Every client is different and every moment with every client is different.
By paying close attention during interactions with a client you can develop an accurate, intuitive sense of just how personable and sympathetic to be with this person in the now.
You can sense how dignified to be, how informal; how much time to spend on a client and when you need to leave the conversation to avoid misappropriation of your time.
Sometimes you cannot help but leave a prospect or client dissatisfied.
But often customer service and sales professionals fail to take total advantage of the opportunity to provide a customer with a great experience.
To develop the awareness that can guide you in providing the best possible prospect and client experience every time, intentionally pay attention to your experience with that person in the present moment.
This is not as easy to do, nor as commonly practiced, as one might assume.
Our minds often want to jump around. You might be thinking of what we have to do next. You might be silently expressing judgmental opinions about the client or prospect to yourself. You might be thinking of something that just happened.
Individuals who have not received aware relationship experience training do not realize the importance of paying more attention to what is happening in the now. Awareness equals leverage. In any relationship, the one who is more aware is the one who is in charge.
As you deliberately practice paying closer attention to your experience in the present moment during every relationship experience, you will notice the other's subtle responses as they happen and more effectively strike just the right balance to lead things toward your objective.
The foundation practice involved here can be described as deliberately practicing being more aware in the now while relating with other people.
As you practice this in all of your relationships, both personal and professional, relating more attentively grows as a positive, constructive habit. As a result, you will more easily create improved customer experiences that lead to growing business success.
Exercise:
One of the ways to grow more aware during interpersonal relationships is to review your relationship experiences.
Think back to a past interaction you had with prospect. Simply review in your mind to how you handled things. How were you feeling? How was the other person feeling? How could you tell? Spend a few moments considering how you might have handled that interaction more effectively.
Even if you don't come up with any ideas right away, the exercise works by helping you to be more aware, more attentively present, in the future.
