I spent a couple of days last week in the beautiful San Francisco Bay area. Like many of you, when I travel I like to ask taxi drivers about some of the local happenings that I have read about or seen on the news. When I asked one particular driver about the wildfires raging in northern California and whether they were having any effect on him or his family, he had no idea what I was referring to. Thinking that it may have been due to a language barrier, I asked the question a couple of different ways, mentioning that the human and natural impact had gotten a considerable amount of attention in the world news. He insisted that he knew nothing about any wildfires in the state of California. He did switch the radio to NPR, which may have suggested he wanted to find out what he had missed. Or he just wanted me to stop talking to him.

It occurred to me that this discussion mirrored a few that I and my employees have had with customers throughout my career. Perhaps you have experienced it as well – you ask your customer about a recent press release, earnings report, or news story about their company and they have no idea what you are talking about. Or perhaps you have brought up an emerging business technology trend that will impact the way your customer does business or the manner in which the individual you are meeting with will do their job and they are equally uninformed. Recent trends such as cloud computing and big data come to mind when I think of areas in which a few of my customers have only recently begun to grasp the possibilities of how these new solutions can help them transform their business. Similarly, customers choosing not to upgrade their existing solutions to the latest supported versions of products often create “fires” that both customer and supplier would rather avoid. The smoke on the horizon can indeed come in many forms.

These types of situations are perfect opportunities to engage with your customers and differentiate yourself from your competitors. In fact, such discussions should be a regular part of your post-sales customer care conversations. First, take the opportunity to educate your customer about forthcoming product releases and your company’s support plans for the solutions that they already own. This can be done via some type of “health check”, reports from your product support organization or a custom crafted scorecard. Then provide information about complementary offerings that they should be investing in and the current and future business and technology needs addressed by those investments. This may include educating them about products from your company that they already own but have chosen to not implement or may be used by another division of their company. Finally, spend some time on issues affecting their specific industry and their profession. Recent changes in the regulatory environment, trends you are seeing from your other customers, and information you have gathered from your colleagues can always create new conversations with customers about how they can get more value from their relationship with you.

Although my cab driving friend may have been completely oblivious to the tragedy that many of his fellow Californians were experiencing, I don’t hold it against him, as the nearest fire was nearly two hours away from where he lives and does business. The smoke was not even visible to him. But in the case of your customers, the next fire that impacts their business may be much closer. Imagine the impression you can make if you help them prepare for it before they can see the smoke.