Alright – so today we’ve got the honor of introducing you to Charlotte Purvis. We think you’ll enjoy our conversation, we’ve shared it below.

Hi Charlotte, thanks for joining us today. To kick things off, we’d love to hear about things you or your brand do that diverge from the industry standard

What I do differently from the industry standard is my sales and marketing strategy. Instead of spending time on the usual advertisement and digital strategy in hopes of generating prospective leads, I decided to use my strength of relationship building to grow my business. I am intentional about moving beyond the transactional aspect of my work by learning about my clients, what’s important to them, and the challenges they face everyday. As an example, if a client has an upcoming doctor’s appointment that they’re concerned about, it’s very likely that appointment will be noted on my calendar as well. I will do check-ins either before or after the appointment letting the client know I care about them as a person. The results have been tremendous. Nearly 100% of my new business comes through my clients’ referrals and repeat business—and through recommendations of others who know about CharlottePurvis.com. An example I enjoy sharing is that one of my clients invited me to provide coaching for his two young adult children. The client later referred me to another family with a young adult. This was an international engagement where I conducted communication coaching online, with a very successful outcome. The story continues: this year I had the opportunity to consult with another one of the client’s family members!
My largest contracts in the pharmaceutical industry have all come from client referrals, including one engagement that lasted 4.5 years. It’s important in business to know your strengths and to use them so your business is a reflection of you. I am very grateful that I knew I would not fit the traditional model and that a relationship building model would be ideal for me.

As always, we appreciate you sharing your insights and we’ve got a few more questions for you, but before we get to all of that can you take a minute to introduce yourself and give our readers some of your back background and context?

My story begins in my beloved hometown of Tuscaloosa, Alabama. It was in Tuscaloosa that I first learned about the themes that have been the background music of my life: courtesy, respect, going the extra mile, walking in their shoes, and making the world a better place.

I heard these words from our parents, at church, at school, and throughout my community. As I reflect on my childhood, I realize now this was one of the greatest blessings I could have been given. These themes have served me well throughout my life and career.

Growing up in Tuscaloosa was the perfect preparation for me to become a Customer Service Consultant, especially paired with my formal education at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. I settled in the Research Triangle Park area after being awarded a fellowship to study at The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Additionally, I served in a government-sponsored research position as a trainer and internal consultant at the North Carolina Department of Health and Human Services (formerly Human Resources). This role was important in preparing me to become an independent consultant.

In the late 1990s, I had the privilege of being on the support team for a family member living with HIV/AIDS. This was a deeply personal (and emotional) experience that I took seriously. I had a vision statement and set of expectations and goals for him. Upon reflection, I realize that the experience with our family member also served as training for my role as a Customer Service Consultant.

I am the author of The Customer Communication Formula. I wrote the book because I wanted to share the formula I have used with great success for 20+ years, influencing millions of customer service interactions. Also, I want to contribute to the discussion about the importance of customer service. This is now a priority – sharing my formula beyond my core list of clients to influence the future of customer service. I also continue to have a special interest in programs that provide services for People Living With HIV. I would welcome an opportunity to speak about this further and invite interested readers to visit my website to schedule a complimentary consultation with me.
Contact 1 — Charlotte Purvis

It is a pleasure to share my story. My hope is that my experience will serve as an inspiration to readers who are starting out or starting over, personally or professionally. Thank you kindly for this opportunity.

Any stories or insights that might help us understand how you’ve built such a strong reputation?

Relationships and respect helped build my reputation in the market. First, relationships. For each client, it’s so important to make a human connection, and where appropriate, be involved in the ups and downs of their lives. I demonstrate to them that this is more than a business for me — what I do is based on my desire to be of service and to support my clients in more than just their professional lives.

Next, respect. I’ve been fortunate to have clients from all walks of life with multi-cultural backgrounds, from young adults to Baby Boomers, some highly successful and some facing very challenging situations. All of them deserve and receive the same level of respect when I engage with them. This is a core value of my business.

What’s a lesson you had to unlearn and what’s the backstory?

I can remember multiple times where I, as well as my team members, would become super-excited about a potential opportunity that was presented to us. We have spent hours developing proposals, doing our research on the company, talking about all of the bright ideas we had for the project, and having a series of initial meetings. We were serious about preparing to take on the assignment. And then…nothing. Sometimes the news would come in the form of an email, sometimes we would have to contact them to find out the decision, and sometimes there would literally be no response. It’s taken those experiences to learn that until we have the contract, the business is not yet ours.

What I can say today is that we are much better about this process. In fact, as we participate in this interview, my marketing consultant doesn’t know that I had a meeting last week about a POTENTIAL opportunity for us. Because of our previous experiences, I had not yet mentioned it. She’s learning about it right now during this interview!

Here are key insights we’ve gained from these experiences:

1. Some of the engagements we wanted are not the best choices for us, for our business model, for the time period.

2. Even if we don’t get the contract, there are plenty of lessons we can learn. A recent example: we created a brand new approach to developing our proposals. We can use that new approach going forward.

3. Sometimes we’re not chosen based on factors over which we cannot control. I’m thinking of one company that sought our proposal but ultimately chose an internal organization. How did I find out? I had to contact them (after waiting a l-o-n-g time post-proposal). Since communication and relationships are so super-important to me, that was probably not a good fit.

Contact Info:

• Website: https://www.charlottepurvis.com/
• Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SpeakerCPurvis
• Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/speakercpurvis/
• Twitter: https://twitter.com/SpeakerCPurvis
• Other: Please contact me via email: welcome@charlottepurvis.com

Image Credits
Charlotte’s headshot: Michael and Carolyn Kerr