machinistguy
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Our biggest customer is a publicly traded company. We did ~$190k in sales with them last year, and projected $300k this year. The company is the client... but it's really individuals that we work with. The quality control employee, the team lead, the VP CC'ed to half the emails but we only occasionally interact with etc.
So the "company" is the client, but its human beings with emotions that are making the decisions. I've always maintained a purely professional relationship. Do you push the relationship towards friendship? If I visit a city known for it's chocolate, do I get the team a box of chocolate as a thank you? Do you invite them to a local steakhouse and... talk shop or no shop talk? Do you do this for the whole team or just those in a senior position? I am genuinely grateful to everyone one of them, they took a shot on my company when no one else did, but then again, it wasn't altruistic, I solved a problem they were struggling with for 4 years.
Shortly after we got this client, one of the employees moved to another big company that we could do the same amount of sales with if we had an in and knew what they wanted. Maybe if I was friends with them I'd have an in? Did not getting them tickets to a cowboy's game cost my company $300k in lost opportunity?
Curious to hear the forums thoughts. @Kak @Antifragile @MJ DeMarco @BizyDad, I think you guys all do/did B2B so I'd love to hear your thoughts if you have the time.
So the "company" is the client, but its human beings with emotions that are making the decisions. I've always maintained a purely professional relationship. Do you push the relationship towards friendship? If I visit a city known for it's chocolate, do I get the team a box of chocolate as a thank you? Do you invite them to a local steakhouse and... talk shop or no shop talk? Do you do this for the whole team or just those in a senior position? I am genuinely grateful to everyone one of them, they took a shot on my company when no one else did, but then again, it wasn't altruistic, I solved a problem they were struggling with for 4 years.
Shortly after we got this client, one of the employees moved to another big company that we could do the same amount of sales with if we had an in and knew what they wanted. Maybe if I was friends with them I'd have an in? Did not getting them tickets to a cowboy's game cost my company $300k in lost opportunity?
Curious to hear the forums thoughts. @Kak @Antifragile @MJ DeMarco @BizyDad, I think you guys all do/did B2B so I'd love to hear your thoughts if you have the time.
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