Do you wish you knew how to gain retained clients?
Would having clients on retainer transform your business? For a large amount of service businesses retained clients are the perfect way to grow. But yet they almost seem like an unobtainable Holy Grail.
It doesn’t have to be that way…!
The Challenge
As a supplier we love retainers for two main reasons:
- You can build an excellent relationship with the client and deliver great value,
- It’s a great way to manage your cashflow and capacity.
But the prospect/client may see them as a longer term commitment which they don’t see value in.
The Problem
How do you convince your prospect that there is greater value in an ongoing relationship while addressing their concerns?
I bet right now you think you have no control over it.
Actually this is an easy problem to solve, and, you have total control over it!!
I gained my 1st retained client the day after I decided I was going to!
Honestly it was that simple and here’s how I did it…
How I gained and retained continual clients for my business…
I was good at closing prospects into clients but always for a discreet piece of business growth related work.
I had a prospect meeting the next day, and I decided enough was enough, and I was going to get a retained client, so I decided there and then that the only solution I was going to offer was a retained one, and I set the price for it!
(Just to set the scene a bit…at this point I didn’t have a strong marketing message and I was still pretty new to the whole business growth thing so I had no track record.)
The next day I turned up for the meeting and had a good conversation with the prospect. The time came to pitch so I confidently positioned the required monthly interaction to progress them to their goal, and they said ”Yes”!
And so did the next prospect and the next one and the next…
All of a sudden I had retained clients and a transformed business.
Some prospects seem to want an ongoing relationship which is great for your business. But others don’t initially see the value, so how do you drive their behaviour?
Step 1: Make the decision
You need to decide whether you want to still offer the one-off project style interactions. Depending on your business it may make good commercial sense to keep doing them, but if you want retained clients you need to be clear on what that retained relationship looks like.
Map out your retained offering. Why does it deliver better value? Be really clear on the “What’s In It For Them” angle. Set the pricing structure. Get clear in your mind when a prospect would suit a one-off engagement versus a retained relationship.
Be brave. Be ballsy!
Step 2: Make it easy for them to say “Yes”
It’s reasonable for a prospect to be concerned about signing up for a longer term relationship so what can you do to allay those fears?
I suggest you do 2 things:
- I strongly suggest you remove that barrier from the equation. You should have all your clients agree to your standard Terms & Conditions which should have a termination clause in it. Mine gives both parties a right to terminate for any reason with 30 days notice. This means the client can exit the arrangement with only 30 days notice so they aren’t tied in to a long agreement.
Point out to them that they have control of the longevity of the relationship based on that clause, so although the commitment is for, e.g. 6 months it’s only really a month at any one time. This will make them feel a lot more comfortable.
- Add review points into the agreement. This will make the client feel like they have a good level of control and it’ll keep you on your toes to deliver great value. The timing of the review points will vary depending on the nature of what you are delivering.
Some other things you can try…
Depending on what you deliver you could also use this…
If during the sales meeting you have uncovered multiple areas that need attention you could build them into a project plan of continual implementation at a steady rate over X months. This will feel like a retainer to you (assuming it covers multiple months) but it won’t feel that way to them!
Just be careful not to overwhelm them with the amount of change you are proposing. To help with that you’ll need to build in gaps between implementing each change to monitor progress.
Another great one I did once was to turn a one-off project that I could have delivered easily within a month, into one that lasted 2 months, had 2 payment points and required me to meet with the client several times. This way he got used to seeing me regularly, paying me regularly and experienced the value I delivered over a period of a few months.
That client has now been on retainer with me for 2.5 years J
Back when I had a few retainers and wanted to convert more one-offs into retainers, I used to say:
“Let’s assume we are going to work together beyond just this piece of work.
We can use this project as the test to see how well we work together, but I’m confident that everything will go well and you’ll see great value in it.
So let’s make the assumption we are going to work together over the next 6 months. Nothing is binding but let’s make that assertion as I really believe you’ll get even better results if we work together over a longer period.”
I can’t remember how many times I used that line but it worked every time!
The Result
- Your business will feel totally transformed when you start to bring retained clients on board
- Your stress levels will also improve as you’ll be able to predict your cashflow & capacity
- You’ll deliver great results.
Retainers are a great win:win
I only do retained work now as I know one-off interactions in my field don’t deliver the best value, as people don’t tend to implement unless there’s an ongoing interaction to see it through.
What’s the value of retainers to your clients? Go map that out and then get ballsy!
It really is that simple!