RELATIONSHIP MANAGEMENT

Once you’ve mastered the art of relationship management you’ll achieve outstanding results.

Here we look at the processes & protocols which are essential in the development of strong business relationships and should be followed by anyone representing your company who is engaging at any level in the client organisation. There can be no exceptions and applies equally to both permanent staff and any third parties your company may be using.

There are a multitude of reasons for engaging with clients and colleagues (personal introductions, fact-finding, fulfilling obligations, progress reviews, business & people issues, complaints, sales opportunities & negotiation, contractual, entertainment/hospitality, social, etc., etc.).

Once you have made that initial contact with any client manager or member of staff at any level, a business relationship needs to be developed. The amount of time and effort required will gradually become apparent as you find out more and more about the individual, where they sit in the organisation and their value in terms of information and potential future business.

However, please take great care not to be dismissive of those individuals who you consider to be junior. These people are often the source of important information or may be a rising star or be a relative of someone much higher up the organisation tree.

Over time you’ll develop numerous business/working relationships with clients who are ‘there’, you won’t be able to pick & choose! Sometimes you’ll have to work very hard to develop the relationship with someone who you don’t particularly like or don’t have a regard for in terms of the value they bring to the job.

Also, if the client relationship is not good, your colleagues will not be happy and attrition levels will inevitably rise together with falling revenue and profit. However, if the relationship is strong, there is every likelihood that further sales orders will follow.

Therefore, the following process & protocols are considered essential in the development of strong business relationships and should be followed by anyone representing your company who is engaging at any level in the client organisation. There can be no exceptions and applies equally to both permanent staff and third parties.

Although relationship management is primarily a fundamental process for all account managers and senior staff, anyone representing the supplier who has direct contact with the client (at any level) must be aware of the content to ensure continuity.

Example checks and tips are given below.

Client Contact Management

• strive for multiple client relationships across the organisation and at different levels – relationships can be extremely valuable at the lower levels regarding a multitude of fact-finding about the business, staff, competition, what’s going wrong/right/etc
• do the rounds with senior client people to develop relationships & personal confidences, gain business & political knowledge as well as individual views & social/domestic information, etc. – but do your research beforehand as they may not be happy with the deliverables, service, people or products your company is providing!
• be very careful when talking to the client about ‘working together in partnership’ as the word ‘partnership’ means different things to different people and can have legal/contractual consequences. Your company will therefore need to have an agreed definition if it’s going to be used so there is no confusion or manipulation; everyone must know this
• ask your client contacts what they really need/expect of you and your company? What is their success criteria for how your company will be judged?

People

• gradually develop sound/good working relationships – your client contact’s PA/secretary is a good place to start although these people are often pretty sharp and may know your game but that doesn’t mean they won’t comply. Some will be much easier to ‘win over’ than others, some will be frosty to begin with – you’ll need to persevere and maybe modify your approach, back off for a while. Crossing swords with a boss’s PA is something you may never recover from, professional suicide! You may not have even crossed swords with them, they may initially just not like you or you irritate them. So, work on it, talk to people who do get on with them but be discrete/subtle, you may have to bide your time
• where are the pubs that client staff go to? Start to use them! Don’t be too obvious in your mission to gain as much information as possible on client business & staff, their competitors, your competitors, current problems/future issues, etc, etc.
• strive to make your client contact(s) look and feel good/special. Let them take the credit for what’s been achieved, if that’s what they want, even if they don’t deserve it – they’ll know that you know that it’s down to you/your company even if they don’t acknowledge it. It will ultimately be to your benefit, particularly if and when they become dependent on you!
• if you’re managing colleagues strive for loyalty and people going that extra mile, ideally without being asked

Work

Be proactive and regarded as delivering ‘value added’ (having maximised your ‘on-site intelligence’):

• share your own company’s best practice
• anticipate issues not yet considered/realised by your client and take appropriate steps as and when appropriate
• strive for ‘skills transfer’ to client staff & managers
• ask yourself why things are being done the way they are; the rationale, the justification – can you think of ways to make things easier, quicker, less stressful, more cost effective for the client?

Entertainment

Pre-Covid, entertainment/hospitality was often a key component in developing a strong business relationship with clients. However, there are some important points to remember if and when we can return to entertaining:

• find out what’s allowed to be accepted by the client organisation
• take care to select appropriate venues and not go over the top; you’re not looking to impress in that way!
• prepare an agenda (sometimes ‘hidden’) and discussion topics beforehand (work, home & family life, interests, hobbies, holidays, etc)
• make notes immediately after any form of entertaining (as you would do if you met in the office) – and remember, they may make notes too!
• review the event’s usefulness/value for money after each occasion

Issues

• ensure you and colleagues learn from mistakes made. Mistakes happen, everyone makes them. They’re allowed but only once! Anticipate problems/issues/etc; put yourself in the other person’s position. There should be no cover-ups – you need to know about all mistakes – talk them through with colleagues behind closed doors so that people learn never to repeat them. The golden rule is that no matter what has happened and/or regardless of the potential repercussions, you must never lie. Always put your ‘hands up’ and rely on the other person’s compassion – just admit or volunteer whatever the problem/issue is, do whatever you can to minimise the impact of the situation and give assurances that it will never happen again
• never forget that mistakes and criticisms are often opportunities to score points as you address them/put them right, and can ultimately improve your client relationship – in either case, both are inevitable so accept that they happen, take them in your stride and then decide how to respond (and always with urgency). If you don’t have a quick solution, maintain contact on a regular basis and keep the client informed of progress, or even lack of it! – and don’t take things personally or look to blame others
• there are always some client contacts out there who are incompetent, arrogant, rude, insecure, etc. and you will undoubtedly experience some if not all of these traits – but hopefully not all in the same individual! You really have to be disciplined and not show your feelings or contempt for such people, no matter how unfair this seems, particularly after you’ve done so much to help them. However, if you’ve screwed up you must still apologise and be seen as genuine by the ‘injured party’. You must also do everything you can to make amends for any shortcomings
• look for hidden agendas and the games people play; some are very clever/subtle, sometimes you’d never realise what they were up to unless you were on the lookout or really thought things through

Click here for 70+ checks & tips

Best Practice Quote 5 of 13:

“once you’ve mastered the art of relationship management you’ll achieve outstanding results”

NEXT BLOG: Client Contact Management

A complete set of account management components can be found at accountmanagementgold.com, all of which aim to significantly improve supplier performance and block the competition.

As an introduction to these components, I’m writing a series of blogs which I hope will be of value and appropriate for the type & size of your client, prospect and target organisations:

• What is Account Management?
• Understanding Your Clients
• Values, Ethos & Image
• Supplier Account Manager
• Relationship Management (today)
• Client Contact Management
• Sales Propositions & Opportunities
• Sales Opportunity Qualification
• Balanced Scorecard
• Risk Management
• Account Performance Reviews
• Satisfaction Surveys
• SWOT Analysis

As these blogs will be geared to anyone engaged in developing new business with clients or prospects, and for ease of context, I’ll regard all readers as account managers as everyone has the same endgame, no offence!

I really hope you, your colleagues & business associates find value in these blogs; please let me know either way. Please also get in touch if you think there might be potential for our businesses to collaborate.

ASPIRE’s MISSION

– to enable suppliers to minimise risk in all that they do with particular focus on developing long-term revenue streams

– to increase productivity/profit/margin, client/people networks, trust/integrity, reputation/market standing & morale/pride

Richard Wright
Managing Director
ASPIRE Account Management
accountmanagementgold.com