***This article originally appeared in the January ’23 issue of Animation Magazine (No. 326)***
A client is the lifeblood of any business. Not to be confused with a customer who only provides transactional functionality, a client is someone who depends on a service provider to help them in a pinch. A client always relies on their service provider for consulting, while a customer price-shops at every opportunity, always choosing the lowest bidder. A client is someone with whom a service provider develops a relationship that can span many years, or even decades.
A client stays, customers go away.
And make no mistake — clients, especially happy ones, don’t just happen, they are built. It takes time, care, strategy and Terminator-like perseverance to develop a relationship strong enough to stand the test of time.
What’s Good for the Goose…
The same things that are required for a productive relationship in your personal life are the same things that are required for a productive relationship with a client. After all, the key to building a client is having relationship-building skills so you can establish and maintain the most important foundational aspect of any mutually beneficial relationship: trust.
Here are some tips on how to make this happen:
1. Choose Your Clients Wisely. Be sure that the person you are considering starting a relationship with is someone you would want to spend many hours per month over the course of many years with, always being there for them in good times and bad.
Write down everything you would like from a relationship with this client. Although “needs” are much more important than “wants,” make a thorough list of everything that comes to mind, let it sit for a day or two, then revisit and revise until perfected. If a potential relationship with this client hits the mark on virtually everything on your list, you may have a keeper.
2. Be Selfless. As the Sorcerer Supreme once said, “It’s not about you.” This is highly appropriate to client relations. Step out of your own circle for a moment and only focus on what the client has to say and what their experiences are. Comment only on what they have to say. Put everything in their perspective. Empathize with their plight. Congratulate them on any mention of positive news or even the most modest of accomplishments. The more you listen and the more you circumvent your own needs and agenda and focus on what your client is saying, the more your client will feel connected with you and more excited about speaking with you and working with you in the near future.
3. Let Go. All relationships have ups and downs. So, too, does a relationship with a client. Expect and work towards only the best outcomes, but prepare for and learn to deal with and overcome the worst. Should something negative happen with a client, acknowledge said happening, then calmly and professionally address the issue with a respectful Q&A session where you and the client put your heads together to figure out what happened and, more importantly, what can be done to improve so it never happens again.
Then let it go. Release this negative energy from your relationship into the nether, otherwise it will fester and grow into a virile poison for which there will be no cure, heralding the end of your relationship and ushering in the inevitable resulting professional and financial consequences hereto.
4. Prioritize Your Relationship. Make your relationship with your clients top priority. Always be there for them. Always deliver, no matter what. It is critical that your client feels confident that you will be available for them in whatever capacity is needed. You need to perform in a way that a client feels as if they are your only client, even though they know it’s probably not the case.
Part of your agreement when first establishing your relationship should be to guarantee enough dedicated availability to provide excellent service to them. If you take on more work or more clients than you can successfully manage, then you are not delivering on your promise and furthermore, violating their trust.
As with friendships or even marriage, a relationship with a client is built on trust, consideration, empathy, meeting wants and needs, and providing and receiving an array of mutual benefits. If you can translate these values into your business, you will certainly build and maintain happy clients forever.
Martin Grebing is the president of Funnybone Animation Studios. He can be reached at funnyboneanimation.com.
