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with your firm’s culture and core values, and it often comes down to more than money. One way is to rank your clients by one-three-five year net service revenue. The five-year numbers reflect the mainstays, while the one-year values help identify the up-and-comers. Next, compare how these rank in profitability across the same periods. You’ll find that the lists likely don’t fully align. Inevitably, there will be large-revenue clients whom you struggle to make profitable. Not a deal killer, but definitely something to consider. Then you might parse the list by other, softer factors: which bring the work we most enjoy doing, which are the best to work with, etc. BE THE “PARTNER” IN PARTNERSHIP. That’s your list. Start there. Look for ways to enhance your services to them. Look for additional opportunities to make them successful beyond providing quality work. Can you help them with business development? In community outreach? In brand awareness? What will make them say, “This is the only firm we want to work with?” Providing quality service to all your clients is essential to your firm’s success. Looking for ways to add value to your best clients will only make a good thing better. Brad Thurman, PE, FSMPS, CPSM, is a principal and chief marketing officer at Wallace Design Collective, PC. Contact him at brad.thurman@wallace.design.
BRAD THURMAN, from page 3
messages and connectivity apps, but that’s not the point I want to make. The heart of “The Speech” is that his team was taking their relationships with their clients for granted and not giving them the attention they needed to thrive. They weren’t nurturing connections as they likely did when they were shiny and new. “Repeat clients are fabulous because you can build long-term relationships with them and work together for years. The other side of the sword is that you can start to take them for granted.” START WITH THE TOP. How you treat all your clients should be consistent with your firm’s core values and indicative of what you consider “client service.” This level you strive not to fall below serves as the core of your business’s client-focused approach. Established, long-term clients deserve special attention, care, and, yes, maintenance to continue to grow. These are your very best clients, the ones others want to poach and that you definitely don’t want to lose. There are many ways you can determine this list, and the criteria used should be consistent
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THE ZWEIG LETTER NOVEMBER 18, 2024, ISSUE 1562
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