This past weekend I watched the Wisconsin – LSU game in legendary football coach and now athletic director Barry Alvarez’s box at the Houston Astrodome. I had the opportunity to ask Coach Alvarez a bunch of questions, and he provided some terrific answers.
I asked him, “What leads to success? What does a player need to do to succeed at this level and the next level?” Alvarez answered: “Consistency.” It’s a great answer. It neatly sums up the things that top producers do that others don’t. It isn’t enough to be able to perform well when you need to, once in a while, or occasionally. The key to success (or one of them anyway) is to continually produce great results.
I know a lot of entrepreneurs and entrepreneurial companies that occasionally work on client acquisition (what we here call “selling”). When they get desperate, they put some effort into trying to acquire new clients. But because they don’t take consistent action, they don’t produce consistent results. In fact, the only thing they do consistently is take inconsistent action and produce inconsistent results.
A lot of salespeople behave the same way, only prospecting when it becomes urgent. But the key to winning your dream clients is to pursue them and nurture the relationships you need consistently.
The same thing can happen with existing client relationships. When you first win a new client, you are excited and you consistently communicate, create value, and pay attention to them. But over time, as the newness and excitement wears off, you communicate less frequently and less consistently. You stop trying to create new value, something you need to do consistently to retain your clients. It’s the lack of consistency—or neglect—that causes you to lose clients.
The key to client retention is consistency. But not only consistent performance. You also need to consistently jump to new levels of value.
What, if done consistently, would produce the better results you need? What prevents you from taking the actions you need to consistently?
If you missed last week’s webinar I did with Mark Hunter, you missed a great one-two punch on the connection between value and price. You can sign up for Part Two of Close More Sales Now: The Price/Value Equation here: https://attendee.gotowebinar.com/register/622715368247587842
Also, Mark and I have been invited to speak on this subject at Dreamforce this year. Our event will take place on October 15th at 11:30 AM Pacific in the Ralston Ballroom in the Palace Hotel. Shoot me note if you are going to be at Dreamforce, and add us to your event calendar.
Make consistency your goal this week, and I’ll see you back here next week!
Anthony Iannarino
Contributor Anthony Lannarino is an entrepreneur, speaker, author, and consultant. He writes daily at www.thesalesblog.com and you can subscribe to his newsletter at www.thesalesblog.com/newsletter.