I once heard someone say we shouldn’t chase customers and clients down.

It sounded like good business advice back when I was a newbie, but I didn’t get any context as to what that meant... even though I know it sounded right.

I have since come to see that when we are “chasing” clients in most cases, it looks like we’re the ones driving the agenda with very little interest from the other party.

In a sense that will always be the case because we are the professionals who have to take the initiative, and also because we are the ones who are courting their business.

But taking the initiative and courting the business doesn’t mean we have to be more interested in the opportunity than they are.

If I’m a web design specialist and I’m constantly chasing down Madam Cecelia about her site design, maintenance (or whatever it is that you tech people do), and it seems that I’m more interested in the project than her, then it seems a few things are likely.

She might not be interested in the project because she doesn’t think there’s a need to redesign the website.

She might knows that websites are useful, but she doesn’t think she’s suffering any business loss by not engaging a professional like you.

Business seems to be going on okay just as things are!

Because of this, the first stage of us courting our potential customers always has to begin at the level of WANT and NEED.

We have to figure out if there’s a need for our service and how badly they want it.

Madam Cecelia might not take action until she realizes that her inefficient website is causing 80% of visitors to bounce off within 2 seconds because the site loads poorly.

If she is currently making #5,000 a week from the remaining 20% who stay on the site, then that’s enough for her to wonder what will happen if a young chap like you could get 60% people to remain on the site... or maybe even more?

But you’ll never get to this level of discussions with her unless you learn the right approach and the right kinds of questions to ask.

If the approach is to constantly call her to pitch why website design and maintenance is the best thing for SMEs to grow their business, she might think of you as a pest.

If you call up and ask any possible number of questions around whether her business has a site? The problems with the site? Whether they would be interested in a site audit? Or whether they think their website could be a revenue generator? Then you might have a shot at moving the conversation at least one step forward.

It doesn’t mean that you’ll eventually close the sale, but at least you’ll be having meaningful conversations with potential clients every week.

The more meaningful conversations you have, the greater probabilities you have for closing business and opening new business relationships.

Don’t chase down clients because you think you have the greatest thing since sliced bread.

Have meaningful conversations to see if there’s a WANT or NEED in the first place, and the extent of the need.

You can’t sell fancy Italian belts to Oga Haruna if he believes that any belt from Ikeja market is fine. If you call on him every month for a year, your chances aren’t going to increase. There is no perceived need or want here.

But if you get into a conversation around his personal style needs, you might find out that he is a “shoe person” instead. Now you know on what terms you guys can do business, or maybe you have to refer him to one of your colleagues.

In either scenario, you would have become a useful resource person to him.

Don’t chase down the customer.

Drill down to see if there’s a need or any use case where your product or service can provide value to them.

Do this early in the relationship.

If there’s a match, then shoot your shot.

If there’s NO match, then move on.