S S Ten Slides in Ten Minutes: Thinking about Client Retention [Capturing the Hearts and Minds of Prospects & Clients]

Presented by:

Bill Graham CP.APMP

June, 2014

bill.graham@sales-synthesis.co.za Customers

Clients

Success is a Balanced Lifestyle

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What is Client Retention? All activities in an organisation that ensure clients do not defect to a competitor

• Exceeding clients’ expectations • Growing the partnership • Relevant emerging solutions • Alignment to clients’ strategies • Building loyal advocates

How Mature is your Account

Management?

Increasing the 'Loss Rate'

Creating a climate for success

Client Retention begins at contract signature

• Complacency • Marketplace irrelevancy • Commodity selling • Commission-driven sales • Perception of poor service culture

Dominant Exclusive Emerging Pervasive Absent

Symbiotic

relationship

with clients

Making the competitors irrelevant

Building mutually beneficial and sustainable long-term client relationships by

crafting solutions that support a clients’ Business Imperatives

Source: Sales Synthesis

Know where you are going

Focus on Client’s Business Imperatives

a). Let’s Look at How the Solution was Sold Prospects want Solutions that Support their Business Needs:

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• They repeatedly strive to please their clients

• They design the correct offerings for the correct clients

• They build their organisations around cross-functional teams

• They make decisions that resonate with clients

• They seek to create positive, memorable experiences for their clients.

Source: FiServ

‘Many companies have the client focus of a vulture - they pay close attention to what the

clients are up to, but only in order to figure out the right time to pounce and tear at

their flesh!’

- Charles Green

b). Let’s Perceive what the Client Saw in your Organisation Prospects want Solutions that Resonate with Them:

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Dominant Exclusive Emerging Pervasive Absent

Symbiotic

relationship

with clients

Sustainability

Making the competitors irrelevant

Projects Particular Performing Pertinent People Places

Building mutually beneficial and sustainable long-term client relationships by

crafting solutions that support the clients’ Business Imperatives

Source: Sales Synthesis

Know where you are going

Focus on Client’s Business Imperatives

c). Sustainability Depends on the Service Being Delivered Clients want Solutions that Fully Deliver on Expectations:

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Source: Sales Synthesis

A Common Strategic

Vision with Clients

Basic Products

Basic Solutions

Value-Added Services

Integrated Solutions

Moment of Truth

Partnership Drop and Run

An evolving relationship

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d). Service Providers must Support their Client’s Vision Clients want to be part of a Journey with their Service Provider/s:

Solution Commodity

Results in Clients that are Loyal

Advocates

Success is a Balanced Lifestyle

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a) Let’s Look at How the Solution was Sold b) Let’s Perceive what the Client Saw in your Organisation c) Sustainability Depends on the Service Being Delivered d) Service Providers must Support their Client’s Vision

Referring to the Previous Four Slides…

Be Truthful when ‘Self-Assessing’ these

Moment of Truth

a) When developing strategies, analysis of the organisation and its environment - as it is at the moment and how it may develop in the future - is an imperative

b) The analysis has to be executed at an internal level as well as an external level, to identify all possible opportunities and threats posed by the strategy.

There are several factors to assess in the external situation analysis:

• Industries & Trends • Markets (customers) & their business imperatives • Competition & their value chain • Technologies & their pedigree • Solutions portfolio • Supplier markets • Labour markets • The economy • The regulatory environment.

Store the munitions for your journey and craft the plan [Who,

When, Where & How etc.]

Symbiotic relationship with clients

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Continually Treat your Clients as if they were still Prospects Your ‘Winning Ways’ are a critical component of the Retention Strategy

‘Court your Client as a Prospect – else the Honeymoon will soon be over’

Success is a Balanced Lifestyle

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For Successful Organisations, Knowledge Infusion is an Imperative

Each organisation will have their own workstreams for successful sale and

support of their offerings.

a) Sales b) Business Development c) Account Management d) Program Management e) Service Management f) Etc.

Information Capture

Plan

Repository

Information is only of value to an organisation when it is used in the correct

context and by the correct personnel

Assumption that the

Information is relevant and of the correct type

and detail

Moment of Truth Packaged & disseminated across the organisation

Do not allow information collection to become an administrative burden

Success is a Balanced Lifestyle

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Points to Ponder

Irrespective of whether robust Information reflects a valid reason for clients to be retained, the reality is that the client’s own individual perceptions [sometimes kept to themselves] will rule the decision.

and…

“Your Organisation” Client

“We don’t see things as they are, we see them as we are,” Anais Nin

How well do you know the

client/account?

Positive discontent creates the

environment for positive change

Any change needs to be identified,

analysed and acted upon