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7 Keys to Keeping Your Clients
By Marsha Lindquist
When was the last time you looked in the mirror to see how you are doing with your clients? If you're like some people, you might be smug about your clients and your business may be suffering - some a little and some a lot. If you want a long-term solution, take an inside approach - examine the stuff that you're made of.
Most of the marketing dollars you spend are focused on getting new clients. Did you stop to wonder how much you are spending to get those? It takes an average of six contacts before anyone new is going to at least see you on their radar screen. It then takes considerably more to win them over so that they recognize you as a valuable entity to work with! It's safe to say that it requires less money to keep clients than to acquire new ones. Why not do what you can to keep them. Here are 7 keys to keeping those good clients.
Marsha's 7 Keys to Keeping Clients
1. Think About Serving Them
2. Your Talent Vs. Your Time
3. Words Of Praise & Referrals
4. Perception - Do You Seem Too Busy?
5. Take a Client to Lunch
6. Stay In Touch With Inactive Clients
7. Extraordinary Results
Think About Serving Them
When you are focused on you and not them, it is almost impossible to satisfy your clients. Once you have determined that what you are doing is what you love (and that's the subject of another article), then deliver your best. It may require an Academy Award-winning performance sometimes, but you must focus on serving them. Stop thinking about your personal problems when you are with your clients.
Your Talent Vs. Your Time
Do your clients think they're buying your time instead of your talent? Do you convey that when you look at your watch when you are with your clients? You need to convey that they are the only important item on your agenda right now. Let them know that you are the single source of talent for what ails them. That doesn't mean that you are the only person who can solve their problems - but that you are their best source for that. Let them know that you can satisfy their requirements-that time doesn't matter when they call.
Words Of Praise & Referrals
Are your clients describing their experience with you in a negative way? It's more common than you think. Or do they relay your accomplishments in glowing phrases? Find out for yourself by asking them (in your own informal poll-taking manner) how they would describe your services to a colleague. Even better, when you've finished a project and you feel good about it, ask them for a testimonial letter or E-mail. Go the next step and let them know you appreciate referrals.
Perception - Do You Seem Too Busy?
It doesn't matter if you are or not. It does matter if your clients perceive that your calendar is so full that they have difficulty getting some of your valuable time when they need you. Find out. If your full meter is in the 80% range, and you don't want it to be, take stock of what you portray to your client. Make sure you create time for all of your customers by building in slack time for emergencies. If you don't use it spending time with clients, you get the time for you. A very special kind of gift.
Take a Client to Lunch
Do your own market research. Take your most valued clients to lunch and find out what they think. Pick their brains. Ask for their opinions. Find out how you could improve. They'll be impressed that you valued their opinion.
Stay In Touch With Inactive Clients
Simply said, the clients most likely to do business with you are the ones that have already been there. Just because you are not working with some clients doesn't mean they should be forgotten. Stay in touch.
Extraordinary Results
Staying in present-time consciousness is challenging but important when you are delivering excellence. Look for ways to focus on each client and find out some of their non-business stuff if it fits. As you touch each client's life, envision how this client will affect others in your sphere of influence.
When you focus on keeping your clients, you not only add valuable time back into your life, but you also save money, create a special bond with someone you enjoy working with and give yourself a valuable referral base from which you can only springboard your work and your energy.
About the Author
Marsha Lindquist, a business strategist for over 15 years, draws on her proven “down in the trenches” experience, creativity, and participative manner to provide real solutions to businesses to assist them in building and growing their businesses. She is an energetic presenter and is also the Chief Executive Officer of The Management Link, Inc. As well as being the author of “Why Are You Still Working Your A** Off?”, she has written and published several professional journal articles on business strategy and negotiations. She can be reached by E-mail at marsha@marshalindquist.com
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