Why Client Relationships Shouldn't Be Too Long...or Too Short

I think we all get why they shouldn’t be too short. It usually means that your client didn’t see an equitable exchange of value or you missed something in the prospect vetting stage and had to correct it by just letting the client quickly slide off the roster after the ol’ college try.

But just because client relationships shouldn’t be too short doesn’t mean that they should last forever, either, because long term relationships carry clues to some things that I’d like to get you thinking about.

First, though, how long is too long? The larger context for that question is something that I’m sure you’ve seen across the entire marketing/creative field, and that’s the infrequency of AOR (agency of record) relationships. For just under fifteen years, your client relationships have more closely resembled a string of successive projects. You should have a specific number of those project-based relationships going on concurrently. You also want a steady stream of opportunity, with a roughly equal mix of organic leads from your own marketing efforts and passive referrals from delighted clients.

With that background, you would aim for client relationships (of continuously successive projects) that last 3–6 years. Shorter than that and you may not be screening them carefully enough. Longer than that and you may be facing one or more of these challenges at your firm:

1. You’re doing execution work that doesn’t get swapped out with changes at the CMO level. The higher level strategic work is like the officer on horseback in a battle: he gets picked off first because he’s easier to pick off and because he’s a leader whose absence would mean more. The lower your role, the more likely you’ll survive client-side changes (which are now lasting longer, at nearly four years).
2. They stay married because it’s easier than a divorce. You’ve both fallen into comfortable ways that you complain about all the time, but you finally realize that neither party is going to change and it is what it is. You aren’t coming back to them regularly with big, innovative thinking that could get you fired. You aren’t rocking the boat. You’re a vendor and not a partner. You’ve survived the procurement dance and are no longer afraid of not making the preferred vendor status.

In all of business, I think you should imagine an end before you start the beginning. Otherwise, momentum pushes you forward rather than specific initiatives. I believe in planned obsolescence in your:

• Positioning. “We’ll serve this market or this practice area for this long and then we’ll reevaluate every three or five years.”
• Contractors. “We’re going to use this outside research contractor for eighteen months and then we’ll hire a bigger research firm or build out our own internal research department.”
• Employees. “I suspect that this person will learn enough to stay engaged for three years and then will move on, at which point it’ll be good for both of us.” Or, “I see this person serving as a growing leader for a decade if we can make it fit.” Sometimes you need to hire that free agent for the Superbowl run, but most of the time you need to draft well, get great value for 3–5 years, and keep refreshing the team, especially if you have that one problem employee.
• Remote Offices. “Let’s try this for two years. If we don’t have four new clients as a direct result of this office and if it’s not covering expenses, contributing to profit, and meshing with the culture, we’ll close it at that time.”
• Clients. “This looks like a one-year client to me, which is fine, but let’s look for a four-year client next.”

I hear what you’re thinking, though. “We have some client relationships that have lasted 16 years! We must be better than most agencies.”

Maybe, but probably not.

In fact, I saw this a few months back, captured as a screen shot for you.

What does this even mean? Maybe they keep overservicing clients so that they simply can’t afford to leave? Or maybe they keep doing zero-based work and generating useful insight for the client? Hopefully it’s the latter–I don’t know the firm.

The lessons are these:

1. Find the right clients to start with.
2. Find the real reason(s) they are leaving.
3. Find the real reason(s) they are staying.

Take risks and realize that your own capabilities will probably improve faster than your client acquisition can adapt. If you have new clients coming in the front door, you won’t panic so much when established clients leave through the back door.