Is 100% Client Retention Possible?

YES, IT IS!

You don’t think so?

Picture yourself at an operating forecast meeting. You’re seated around a conference table. There are six of you, including the boss. She has just put that very question on the table for discussion – “Do you think that it is possible to retain 100% of our clients this year?” Awkward silence. “Do you think we should plan for attrition?” More silence.

You’re thinking, “If we looked at our history, we’ve never achieved that before – or anything close to it. The competition is tough, we can be underbid on renewals, people change, ownership changes, acquisitions occur, managers make mistakes, etc., etc.” The fact is that your colleagues around the table are all thinking pretty much the same thing. And, you all know it. More silence.

So, who wants to be the first to speak up? Who wants to add a dose of reality to the Utopian view that we could go forward into a new year planning to retain all of our existing clients? Most telling… who is prepared to answer the dreaded follow-up, “So which clients, specifically, are you planning to lose?”

We want your answer to be, “Yes, we can retain every single one.” At Tenacity, we don’t want our clients to be unrealistic, but we do expect them to be optimistic and goal oriented. We want them invested in the belief that 100% client retention is possible and that given proper execution of the Clients for Life® client retention process, they can and will achieve it. We advise against forecasting attrition because, if it’s in the plan it becomes de facto “OK” – and it shouldn’t be.

We believe the key to 100% client retention is looking at clients individually, one at a time, not as a large portfolio. Each client, acquired as a right client under the right terms, where expectations, relationships and value creation are proactively managed and measured can be kept – and kept for life.

It’s like the old adage, “How do you eat an elephant?” There is only one way, “One bite at a time.” And that’s how 100% client retention is achieved, one client at a time.