Retention is everything!
Retained clients make up 70-85% of all sales inside both of my companies.
If you don’t master retention, you will live on a continual hamster wheel of client acquisition, constantly solving for more clients endlessly, and ain’t nobody got time for that.
Top tips for client retention:
1) Take authority of the timeline immediately.
- It doesn’t matter if you are a painter, an accountant, a pediatrician, a hairstylist, or any other industry: your client has come to you because they want help solving a problem. If you know that you need to have more than one session with them in order to get the result they want, YOU MUST OWN THAT. As a massage therapist, clients would come to me to get out of back pain. I would tell them *upfront*, “I want to see you weekly for 6 weeks. At that point, I would like you at 80% pain relief. This is my goal.”
- “This is my goal” creates ownership in the relationship. They now feel like you are a partner in their result.
- Telling them upfront how many sessions they’ll need creates trust. No sleaziness, no guessing. Just matter of fact. “I want to help you. This will take at least 6 sessions.”
2) You must ask for the return.
- For the love of God! Verbalize it for them. Assume they DO NOT know when or if they should return to gain their result.
- When your client is leaving their session, you must say, “I would like to see you back in X weeks. Can you come in Tuesday the 26th?”
- Give a specific date. This is what authority looks like. Can you see how this feels compared to, “Well…I hope to see you around soon. Call us when you want to get back in.” This sentence does not give your client the result they want. You are in charge of their result so you must be in charge of being extremely clear about how they can get it.
- You must be clear that they have to come back. Your client WANTS the result you possess. They are willing to come back. They just need to be told.
3) GET THEM RESULTS.
- Do everything in your power to create change in their life.
- Over deliver. Show up. Give quality hand over fist. Make yourself write-home-to-mama-worthy. Their results have your name written all over them.
Master these basic steps and your revenue will skyrocket, your clients’ results will skyrocket, and they will talk about you like you’re the Queen of their hive. Or King, of course.
Cheers,
Becca
