Chances are you’ve had difficult client relationships. Communication stops, the client doesn’t give you what you need, and you don’t get the results you want. Before you throw in the towel, you should make every effort to resolve the problems and get the relationship back on track.
In this podcast, Andrea Howe, founder of BossaNova Consulting Group, talks with Mike Schultz, President of Wellesley Hills Group and Publisher of RainToday.com, about how to identify a relationship that’s falling off track and what you can do to set things right.
I just had the most disturbing conversation with one of the CEOs with whom I work.
CEO: “Our largest client just told us that they want a 20% cut in our fees.”
Me: “What services don’t they want you to provide anymore?”
CEO: “Oh, they still want everything we’ve always done. Just for less money.”
Me: “So, let’s figure out the strategy to deal with this.”
CEO: “Ah, a little late. I already told them we would do it. But once the economy bounces back…”
Random act of seller-on-buyer violence? I think not. This frightening trend has exploded into a full-fledged social epidemic. But why?
Maybe it is because so many professional services firms are struggling for new clients or simply trying to hang on to existing ones. Maybe it is a seismic shift in the dynamics of the client / service provider power matrix (i.e., the economy). Or maybe we have all lost confidence in the true value we provide for our clients. Whatever the case, we shouldn’t allow it to come down to this humorous (yet, sadly, very close to the mark for professional service firms) depiction I came across recently:
Let’s say you know there’s a big client out there that’s looking to hire a firm like yours. You’d love to get that deal, and you hear that while the client knows that you exist, their short list of possible providers doesn’t include you.
Forget about it, right? Probably would be a lot of effort and leave you with the goose egg to show for it anyway.
Millions of business professionals have a profile on LinkedIn and LinkedIn is consistently ranked as one of the top social networking websites out there. So, how does a marketer tactfully and effectively use this resource?
Jason Alba, author of I’m on LinkedIn — Now What? and the DVD LinkedIn for Job Seekers, explains the finer points of netiquette (Internet etiquette), the best way to build a list from your connections, and what your personal profile should look like.
(Time: 8:32)
Interested in hearing more? An extended version of this audio interview is available to RainToday.com members.
“Complex problems have simple, easy to understand, wrong answers.” - H.L. Mencken
Client: “Mike, glad to have you here. We’ve been looking forward to this meeting about our corporate messaging for quite some time.”
Mike: “Great. Let’s start from the beginning. What do you do?”
What do I do?
Sure, most folks have something to say when asked what they do, but too often they seem lost in the middle of the street as the cars go swerving by. Feel familiar? Fret not! You can survive this question (and teach others to survive it) without any tire tracks running down your back. Here’s how to do it.
Smoking a cigar in the Adirondack chair as the red sun goes down over the lake on a warm summer evening. Between this and me is a major remodel of the fixer-upper lake house my wife and I just bought.
Since I inherited from my father special skills like hammering a nail into a wall such that I ruin the wall, I realize I’m about to spend a lot of time with architects and contractors. All I’ve heard from friends and colleagues is, “Be careful!” Click to Read More
Inside all of us hides an inner nerd. I’ve been accused around the office of not hiding mine particularly well, especially when it comes to quoting famous and obscure movies alike.
A few years ago, I reviewed the American Film Institute’s top 100 movie quotes list, and shared the secret marketing messages hidden in each. When I saw Liquid Generation’s 100 best movie lines in 200 seconds, I realized that more hidden messages needed to be freed.
(Video caution: Some PG-13 in there…)
Here goes:
“He slimed me.” Ghostbusters, 1984
Secret message: People know when you’re trying to pull the wool over their eyes or use a cheesy sales tactic. Don’t.
“You’ll shoot your eye out, kid.” A Christmas Story, 1983
Secret message: Don’t let someone scare you out of doing something you want to do. There’s nothing wrong with a little risk.
Becoming a “Trusted Advisor” to clients has been a long sought after goal for consultants and professionals. Professionals covet not only providing services regularly to clients, but becoming their clients’ sounding board for challenging and sticky issues of all types. A worthy goal, indeed.
You might think that if you’ve achieved trusted advisor status that you’ve reached the top of the client relationship Everest. Time to stick your flag into the ground, enjoy the view, and relish reaching the goal. With you as their trusted advisor they’ll never consider working with anyone else, right?
Generating business from current clients is much easier, and usually more profitable than generating business from new clients. No news there. Since the economy took it’s turn for the worse, focusing on keeping your current clients loyal has become a common refrain.
Along with a number of other industry experts, I was asked the question, “What’s the one thing you should do to keep your clients loyal?” for the new RainToday.com e-book The One Piece of Advice You Need to Earn Your Clients’ Loyalty. You could build a case for building trust. You could build a case for delivering exceptional value. You could build a case for, become essential to the client. And so on. While I think all of these are good pieces of advice, the first questions you have to ask yourself are, “Why do they buy from you in the first place,” and “Why don’t they buy it from someone else?”
In professional services firms, the experiences we create for our clients plays a huge role in our ability to satisfy them, generate the return on investment they are looking for, and ensure they stay loyal clients. Listen to this episode as Peter Merholz, author of Subject to Change and president of Adaptive Path, explains what service firms can do to deliver valuable experiences to clients.
(Length: 13:19)
RainToday.com’s Podcast “Marketing & Selling Professional Services” is produced by the Wellesley Hills Group.
Very Satisfied Clients Switch Less Often
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