Last week I was talking with a colleague who has a couple of clients that were being challenged by clients that are swapping over between them.
These clients have done some work together through my colleague’s program and now one is blaming the other for stealing the clients.
So we were in a conversation about who owns the clients.
It’s really interesting.
If you’re in networking events, you’re doing JVs and you’re sharing your database..
Who owns the clients?
Can somebody be annoyed at somebody else for stealing their clients?
Can clients be stolen?
I believe the answer is:
No.
No client can be stolen and I think the focus is in the wrong place.
What do I mean by that?
I mean, we need to be customer centric. To be customer centric would mean that we don’t own any of our clients. Our clients are free to move to work with whomever they like.
If a client moves on to work with somebody else and we think they shouldn’t have..
Maybe we need to ask ourselves:
– Were we not adding value’?
– What changed in the relationship?
– What needed to happen to retain the client?
– Have I finished solving the problem that they had?
– Do they still have the problem?
– Did we not solve the problem that they had?
– The other person that they’ve moved to, do they have the solution to the problem that they have?
Because really being customer centric is, Solving the problem that somebody has. Whether you solve the problem with a widget that they buy or a service..
Regardless of what it is you are selling..
It has got to be about solving the problem for the customer.
It’s the customer’s choice who they work with.
We don’t own our customer.
They are not ours.
My colleague works a lot with Instagram, Facebook LinkedIn and Tiktok and they have a strategy in those places that ‘anybody who likes a post or anybody that comments on a post is a lead’ and part of that process is to reach out to those people.
Any one of us can reach out to anybody on Facebook, Instagram LinkedIn and TikTok, nobody owns those people.
Nobody owns the clients.
If you are in the mindset that somebody stole your client..
You’re definitely not in an abundance mindset because:
– There’s an abundance of people that need to be helped
– There’s abundance of business owners that help people
– The right ones are going to you at the time they need you
It might not be a forever relationship,
It might be a bit for a season,
For a time until the problems solve.
We don’t own the clients.
If you are thinking that somebody’s stolen your clients..
I’d like you to do a bit of self reflection and think about the customer, and that the customer gets to choose who helps them solve their problem.
Mary Jensen
Mindset Master and Behaviour Specialist
M Power Services
