The Client Letter
November 13, 2013
The Desert of Arizona
Sunny 45 Degrees
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My friend and I have a running joke about the lifecycle of clients. And we have adopted a simple principle we keep in our minds at all times:
The day after you get a new client is one day closer to the day when that client will stop being your client. Act accordingly and don’t be surprised when it happens.
This might sound cynical, but it’s really not. In fact, I wish someone had made this clear to me a long time ago. It would have changed my behavior in major ways. Instead, I wasted a lot of energy dreaming and hoping of things to come.
Nothing is permanent. Everything comes and goes. Projects, clients, everything.
If you make decisions with this in mind, you tend to fare better. Less pain, less frustration, more money, more quickly.
In this month’s issue of The Rainmaker Letter, I wrote an article called, “The Art of the Entry.”
It was about how important the start of any relationship with a client really is. I may do a webinar on it at some point (if you’re interested, let me know), because I really feel that it’s an area where so many people sow their own seeds of frustration with clients.
You get one chance to cement a certain perception of YOU in the mind of your client. ONE CHANCE.
That sets the stage for everything to come. So you want to give it thought. More importantly, you want to take your time. Professionals don’t rush.
In a certain way, it’s all “downhill” after the beginning. The longer you stick around, the more normal you seem. Your shine wears off and soon you’re “one of the team.” This is always in spite of reality.
You’ve been there. I know it.
If you remember nothing else, go into client projects forgetting about tomorrow. If you don’t like what you get NOW, if you don’t like the project NOW, if you’re waiting for the big payoff at some point in the future… stop. Get out now. Get another client and start off on the right foot.
You set the tone, you set the fee, you set the terms.
This is your business, your life. There are some things we do not control in this world, but we’re always in control of our decisions.