An interesting observation was pointed out to me a little while ago. The more you see a stranger in a none consequential way, the more approachable they become. Only because they become a familiar face and you start to build a perceived trust. The likelihood of one of you saying more than just “hello” will increase each and every time you see each other.
It happens to me all the time, specifically on my daily runs with my dogs. I have had several people stop me just to chat. These are people I’ve seen over and over again that I’ve never said a word to besides maybe “hello”. I have also started chatting with people simply because I’ve seen them over and over again and our polite hello’s have progressed into conversations.
Take this concept in business. Who would you rather do business with, someone you see and talk to often that might have never up until now tried to sell you anything or that stranger that you have never said a word to and is trying to sell you something? For most people I would think it would be the person you see often.
Several of my web design clients I have gotten because I was a regular at their business. I wasn’t there to sell them a website, I was there to partake in their service or product. But after seeing them time after time we slowly started to talk about more and more things. Which eventually lead to them finding out what I do and then what I can do for them.
But it all started because I was a familiar face. The point is your familiar face in front of your clients will help you do more business with them for the simple fact that they will be thinking about you because they see you on a regular basis.
This doesn’t mean you have to go visit each client every week. But a good start would be emailing or calling them once a month just to say “Hi” and see how business is going. Just remember, these contacts are not about selling.
