The Day I Lost My Biggest Client
It’s just over a year since I lost my biggest customer – I’d definitely had fun building the relationship. I’d spoken to the Head of Sales every Wednesday morning at 7.30am for a year before I had the opportunity to realise the investment of my time. During that time I’d spent hours and hours learning about their business, but it had all been worth it. I gained real knowledge and insight into their strategies and inner workings.
I was now adding value strategically and was viewed as a business partner – This was how I saw business relationships working. The challenge for me was balancing my time and this certainly took up a lot of it. Life was good the time invested meant that now the client was making up half of our sales. As I worked to help secure them a larger share of the market, I wasn’t working with their direct competitors out of loyalty – but that was O.K. At least I could sleep straight at night.
Then the rumours started. What? Purchased? Don’t be crazy – they’re too big to be bought. Wrong! Our biggest client had just been bought. Not only that, but bought by one of the companies I had deliberately not been working with. Youch! Half of our sales had just been turned off. The trip overseas next year to renew vows with my wife was off. How was I going to tell her?
Don’t panic was the first thing I thought of. After all, when I’d started the business they weren’t a client. Also, I still had my other clients. The power of not being complacent and aiming to consistently win new business would come to the rescue. I’d been taught in my first days in sales that companies come and companies go. Contacts come and contacts go. There are many good and normal reasons why things change. The evolutionary process sees change all the time. Some people leave the organisation; some go overseas, some retire and some actually die – I know it’s grim but it’s true.
The importance of consistently winning new business had been drummed into me and I had listened and learnt. But did I have the energy to keep going? I had talked to thousands of people since starting the business, some brilliant, some positively awful. It was abundantly clear there were easier things to do, this was going to be hard. The next few months were hard, really hard. Christmas is always a slow time and this time it was stationary. I’d had the benefit of a constant flow of revenue even in the slow months and now that had dried up. I clearly knew how much I had to earn to break even and it just wasn’t happening. How long could I keep going before I’d have to raise the white flag?
And there it was – I dug deep. I often thought about my Dad who had once said to me whilst I was in a moment of despair, “Don’t let the world grind you down.” I kept going. I kept making calls. I made sure I looked after my (now former) client contacts who’d been bought as they worked through their multiple restructures. I talked to them and gave them advice as they reapplied for their jobs. I was happy with their success. I kept trying to add value knowing full well that in the short term that help wouldn’t result in sales. Think long term, I kept telling myself. I was evolving with the clients. And that felt good.
Fast forward to now and my other clients are still looking after me and I’m enjoying looking after them. I’ve also had more time to focus on winning new business and have enjoyed doing business with some great new companies. That’s the great thing about being commission only. I have zero choice but to generate revenue otherwise my kids will starve – that’s not literally true but you get the point.
A year on and things have come full circle. I’ve just made my first sale to the company who bought my client. The lessons learnt have been brilliant – Never put all your eggs in one basket. Even when times are great keep looking to find new clients and win new business.
Takeout:
- Never stop winning business – you never know what’s around the corner
- In times of adversity, learn from the lesson, and use it as an opportunity to grow
- Make sure your partner works too
#exceedingtargets #evolvingtalent #lifebalance