What a great compliment – “You’re a good listener.” If and when you hear it said, you can be sure that the other party to the conversation has felt valued and cared for. Frankly, I don’t hear (or deserve) that compliment enough – especially from those whom I most value. I resolve to do better.

WWe’ve listened well to our client. (2 weeks ago). We’ve responded appropriately to what we’ve heard. (Last week’s blog.) We’re effective operators and therefore skilled at deploying our resources and expertise to solve the client’s problems and exceed their prioritized corporate expectations (by just a little bit). Lastly, we’re adept at leveraging our system capabilities to deliver targeted innovations that circumvent an impending value gap. Slam-dunk!! — What could be left to do?

WWe’ve listened well to our client. (2 weeks ago). We’ve responded appropriately to what we’ve heard. (Last week’s blog.) We’re effective operators and therefore skilled at deploying our resources and expertise to solve the client’s problems and exceed their prioritized corporate expectations (by just a little bit). Lastly, we’re adept at leveraging our system capabilities to deliver targeted innovations that circumvent an impending value gap. Slam-dunk!! — What could be left to do?

Back in April of 2015, we wrote blogs on being a good listener, a good talker and a good writer. Lately, John and I have been doing more speaking and presenting than ever, as an outcome of establishing The Tenacity Center at Kennesaw State University. We’ve learned some things along the way that may be helpful – mostly from feedback we’ve received, mistakes we’ve made and observed, and experts we’ve consulted.

At Tenacity, we don't teach negotiating skills. There are lots of companies out there that do, though. And that's largely why we don't. As you know, we do just this one thing - helping our clients keep the clients they work so hard to acquire.

But there is a point in the clients for Life client retention process where effective and timely negotiating is particularly important. That point is after the new client has been sold, perhaps with a letter of intent, and just before the contract has been signed and services and begun.

Here's how I learned about the theory of relative power. If you recall, relative power is what you really want to have going for you in a negotiation. Negotiating mutual expectations as the key drivers of value in a contractual service relationship is important work to a successful startup and to ensure longer-term retention. In 1974, fresh out of college, I was working for Procter & Gamble as a sales representative based in Roanoke, Virginia.

This podcast was written by Tenacity Principal Randy Salisbury. Randy, like four of our other Principals, first experienced the Clients for Life® client retention process as a Tenacity client. Coming from the account management side of the advertising business, Randy hired, trained and mentored many account executives in the key elements of success. You’ve already seen the 10 Commandments of Client Retention in earlier blogs – here are Randy’s (and now Tenacity’s) 10 Commandments of Account Management. There is powerful wisdom here. It’s good to be good at this – it helps to have great mentors.

In 2014, John and I, along with key administrators at Kennesaw State University, established the Tenacity Center for Account Management and client Retention at the Michael J. Coles College of Business at Kennesaw State University.

The podcasts that follow talk about the center, its purpose and its offerings and how it fits with our overall practice at Tenacity.

The Coles College at Kennesaw State University, KSU, encouraged us to establish the center for several key reasons, but specifically, Coles's is all about engagement with the business community.

While it may feel we've been out to lunch, we haven't. We are go for launch now with new tools for key account management that we think are truly game changers in assisting account managers to rapidly apply best practice methodology to their client responsibilities. So we're go for lunch now and we want to provide you several options to learn more and to engage with us. So perhaps the best way to do so is in a frequently-asked-questions format.

So how would you describe these new tools you've been working on and announcing?

You know, it would have been too easy to call this section, "miscellaneous," but indeed that's what it is. Any podcast that didn't fit neatly into one of the prior categories found a home here. My favorite dogs have always been the mutts and some of my favorite podcasts are in that category as well.

The first is called, "Indelible Impressions and Teachable Moments."