Client leadership is about being proactive and guiding the client through their experience with you. It’s not just about meeting expectations, but also anticipating challenges and providing solutions before issues arise. Starting with the development of internal processes to ensure your clients are well-supported through the completion of certain tasks to meet the client’s goals and ensure a successful engagement, it goes beyond this to give the client the experience that they and their business are truly important to you.
In the service industry, you’re constantly competing against the client’s potential decision to hire in-house. The key is to over-deliver on value, not by going beyond scope but by making the client feel like they could never replace your team. It’s about showing commitment and making the client feel valued, much like an internal employee would, despite being an outsourced partner.
Benefits of Client Leadership
Clients stay with you not because of past success, but because of the future value you promise. They may choose an outsourced partner for cost savings or expertise, but what keeps them is the added value and commitment that feels equal to—or greater than—an internal hire.
Effective leadership in client relationships strengthens their confidence in choosing you. It also minimizes doubts about your commitment, even though you serve other clients. By demonstrating care, noticing potential issues early, and making life easier for them, you reinforce trust and long-term loyalty.
Key Elements of Client Leadership
1. Be Proactive
Spot obstacles before the client notices and realizes they are an issue. Inform them of what you are seeing and offer potential solutions. This demonstrates expertise and shows you’re paying attention to both the client and what is going on in the world or industry.
2. Ask Powerful Questions and Listen
Powerful questions are those that are asked with a specific intention in mind, seeking clarity on how to either a) get access to the client in a way that has you truly understand them and their goals or b) ensures there is no room for miscommunication or misunderstandings about a situation or element of success. But, questions only work if you really listen to the answers. Often, you cannot find the true meaning or answer in the first response from the client, so try repeating their answer back with slightly different wording and then ask if you are understanding it correctly.
3. Establish and Follow Processes
Your internal processes should be developed to allow for an easy transition to working with you. Coming back from a disastrous onboarding or having a tough transition between key periods of your engagement is really tough. Nail down your processes, create an SOP and develop the internal systems and capabilities to realize successful performance of your client engagement. Consistency here builds confidence and trust with your clients.
4. Teach Clients How to Work With You
You have your own processes by which you operate, ways of communicating, and times of availability…and so does your client. You also have certain things you will need your client to do and in a specific timeframe to achieve the goals you have co-created and set together. To mitigate a risk of misunderstanding or undermining of value, you have to teach a client how to work with you. You can do this several ways (and I recommend using more than one). You can send an email summary or short Loom video or other recording, you can also talk to them about it in one of your calls or meetings and you can show them through how you operate with them.
5. Know Your Client’s Industry (and Your Own)
Deep knowledge of the client’s industry shows care and expertise. Stay informed about industry changes, both theirs and yours, so you can proactively discuss opportunities or risks. This is one reason niching down can be a good business strategy.
6. Invest in the Client
Consider both discovery and onboarding as an investment. The time spent building the relationship and getting things right from the start will pay off with greater loyalty and smoother engagements later on.
How to Be A Leader In the Client Relationship?
To be a true leader in the client relationship, ask key questions, then listen, document the responses and take action. Regularly seek feedback from your client on performance and refine the engagement and your processes based on their responses. Make sure you are spending your time in discovery of items that could become obstacles for your client and finding possible solutions to present to them.
One powerful way to remove the possibility of confusion is to ask the client what a successful engagement with you and your team would look like for them. For some, it will be regular and constant communication about how a project is going. For others, it will be accessible information where they can get data or information when needed or it could possibly look like your performing with little communication but they just know things will get done. Client Success Plans (CSPs) are invaluable tools to clarify expectations and goals, reducing ambiguity and enhancing transparency.
Teaching clients how to work with you, starting with a smooth handoff from the sales team and a transparent onboarding process is an integral part of being a leader in the client relationship. Be upfront about the communication and documentation you’ll need to keep things on track. Utilize tools like Loom videos and email summaries to avoid surprises and keep things streamlined.
If certain questions or issues repeatedly arise, address them head-on. Whether through a blog post, video, or a change in process, demonstrating that you’re responsive and proactive will show clients that you care.
One way I work with my clients is to give them homework and request short loom videos and light reading ahead of our meetings when we are in the onboarding phase. This does three things a) it helps us get to the real heart of the meeting so we can deep dive once we are there b) it shifts the client’s mindset and helps them get clear on what we will be discussing, removing that first round of questions and streamlining the process and c) it teaches the client what it will be like to work with us in the future. Throughout the engagement, we want to honor our busy client’s time and not add to their meeting schedules more than necessary. We know that entrepreneurs, founders and business leaders can wear many hats and be extremely busy, so using Loom lets them watch communications that don’t require lengthy discussions as needed. If they feel like they need a meeting to discuss any part, we provide an open invitation to set one using our calendar links. We also will send out relevant blogs, newsletters or articles if we see an issue and have a means to resolve it. Again, providing the option to set a meeting if needed. Some clients really like the face-to-face time, but many prefer to just get the information and sort through it on their own time.
Financial Focus: Leveraging Client Relationships for Business Growth
Client leadership is key to driving growth through word-of-mouth marketing. When you create advocates for your business, they’ll recommend you to others, which is much more cost-effective than finding new clients through social media or other avenues. Plus, these referred clients come with some knowledge of your work style, making onboarding a smoother process and reducing labor costs, which improves your gross margin.
Another added financial benefit is the reduction of churn. It’s cheaper to retain existing clients than to replace them, which directly impacts your overall profitability. This additional net income can then be reinvested in expansion, bonuses, or other business initiatives to help you reach your goals.
Beyond the Numbers
Client advocacy not only saves on marketing costs, but it also improves team morale. A culture of proactivity and leadership clients creates a less stressful environment for your team, preventing burnout and enhancing overall job satisfaction.
For you, stable client relationships mean fewer emergencies and a more predictable business environment. This allows you to focus on long-term growth and strategy with a clearer mind and less operational chaos.
Want to learn more about how to build a culture of client leadership in your business? You can find that and so much more in our client portal which offers trainings, templates and other tools you can use to intentionally create your CX program in your own business.