“Don’t put all your eggs in one basket” is a well-worn axiom for a reason. Savvy businesspeople know the pitfalls of relying too heavily on any one client or single niche market for survival. What happens to your own business if your key customer goes belly up? Or the market you’re targeting gets hits hard by a recession or an unexpected dry spell?

A best practice, instead, is to work on diversifying your customer base. And during an education session at ASI Orlando, entrepreneur and speaker Darryl Jenkins explained how to use “three C’s” – connection, cultivation and collaboration – to do just that. Jenkins is managing partner of The CPS Store, a corporate branding and promotional products company, and has 25 years of experience as an executive consultant.

Darryl Jenkins explains the 3 C's of building a diverse customer base: connecting, cultivating and collaborating. #ASIOrlando #sales #PromotionalProducts pic.twitter.com/5KuN5erzdM

— Theresa Hegel (@TheresaHegel) January 4, 2022

1. Connect with new and existing customers. “I don’t believe any of us are here to have a one-in, one-out relationship,” Jenkins said. Instead, it’s all about gaining a repeat clientele, and part of the process for doing so is by shifting away from transactions – moving instead toward building relationships.

Social media and other technology are great tools for staying connected. But don’t discount the simple act of asking questions. Go straight to the source – your customers – to find out what they need and want out of their relationship with you.

2. Cultivate your relationships. Jenkins likens this to growing plants. The connection was the seed that you must then nurture so that it can germinate and eventually sprout. When you first connect with a prospect, it might seem like nothing is happening in the buying journey, but “what you don’t see is what’s happening below the surface,” Jenkins said.

But be careful not to “overwater” your relationship. “You have to know how much your ‘plant’ can tolerate,” Jenkins said. There’s no hard and fast rule of how often you should be in touch with a client since everyone has different styles and preferences. But, he added, “If you have a relationship with them, you’ll know when enough is enough.”

3. Collaborate with your clients. As you develop strong relationships with your clientele, you can “begin to explore amazing opportunities” to collaborate with them, Jenkins said. He advised attendees to get involved with their communities to broaden their customer base. Working with a nonprofit or local group might lead to unexpected avenues for networking and sales.

It’s also a good idea to understand your existing customers’ promotional and marketing vision – or help them shape it. Knowing what they’re hoping to achieve with their business will help you offer up promotional solutions they need and want but might never have thought to request.

“When you bring these three C’s together,” Jenkins said, “you have a better way of saying, ‘Thank you for your business.’”