How to increase client retention

Client retention is crucial for subscription-based or membership-based businesses, requiring consistent trust-building and understanding of different personality types. Effective retention strategies focus on credibility, authenticity, and communication tailored to individual client preferences.

• Building trust through demonstrating expertise and offering guarantees
• Being authentic and consistent in all client interactions
• Contacting clients immediately when problems arise rather than avoiding difficult conversations
• Always returning calls and messages when promised, even without complete answers
• Understanding DISC personality types helps tailor retention approaches
• Dominant (D) clients value reliability and direct communication about worst-case scenarios
• Influential (I) clients are attracted to novelty and may be the most challenging to retain
• Steady (S) clients build deep relationships but rarely forgive broken trust
• Compliant (C) clients prioritize technical knowledge and honesty
• Taking responsibility as a salesperson means the buck stops with you

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Chapters

• 0:00 Why Client Retention Matters
• 3:07 Building Trust and Credibility
• 5:38 Authenticity and Consistent Communication
• 9:56 Take Responsibility When Things Go Wrong
• 13:25 Understanding Client Types with DISC

Transcript

Speaker 1: 0:12

Hello, again In this podcast I want to talk about client retention. So this is very important, especially if you are selling a product which might be subscription-based or membership-based, or you might have a product series where you're hoping that the client, once they've made an initial purchase with you, will make additional purchases. So initial purchase with you will make additional purchases. So obviously we put most of our effort into finding new business and, particularly when we're starting out, that's the key to finding new business. But if you are running with one of those subscription models or a membership model, obviously getting subsequent business from the same client in theory should be pretty straightforward, but of course you do need to make sure you keep people committed to you and engaged and wanting to buy from you. So that's what I'm going to talk about in this podcast and also I'm going to apply it a little bit to the DISC model, so you may be familiar with DISC. This podcast is not an explanation of DISC. I do talk about DISC in the online sales training program that I have, and I do it for a very simple reason it gives great insight, I believe, into the different personality types that we're going to come across, but it keeps it down to four different types of people, and in my opinion, that is a number that's much, much easier to handle and if you apply it correctly, you can even identify, to at least I would say, a 60% degree of certainty, which of those four types of person you're dealing with on first meeting them, and this is done in a matter of seconds. So this is a technique that I share in the training, so I'm not going to cover that here, but I'm going to talk about client retention, and this is something that is important anyway, and even if you're not selling a subscription-based product, if your client basically makes one sale and then they're gone, the fact is they may well come back for some reason, or you might want referrals. So there are reasons to apply these techniques to every customer, really, and in fact, if you do it to every customer, it makes it much easier, I think.

Speaker 1: 2:44

Anyway, so there's a couple of things that are general, and then I'm going to dive into DISC afterwards and just talk about how that applies. So, on the general side, we build trust. So, on the general side, we build trust, we build credibility by displaying that we know what we're talking about and for some people that might be by showing certifications. It might be certificates on the wall, it could be maybe printed articles, that kind of thing, or articles online. It could also be offering guarantees. So this is one that I particularly like.

Speaker 1: 3:28

Actually, it's to offer a guarantee with your product, because one of the things that will tend to hold somebody back is a fear of making the wrong decision or just wanting to know you've got their back. If things go wrong and that will be a concern for certain types On the DISC profile it will be the dominant person is particularly concerned about what happens if things go wrong. Will you back them up? So guarantees are good. This is also something that applies to the stabilizer, the S person. They are looking for safety. They are in fact building a relationship. That is with you as an individual, not with your company. But for the S person, that is very important that they feel that they have a good personal relationship with you and that will be the basis on which they move forward. So a guarantee can be an aspect of that. Also. The C person, the compliant person, who's more the sort of tech head guarantees can be useful, but not so much of a driver. For them, guarantees can be useful, but not so much of a driver for them. So credibility, both in demonstrating you know what you're talking about, in providing evidence that you know what you're talking about, and by providing things like guarantees, which basically show you're prepared to back yourself. You have that level of confidence in what you're offering that you will basically take the risk away, and there are various ways of doing that.

Speaker 1: 5:03

Again, maybe guarantees is something I should, or the types of guarantee you can offer would be a subject for another podcast, so I won't go into that here. The other aspect that I want to talk about from a general perspective is being authentic in the way that you deal with people and also be consistent. So what I mean by that, by the authenticity, is to basically be as good as your word. Don't play games. If you say you're going to do something, do it, and if anything you want to under-promise and over-deliver, drop into that category, because that's always a good one to be in, and a situation where people I've experienced this with salespeople I've definitely felt this myself is that when things, things don't go well, or maybe you're waiting on information from somebody and it doesn't come, there's a tendency not to go back to the client, and that is a great way of actually undermining the trust that you are trying to develop. So I'll actually talk about a story that happened to me.

