One of the most common concerns that practice owners have when redirecting all client communication to Senior Client Managers is what if the SCM leaves one day? What if they poach or take away all of your clients for their own?
Do you have to worry? Not if you do the following:
- Recruit the right SCM. Someone who is intrapreneurial and not entrepreneurial because intrapreneurial people don’t want to work for themselves.
- Your employment contract should state they cannot take the clients when they leave.
- Run your business really well so you can pay really good wages plus bonuses to them so they won’t leave.
- If you are a small practice, let your SCM take care of 80% of the communications but still attend to the remaining 20% which are more PR, strategic, and tax planning meetings, and having coffee and lunch with clients.
- Invest up to 5% of turnover on marketing to bring in new clients so if ever you lose 1, you can still pick up 5 or more new clients and the net is still growing.
We have 160 staff and using the above strategies and the net growth of new clients over lost clients (only a handful) means we are not concerned at all.
Alternatively, you have to attend to every client yourself. However, this is not sustainable and will lead you to burn out and hinder your growth. In the end, you’ll become a prisoner in your business.
You need to change your thinking in order to grow your business. It starts with the way you think.