During a recent keynote speech, I was asked what methods I use to lock in my most important clients. Here is a brief summary of my response:
For a long time, I used some very specific business objectives for major accounts ("We will increase turnover by X percent" or "We will introduce two new programs to increase profitability by Y percent.") But I began to understand that these business objectives were not enough.
Multilevel objectives have proved very powerful in winning and keeping business. I use four levels of objectives and together they excite and motivate our team. At the same time, they are also very practical.
First we set "visionary" objectives. We picture what the result would be if everything went well. We discipline ourselves not to be limited by what has gone before or by current obstacles. The outcome is a very strong vision of what the account could be like in one, three or five years.
Second, we set relationship objectives—everyone in the account team needs to know what we want the relationship to feel like. Imagine you could hear your customer talking about you in two year's time. What would you want to hear? Perhaps you'd like to hear statements such as "We trust them completely," "They always give us new ideas" or "Things do not go wrong often, but when they do, they always fix them quickly." We have found that these relationship objectives help us do everything in the way we should and in the way the customer wants us to.
