What We Can Learn From Losing Clients
I’ve lost over a third of my monthly gross income in the past month.
Those are words I never thought in a million years I would ever type – or publicly acknowledge.
I get asked all the time how business is going and I always give the same chirpy reply, “Great! I’ve been so blessed.” Well, honestly right now it sucks.
Most social media pros would NEVER EVER EVER publicly admit they’ve lost a client or a portion of income. They feel it would reflect poorly on their brand or company. Newsflash – this happens to all of us at some point.
In the past month, here’s what has happened…
1. Client A is moving his marketing dollars around and has chosen to stop despite all the great feedback and activity he gets from his Facebook page.
2. Client B feels like they have learned enough from watching me do it that now they think they can do it on their own.
3. Client C loves the work I’ve done but has decided to abandon social media marketing right now.
4. Client D (a non-profit) has had to make drastic budget cuts due to lack of funding and has needed to cut social media marketing.
None of clients cited lack of return or not enough sales, leads, etc. Frustrating? You bet.
So, why? Why this downpour all of a sudden? In moments like this I turn to my faith. I rarely write about it because I want to keep my religion separate from business, but this time I can’t. I’m a Christian and have been since I was 10. I am very deeply involved in my faith. I cannot take credit for the success I have had in my business because I’ve been blessed with people coming to me for my services and not having to make sales calls.
Every time I have had a client come off contract, there’s been on there to replace it and then some. Someone is looking out for me and my business. I know I am doing what I’m suppose to be doing – this is what was intended for me.
However, times like this I start to question and worry and stress. The Bible says in Jeremiah 29:11 “For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.” I know there’s something bigger on the horizon and now comes my lesson in patience.
This also gives me time to reflect on what I could have done better.
Could I have spent a few more minutes engaging with fans?
Could I have put together a better strategy?
Could I have not taken on more clients in order to spend more time on who I currently work with?
The questions could go on.
I think every time we lose a client we need to take the time to reflect and really dig deep to figure out what we could have done better. Sometimes it’s not anything we did – it was out of our hands.
I’ll be honest – I was nervous to write and publish this. No one likes to publicly admit what I just did, even though it happens to us all. Does this make me a lesser social media professional? Does this mean I’m not good at what I do? I hope not (and I personally don’t think it does). I have a list of clients who would refute anything negative. For someone who is very private, opening up like this is very much outside my comfort zone, but I feel like it was something I needed to write. Kinda like Jerry Maguire writing his manifesto.
Right now is the time to focus on the positive – the clients I do have and how to service them even better. Clients come and go – it’s the roller coaster ride of this business.
One of my 5 year old’s favorite books is Pete the Cat & His 4 Groovy Buttons. Everytime Pete loses a button, he says “buttons come and buttons go, but do we cry? Goodness no!” I’m going to finish this post with the very last line of the book which 100% applies right now…
“Things will come and things will go. Do we cry? Goodness No!”
