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It’s NOT Always The Shiny New Thing
Posted By: Brad Nierenberg
As the first blog post, I’ve been thinking about what tone to set. After all, this blog is new, and the work we’ve been doing a enormous amount of lately has been with new technologies: social media promotion, augmented reality design, and mobile app development. But it strikes me that it’s not always the shiny new thing that should always grab our attention – rather, it’s the basics. So I’m thinking back to the questions I get asked the most as the head of an agency, and they’re mostly about the basics – how to grow a business, how to cultivate the best talent, how to adapt to a changing market, etc.
I get asked a lot about how we grow our business. And my answer had remained consistent through the years: the best way to grow business is through existing clients. If you do a good job by them, it is easier to grow current billings and to be referred to other departments within the client. Too many times, we feel the need to obtain new customers, focusing our efforts there when you forecasts are not where we want them to be. If, instead of spending time working on a hit list of new clients, we focus our efforts on what our clients’ problems and challenges are, asking questions like, “What are the biggest hurdles you are facing?” new opportunities will appear faster. This will also strengthen our relationship with the client for a prolonged period of time and far surpass any pipeline.
Tags: business development, client service
Great first post. I have seen it estimated that 68% of the clients that switched suppliers did so because they felt Unappreciated, Unimportant or taken for granted.