We've just had the first big frosts of the season here in the UK, which prompted me to head out to the greenhouse to harvest this year's crop of chillies.

Bear with me by the way, there's a client-winning tip buried in here eventually :)

Last year was pretty hopeless for me chilli-wise. I grew a bunch of ultra-hot varieties but got hardly any chillies fruiting. So I overwintered most of the plants in our conservatory.

When it came to putting them back out in spring disaster struck – all the leaves fell off the plants and I assumed I'd put them out too early and killed them.

But no. Within a few weeks, plenty of new growth had sprouted. The plants came back bigger and stronger and put on tons of fruit this year for our best harvest ever. Here's a picture of the first batch:

Yum!

You've probably guessed the point of the story already, but it bears repeating.

When it comes to winning clients, you can't expect all of your prospects to convert into paying clients quickly just because you want them to. There's a natural cycle for most people that involves just as much nurture and just as much time as growing plants.

If I'd treated my chilli plants like most people treat their prospects then when they didn't have a prolific harvest that first year I'd have given up on them and not bothered watering or feeding them. I'd probably have literally left them out in the cold.

But often your very best and most loyal clients are the ones who take their time. Someone who makes a snap decision to work with you may well make a snap decision to do something else. Someone who builds a strong relationship with you first and then commits is usually in it for the long haul.

How do you handle long-term nurturing of potential clients? It's easy when we've just met someone to send some follow-up emails, make a call, maybe post them something.

But what are you doing 3 months, 6 months, 9 months or a year later to keep that relationship growing?