At the end of the day ─ once the meeting is over, the deliverable is submitted, and the pop-up fire is extinguished ─ what makes you different from your client’s other vendors?

We could start with the very word itself: vendor. Does your client consider you to be someone who sells a product or service in a transactional manner, or have you become a partner ─ an entrenched and necessary extension of your client’s internal team?

In today’s ultra-competitive B2B market, being a vendor may get clients, but being a partner retains clients.

1.    Know the space.

Subscribe to your client’s eNewsletter, a few competitor emails, and industry publications so you stay in the know. Create Google Alerts on the name of your client’s organization and key contacts. This knowledge will better equip you for client interactions, as well as provide insight into their world and context around projects.

Share quality content: a relevant industry article along with key takeaways that resonated with you or a congratulatory hand-written card to the CFO on a recent promotion.

2.    Have a conversation.

With busy schedules and clients who prefer brevity, it can be easy to start a meeting by diving right into the project at hand. Before talking shop, ask how business is going, how their weekend was, or if they have any big plans for the upcoming holiday. Get to know your contacts as people.

Beyond inquiring, take notes on their responses ─ from birthdays and favorite vacation spots to pets and kids’ names. Add important dates to your calendar so you remember to send a personalized note, and instead of generically asking about the past weekend, ask specifically “Did you do anything fun with <insert kids’ names here>?”

9 times out of 10, your contact’s posture will relax and expression will soften.

3.    Think outside of the box.

Beyond what your clients verbally say, what are their other cues telling you? Here’s an example.

Regardless of your meeting time, your client always has a hot coffee in hand. The morning of a meeting, your client emails that she’s running behind and may be late to the office. Since you’re prepping at a nearby coffee shop and know her affinity for caffeine, you respond by asking if you can bring her a coffee to which she graciously and eagerly accepts.

Before the meeting even begins, you’ve already put a smile on her face.

The common thread in these relationship building tips is twofold. Listening ─ whether to the external landscape, responses, or preferences ─ is no longer enough. We must then take that acquired knowledge and turn it into action. This takes time, a willingness to think and act outside of scope, and deliberate effort.