How do you choose to continue a relationship with a client? Some business relationships seem to go on like a flowing stream with little or now need for maintenance. Others need to be tended to almost daily.
But what criteria do you use to keep or part with a client?
Recently I spoke with a client who described to me how she chooses to continue doing business with her clients. She asks these five questions:
- Do they appreciate us and do we appreciate them?
- Are they respectful of us and we of them?
- Are we learning anything from the client and are we teaching them anything?
- Do they pay promptly?
- Do they refer us?
Being appreciated is part of the deal. If one side doesn’t like the other, it’s like any relationship: what’s the point if the feelings aren’t mutual?
Being respectful can be something as basic as that the client treats everyone in your company from the receptionist to the shipping clerk to the executives equally and politely.
Being a source of information and learning things from your clients creates a two-way street that helps both of you grow. When was the lat time you learned something new from a client?
Prompt payment, while seemingly basic, is a big deal. If everything else works, but the client continues to pay late or not at all, is a sign of disrespect (see #2 above).
The biggest and best indicator of a solid, positive relationship with a client is referrals. When someone refers you, unsolicited, to a peer, friend or partner, then you know they respect your work, value what you for them and trust you.
Those all sound like the solid underpinnings of a sound relationship.
Relentless
