Have you ever had a client that treats you as “just another supplier” or makes you feel undervalued? Maybe you’ve had to deal with an internal stakeholder in another department that treats you as a resource to serve them when they need you to.
These are examples of a lack of mutual respect in a corporate context. In today’s blog my aim it to set guidelines on how we should deal with such attitude to improve our business situation.
“Treat others as you would treat yourself” – it’s a saying as old as the hills and something our parents taught us however, so many people forget to do it.
A month ago, I was approached by a new potential client; one of the world’s top luxury hospitality brands. The first call went well, after which I was sent a project schedule that I would potentially deliver and asked to block some potential dates. A follow up call with a short demo delivery of the content was scheduled. This happened the week after and my quotation followed. After that: total silence.
A few unanswered emails later, I finally called the lady with whom I had been dealing. I already knew that in all likelihood I would not be winning this business – 90% of the time the silence means no interest. I don’t expect to win every deal, however, there was something about this interaction that bothered me. The brand was so high end, I expected more professionalism from them. Could she not have had the decency to reply to my email when she knew I had circled dates in my diary at her request? Would she not expect others to respond to her communications and if so, why is she treating others differently?
Operating with integrity is one of my core principles in both business and life, but not only for myself. I look for the same from others towards me. I always treat my clients with respect and act professionally, and while I appreciate that a client-vendor relationship is rarely one of equals, I gravitate towards clients that reciprocate the respect and professionalism I give.
When we sit on the vendor/supplier side of the equation, it doesn’t mean we should be treated like an expendable resource. When you sense that a client undervalues your product or service, this is a valuable sign that you should focus on finding new, higher quality clients that genuinely want what you have to offer.
This is something I didn’t understand in my early days of investment banking fixed income sales. I chased the league table of top Italian asset managers trying to break into their dealer panels. With some I had success however with many I did not. That is to be expected. My real failure, however, was spending too much time trying to break into non-responsive clients who didn’t reciprocate the service I offered. I should have “collected no’s” and used my time on (i) building deeper relationships with existing clients who wanted to work with me, and (ii) focused on breaking into higher probability prospective clients.
I teach this principle in my sales trainings, and I apply it religiously in my personal sales funnel management. When I analyse my sales pipeline, I target 80% of my time to be used on existing clients and developing high potential, high probability leads. Of the remaining 20%, I aim to have no more than 5% being consumed by clients that are unlikely to deal with me, like the luxury brand I mentioned above. I probably invested a few hours of my time composing the proposal, having calls and crafting emails. That is a sufficient investment of time to understand whether more time should be invested in the opportunity. In the same way we say “don’t throw good money after bad”, it is equally valid to say “don’t invest more good time after used bad time”.
The other 15% if you’re wondering, it business development identifying new potential client, networking etc (ie before the client enters the pipeline). Clients then either become part of the 80% or the 5%.
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