Building Strong Client Relationships: Lessons from the Public Sector

Building Strong Client Relationships: Lessons from the Public Sector

Looking back on my career, I’ve noticed the most successful relationships built over time are united by a common theme: the prioritization of active listening. As competing business priorities can and will arise, it’s so important to take the time to attentively listen to clients, understand what they’re telling us they need, reflect on the best solution and only then, respond. ?In life, we know the best relationships are founded on trust and communication. With customers, the same is true. Long-term success in sales happens when prioritizing active listening over critical listening is the goal. In other words, as opposed to listening to make the sale, focus on listening to find the solution. That small difference goes a long way in building successful customer relationships.

Having collaborated with public sector organizations for many years, I’ve enjoyed learning how to build strong partner relationships with many unique dynamics at play, from copious stakeholders and hierarchies to complex budgets and varied approaches to citizen impact. Honing an active listening skillset has been particularly instrumental in the process of becoming a trusted partner that clients come back to time and time again.

Here are three specific ways active listening can shape successful sales relationships across the board. ?

Sometimes saying no is more valuable than saying yes

Early in your career, it can be tempting to prioritize closing sales over investing in the long-term. Finding customers who want what you’re selling feels like a gold mine to a new salesperson in the moment. But sometimes the things customers think they want aren’t the things that will help them most.

Making a quick sale feels like the path of least resistance. However, it’s often not the best route to take for the long haul. That’s why honest feedback is an impactful policy to take with clients. If a certain product wouldn’t solve the customer’s problem, it’s important to swallow one’s pride and say so. In time, I’ve found that those conversations have become much easier, because admitting what you can’t do can be a critical step in building trust and finding the best solution you can offer.?

One of HP’s largest independent agency clients told me more than once that one of the things they like most about our relationship is how unafraid we are to tell them if the products they’re asking for won’t actually provide the solution they need. When we do so, we signal that we’re not simply trying to make a sale. Instead, our company is focused on helping them meet their needs. That collaborative spirit means they trust us when we offer solutions that do solve their problems, even if those solutions don’t match their original expectations.

Listen rather than tell

Trust and collaboration is built when customers feel seen and heard. ?When we approach every meeting with this principle in mind, everyone wins. When we enter the conversation with the aim of providing space to learn about the clients’ goals, needs and concerns, everyone can work together to identify solutions. Active listening in a nutshell.

For example, an HP customer in the education space wanted to provide science, technology, engineering and math resources to schools in areas that lacked them. Since they belonged to one of the largest school districts in the country, it was a sizeable request. But instead of getting right to budgets, we talked about everything from wealth disparity across schools to the importance of providing more young women and other underserved populations with access to STEM resources. The conversation allowed district officials to see that HP cared about, and was willing to go the extra mile to help solve, the issues that were important to them. That shared purpose made them much more comfortable moving forward with such a large-scale project—and it gave all of us a common foundation to work from.

Put the solution first

These early experiences are the foundation for the outcomes-based sales approach we eventually adopted company-wide at HP. Active listening is baked into our approach. ?We know that behind each surface-level need is a much greater challenge or more important goal. The task of our entire sales team is to uncover that truth. We are centered on prioritizing clients’ needs, rather than aiming to sell a particular number of units of a particular product line. This approach takes more time, but also increases the odds that the sales we make will help our customers solve their problems. When that happens, they are much more likely to return to us when they have a new problem to solve.

This style of selling requires a deep understanding of the clients’ unique needs, which we can only learn if the customer trusts us enough to share their businesses’ real struggles. They must trust our judgement, knowing we will address their problem as well as we would our own. They need to understand how we can not only provide an end solution, but a strategy to help them succeed at every point along the way. At a structural level, it requires businesses to give their salespeople the flexibility to work with clients to develop customized solutions.

In a way, this approach turns the traditional sales process on its head. Instead of finding buyers for a specific product line, we work to understand our customers and help them build solutions that solve their problems. Over the long term, this process yields better results for us and for our customers—not to mention rewarding, long-lasting relationships.?