Are you too busy managing the day-to-day delivery of projects to think strategically about your client relationships?When was the last time you thought about how your current client relationship was evolving and whether it could lead to new business opportunities?If you're concerned about reaching forecast, securing new business or indeed holding on to a client, then you need to start thinking strategically about your current client relationships and working out how to leverage the relationship to lead to more projects or contracts. This could take the form of:
Cross-selling
Do you know what your sales funnel looks like? i.e. have you ever plotted your services and worked out what and how your clients buy from you? How can you lead clients through your sales funnel to help them buy more of your services?
Asking for referrals
The cheapest and easiest way to gain new clients is to be referred by your current clients to new ones. You've built up a trusted relationship with your current clients and if they refer you to someone they already know, it's more likely for the new prospect to be open to you and your services.So how often are you asking your clients for referrals?
Gathering testimonials
Social proof is more compelling to a potential new client than listening to your self-promotion. Written or video testimonials are now used often to endorse a multitude of different services, think Amazon reviews, Linked-in testimonials, Trip Advisor etc.So do you habitually ask your clients to give you reviews or testimonials for your services? If so, how are you using them for your company's promotion?
Conducting client reviews
Clients often reveal potential new business opportunities during a one-on-one discussion where they're initially asked for feedback on agency performance.Are you regularly conducting client/agency relationship reviews? What questions are you asking? How effective are they? Are you including questions about their business, how it's evolving and how you can help?
Generating compelling case studies
Once you have completed a campaign or project for a client and it's been successful and has allowed the client to achieve an impressive return on investment, are you sharing the news with other clients?All clients are interested in what's working right now in their industry/market/discipline and how your services have helped other clients impact their bottom line.Ensure you generate case studies quickly, share them in capabilities presentations, via agency newsletters or even invite your clients to a networking event where you can showcase the results.So what other ways do you think strategically about your client relationships to gain new business?I would love to hear your views and ideas so please include some comments in the box below.
