I’ve been talking to many agency clients over the last couple of weeks about what to do when clients postpone or cancel projects in light of the current impact of COVID-19.
Keep in contact
While for many it’s counter intuitive (and some just plain awkward!), I’ve been advising them to maintain regular contact.
Now more than ever is the time to nurture your relationships because when we come through this, those who have shown they care, maintained contact, offered support, shared ideas and added value will be the ones who will stand out and be remembered.
Show empathy and listen
This is a time to show empathy, practice your great empathy and listening skills, be really supportive and flex your creative muscle to come up with relevant ideas to help them with their business challenges.
The economic climate is very unstable and volatile, many business owners and employees are uncertain about their future and the situation is highly changeable at the moment.
This can be stressful for many of those who bear the responsibility of running any business and who employs people.
Therefore right now the saying “Seek first to understand and then to be understood” is the most relevant right now i.e. ask how your client is doing and how the situation is affecting them most is the first and most important step to ensure a genuine connection.
The human touch
Don’t rely on the written email to nurture a relationship, it’s far too impersonal and lacks an ability to make a connection.
Pick up the phone and call them. If they don’t pick up, leave a voice message, let them hear your voice.
You could always send a voice message via LinkedIn’s messenger function or even Whatsapp/Facebook messenger if these are the channels you’d normally contact your client through. Use whichever is more appropriate or use a video messaging service like Bonjoro.
Most important is to ask them how they are and how the situation has impacted them. Focus the conversation on them. Try the 70/30 rule i.e. ask questions 30% of the time and listen 70% of the time.
But this isn’t just about checking in to say hi (although if you have a very strong and casual type of relationship with your client this may be appropriate too), it’s about looking at ways to show leadership, ensure you’re offering the maximum value and demonstrate you genuinely care about your client and want to help them.
Be sensitive
There are multiple ways to be helpful but it has to be appropriate to their situation.
Hence you need to listen first to understand before suggesting ideas. If you start suggesting ways to help and it’s inappropriate it could have a detrimental effect.
Imagine your client has been furloughed and you didn’t realise.
If you start jumping in offering help without asking them about their personal situation and how the pandemic was affecting them personally then it could end up being a very awkward conversation.
Keep their brand top of mind
You could offer to come up with some ideas for how they can keep their business top of mind among their customers during this time. This is particularly relevant if the business falls into the type that currently needs to reinvent itself to survive e.g. a high end restaurant who cannot open and then decides to offer a take away service for the first time.
Are there opportunities to suggest ideas to keep your client’s brand top of mind given some of the individual projects on their 2020 marketing plan have been placed on hold?
What about suggesting to help them come up with a plan for when the government restrictions are over? This is going to be a huge area for businesses to help them to prepare a phased approach for when life (tentatively) goes back to normal.
Sharing info, articles and posts
If you know your client’s business, industry and them personally, you’ll also be able to share with them something you see in the news that could be interesting or relevant.
Examples could be new technologies or trends relevant for their business or industry, competitor news or articles/videos you’ve seen that are interesting to them personally e.g. hobbie-related or tips for working at home.
If you know they work from home with kids it could be something like sharing ideas for keeping them entertained. I saw recently John Griffin, Co Founder and Creative Director at Wolfclub Digital had developed a Trello Board for parents at home educating and entertaining their young children. What a fantastic idea to share!
Periodically sharing articles and posts is a great way to keep you top of mind.
Help them communicate with their customers and stakeholders
As you know their end user/customer/target audience very well, are there creative ways you could come up with to help your client provide value to their customers during this time? e.g. using your copywriting skills to help them with their corporate communications so their messages are relevant?
Perhaps a product launch event has been placed on hold. Can you come up with ways to communicate with this specific target audience with teaser messages or come up with ideas for how to plan for the launch to be in a virtual format?
Some of my clients work in events and have had several projects cancelled for major launches. They have created partnerships with companies who offer more technical services like augmented reality and virtual reality to offer their clients many ideas for running the events virtually.
Sharing offers/discounts
Many service providers are offering discounted products and training. Can you pass these along to your client to help them? AppSumo is a great resource to find amazing deals on apps and software.
How to suggest ideas without feeling pushy
Some of my clients have been struggling with how to even suggest these ideas. You could use a story about ‘another client of yours’ and how you’ve helped them so you can avoid the feeling of being pushy.
For example “Many of our other clients have been asking us to [share ideas around maintaining regular communication with their customers and stakeholders during this uncertain time]. Would it be useful if we discussed how you could do the same?”
“We’ve been asked by some of our other clients to [share some digital tool ideas for collaborating with colleagues and enhancing a virtual working set up], would you like me to share them with you?”
“We’ve been asked to put together some free training for our other clients on [some of the most important technological changes and trends expected over the next 10 years according to a recent report and our interpretation of what’s important to do right now to prepare for them]. Would you like to join us?”
Be visible on social media and show how you can help
Finally, it’s also worth thinking about you can ensure you continue to attract prospective clients who are also searching for ideas, information and help to get through these uncertain times.
Now more than ever is the time to stay visible on social, be where your potential clients are and show how you are helping your other clients. Follow Ash Jones for useful tips and strategies for how you can be more influential on social media.
So how are you planning to stay in contact with your clients during these unusual times?
Want to chat about the challenges you are facing with your client relationships?
If you would like to discuss your client challenges with me, join my weekly coaching programme Account Accelerator where I’ll be sharing with you the content of my signature training programme that I’ve been teaching and evolving since 2016 to take you from unpredictable project revenue to more predictable account growth. I’ll also share ideas with you for adding the most relevant value to your client relationships right now. Check out the details here.
