Don’t Just Champion Your Company – Champion Your Clients!
Client Engagement Blog Series
Before, we talked about creating a company-wide culture of business continuity management in our Company Engagement Series, from taking the first steps and getting priorities together to checking in on your program. So now that you have your company engaged, let’s talk about engaging your clients. In the Client Engagement Series, we share insights on what we’ve learned while growing our client engagement program. Here we explore championing your clients.
Technology user groups are fantastic for letting clients know how they can take full advantage of your products, services, and solutions to optimize operations at their business. But in the midst of championing your company, bear in mind that user groups are also a prime opportunity to champion your clients!
Championing your clients is about finding ways to promote a client’s professional growth, program achievements, and company success. It is client-centric: your primary goal is to help your clients as individuals and companies to shine. As a by-product, of course, championing your clients will also shine a positive light on your own business and solutions! It’s a win-win situation all around.
There are two big ways that you can champion your clients. First, you can give them plenty of opportunities for speaking engagements. For example, at our Fusion Risk Management regional user groups, we always feature a client in a “Spotlight” by asking them to give a presentation to the group. This gives them the chance to show how their program is growing in scope and depth and to pass on their learnings to the group. Then, at our annual Solutions conference, we have multiple opportunities for them to speak before a much larger audience of their peers.
Webinars are another venue to give your clients a voice in the industry. We partner with ours to give joint webinars on timely and relevant topics. Webinars enable clients to have a voice before an audience that is broader than their fellow Fusion users.
But do not limit speaking engagements to your own company events. Encourage your clients to speak at industry conferences as well, either as presenters or as panelists. Many people are hesitant to put themselves forward in this way. You can be the catalyst to get people “on the stage” to gain industry recognition for their accomplishments and expertise – it’s a great way to help them promote their profession, program, and company all in one!
The second way to champion your clients is through publication opportunities. For example, invite them to submit blogs that you can post on your website and promote through social media. After all, it can be tough to generate good content for your blog on an ongoing basis … why not ask your clients to be guest contributors? They get their name in the limelight, and you get great content!
For something a bit meatier, ask your best clients to be the subject of a case study – or, as we prefer to term it, a client success story. Vary the approach you take to these success stories to keep it interesting. For instance, at Fusion, we have success stories that zero in on specific accomplishments such as automating site risk assessments, achieving ISO certification, and maximizing the value of data across the enterprise.
Again, do not restrict your ideas about publication opportunities to what you have in-house. Urge your clients to apply for industry awards. People may not be aware that their accomplishments are award-worthy, or know how or where to submit a nomination form. Keep up-to-date on various industry award opportunities and shoulder tap clients whose accomplishments are relevant to the various awards. Awards can be a great boost for a client’s career, program, and company.
Essentially, championing your clients is about encouraging them to be proud of what they have achieved and providing avenues for them to share their story. As you promote your clients and cheer them on to new heights, you will find that your company’s solutions get glowing reviews as well. Everybody wins!
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