Speaker 1: 6:16

So I was working with a major company. They did a lot of government work. They were definitely a big company that we wanted to do business with and I sold them some products, and these products were to be used as part of a wider project they were working on and unfortunately so I was in Australia and these products were coming from the UK and there was a delay and the tendency I guess the easy way out, but it's one that a lot of people will use, because most of us don't like confrontation and our fear if we have to give somebody bad news is that there will then be an argument or they'll get angry or something will happen. So that's quite a natural position to be in. However, the route that I recommend you take, which is the one I took was to basically just be up front.

Speaker 1: 7:17

So when something did go wrong, I would I can't remember initially whether it was by email or phone, but I've definitely done these phone calls because in many ways, I think they're better. But basically, if you get an update and something has gone wrong. It's really important that you immediately get in touch with your client or well, at that stage let's call them a client because they've placed an order and let them know what's going on now. This isn't so much to give them the option to cancel the order hopefully it won't come to that but if they are buying your product or service and they need it for part of a wider project of whatever nature, it does give them the opportunity to reschedule things and it isn't a disaster. So usually in a sales conversation, I'll be trying to understand when a client wants to get delivery of whatever I'm offering, and sometimes it's not so much a big deal. Other times it's absolutely critical.

Speaker 1: 8:23

So by contacting your client straight away to let them know there's been a problem, it does demonstrate respect of them and of what they're trying to achieve. Remember, our aim as salespeople is to solve problems for people, not create them, and I got very favorable feedback when I did that. So generally what I found with that and I think pretty much every time I've got involved in those kind of conversations and also people who work for me when they've done them, people are disappointed, but they don't get angry. They're then looking at okay, what can we do to solve the problem when they do get angry, and particularly if you said you'll come back by a certain date and time and you don't. So that's another one that's really important.

Speaker 1: 9:12

If you commit to getting back to somebody by a certain time, always make sure you do it. Even if you don't have an answer, just make contact again. So again, put yourself in the client's shoes. If you've committed to go back to them and then you don't, what are they thinking? They're now wondering what's going on. They're starting to doubt you. They're beginning to wonder if they can trust you. And if you leave it, particularly for a period of time, it might be days, could even be weeks, but you leave things, particularly if it's an important update on something like delivery, which could be either important or critical.

Speaker 1: 9:54

If you wait for the client to phone, then the chances are there will be an angry exchange because, if you think about it, they first of all feel let down that you haven't come back to them when you said you would. They don't know what's going on, their anxiety and their stress is building. And when they finally get to the point of picking up the phone, or it might be writing an email or whatever. They're pretty much ready to pop. You know they're pretty angry and they now need to vent, have a go at somebody, so. So my recommendation is always to let clients know what's going on as soon as you know. Don't sit on things. If you say you're going to get back to them by a certain time, certain date, do that.

Speaker 1: 10:42

So I've worked in Australia for companies that are based in other countries, and what usually happens in Australia is, because of the time difference, if I need an answer, if something's come up and I don't have the answer to it locally, I have to go back to the factory to get an answer. It generally means an overnight call. I've got to send an email or leave a voicemail or do whatever to just make sure somebody comes back to me, and I will generally say that I've let the client know. I'll come back to them tomorrow at 12 o'clock, whatever the time might be local time, and I'd really appreciate an update that I can give them for that call, even if it isn't the complete answer. So that will depend on the business you're dealing with. However, that's not a reason not to come back to them.

Speaker 1: 11:37

So one of the really important things you can do as a salesperson I think it's absolutely essential is to take responsibility for what's going on. Basically, the buck stops with you and that means you're controlling things. So I've been in a position where I have committed to go back to a client by a certain time. It's usually the following day and I haven't had a reply. So the first thing I will do is just hit up the supplier again and try and escalate things. But I will always go back to the client, just let them know what's going on. And it can be just to say I did send the request yesterday, as I said I would. I haven't had to reply back. I've raised this again and I will escalate it as needed and I will let you know tomorrow. If you're happy with that, I'll let you know tomorrow about what's going on. I'll give you an update. So that kind of thing is really really important to do and I've seen a lot of people, for the reasons I've stated that they are.

