Clients for Life: The Secret to Forming Profitable Relationships That Stick

Welcome to Your Business, Accelerated! Digitally remastered with AI, Your Business, Accelerated! is the go-to podcast for entrepreneurs ready to scale smart. Hosted by Attorney Shaune B. Arnold, it delivers strategic business insights, legal frameworks, and real-world solutions to help you operate with clarity and confidence. Get actionable guidance to protect, grow, and optimize your business…one smart move at a time.

Want loyal clients who come back again and again—and gladly pay your full rate? In this episode, Attorney Shaune shares how to turn prospects into lifelong partnerships. Learn the mindset, methods, and moments that create trust, deepen connection, and keep your business pipeline full…without chasing one-offs. 

Transcript

Welcome everyone. I want to welcome you …once again …to your business accelerated. I am your host, attorney, Shaune B. Arnold. 

Let me tell you what your business accelerated is all about.

We are all about putting you on the proper footing to do business and to make money now. So I want to welcome you once again, and I also want to remind you that I am a California business attorney, so that if we talk about legal issues here on your business accelerated, they have to be taken in light of my being a California business attorney. 

For this reason, if you live in another state, ...another country, ...or another state of mind, …then I invite you to take the information you learn here to an attorney in your jurisdiction who can tell you whether there's a difference between what I've said and what the law is where you live.

I also want to invite you to join over on legal biz Café. Here, on your business accelerated, we are dealing with hardcore business and legal issues that you are going to encounter as an entrepreneur. Over on legal biz cafe, we discuss your mindset. We talk about those emotional issues that stop you dead in your tracks and keep you from building your business …one that you’ll absolutely love.

So, I am here to catch you on the flip side and the flop side, if you will, to make sure that you have everything that you need to be a successful entrepreneur. So tonight, folks, we are going to talk about how to make your business relationships positive, productive and profitable.

There are a couple of things that you need to do on the front end of that, and there are a few things that you need to do on the back end. Let's start by talking about your preliminary approach to building relationships with potential clients.

The first thing you want to remember about making your relationship positive, productive and profitable is that you need to start this as early as possible in the relationship paradigm. You need to begin while you have an obvious business reason for being in contact with one another.

You know, I have, for example, done a needs assessment on clients. And when that happens, usually it's because I'm just curious about them and their business.

I have had occasion where someone came to me to draft a contract for their business. On offering them, for example, a free corporate tune-up in their business, I uncovered a host of securities related issues that absolutely had to be handled because you don't want to mess around with the SEC.

So, whatever it is that you do for a living, I want you to think of all the possible services that you can provide to that potential client. And if they come to you asking you for service, then, while you are engaged in performing service A, I want you to remember that you offer services B, C, D, E and F as well. As you take them through your intake process on all of those services never assume the only thing they need is the thing they're receiving from you. A lot of people don't know what they need. They don't understand what you do as well as you do. For this reason, be curious. Give them a needs assessment that digs deeper than your original product or service.

I also invite you and really encourage you to reinforce with the new customer an expectation that you're building a long-term relationship. Sometimes people really do want just one thing from you, but I had some clients come to me earlier this year when I taught a workshop. They bought a series of webinars that I put into a package called the Entrepreneur KickStarter Business Mastery Series. This is a series of five webinars that give people hardcore information on five critical areas of their business. 

This is information every entrepreneur needs to know – from an attorney with decades of experience in these areas. If you're interested in finding out about that, take a look at my website, MindMasteryAccelerator.com, and look for the Resources page. The Entrepreneur KickStarter Business Mastery Series is right there for you if you really want to get started, but you don't really know how to get started.

You’ll get to know me and my partner, Vernon Webb, co-founder of MindMastery Accelerator. He’s a Master Executive Performance Coach. Together, we specialize in providing neurostrategic techniques to you that can help you make critical changes in your business and personal life.

There are products on the resource tab that you can get just to get your feet wet in working with us. You can wade in with a meditation audio or the Entrepreneur KickStarter Business Mastery Series. You can find out how we do business and how that will benefit you by purchasing Communication, Connection and Conversion: Turn Prospects Into Lifelong Clients.

