When I was about 10 years old, we turned up to play cricket with my usual Saturday cricket team. It turned out we were playing a girls’ team (admittedly a couple of years older). It was a new one for us. I remember we were all laughing quite a bit (maybe a bit embarrassing now), thinking we were going to smash them. What happened? We got absolutely smoked. I think we were all out for 16 and then they probably got the total without any wickets down. We went home with our tails between our legs.
In a previous business our biggest client came to us with a major new project. This would have been the biggest project that our business had ever done at that stage. They had been our client with us for many years and our relationship was tight or so I thought. I assumed there was no way they would ever look elsewhere. We turned up to a couple of meetings unprepared and expected to sign them up.
Shortly after we rocked up to a meeting expecting to be popping champagne corks in celebration of winning the project. To our absolute surprise it tuned out that we had lost the deal.
Have you ever lost a deal where you blamed the client? I have and this was definitely one of those occasions. But I look back now and know that it was 100% our fault. We stopped earning the right and just assumed the relationship was strong enough to keep us working together. It wasn’t.
A mate of mine experienced this recently from the other side. He had a long-standing supplier who, because of a payment issue with a completely different customer, decided to demand weekly payments from everyone. No phone call. No conversation. Just a cold email. Their problem became his problem overnight.
After discussing it with them and seeing zero flexibility, he cut ties. He walked straight to a competitor who was more than happy to welcome his business. The supplier probably thought they were just managing cash flow.
What they actually did was tell a loyal customer that they thought he couldn't be trusted.
Complacency is a real risk right now. When every dollar is being poured over, clients have options and they will absolutely use them the moment they feel taken for granted.
If your market has softened, your clients are actively looking at where they can trim costs and extract more value. If you are showing up with the same offer you had three years ago then you might be making it easy for someone else to take your place.
A favourite quote of mine is "The absolute worst position to be in is comfortable. Comfort is just a waiting room for failure." — Anonymous
Here are 4 things to avoid complacency:
Don’t treat loyalty as set and forget and definitely keep out of the waiting room.