Protect Your Clients From Poaching: How to Build Loyalty AND Drive Growth

"Protecting Your Clients: How to Build Loyalty and Drive Growth"

In this episode of C-Suite Sidekick, host Summer Poletti discusses one of the most overlooked aspects of business growth: protecting the clients you already have. With competitors eager to lure your clients away, especially in fourth quarter, it's crucial to strengthen relationships and be seen as a trusted partner, not just a vendor. Summer shares actionable strategies like conducting regular business reviews, aligning goals for 2025, asking for referrals, and leveraging social proof to retain clients and drive growth. Tune in for insights that will help you retain your most valuable assets and close more deals before the year ends.

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Transcript

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Hello, and welcome back to the C-suite sidekick. I'm your host summer Polenti and today we're discussing one of the most crucial, but often overlooked aspects of growing your business. Protecting the clients you already have. If you're in financial services or SAS, you already know how competitive these industries are, especially as we approach the end of the year. Right now, I guarantee your clients are getting calls from your competitors. Promising lower prices. Better service. Or new and innovative features. But here's the thing. Clients don't usually leave just because of price. They leave because of some level of real or perceived dissatisfaction. Maybe your system or service works perfectly 99% of the time. But they're going to remember that one time, but it didn't deliver exactly what they needed when they needed it. And you may have only had one issue and you resolved it quickly, but studies show that clients hold on to lingering bad feelings, much longer than providers think. Or maybe. There have been zero issues. But they feel like you've forgotten about them or taken them for granted. There could be a bit of what have they done for me lately. If you're like any company I've ever worked with, you're great at marketing new features to prospective clients, but you don't do much if any marketing to current clients. You don't want to feel overly salesy because they already buy from you. Have you ever had anyone leave for a price that you would have been willing to give? Have you ever had a client you thought was satisfied, leave for your competitor? Have you ever had a client leave because they were seeking a feature that you actually have. It costs five to seven times more to acquire new clients than it does to retain current clients. These are little mistakes that you can't afford to make. So, how do you protect your valuable clients from those pesky competitors? Today, we're going to talk about becoming partners with your clients. None of us likes to be considered a vendor. Right. But I see very few companies who do the work to be considered partners by their clients. And that's the key. You can say business partner, all you want. It's how they perceive you that matters. So let's get started. We already said it. Your clients are getting calls from your competitors right now. Especially as we head into the final quarter. It's the perfect time for competitors to try to steal your clients by offering discounts or new features. With 56% of B2B companies missing revenue goals last year, it's also likely that there are a lot of hungry reps behind on quota right now, looking for that low hanging fruit. The deal they lost last year, otherwise known as your client, most of your clients won't jump ship just because of cost alone. They'll leave because of those things we talked about before they feel neglected, they feel like just another account. Competitors know this, and they're going to try to swoop in at just the right time. So, how do you protect yourself? It starts with treating your clients like partners, actively working on the relationship. You all are business married now. So you have to put in the work. And not just wait for problems to surface. What does it mean to treat your clients like your best partners? Think about your best business partners, the ones that you trust, you likely have regular check-ins you share goals and you actively collaborate for mutual success. Here's a simple, yet effective strategy for running this play within your client base. Regular business reviews. The cadence will depend on how large the client is. But that regular cadence is what makes it important. No last often than annually. I helped a client in the financial services industry implement these. And within the first year they cut client attrition in half. After three years, they increased customer lifetime value by eight times. These reviews, aren't just a formality. They're a chance to deepen your relationship with the client. Realign on goals, offer new solutions. They didn't even know they needed by showing you care about their success beyond your contract and your invoice. You build loyalty that no competitor can break. So your competitor is going to call. What you're trying to do is make sure your client doesn't answer or call back. Let's talk about aligning your goals with your client's future success. As we look toward 2025, many of your clients will be preparing for new challenges, whether it's growth, navigating new regulations, improving operational efficiency, SAS companies will be looking for ways to innovate and financial services. Clients will likely focus on cutting costs or adapting to market shifts. Align their initiatives with others in your network to see who you can refer to them to help. Remember when I talked about not knowing when or where or how someone will fit into your network, it's all leading to this. You being the go-to person with all the connections, for things that seem kind of random. What if you helped a client bring on a new controller and also avoid the recruiting fees, because you happened to know someone who was looking. Or what, if you helped them find the perfect new office space, because you're connected with a local commercial realtor. These business reviews. Are also the perfect time to listen carefully to their concerns and offer tailored solutions that fit their evolving needs without coming off salesy. For example, one of my clients used AI driven insights to help their midsize customers, scale operations and increase the effectiveness of their platform. The result. a, 25% revenue just from focusing on existing customers and helping them get more value from the product and the bonus. But clients were also happy or too. Business reviews are also the perfect opportunity to ask for referrals. Clients who see you as a trusted partner, not just a vendor are far more likely to recommend you to others. Studies show that 91% of happy clients would give a referral if asked, but only 11% of salespeople ask. And that is a gap that you can use to your advantage. And industries like financial services and SAS. Referrals close two to five times faster because they come with an inherent level of trust. One of my clients saw massive success after adopting a proactive approach to client success by regularly engaging with their clients and showing that they were invested in their longterm goals. They cut the diving saves to almost none. You know those last minute efforts to retain clients who gave notice that rarely pan out who wants to do those. After a few years, they virtually eliminated avoidable client churn and referrals became a core part of their growth strategy. If you want to close deals before the end of the year. Don't hesitate to ask your existing clients. Who do you know who could benefit from what we're doing together? Who do you know, who would like to see some of the results you've achieved? Referrals can help you hit those year-end targets without relying solely on new leads or outbound sales efforts. Now let's talk about social proof. One of the most powerful tools in your marketing arsenal. Once you've done the hard work of aligning your goals with your client's success. Use that relationship to generate testimonials case studies, even co-branded content. Sasson financial service buyers make decisions based on trust and credibility. And studies show that they do the vast majority of their research before talking to you. And that they continue to conduct independent research. While they're engaged in your sales process. A success story from a happy client can do far more for your marketing and sales than any cold outreach campaign ever could. For example, ask your clients if they'd be willing to leave a review. Give a quote for your website, share their experience in a case study. Side note, it's a good best practice to incorporate gifting strategies into your customer success programs. Depending on the level of effort your clients will definitely appreciate a thank you here. Or consider co-branded marketing, but showcases their growth or success with your solution subtly in the background. If you tell a story about how awesome they are, they'll likely feel that you gave them a gift. In today's competitive landscape. Social proof is invaluable when trying to attract new clients while closing out existing deals before the year ends. To sum up your existing clients are your most valuable assets, especially as your competitors ramp up their effort to poach them right before the year ends. Protect those relationships by treating them like your best, most trusted business partners. Aligning on goals, deepening your relationship through business reviews and leveraging their success stories as social proof. And don't forget to ask for referrals. They could be the key to closing more deals in fourth quarter without dramatically increasing your sales efforts. If you're ready to dive deeper and strategize a plan tailored to your clients, reach out to me. You can find me on LinkedIn I'm summer, Polenti rhymes with spaghetti or the rise of us.com. Let's make sure you're not only protecting the clients you have, but also using those relationships to grow your business and gain momentum. As we head into 2025. If you found this valuable, I would appreciate a review. That's going to help my reach. And please consider sharing this with someone in your network who would find this useful. Thanks for tuning in. And let's crush it together. See you next week.