If you really want to build muscle and get fit, you might start with the exercise programs made popular by accomplished personal trainers such as Tae Bo’s Billy Blanks or fitness expert Denise Austin. You’ll probably want to study and adopt their diets and workout programs to get the best personal results you can. The same can be said about smart businesspeople who study the practices of successful sales professionals with an eye toward improving their own businesses.
Of all the business school case studies that have been done on the world’s most successful companies, the analysis boils down to three simple factors for the top 10 percent of them. They are:

Develop genuine, up-close and personal rapport with customers.

Deliver on stated and implied promises.

Possess extraordinary listening skills.

Assuming customers find your digital graphics business conveniently located and offering a broad mix of highly sought-after and made-to-order items, consider how you might better develop a personal rapport with your customers and deliver on the promises you make.
As a trainer, I find it difficult to truly teach someone to be friendly and trustworthy.
According to classic behavioral science authors Gail Sheehy and Morris Massey, a person’s innate capability to be liked and trusted is most often determined by their home environment around the age of ten. Therefore, the best attempt to capture relationship-building and promise-keeping skills for your business is to seek out and hire employees who are naturally warm and friendly and who consistently keep their promises. This is easier said than done, but it’s worth the effort.
That leads us to the one thing we can train our employees to do well: listen.

LEARN TO LISTEN
Take a closer look at where your business could be investing its resources into training.
Assuming your shop has a training plan for its employees (the good ones do), I would bet most of the time and money is being spent on new product knowledge and upcoming seasonal promotions.
I find very few business owners offer training in the soft skills — listening and customer service, for example. Studies show that when the average person communicates, 45 percent of his time is spent listening, 30 percent speaking, 16 percent reading, and nine percent writing. Yet the years of formal education a high school graduate receives in listening, speaking, reading and writing is inversely proportional and listening skills are largely ignored.
When people practice active listening, they typically exhibit observable signals to the speaker. These signals are important for anyone who wants to distinguish himself as a businessperson or sales professional. The signals can be remembered using the acronym POWER:

Patience; Paraphrasing

Observable body language

Who, what, where, when, why, how, how much and how often

Empathizing; Echoing

Recording key ideas

The reason those listening signals are important is because when you are (or aren’t) listening attentively, your customer — though not necessarily on a conscious level — is usually aware of it.
Do you ever catch yourself thinking of your response to someone, even before they have finished their sentence? Having patience with a customer can involve waiting a full second or two after a customer has made a statement or voiced a concern before speaking. Trial lawyers often coach witnesses to practice this on the stand when they are asked a question by the opposing attorney. It is next to impossible to be a good listener when you are talking.
This also helps when dealing with unhappy patrons. It’s a good idea to let the customer fully vent — like letting the air out of a balloon — before offering your response. This prevents you from jumping to a quick, and often too-defensive, reply.
Paraphrasing means periodically summarizing what the customer has said in your own words: “So, in other words, what you are saying is…” Similar to someone looking in a mirror, a paraphrased comment is a reflection of what the speaker just said. It will help you to remember what the customer thinks is important and minimize any possible misunderstandings in the future.
Examples of observable body language include eye contact, facial expressions, head nods, gestures, body lean and those one- or two-syllable sounds we make to let people know we are tuned in. That occasional “uh-huh” is vitally important on call when one or both parties are on a cell phone. All those can communicate that we are listening intensely. Not including them can communicate that we aren’t listening very well at all.

BE NOSY
One of the main things a sales professional must be is industrially nosy. Asking questions that begin with who, what, where, when, why, how, how come, how much and how often will help you get all the information you need to recommend the right product in a timely manner, or correct a customer’s problem before it becomes a crisis.
How many times have you recommended one option to a customer, only to ask that one additional question that sheds a completely different light on the situation and suggests a significantly different solution? Try asking some of these under-asked questions:

“Who else, besides you, will make the final decision?”

“What exactly are you looking for and why is that important?”

“How often does that happen?”

“What have you budgeted to spend on this project?”

“When do you need this delivered?”

Often, sales people believe they already know why a customer is looking for something. Take the time to ask the question and confirm your suspicions. You may be surprised with unexpected answers as often as you find your suspicions were correct.
When you take the time to empathize with a customer who is seeking an answer for something through your shop’s products, it helps to bridge the gap between vendor and consumer. The ability to express genuine empathy is a valuable asset to any entrepreneur’s offering. You should try to relate to the customer’s problem by sharing your feelings when in similar circumstances. For example: “I know it’s frustrating to have to wait for a particular material to arrive to complete this job. Once, it felt like I had to wait forever for a special order part to come in, but they did deliver it when promised and it was worth the wait when I finally got it.”
Echoing is simply repeating one word the speaker used as a way to prompt them to expand on that thought. For example, if a client says to you, “We are having a lot of problems with this sign,” you may say, “Problems?” The customer would probably go on to offer more details. Of course, it is important to choose the right word to echo. If you came back with, “We?” your customer’s reaction would be very different.
Finally, get into the habit of making short notes to record key ideas, either written or mental, during a conversation. This is essential when talking on the phone with a customer.
Here’s a great tip to show that you are a good listener: at the end of the phone call, say, “I’ve taken some notes while we were speaking. Please let me review the key points of our conversation.”

TRY THIS EXERCISE
Excluding family members, think of the person you would consider your best friend and write down this person’s three best characteristics. There’s a good chance you’ve included that you trust them unconditionally and that they are an excellent listener.
Try to recreate those same strong bonds with as many customers as you can. You can accomplish that by POWER-lifting your listening skills using the tips above. Then, use the POWER acronym as a self-evaluation after each customer encounter to become more aware of your listening skills. You will be amazed at your progress toward becoming one of the most respected and profitable digital graphics shop owners in your community.
Good luck!