#008 Survive the speed of change - become an irreplaceable advisor

IN THIS EPISODEHow well have your client relationships faired against the almighty test that was 2020? With research suggesting that 68% of customers citing ‘perceived indifference’ as their top reason for leaving a supplier - have you lost customers by not remaining close enough to them? Or, by not fully understanding what they really needed from you, during the stormy waters of the pandemic. Perhaps you were led by political rhetoric and generalisations, which suggested that EVERYONE was facing financial ruin…leading you to discount and offer concessions through compassion? Did your strategy pay off or have you damaged the relationship - missing the customer’s need for confidence, clarity and clear leadership? In this episode David speaks to Jermaine Edwards, a serial entrepreneur and co-founder of The Irreplaceable Advisory Group and a Key Customer Growth Specialist. With more than 10yrs in sales, sales leadership and customer growth management, Jermaine now spends his time being invited by companies around the world like Gartner, Dell Technologies, London Business School and GE to create unique customer growth and loyalty strategies which make them irreplaceable in their market. To date Jermaine has helped his clients uncover more than $250 million in new and undiscovered revenue from existing customers.   HIGHLIGHTS FROM THIS EPISODEDavid was keen to understand Jermaine’s view on: why businesses may have lost important clients during the pandemic what we should all be doing to improve the retention of key accounts why he believes that ‘retention’ is the wrong mindset how a blame culture and silo working INTERNALLY leads to a real risk in EXTERNAL relationships. In a year where we were all in the same storm, but experiencing it in different boats (the highlight key phrase for 2020) - did you take enough time to understand what your customers needed from you to support them in navigating uncertainty? In a time of hyper-adaptation (now a real “thing”), what changes did you make in the way you ma