Heartfelt Professionals Build Meaningful Client Communities, Are You?

"Communication leads to community, that is, to understanding, intimacy and mutual valuing."

Rollo May

All your clients have at least one thing in common, and it is you. Conversely, many have other things in common as well, such as job title, corporate challenges, hobbies, and possibly even life experiences.

What would it be like if you became the connector, the relational bridge-builder, and figured out a way to connect all of them, that in turn; brings real value to them?

"Communities can increase brand loyalty, which can lead to increased customer happiness, retention, and lifetime value."

Nicole Saunders, Senior Manager of Communities at Zendesk

Regarding community in a sales context, let's use the following definition from the Oxford dictionary:

A feeling of fellowship with others, as a result of sharing common attitudes, interests, and goals.

Here lies a question for many of you in sales...

• Are you creating fellowship with your clients?
• What common interests and goals do you have with your clients?

I believe in order to build a real community with your clients, not only do you need to care about the community, but you also need to care about and respect each other.

You need to be loyal to one another and build healthy relationships.

• How many in sales have built community with their clients?
• How can you build community with your clients and out in your marketplace? 

Creating a community around you and what you do takes work, however; the road taken to grow one will have lasting benefits for a long time to come.

Why Heartfelt Sales Professionals Build Community?

Dean Ornish nails it by saying,

"The need for connection and community is primal, as fundamental as the need for air, water and food."

In the crazy, challenging, and competitive world of sales... how do you stand out from all the other salespeople who do the exact same thing as you?

Heartfelt professional's future proof of their business and reputation through the communities they build with their clients.

Insights

Knowing what your clients really think of you, what you do, and how you have helped them is what dreams are made of.

Building communities with your clients bridges relational gaps.

Gather your clients together and listen to feedback, listen to what they are working on, listen to their challenges and foster an environment to openly share ideas.

Client communities can also help you to see your product, business, or industry from the perspective of the very people you’re selling into.

Trust

Continually communicating in a transparent and personal way with your clients, you’ll improve trust, belief, and faith in you.

In a post trust sales world, building client communities bridges the relational divide.

Stephanie Buscemi, the former CMO of Salesforce, explains...

“Specific to tech, there is a trust crisis. That’s why it’s so important right now to have a community who are speaking authentically on their own experience and doing it in their own words. It’s no longer enough to have a great product or service. You have to build a deep relationship with your customers. No more pitching or preaching. It’s about having a conversation.”

Imagine for a moment.... Could an unfiltered communication channel with your clients help to strengthen relationships?

Your clients will start to feel heard, recognized, and rewarded, and from there, trust will grow exponentially.

Networking

For heartfelt professionals, developing client communities helps them to cultivate connections and comradery between like-minded individuals.

As an example, consider developing a financial community, a technology community, a human resource community, and a leadership community. Now, think about harnessing the collective knowledge of these communities to foster learning environments.

By providing these communities, creates an environment to share their thoughts, wants, and feedback.

Through community, this brings your clients together to meet like-minded peers, to further their knowledge, and to feel more positively about you... and a place with no added noise, no ads, and no social algorithms.

Everyone Benefits

Imagine for a moment... a client community who share things in common, care deeply about each other, and work closely together for betterment or a purpose... imagine what kind of harmony you could create.

Ultimately, developing community with your clients creates a greater sense of belonging. It powers innovation and ideas along with the ability to deliver new insights for you, new prospecting ideas, and sales growth opportunities.

Close communities are based upon care, compassion, and connection. Are you creating this for your clients?

Are you creating a space for your clients to connect and collaborate?