to come to work, I'm going to get paid, I'm going to talk to customers. But do they have that healthy weight of like, man, the reputation of the company is on every encounter that I have with a customer. A brand is not your logo. A brand is how people think, feel and talk about you. That is your brand, whether you like it or not, ask yourself the question, what is your brand? Because every single team member affects how people think, feel and talk about you. Are you casual with that? Or are you heavily heavily leading it?

Brian A 21:57
Yeah, that's really good. You know, as we go into the second one here, there's a bit of a tie between them. So the first question to think about do you exhibit consistent care for your clients? The second one, do you cultivate a culture of caring in your business? Maybe you're like me, you know, if I'm functioning in that sales role, I might see drops a little. I have very little Sri going on. I'm high D, and I'm driving that conversation. And I probably railroaded more than just that one pastor on that one occasion. And, and, you know, what we have to remember is okay, the person that I'm talking to is not a number, they're not a means to an end, they're a human being. And somehow I've got to summon my inner s. And look at this, like this is a person and I'm I'm functioning in a role where I'm a bridge in between the business that I'm representing and this other human being, and I've got to treat them in a respectful way I've got to listen to understand their needs. And I've got to leverage my position and resources and the the product or the service that I've got behind me to help solve their needs. This is why they come to a business you know, and I think about Sam Walton putting greeters these aren't you know, and a Walmart you walk in, haven't been in a Walmart near so I imagine it's still like this, correct me if I'm wrong, but there's not a bouncer at the door. There's an 80 year old man or woman with a smile on their face saying welcome

Joel Fortner 23:32
to Walmart. That's right, right. Gotta balance. Betty. It's Betty

Brian A 23:37
Betty, the bouncer. But you feel like you're home. And you know, I think about even our events that we do when we have our clients come in from all over the country. They all I don't know, I'll, I'd say a very high percentage have remarked at some time or another, I just feel at home here. I feel like I'm with Family. They feel that emotional connection. And that gives them the sense of ownership, belonging, respect, I'm being cared for people are concerned, we listen, we understand. And we're doing something to help serve them. Well. And so that's that's that second point. Are you cultivating a culture of caring? Not just on your team, but are you modeling that for your team to follow? I

Joel Fortner 24:23
think a lot of people can that may think, yeah, but I don't operate a coaching business and I don't do next level life and like that kind of work that you all do. And I'm a plumber. I'm a roofer. I'm a builder. I'm a contractor. I'm a land surveyor. I'm the manufacturer, that the question comes down to is who are you ultimately serving? It's not what you do. You're serving other people. And as I tell you, as we just moved in, we bought a new place, and we keep stumbling into all kinds of new projects, and new problems with this, this older home that we bought I'm and I am a customer of a lot of things right now that are not touchy feely in in something that and I'm a very high I and I have a lot of s in me. And but everything I'm focusing in on is can I trust the people that I'm looking to hire to solve our problems? Can I trust them? So there's this entire training that I do. It's called, it's building a servant selling sales culture. It's one of my favorite trainings that we do. And it relates so well to what you were just saying, Brian, is that in a sales role? Am I a servant seller? Or am I a taker? Am I attached to the outcome that Joel wants that it has to be this kind of an outcome and a sell? Or am I truly doing a great job in my communication with the potential customer to find out their needs, their wants, the deeper levels of what they want, the why behind it, the root behind it, the goals of it, the vision they're trying to get to, and by helping them feel cared for, and listen to increasing the trust in the relationship, and therefore, guiding them to the best fit solution, even if it's the cheaper one. And it's not the granddaddy product or service that we sell or somebody sells, it's a matter of trust, because you again, you may start somebody off within that $5 solution. And then in six years, there are a six figure customer, because you serve them correctly on the front side, and you and you then everything about your your care and service to the client maintained trust with them. And we never ever eroded. Or if we fail, and if we screw up with the client, do we take ownership? admit it, apologize for it? Because that's what it's what most people are looking for. They're not looking for you to be perfect, either. They're looking for you to take responsibility if you fail.

Brian A 27:06
Yep. Yeah, absolutely. That's actually number three on this list is do you take responsibility for your wellness, and you are welcome

Joel Fortner 27:14
with for that transition.

Brian A 27:18
That's beautiful, seamless. No, but it's so true. You know, you don't go back to a restaurant, you don't go back to that home store that you were at, you don't go back to places where everybody consistently passes the buck. And no one is willing to take responsibility. And and again, it's not about always being right. And, you know, sometimes you got to get, you know, off of your high horse yourself sometimes as a client, and realize that there are limitations, there's boundaries, all of that. But, you know, if you have somebody that treats you with respect is willing to take ownership for what they can. I think it's so valuable. I want to go back just a step. Cuz you mentioned a moment ago, builders plumbers. In fact, I had a plumber in my house yesterday. And as he as he came in, he's looking at the water pressure being low in one of the bathrooms and I made him a coffee because that's how I live in Sicily. That's what you do. And somebody walks into your house, you make them at espresso. And we're sitting there chit chatting in the bathroom, two guys in the bathroom. It's just kind of weird, but we're talking about the water pressure and all of that, and, and he's just asking me some questions. He's communicating with me. He's He's saying, Okay, so let's see if it does that. Oh, but no, it doesn't do that over here. And we're kind of isolating where the problem because my idea it was coming from this source, but in fact, it turned out to be something else. And in the communication part, I felt served before he had fixed anything I felt listened to, I felt respected. I felt that this guy is trying to understand what I need. And so there was a, you know, it may have been just a simple thing. That took five minutes. But in this plumber, I felt connected. I felt like Man, if there's a problem next time I'm calling this guy, because he listens to me and as a client I want to be listened to and that's actually number four here on this list of five Do you consistently communicate with your clients? And yeah, I mean, we've got the ability in our roles in our job to send messages to send emails to do these podcasts, others, but you know, there's other types of you know, there's this plumber, for example, he's communicating with me, I felt communicated with so whatever that is that's relevant to the service or product that your company is built around. How are you communicating? What else can we say about that communication piece? Well, you

