Some relationships are fleeting, they come, they go and they leave no marks.
But, when you’re working hard to establish a good reputation for your business in the public sector, long-term relationships with government clients are essential. They demonstrate compatibility, trust, and a deep understanding of your client’s unique concerns and issues.
The question is: How do you go about building a long-term relationship with contracting authorities?
We’re going to give you the building blocks necessary to develop and nurture long-term client relationships, emphasising the importance of building client relationships to succeed in the public sector.
Understanding the Importance of Client Relationships
Client relationships are the backbone of any successful business. For example, strong client relationships can lead to happy, loyal clients, which is reflected in your growing bottom line.
Building strong client relationships requires a deep understanding of the client’s needs, preferences, and expectations. Success depends on regular communication, empathy, and trust.
6 Tips To Build Strong Client Relationships With Government Buyers
Good client relationships start with understanding the client’s goals, challenges, and objectives. This includes establishing clear expectations, setting realistic goals, and performance measurement.
Building and maintaining strong client relationships is a skill suppliers must earn quickly if they want to succeed in public procurement. Here are six tips to get you started.
1) Clear Communication
It’s impossible to have good relationships with clients without clear and consistent communication. If communication is not your forte, best to make it so as quickly as you can.
Why?
Communication determines if your business goals and values align. They don’t have to be identical, but they must be compatible – as in you can work together, secure in the knowledge that you won’t trample all over their principles or misunderstand their objectives.
Contracting authorities will feel comfortable communicating openly and honestly with you provided you hold up your end of communication, which is to listen. Listen actively to ensure you absolutely understand their issues, doubts, and ideal results.
This kind of trust earns repeat business and glowing testimonials and case studies that recommend you to other clients.
2) Be Patient
You know it takes time to develop good relationships with people in your private life. Well, a professional relationship is similar, especially with public bodies that are naturally wary of new suppliers. They simply can’t afford ties with risky businesses or organisations that could result in a scandal.
Resign yourself to a long courting process that might only provide positive results a good way into the future.
About the courting process in client relations
Start as soon as possible. You should still be researching the players in your field, keeping an eye out for potentially strong relationships. Attend the same events, including conferences and expos. Learn more about their core operations by attending webinars on the topic.
The key is not to be pushy or in-your-face. That kind of behaviour will get you off the maybe list and straight onto the not-in-a-million-years pile.
3) Tailor Solutions to Each Government Agency
Under no circumstances should you approach each contract with the attitude that one government agency is the same as another and that the same tendering process will work for Agencies A, C, and B.
Each contracting authority is unique. They have unique problems. They need unique solutions. They deserve unique relationships that take all their differences into account.
This is where active listening bears fruit because your understanding of their situation enables you to get to the heart of the matter and develop a solution specific to their pain points and project objectives. Establishing a personal connection with your clients enables you to tailor solutions more effectively.
4) Don’t Take it Personally
Most of your early bids will be rejected. Don’t take it personally. It’s not directed at you or your business, but rather at a process that you’re still learning. And learn you will.
According to the Procurement Act 2023, contracting authorities must provide feedback to all bidders, pointing out areas that need strengthening.
If you don’t get feedback, ask for it. If you need clarification on certain points, follow up. It’s the best way to refine your solutions and hone your bid writing.
However, you must implement feedback. This requires a flexible mindset, especially when it comes to bid writing. Get a foot in the door by adapting your writing to fit the contracting authority’s style, tone, and language.
You can keep the door open – and develop your client relationship – by sticking to their preferred method of communication; for example, email, instant messaging, or Zoom meetings. Do your clients prefer text messages or email communication for short snippets of information, like brief real-time updates?
This all points to your understanding and active listening skills. And if you get another rejection, remember, there will always be a next time.
5) Exceed Expectations Client’s Expectations
A surefire way to win friends and influence people is to do better than expected. Consistently going above and beyond, adding more value, and impressing government buyers will do wonders for your reputation and virtually guarantee glowing recommendations and testimonials when you bid on new tenders.
It’s also one of the best ways to shore up relationships with clients and make them reluctant to share your business with other contracting authorities.
However – a big however – don’t get cocky and start promising sky-high results. This is a surefire way to land on your face and undo any trust you might have earned. Don’t expect recommendations, let alone glowing ones and don’t expect contract renewals.
The corollary applies. Don’t try to set low expectations so you’ll look good delivering average results. Public bodies won’t fall for it and you’ll be left out in the cold.
Setting realistic expectations and working your tuchus off to beat them is the way to go.
6) Be Professional
Professionalism is vital to winning public contracts and maintaining strong relationships with clients. It starts with the initial contact. It’s tricky because if you want to establish a meaningful connection you don’t want to appear too formal but you don’t want to be over-familiar either. It might help to watch their interaction with others to gauge the right tone.
It moves onto a professional website. This is not something that a friend or family member throws together – unless web design happens to be their area of specialisation. It’s worth stretching the budget for professional designers to create a user-friendly website that enhances customer experience and inspires confidence in your services or products.
You also want professional paperwork, including invoices, reports, contracts, bid proposals, and statement of work (SOW).
Managing the Relationship for Long-Term Success
Check in with your clients regularly for progress updates and feedback sessions. It ensures you stay aligned with your client’s needs and expectations. The proactive approach enables you to adapt quickly if your client’s needs change. The upshot is that you can quickly identify areas for growth and take steps to avoid risks.
Effective client relationship management can increase satisfaction for you and your clients and pave the way for future success.
Cadence Marketing, Early Engagement & Building Successful Client Relationships
We started off with a question: How to build long-term relationships with government clients?
We provided six tips to build client relationships and set you on your way to lucrative partnerships with contracting authorities.
Now, let’s have a quick recap.
Clear communication is the foundation for professional relationships. You build trust based on transparency, reliability, and accountability.
Understand clients’ unique requirements, objectives, values, and constraints (limited budget, strict regulations). Develop solutions tailor-made for their specific pain points.
Provide extra value that exceeds the client’s expectations as detailed in the contract. Look into social value goals and innovative solutions to work processes, including services and manufacturing. Anything that saves costs is a winner.
Maintain engagement by attending industry events, fostering rapport, and regular communication.
Familiarise yourself with the compliance requirements relevant to the industry, as well as local and central government procurement regulations.
Cadence Marketing provides various marketing solutions, including early engagement to build strong relationships with public sector buyers. Book a free consultation to find out how our team of experts can set you on the right path to mutually beneficial partnerships.
