Internal relationships are important for producing results in any marketing or business development initiative. At a recent “Towards Key Account Management – Helping fee-earners with client relationship management” workshop we conducted a brain writing exercise to gather as many strategies and ideas to help marketing professionals forge stronger relationships with lawyers, accountants and surveyors.
Thank you to those who participated – here is the combined list:
Demonstrate commitment
- Invest time in developing your product knowledge – attend their internal training sessions
- Use internal and external systems to build your knowledge about their markets and clients
- Always do your homework
- Build relationships with their team members
See their perspective
- Consider their priorities and listen before offering your views and requirements
- Answer the “what’s in it for me?” question when requesting assistance
- Listen and learn what they need – and deliver it
- Appreciate and respect their expertise and experience
- Don’t ask for information that you can obtain yourself or from a less senior person
Adapt to their style
- Recognise their style and preference and adapt your approach
- Understand that they might prefer an alternative approach to yours
- If they are focused on the detail, ensure that it is right
Increase interaction
- Use the phone rather than email
- Attend partner lunches and talk about issues that are important to them
- See them face-to-face when they are less likely to be under client pressure
- Don’t sit behind your screen, go and talk to them
- Chat when you meet them in the kitchen and corridor or walking about
Get to know them
- Understand their goals and targets
- Learn what interests and motivates them
- Explore whether you have any common interests
- Ask for their views and opinions
Be concise
- If you have to send an email – keep it short. Use the subject box wisely
- Don’t waste their time – Prepare thoroughly and keep calls and meetings short
- Have ideas on solutions when you need to raise a problem
Earn their trust
- Under promise and over deliver
- Only agree to realistic timescales
- Manage their expectations
- Be consistent
- Keep them in the loop on important (to them) issues
- Show measureable results
- Develop relationships with “power” partners and champions
Socialise
- Attend department and sector team drinks and parties and chat informally
- Help them organise social events and attend
- Go to the pub with them
- Be yourself and let your personality shine through
- Find things to laugh about
Add value
- Undertake research into their markets, clients and competitors and provide them with some insights that they can use
- Give them knowledge and ideas that will help their clients
- Make every encounter count – add value every time
- Offer to do things that save them time
- Build peer level relationships with their clients and referrers – share your market intelligence
- Provide them with tools and frameworks that have worked for others
- Go the extra mile on occasion
Be bold
- Offer ideas and share opinions
- Be enthusiastic – build on their ideas as well as offering your own
- Find solutions not problems
- Take the initiative
- Be creative
- Ask for their feedback on what you have done/could do better
- Stand up for yourself when necessary
- Be prepared to “push back” when they are unreasonable
- Think ahead and be proactive
Be generous
- Recognise and acknowledge their help and good ideas
- Praise them for a job well done
- Share the credit when collaborating
- Thank them for participating or contributing
Be visible and positive
- Spend time working in their environment
- Make sure you say “Hello” when you see them
- Smile and spread some positive vibes
- Don’t let them hear you moan or see your stress
- Be confident
Details of this and other training courses are available on the Professional Marketing Forum web site http://www.pmforum.co.uk/training/
