The Tribune

MARKETING REVOLUTION

By D’Arcy Rahming

As the young marketing director watched my presentation on my monthly deliverables, I knew this would be the last day I would be working with this corporate client. First of all, their director kept me waiting beyond a reasonable time to be granted an audience with her, even though we had a regularly scheduled appointment. Second, she answered her phone whenever it rang, which seemed to be every few minutes. Third, she only had the power to say “no”, so I was definitely presenting to the wrong person.

Somewhere along the way the maintenance part of this client contract had gone wrong, and I knew it. So I fired this client. One of the keys to success is your ability to understand that not everyone is your customer or client, and you have to be prepared to fire them.

We’ve all grown up with the mantra: ‘The customer is always right.’ That is absolute foolishness. There are some customers that are more trouble than they are worth. They will cost you in time and resources. They will wear your staff down. Or they are an emotional drain on you and your business.

So all of your marketing efforts should be aimed at getting, and keeping, the ideal type of client. For example, from that experience earlier in my consultancy career, I learned that I do not take on clients that have established marketing departments or an established marketing director. Inevitably, I will have a different approach, and the internal marketing people feel very defensive towards me. So now I present deliverables only to people who have the ability to say ‘yes’. Not surprisingly, those are the same people who are truly concerned with the bottom line of a company.

This advice is also true for you if you run anything from a doctor’s office to a grocery store. Do not for one moment accept that your clients are people who have the ability to pay. Some people should not feel welcome in your establishment if they are going to be impossible to please, or even demand services from you that you cannot reasonably deliver.

In my experience, people have difficulty accepting this advice for a couple of reasons. One is that they do not like confrontation and, second, they believe they should try to collect every penny. But let me be perfectly clear: Even if they are good paying customers, sometimes you may have to fire them. Some clients are just not worth the trouble.

NB: D’Arcy Rahming holds a Masters of Management from the Kellogg School of Management at Northwestern University. A lecturer at the College of the Bahamas, Mr Rahming has clients in general insurance, retail, the health and medical fields, sports federations and financial services. To receive his marketing newsletter FREE go to http://DArcyRahming.com or contact him directly darcyrahmingsr@gmail.com