It’s part of good relationship management: retaining that important client. I had a couple of lessons this week that helped me understand this concept.
Statistics show that it costs more to gain a new client that it does to retain a client. Plus the longer you have a client, the better you understand their business, their markets and the people inside and outside of the company.
My lessons centered on these points:
- When a client calls or asks, you respond and deliver without question
- Be honest, if you can’t do something, tell them what you can do
- Incumbent clients come first before prospects
In a weekly meeting with my largest client, I was asked for a specific answer to a detailed question. I had another opportunity I could have pursued between when the question was asked and when it was to be answered, but I dropped that situation because I needed to commit time to the incumbent.
The honesty cam in when I had to tell that prospect I couldn’t help them. But I didn’t jsut abandon them: I found some alternatives and put them in touch with some suggested partners who could deliver the quality they deserved. All without charging a few (I want to have the chance to work with them again).
My commitment is with my existing client. They hired me in good faith and I need to deliver. The prospect was just that: unproven to each other, the work could go away and so would the unattended work with the incumbent.
I made a choice. Do you have similar situations?
Relentless