Joel Fortner 29:51
know, we live in a day with the internet, which is sure help this a lot. But even before then, it's all a matter of intentionality. The because even before the internet, there was so many different ways to communicate with customers. So it's not like you have to constantly be communicating with your customers. Sometimes things are just more transactional than that. But where you can communicate is what does what does your communication actually communicate? Is it value added? Or is your communication? Nothing but asking them to buy something else from you? Are you adding value? Do you have content that serves people, when people are engaging in person with you? What is the communication like? That communication is a lifeblood of a company. And it's a matter of when the touch points are happening, whether it's social media, email marketing, a show like this one flyer that you mail something in the mail, or radios program and station, whatever it is, it's a matter of what does your communication what impression does it leave? With the person you're communicating to? Is? In other words, is it fostering in the brand that you want to create? Or is it degrading it?

Brian A 31:14
Yeah, yeah, the the consistency, and I liked with the distinction you made because because we're saying you have to be consistent with your communication. But the part you teased out was it doesn't have to be constant. And there's a difference there. A nuance there, that's, you know, when communication is present, and like we teach here, it's coming at high levels. And, and it's high quality, when that communication is present. And in a consistent way, it doesn't get as noticed, when, as you know, here's the opposite side of that when communication is lacking, it's obvious. And usually it's painfully obvious and when, you know when my plumber is communicating to me of what he's finding, and before going to the next step, he's communicating, here's what I found. This is this is what that means. Here's the options, there's communication going on, I feel all of these things that we're talking about, I feel respected, he understands my needs allotted added up. But when that communication is absent, again, you know, that experience at that home store that you had, when that communication is absent, it's painfully obvious to the client, that there's something missing and broken in this process. And that's what we're that's what we're digging today to, to find out. Here's the fifth one, how does your communication convey these things? How does your communication convey that connection, that care, that that sense of you are valuable, and you're not just a means to an end. And so, you know, again, you walk into let's use Starbucks, or any number of chains that have done a good job of a now announcing your presence, as you walk into a store, you don't get that over here and Italy so much, but I remember being in America once upon a time, and being in that situation where that communication conveys those things. And I liked you know, also what you were saying about it, the only communication that you're doing is asking for something that's actually going to damage that connection at some point and may even break it. You know, I also operate in a in a missions role over here in Sicily, that's one of the main reasons that I'm here. And I have to send out a newsletter and I've talked to countless pastors in the in the past and these are leaders of small organizations. And they tell me the number one reason that we get rid of missionaries is they don't communicate consistently. So there's absolutely that thing on that other hand if you're only ever asking for something from them, and you're not informing you're not adding value you're not giving to them and that's something we try to do you know on our on our marketing side in the in the company here is how are we just adding value? The podcast is free newsletters are free blog posts are free. How are we just giving it because we actually care about the people? Not you know, it doesn't mean that there has to be some dollar transaction between us but we just care about people. And I hope that comes across and I think when it doesn't come across, that's really really obvious to the customer. The client Yeah,

Joel Fortner 34:33
totally. It's a it's it's not like you can't ask for the sale. Because sometimes some valuable communication. Being a customer obviously myself is when a company offers me things that actually I'm that I want or that I might need and versus conversation that sometimes takes place around the office about people have different opinions on whether they like Amazon or Facebook or Google, quote unquote, listening. And then all you know this conversations we've all been a part of where this is so strange. I was just talking about mattresses at lunch. And then I got on my phone later, and I had five mattress ads in my Facebook feed. Well, yeah. Because it but here's the thing. Is it possible you were talking about a mattress in a sense of I need a new mattress? What do you use, you might have a need right now. And then one of those ads might serve you up the perfect mattress for you. So I just, I maybe I'm just overly naive, in the sense because I don't care about stuff like that. I'm like, Man, I found out about a great mattress I would have never known about because I let my phone listen to my conversation. But that doesn't wake me out. I understand that bothers some people. And privacy. Things are very sensitive. And some people have had bad experiences. But just generally making a point of sometimes business communication doesn't have to be Joel, I just love you. Wow, what a great person you are, come over and have coffee with me and have a espresso in my you know, my house in Sicily. Sometimes it's just served. And you're welcome. Anytime. Thank you. It's just served me the right thing offer me the right thing that I might need. And that is very valuable communication.

Brian A 36:25
Yeah. And, you know, this goes back to something that Chris has said for years, I think it rooted in some conversations that he had had with Rabbi Lapin years ago, just about the purpose of business and and how we're, we're making a transaction. And if we're not serving, and loving, then we're not setting ourselves up for success in business and even knowing that we're in a transaction and that we're asking for something, if we're doing it with the motivation to serve, and to to love and honor that relationship. It's a valuable, valuable relationship. Well, folks, that's all the time that we have for today. I hope this information has helped you. I'm not gonna do the the traditional crystal Accardo close out, I'll leave that void because we all know he's not on the show today. It'll be back soon. But I want to I want to let you know that we care about you. And and we do hope that this information has informed and inspired you and your leadership, your business and your team. We'll talk to you again soon.