I’m pointing these resources out to you because I once sold the Entrepreneur KickStarter Business Mastery Series to a client. They then asked me to help them organize an LLC. Over time, we discovered they needed to complete their estate plan for their family.

Clients like this often also send me referrals. If I had just thought to myself on the day that they bought the Entrepreneur KickStarter Business Mastery Series, “Oh, how kind of them. I sold them a webinar series,” and then walked away from them, I would not have been able to cultivate the other business with them …and a referral.

When you start to develop really good business relationships, think in terms of analyzing the long-term life potential of that client. Home in on that early in the game. This analysis culminates in your lifetime expected revenue from this client.

Do an assumptive with them as a prospect. Close the initial sale, assuming you are building a long-term relationship with them. Once you get their attention, the follow up begins. Your fortune is in the follow up. Ugh! So many of us take those cards when we go to networking events. We get home throw the cards on the table. We say, “I'm going to deal with that later today, or I'm going to deal with that tomorrow.” And tomorrow never comes.

We get distracted. A week down the line we feel embarrassed, and then a month down the line, we don't even remember where we met these folks. Does that sound familiar? Does that sound like something you've done? I've done it myself. Many, many, many times. I've had shoe boxes full of cards. Yes. …I'm holding my hand up …and my head down on this one. I've done it myself.

So, the fortune is in the follow up. You need to relentlessly communicate your expectation to your prospect, and then to them as your client, that your relationship is going to continue. Dig deep and find out what else you can do for that client. That will help solidify your relationship. They will feel cared for and protected.

I really don't want you to think of it in terms of trying to get as much as you can out of somebody. You are providing value to them. You are providing something they need, not just that they want, but that they actually need, and that will enhance their life on a personal or professional level.

If that is what's happening, then you have a responsibility to communicate what you offer. It's selfish not to do so. Isn't that a different way of thinking and prospecting?

It’s selfish of you not to offer all of your products and services to your prospects and clients because you have all of this value! You know you have a gift. This gift was given to just you. Nobody understands your business like you do. No one can do what you do just like you. You know why? Because your business is your assignment, and your duty is to articulate that assignment to your prospects and to your clients so they understand the value that you offer. When you communicate this value correctly, the word price will not even come up for them until they're ready to write the check.

When somebody really wants what you have, they're not going to ask you how much you cost. They're going to go out and find a way to get you the money, because they need the transformation you provide. 

Hear me. They do not need the product or service you provide. Rather, they need the transformation that you provide.

Here are some things that you really want to pay attention to when you're building positive, productive and profitable relationships with your clients. I really want you to consider avoiding one off clients, somebody who the only thing they're ever going to do is one thing with you, and they made that clear coming in. Now, I don't want you to confuse them with somebody who comes in like my clients did, buying the Entrepreneur KickStarter Business Mastery Series, and think to yourself, “Well, that's all they're good for is a webinar series.” Absolutely not. 

You need to delve a little deeper with your prospects. In so doing, the one-off client will reveal themselves. Sometimes, you hit a brick wall with a prospect. Leave that prospect alone because it costs just as much money to bring in a long term relationship, as it does to bring in a one off relationship. Since it costs just as much money, time and energy to acquire that one time client, you're really much better off targeting clients who are likely to be repeat clients. This is how you build a six-figure, seven-figure and eight-figure business.

Remember the adage 80% of your business is going to come from 20% of your customers. That means you have to really pay attention to that 20% and make them what you spend your time on. Do not run through the marketplace looking for one-off clients because it's expensive and exhausting. The one-off clients really will not appreciate who you are and what you bring to the table.

Also, increase the frequency of your interactions with your clients. Newsletters and vlogs are well received. Since the rise of the Internet, we can't afford to get stuck in a traditional business model, especially if we're doing something that's very conservative in nature. For example, if you're a CPA, you really do not want to do business like every other CPA does out there. You've heard me say this before. When you're seeking enduring, long-term relationships with your clients, your constant aim should be to deepen and strengthen your ties with them, and that means frequency of interaction.

