No doubt part of your growth plan for the business includes retaining and growing business from existing clients.
Do you/your people have a consistent approach to these conversations to ensure they are meaningful and effective? If not, here is a simple 5 step process for how review meetings with existing clients, using the acronym RECON:
Remember
Get them to remember why they started to work with you, why did they choose you
Remind them of any Pains they had previously experienced
‘Tom, remind me what were the original reasons why you decided to start working with us?’
Evaluate
Ask for honest feedback, any things we could have done differently
Focus more on finding the areas for improvement rather than just positive feedback
‘That’s great that we are doing a lot right but given no-one is 100% perfect, if there is one area where we could have been better, what would that be? What should we have done differently?
Or if there have been issues, get them out on the table without making excuses. Apologise and agree a plan of how you are going to address those issues.
Changes
What changes have they experienced as a result of working with you?
Any changes in their world that could have an impact?
Any changes in your world, or things you would like to make them aware of, different products or services they may not be aware of?
‘What’s changed for the better as a result of us working together? Can you give me specifics in terms of XXX’?
Opportunities
Identify if there are any additional opportunities to work together based on what’s been discussed in Changes
Ask for introductions (within the company or externally)
Next Steps
Agree what happens next
Figure out how often you are going to do RECON meetings with you’re A, B and C clients. Typically RECON meetings are done face to face with A clients every 3 months but may include shorter versions on the phone every 3 weeks. For C clients it may be enough to these every 6 months by phone.
These meetings are a great way to strengthen your relationships with existing clients, deal with any issues early on and constantly be looking for additional opportunities to work together.
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