It seems like every time a hot prospect surfaces or a client’s contract is about to expire a loud speaker goes off in a salesperson’s head that says “attack”. Almost everyone is guilty of this behavior. We are motivated to make our numbers, save our resources, build our books of business and make money. Americans are instant gratification animals.

However there’s a more stable and consistent approach that we know works, yet so few of us use it with any regularity. It’s having the where with all to know that just stopping by and saying “Hi”, sending a card, calling to see how everyone is, may be the easiest way of holding onto or getting new business.

It boils down to looking at clients and prospects as friends or family members. You, hopefully, phone your mom, spouse, kids, etcetera, to see how things are going, well why not do that with clients and prospects. A word of warning: don’t do it every other day, or with some annoying and phony premise.

If you treat your business resources with the respect and caring that you would like, you’ll find out how loyalty will build and how hard it will be for either of you to let go of your business relationship.

Find out your client or prospect’s birthday and send them a card and make sure you sign it and write a personal note. Personalizing separates your card from the hundreds of cards your client may get over the course of a year, especially during the holidays. I always felt that those printed cards with the stamped company name and/or signature were spit out without much thought or caring.

Call or stop in and ask you prospect or client if they’d like to go to lunch and stipulate that you’re not going to speak about business, but that you figured they’d make good lunch company. Don’t talk business…but they may!

Find out you client or prospect’s likes and dislikes and write them down. Keep an organized file and use it. Calling your prospect to see if they’d like tickets to a sporting event that you know they enjoy may be your ticket to opening up a prosperous relationship.

Sending articles, magazines, books and the like for no apparent reason other than you know it would interest them, speaks volumes about you as a person and about your ability as a sales executive. We are all so jaded by gimmicks and insincerity that a little bit of caring goes a long way in today’s society.

I frequently think about a vendor who helped me out when I was just starting in business. He had no idea that my company would someday become an international entity. He would stop by just to say “Hi”, drop off premiums without asking for an order and would occasionally come by with coffee. No matter what happened that fellow could always count on me as a client. His loyalty and business friendship was handsomely rewarded many times over. Slow, steady and caring won the race!

Remember building a book of business is a lot easier when your foundation is solid and you set it up for the long haul.

Dan Goldberg, MBA, is President of Dan Goldberg Consulting L.L.C. a training, coaching and business development firm located in the Philadelphia, PA area. He is the founder and former owner of "For Eyes" the highly successful international optical company and an internationally recognized keynote speaker. Dan is the author of the book "Stand Back A Second, Just don't fall off the edge," and of "The Six Steps To Solid Sales Success" and "The Seven Elements Of Successful Management" programs. He is Executive-In-Residence at Kutztown University and has been the subject of stories in Newsweek, Business Week, Playboy, Successful Business, Investor’s Business Daily, major newspapers in New York, Philadelphia, Washington, D.C., Boston, Baltimore, Miami, San Francisco, Oakland, St. Louis, Chicago, Los Angeles and many other national and local publications. In addition, Dan has appeared on Good Morning America and other national and local television and radio programs. You can contact him at dg@dangoldberg.com, visit his website at http://www.dangoldberg.com or reach him at (215) 233-5352