Speaker 1: 12:38

Most of us don't like conflict. You pretty much got to be a bit of a psychopath to enjoy conflict, in my opinion. So most of us don't like it and, as I've said, if you take the initiative, if you are consistent. If you do go back when you say you will, from a personal relationship standpoint you are at least demonstrating that you can be trusted, because the things that are going wrong are outside of your control. So I'm very briefly going to touch on DISC and what the four different types are looking for. I'll give you a tiny tiny thumbnail of each one as I go through it.

Speaker 1: 13:17

So D is the dominant. D tends to be your CEO type. They're very focused on getting things done. They're not very interested in the personal side, so they're not interested in chit-chat. They want to get straight to the point. They do want to know worst-case scenarios. So they will tend to be devil's advocate. And that's simply because, if they fail, because they are natural leaders, it generally means that whatever they are leading whether it's a department, a company, family, whatever it might be the failure isn't just theirs but it will impact the people who are depending on them. So they don't care so much about the chit chat and building the relationship, but they do want you to be reliable. And the great thing about the D is that if you don't let them down, they're likely to keep buying from you because they want to keep finding a supplier for whatever you do. Once they found somebody, as long as you don't mess it up, it's unlikely they're going to go elsewhere. So these are actually one of my favorite clients, to be perfectly honest.

Speaker 1: 14:21

The next one is influencer, which is the very charismatic, very. If you look at someone who's an entertainer dyes their hair fingernails very bright, very engaging, probably a high I. Their hair fingernails very bright, very engaging, probably a high I. That's the influencer. They are the exact opposite of the D in some ways, and the main way they differ is that they love new things, so they get distracted by pretty shiny things and that means, as a client, they're probably the most unreliable client you're going to have and they're one of those clients where you obviously need to treat them correctly. But the chances are you'll do nothing wrong, but they'll still go and buy from somebody else next time, simply because they're new and different and that's how they run. So it is useful to understand these personality types and how they're likely to behave with you.

Speaker 1: 15:15

The S is the stabilizer. This person is much quieter, very much backroom, very much into process, very committed to support the Ds primarily. So they are very good PAs, that kind of thing, pas, that kind of thing. They are very family-focused, so very much into looking after people. And the D and the I people could be described as living a bit fast and loose, so they make connections. Let's call them quite easily and quite quickly and dump them just as fast, whereas the S is a slow and deep person.

Speaker 1: 15:55

So with a stabilized person, so more like a mother figure if you like, and very process driven, they are likely to have few friends. They don't let people in very easily. But you definitely need to establish trust with them. But once you are accepted, once you are allowed in, then they will go with you personally. So, from a salesperson-client relationship, you cannot let them down.

Speaker 1: 16:23

And this comes to even turning up for meetings and making phone calls. If you say you're going to be there at 11 o'clock or make a phone call at 11 o'clock, make sure you're there. Make sure you're there early. I always get to places early. I think it's a good habit to get into because for some people it's important, for other people it doesn't matter. But again, take control, take responsibility, be there early.

Speaker 1: 16:49

But they need you to be reliable. And it's a bit like a vase you can have a lovely vase. But once you've broken it you can't quite put it back the way it was. So if you break trust with someone who is a high S person, it is very difficult to rebuild that trust. They probably won't trust you again.

Speaker 1: 17:09

So they again are very loyal clients. But you just need to treat them correctly, treat them well and then finally you've got C, the compliant, the kind of tech head person, again very focused on outcome, on solving the problem, much more detail focused than the dominant person would be. And again, just don't let them down. They're not interested in the personality side of it so much, but they want you to be reliable. In particular, they want you to know what you're talking about. Or, if you don't, don't make stuff up, go and find out.

Speaker 1: 17:44

So I've had to deal with technical people in most of my sales career and definitely there have been times when I've been selling things I didn't know in a massive amount of depth. And with selling to a C person, they would know the technical details way better than I ever would. So I never tried to make things up. If they had a question I couldn't answer, I'd get them to write it down. If they had a question I couldn't answer. I'd get them to write it down often just to make sure I didn't get it wrong, and then I would pass it back and then you get into this routine of okay, I'll get back to you tomorrow and then you get back to them whether or not you've got an answer. Okay.

Speaker 1: 18:19

So I just touched on some aspects of client retention, but I think client retention is really important because, honestly, once you've got a client, you really don't want to lose them. If there's any way you can keep them going and just by being a little careful with them a bit of nurturing, maybe update meetings, that kind of thing if you're in the area, just make them feel loved. Basically it may not be the kind of language you normally use, but it's essentially what it comes down to. So thanks very much for listening to this podcast. Please remember to like and subscribe. If you have any questions or suggestions, please let me know and I will speak to you in the next podcast. Bye for now.