Serving your client's interest...or your own?

When its time for a meeting with one of your biggest dollar-producing clients, you're usually going to roll out the red carpet. We want to put what we think is our best foot forward in order to make them feel important. But when you stop and think about it, all of those efforts are based on what's most advantageous to my or your company and is not actually about the client at all. Its about firming up their business.

I had an unexpected bout with this last week. The #2 revenue-producing client I work with was looking for some work to be done. I was booked up solid the day they wanted to meet up to chat. As a MM, my first thought was that I needed to take care of it, so I'd just let them know we'd need to do it another day since I was all booked up on the day suggested. But I also realized that time was of the essence for the client. So I turned them over to our newest employee, as he could provide the service they needed in the time frame they wanted.

It was originally supposed to just be a phone call, not a meeting, which seemed doable for a new employee. But before I knew it, it had turned into a big meeting with lots of people. My boss was asking me why I had turned over a big meeting with a big client to a brand new employee still in the learning process. I was wondering the same thing.

After the meeting, my boss followed-up with the client to get their feedback. Their response...they loved it! Said we had always been good with quality of work and professionalism, but speed was one thing we had not been so great at in the past. In their eyes, it didn't matter that it was a new employee still learning, they just saw that they were being serviced more quickly.

We had accidentally stumbled on something really important: Its not always about what seems to make the most business sense, its about what makes the most sense for your customer. Its risky, but it keeps the client's interests first. Revenue will follow.