A few weeks ago I was presenting to Supplier Diversity personnel from corporate America and I explained to them how Minority Business owners see them. I used the picture on the left to illustrate my point. Business owners are traditionally hunters, we’re always looking for new business, and new territories to mark. We also see corporate contracts as big trophy prey and many times we spend our energies hunting the faster corporate prey only to get tired lose the prey and go hungry
The more successful approach that I’ve learned from growing RDZ Media Group into a multimillion dollar business comes from farming and cultivating our current clients and not always being on the hunt. I’m not saying that you shouldn’t hunt for new business but should you refocus more of your energy to becoming a valuable vendor to your current clients they will hunt for you and their hunting comes with personal recommendations which almost always seals the deal.
Cultivating and assisting your current clients with meeting their objectives produces a larger Return on Promise (TRUST) that gives your current clients the TRUST to recommend you to anyone and everyone who may have a need for your product/service. Should you have 10 clients that TRUST you enough to always recommend you, you have a pack of hunters that can cover a larger territory and eventually catch those fast nimble corporate clients.
Cultivating and farming your current clients can also create opportunities for your business to diversify into new areas of business growth. The company we are today looks nothing like the company we began in 2003 and that’s because of the opportunities we took advantage of based on our client’s wants and needs.
- Our 1st EDZ app that worked on PDAs
An example of how our clients opened up new areas for us is our EDC app (Electronic Data Collection) for the iPad and
Android devices. In 2003 we create a flash based application for PDAs that allowed us to collect contact information from people we interacted with during the Seagram’s Live Concert tour. We created the app because it was difficult figuring out the handwriting on the contact cards and many times we had the wrong phone or email address. The app was faster and was less prone to data collection errors. After the tour ended in 2007 we didn’t think anything of the app until last year when we were approached to build our EDC app for the iPad. We built the app and made several improvements and it was a success for Seagram’s Gin and Absolut. We continued tweaking the app and have used it successfully with 4 other clients and growing and our EDC app became the cornerstone of our app development.
- Our EDC app that we created for Seagram’s Gin
App development was nowhere to be found in our 2003 marketing plan but our desire to provide more for our clients and understanding their needs caused us to look for better solutions (INNOVATION). That INNOVATIVE idea lead us to new markets and business opportunities that we would not have had if we never decided to create a better way to solve our client’s problem (FARMING & CULTIVATING).
With the rise of Social Media I believe its important to farm and cultivate your existing clients. While you are growing your Facebook Fan Page to 100,00 fans and your Twitter followers to 100K+, who will abdicate on your company’s behalf? Who will be the Brand Ambassadors for your company posting your company’s merits and qualities for their followers to see? Clients who value your company and appreciate the extra you do for them are your Brand Ambassadors and they can lead more business to your door than you can by hunting on Social Media platforms.
Farming and cultivating your existing clients is not difficult. It requires a mindset of being of service to the client assisting the client with achieving their goals and creating win-win scenarios. Zig Ziglar said it best “You can have everything you want in life, if you help enough other people get what they want.“
Tips for Farming and Cultivating:
- Follow your client’s industries – This will assist you with learning about challenges and opportunities.
- Schedule regular phone conversation – Take the opportunity to learn about your client’s goals and challenges. Don’t make it a sales call to talk about your business.
- Get involved in client activities – Attend the client’s family day BBQ and support events that are important to your client. You may find additional opportunities to assist your client and grow new business.
- Ask to be apart of planning sessions – The best time to be proactive is during the planning phase. It allows you to see the larger picture and can be a source of additional opportunities.
- Be INNOVATIVE – Be willing to take a risk, do something you’ve never done before, grow into a new area of business. Our best business successes began when a client asked us “Can You Do This?”
You can spend a lot of time hunting those fast corporate contracts or you can farm your current clients and have them join the hunt with you bringing testimonies and accolades as ammunition. Which would you prefer?