How Can You Claim to be the Leader?

Lead, leader, leadership. Do these words really mean anything anymore, particularly in the way that they are used when companies and organisations go about promoting themselves? Look on the website of virtually any company or enterprise you can think of, and one or all of these terms will almost always be used as an adjective to describe themselves. Kind of all gets lost in the translation and ignored in what becomes little more than white noise.

One firm proclaims they’re the leader in sales, their competitor insists that they lead the way in innovation, another competitor in customer satisfaction, still another in their stellar reputation.

At Tenacity, we believe that the real test of leadership – who’s really the best – is leading the way in client retention. If you have more loyal clients than the other guys, that says pretty much all we need to know about the value that you are providing to your clients and your ability to provide it consistently. It also means that you successfully demonstrate relevant value and that you communicate your worth in a manner that makes them believe it. Your clients become your fans and your advocates. That’s leadership.

So, if you claim to be the leader and your overall rate of client retention is not the highest in your industry or channel, you’re not believable and you shouldn’t be taken seriously.

That illusion of leadership won’t last.

Conversely, if you do have the highest rate of retention, that might be all you really need to say. And, you might not even have to say that – your clients are probably saying it for you. You might just need to hand them the microphone. They’ll know the script.