My wife went to the pharmacy to get some medication. We both knew the price of the drug but she came home with a much more expensive one. When I asked why she bought that, she said the lady at the store convinced her that the brand is of better quality and will give better results.

I immediately thought to myself, “She converted my wife from a customer to a client.” This is because she didn’t just allow her walk in asking for what she wanted, pay and leave; rather she asked questions to be sure what she was requesting for could solve her problem.

We need to approach our business this way. There is a difference between customers and clients. Supermarkets have customers, Lawyers have clients. Customers will give you an income; clients will make you a fortune.
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How do you convert your customers to clients? First of all this requires a mental shift, you need to see yourself similar to a fiduciary giving professional or legal advice. For example if you were a lawyer and a client came to you with a problem, the client said, “I want you to do these three things for me in order to solve this problem.”

If you knew the three things the client was asking for won’t get the job done but rather seven things will be required, the question is, will you go ahead with only the three things? Of course not, rather you will persuade the client to go for the seven (even if it costs more) (persuade them using pain/pleasure; away from or towards), because the client’s best interest is on your mind and you don’t want to lose the case.

Secondly, you will need to work on your language by calling your customers clients, then they sure will act and pay you like clients. The only limitation to accomplishing these is trust and trust is built through credibility. Credibility comes from your personal and business appearance, your recommendation and your ability to listen. Iyore Ogbuigwe is a Sales Coach