Tenacity Podcast

Tenacity believes in the principle that 100% client retention is possible and should be the goal of every client we work with. Over our more than 30 years in business, we have achieved that goal, having never lost a client for cause, or been replaced by a competitor, if indeed there was one to be found.

To My Brothers & Sisters in Sales: I know you feel betrayed. I know you think I’ve gone to the dark side. But you know me, you know my credentials: (P&G, Aramark, bonafide sales and sales management pedigrees). Trust me, I haven’t abandoned you. In fact, “Clients for Life®” can make you even more effective. Wait – wait – let me explain:

Go ahead and Google “Hunters and Farmers”.  There is an astonishing amount of information and opinion about this concept of building and managing a sales organization.  It almost feels obligatory that we weigh in on the debate and take a position on the controversy.  Of course, we would never shrink from the task.

Way back when, long ago, John and I were new executives at a large, well-known and highly respected contract services management firm. We happened to be in the offices one day, when a team of operators, who had just had a contract terminated, were arriving to meet with executives and other staff to debrief and to plan for the closing. We were stunned to witness their attitude – happy, light, and celebratory! The polar opposite of what we would have expected.

What We’ve Learned and What We Believe. Recently, John and I got together, along with two additional Tenacity Partners (Marty and Randy), to spend a day with a diverse group of senior executives. Some knew us and had experience with our firm, others were hearing from us for the first time. They represented a range of industries and companies, but all shared a high-level interest in best practices around account management and client retention.

We believe that effective account management stands firmly on a balance of three essential pillars:

1) Understanding and Managing Client Expectations – Expectations are the key drivers of client satisfaction. Ultimately, people make value judgments about products or services based on how they actually perform versus their expectations of how they believe (or are led to believe) they should perform. Operating plans must be built and executed to consistently meet and exceed client expectations. Consistently exceeding prioritized corporate expectations drives provable and sustainable value for the client.

We’ve all heard the rationale, “No news is good news.” Sometimes that’s true. If you don’t hear from the IRS, that might be a good thing. However, no news is seldom good news when it comes to client relationships.

Our experience, over many years of working with leading service providers, is that generally the sheer volume of communication that transpires between the parties who have entered in to a contractual relationship is directly correlated to the health of the relationship. Even if the client is complaining or sharing negative feedback, it usually indicates that they care about what is happening and, that as difficult as the situation may be, they haven’t given up on it.

I wonder sometimes if the 80/20 rule must be one of the natural laws. I know that it was Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, and not Newton or Galileo that came up with it, but it’s amazing how many things in life (and in business) conform to it.

As background, Pareto first noticed that 80% of the land in Italy was owned by 20% of the population. Shortly thereafter, he realized that 80% of the peas in his garden were produced from just 20% of the pods.

Usually when we start a Clients for Life client retention process training class, we display some quotations around the room that we find, and hope that participants will find, instructive and inspiring.

The account management training embedded in the clients for Life client retention process is grounded in the reality of the importance of expectations in governing business-to-business relationships. Simply stated our clients don't judge us on what we do.

They do judge us on what we do relative to what they expected us to do.