Julia Huang was getting
frustrated.
The CEO of interTrend
Communications Inc. was eager
to introduce her company to a
new client, but she had to do so
over and over again because her
contact person changed several
times over the course of a year.
That’s when she realized she
needed to establish multiple
contacts within the company, so
that when one changed, she
could still move forward.
Today, this multilevel communication strategy has become the
bedrock of the way Huang does
business, pushing interTrend —
which helps companies target
Asian-American audiences —
to 2007 revenue of more than
$12 million.
Smart Business spoke with
Huang about staying in touch
with clients consistently, without becoming a pest.
Q. How do you effectively
maintain communication
with clients?
Phone calls and e-mails are
essential, but nothing beats face
to face. People just tend to bond
when you have face to face.
Clients don’t want to be burdened with the responsibility of
having you fly to New York
from Seattle, so that very casual
call — saying, ‘We are in New
York for another business;
would you have time for coffee?’ — helps a lot. Most clients
will have that 10 or 15 minutes
to allow for face to face.
On phones and e-mails, you
don’t talk about things that
might be offline. When you’re
on e-mail, when you’re on the
telephone, if you talk about
those things … it just sounds so
nebulous. But when you’re face
to face, and when you just kind
of mention it, you see their face
lighten up and you know you’ve
made that connection.
Next time you communicate
with them on e-mails and telephones, the dynamics really
change.
Q. Once you’ve made a connection, how do maintain it?
You have to continue that frequent, systematic communication with a potential client. But there’s
that fine line between
establishing frequent
communication and
being a pest.
I appreciate people that
conscientiously continue
to be in touch with me,
even though there is no
business immediately. I
think we’re lacking a lot
of that. You can’t think
that the person will make
a business decision right
there and then.
It’s such an instant gratification process, new
business development,
that you think, ‘Oh, there
is no money to be made
in the next five minutes;
this is cold,’ but it’s not.
