The Precarious Client Basket Factor

by Guest Blogger, Lena West, Chief Social Media Strategist at xynoMedia

When I was a teenager, my Aunt, in all her gracious wisdom, gave me bit if advice. She told me that I should have different friends to meet different needs. For example, I shouldn't expect the same friend that I go shopping with to also be the same friend that will travel to far away lands with me.

When she first told me this, it seemed...harsh (hey, I was younger, what did I know?). I mean, weren't my best buds, my best buds no matter what? Wasn't my friend Sheila the same person on vacation as she was in the mall? Sadly no.

In my continued relationships with my friends, I started to notice that Sheila was an awesome shopping buddy, but not so great long term. She and I could literally shop for hours and chew the fat about the latest celebrity gossip, but an away-spa gal pal she was not.

The sad thing was before I figured out the friends-for-each-occasion matrix, I always found myself in some state of subtle annoyance at the few friends I had. I came to realize that my annoyance meter was being elevated because I was expecting to get all my friendship needs met from only a couple of people. If you think of it as a diversified friendship portfolio, I had all my amigo eggs in one precarious basket.

Once I saw this dynamic in action, I started to widen my circle of friends to include acquaintances. What a revelation! This was a bright new world, filled with hope, sunny days and reckless joy. Ok, maybe not exactly like that, but I was elated about my "discovery".

I no longer felt that friend diversification was a violation of my friendship pacts. It was making me a better human and more pleasant person to be around. I wasn't expecting one or two friends to meet all of my needs. When I wanted to shop, I called Sheila. When I wanted to spa it up, I called Erica. Grumbles about the declining social graces of the general populous? That's definitely a call to Rebecca.

So, what's my point today? Go back and replace the word 'friend' with 'client'.

At one point, my company wouldn't engage with clients that didn't meet ALL of our new client criteria. This was bad for us and bad for our clients. Some of our team secretly (or not so secretly) resented certain projects.

While we still have client engagement criteria, we've grown to understand that not every client is going to check every box...and that's OK. We've since shifted to prioritizing our client engagement criteria and using percentages, which might sound more complicated, but it makes sure that we:

1. stay sane;
2. work with clients that are best-suited for us and;
3. get our creative, strategic, small business, big business - and all our other needs - met

Are you expecting the world from only a few clients? Would it help your sanity to diversify a bit? What if, as a business experiment, you colored outside the lines just once? Would you/your team be better for the experience?

Comments

[Lena L. West]

Kelly:

I agree that it is good to know what to expect from people.

Then there's the more daring side that says, "What would happen if we didn't know what to expect?" or "What would happen if we changed our expectations?"

It's all fun, fun, fun!

Thanks for reading and commenting!

-Lena

[Kelly Watson]

What an interesting concept. I definitely see this at play in my own business.

Some clients I can kid around with, others are more formal. Some are on the ball, others I know their payment will come at the last possible minute.

I try to seek out the former in both cases, but at least it helps to know what to expect from people.