You have to figure out ways to accomplish this. You've heard me say before that people need to be touched seven times before they'll do business with you. This includes being touched in different ways. I think I’ve told you about a woman, who was sending me marketing emails about her business, and eventually I just sort of lost the thread, and I stopped opening her emails. After that, nothing she said was landing with me because I wasn't opening her email.

Then she started sending me postcards in the mail, and that made me take a second look at her and her business. When I'm in the market for what she is offering, she has pushed herself so she will occupy that top shelf in my mind when I'm ready to make the buy decision.

Everyone will not be ready to buy when you first encounter them and offer them your product or service, your love, your time, or your heart, …not everybody is ready. Some people are just sitting back watching you, and they want to see what other people do with you. They want to find out what the experience is of you.

So, they're sitting in the background checking you out and you think all of your efforts are going unnoticed. You think you're wasting your time, and you think it's time to walk away from this dog of a business. And you have no idea that you are just three feet from gold.

When it's darkest, when it's hardest, when it seems like it is just not going to work out, that is often when you're right next to your breakthrough. You're right there! You just need to dig in a little deeper. 

I'm not saying go blindly down an alley and smash your head into the wall at the far end because if there is a brick wall on the far end, you’ll find it through performing your due diligence and by running the deal across your mastermind team. Those extra layers of protection around you, bringing second and third sight from people who have areas of expertise that you don't have that will catch things that you'll miss.

When you have all of those things in place, then you don't worry so much about deepening those relationships, and how many times you follow up in six months, and then in six more months. Actually put them in your calendar and follow up because you just never know when they're going to be ready for you. This is how you keep your pipeline full.

Part of the challenge of maintaining positive, productive and profitable relationships is knowing how to keep your airplane in the air at 35,000 feet, where you're actually bringing on contracts, bringing on clients, bringing in business, and also down on the ground, where you're actually servicing clients with sales and service. It's a really tough balancing act sometimes, but you can do it. Every entrepreneur goes through that struggle.

Look for commonalities between you and your prospect. When I walk into a prospect's office, the first thing I do is look around the office to find something that we have in common, some sort of conversation for them that has nothing to do with the business at hand. I do this because when you engage them on a personal level, you are going to start to engage them on an emotional level. People do business with people they know like and trust.

So, look for those commonalities and just be yourself. Be professional, but don't be a machine. People do business with people, not with companies. Earn their trust. Work hard and definitely take responsibility for doing the work.

If something happens where the work doesn't get done, you want to take responsibility for the missed deadline. Do not make excuses. Excuses, more than anything else, will lose you a client. Excuses will keep you from forging positive, productive and profitable relationships.

There are just a number of relationship-oriented things you can do. If the error is yours, admit it. Apologize. Do not blame other people for your failings

Treat people with respect. Treat them like a friend. Call them by their first name if you can and show appreciation for their friendship, their patronage and their help. You want to encourage them in their endeavors and recognize their accomplishments. Do them favors when they ask. Be a resource when their house catches on fire. You want them to call you when their kid is flunking out of school. You may not have the resource for them, but you can discuss the situation with them and help them make clear, informed choices and to find the resource they need. You want to be the one that comes up in their mind when they seek guidance.

Think of yourself as a magnet. You are not pursuing clients. You want clients to pursue you. 

These are just some of the tips that I have for you on how to build positive, productive and profitable relationships with your prospects and with your clients, so you have long-term clients and a healthy, robust business.

Ladies and gentlemen, I want to thank you for joining me on this week’s episode of your business accelerated. I invite you to follow me on Facebook, LinkedIn and Twitter X. In all of those places, my moniker is s.h.a.u.n.e. dot Arnold. In the meantime, and in between time, I’m attorney Shaune B. Arnold, reminding you, as always, to MAXIMIZE your COMPETENCE to get the CONFIDENCE YOU NEED to succeed. I’ll see you right back here next week, on your business accelerated. Bye-bye, friends.