The exercise is this:  Your clients are going to leave you.  Not a client; your clients.  Plural, as in all.  They are giving you a final chance to retain the business.  You get a last look to present your value, your pricing, your deal.  You have a done a good job.  They are pleased with your service - no major problems - but there is another offer on the table that you don't get to see.  A one hour meeting will be granted.  A decision made based on that meeting and your final offer.

The question:  How will you retain the business?  How will you describe your value?  How will you price your services (or product)?  How will you convince them to retain you?  Who will be in the meeting?

It seems to me that this is a good exercise to walk through occasionally.  If your business is subject to renewal, sooner or later the situation will arise, hopefully on a smaller scale.  The review will keep your message focused, eliminate any mission drift that has occurred and force a valuable review of costs and pricing.

There are a few ways to look at the situation: 

• We already offer our clients the best deal.  We will review our service offering, remind them of our value and let the decision stand.

• We sharpen our pencils, trim margins, knock their socks off with a product review.

• We will sharpen our pencils, offer some new services, guarantee incredible service (backing it up with money at risk).

• We will add some services for the same price and knock their socks off with the improved deal.

• We'll bring in our management team to let them know how valuable they are to us, sharpen our pencils AND improve our offering.

Now put yourself in the clients' seats.  What would you expect if you informed a trusted vendor that you were giving them a last look to retain your business?  Would you give them a last look?

I always remember a visit with a client we were hired by six years ago.  After the deal was concluded, our President wanted to visit the new client.  Following a visit, conversation and tour of their facilities, we were heading to our car and the new client walked us out.  As he shook our hand, he thanked us for the visit.  "Your competitor only visited when they thought our business was in jeopardy. . .it was several years too late," he said.  "Thanks for coming and seeing us.  Don't be strangers."

We visited another new client and went to lunch with several members of their management group after a meeting at their plant.  The story they told was how they believed they weren't important to the previous organization.  "We barely heard from them," one decision-maker commented.  "I assumed that our business didn't matter that much to them," said another.

Last week I visited a long-time client and at the end of the meeting we discussed how they ended up as a client.  The fellow we were talking with was part of the decision-making process when we got the business and he said that it was between us and the incumbent firm.  They went with us because we put a good offer on the table and didn't try to change it.  He never regretted the decision.  "I told them to go with the company that put a good deal on the table the first time," he said.  "The other guys wanted to negotiate after the offers were made."

I have also been in situations where the client thought that we didn't give them enough attention.  It is a tough hole to dig out of once you are in a competitive situation. 

Whatever your answer to the exercise question, start implementing your offer now on your current clients.  Don't wait for the last look; it may not come.