The first one is:
Feng Shui your client list. Feng Shui is the Chinese art of moving and placing objects within a room or space, so that positive energies can flow and benefit the inhabitant of that space. It can be used to create a highly relaxing environment or to attract health or even good luck to a room or building.
To me, while I am sure that there are powerful and ancient principles at play, it often seems like it’s an exercise in de-cluttering and minimising.
De-cluttering is a good thing to do. It frees up space (either physically or mentally) and allows the opportunity for new things to come and occupy that space. Therefore we should consider de-cluttering our client databases.
Over the years we have collected clients that are neither productive nor profitable. These clients act as a drain on our time and resources. The demand, they complain and they want everything for nothing. Instead of holding onto these clients we should actively remove them from our databases or de-prioritise the communication or the degree of sales contact that we give them.
Such negative clients also create opportunities for sales executives to ‘hide behind’ and justify their poor performance. They serve as ‘black holes’ for productivity and profit.
Get rid of them – aggressively. Give them a business opportunity elsewhere. You want them out so that good clients can inhabit the space and benefit from the resources they are currently draining.
Typo Queen Has Arrived: The demand should probably be THEY demand.
ReplyDeleteThat out of the way, I like the idea. I agree totally and actually exercise this technique in my business. In private, I call it "firing clients", which isn't nice; but it puts me in the driver seat of my appointment book. I will refer them politely to someone who might be able to better meet their needs, if anyone I know exists and I can politely acknowledge their unmet need to them. If they continue to call me for appts, I tell them I am booked 8 weeks out or some other long period they aren't used to waiting. If they continue to call, then I tell them I had to reduce my hours and am not accepting any more appts for a few months and that my calendar is full with standing repeat appts. Being in a service industry, that works for me. May not work so well in product sales. Thought I would share anyway.