What Brings a Client Back for More?

Your best clients are usually the ones who come back for more.

They had a good experience, some time passes, and they reach out again.

Sometimes they spend more the second time than they did the first.

It's good for revenue when those repeat buyers start stacking up.

But if you can't predict it, you can't plan around it.

You're just grateful when it shows up.

I'm a big believer in recurring revenue, and I push my clients to explore ideas for it. So when I see returning clients in someone's numbers, my question is always the same: how do we turn that from luck into part of the business model?

Is a retainer the answer?

A retainer or subscription sounds good, and I'm not against either of them. But retainer or subscription is the payment structure. That's not what brings the customer back. What actually brings a client back is a trigger on the service side: the reason, and the reminder, that tells them it's time to do this again.

This matters even more with expertise businesses whose clients (usually the best ones) reach an endpoint. The project wraps up, the problem gets solved, and the revenue from that client stops. It's one of the five ceilings I watch for in expertise businesses.

Good clients graduate, and the revenue goes away.

Tell them when to come back

When people pay you for an outcome, they trust that you know best. They don't know how often they should be using your service - but you can educate them.

That's part of why they came to you. You're the pro.

I tell my advisory clients they should have a dedicated strategy session every quarter. Coaching sessions should be at least monthly. And during implementation our sessions are weekly.

What if I never gave them that information?

If I let them leave their first meeting and then give me a call whenever they think it's time.

They would try - but the chances of them getting the best results get slim. That wouldn't do either of us any favors.

I know how my system works best and I'm confident in those recommendations.

The point is not to get them to spend the most, the point is to help them get the best results.

2 questions to find the triggers

Start by looking at the clients who have already come back to you. What brought them back? You'll probably find some patterns.

1. How often should a client need your help?

If a client asked how often they should work with you, what would you recommend?

For a business advisor, that might be a quarterly strategy session.
For a photographer, maybe it's updating headshots every year or two. For an accountant, it might be a quarterly financial review.

You know when your work is most valuable. Your clients probably don't.

So tell them. Make that recommendation part of how you wrap up an engagement.

2. What's happening when they need you again?

Sometimes there's no predictable schedule.

Instead, there might be a need due to something changing.

A company hires its first manager.
A founder prepares to sell.
A business launches a new service or enters a new market.

Those events create new problems and opportunities.

Look at your repeat clients.
What changed between their first engagement and their second?
Can you identify those moments for other clients before they happen?

Once you know what brings people back, you can build a simple process around it. Maybe that's a reminder six months later, a quarterly check-in, or keeping in touch when you know a client has something big coming up.

The point is to stop leaving repeat business entirely up to the client's memory.

You don't have to convince someone to need you again.
You need to recognize when they'll need you and make sure they know it, too.

What Has to Be Done for This to Be a Good Week?

How do you know when you've had a good week moving toward your goals?

If you don't decide that ahead of time, Friday will roll around and your list will still look like... your list. Then you start grading how you've done by how tired you are.

That's not a good plan.

Without clear targets for the week, the only thing telling you you're doing well is the little hit of dopamine you get from checking things off.
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So you check off more.
Then you try to squeeze in more, because the feeling has to keep coming.

And that, my friend, is you on a hamster wheel.

Your legs keep churning because you don't know when you've done enough to slow down. The only answer that feels reasonable is 'more'.

(And that's not reasonable.)

Here's what I do for myself, and what I have my clients do. At the start of your week, name the three things that would make this a good week if they got done. You can use the Priority Tracker in the Weekly Operating Routine to write them down so they stay in front of you all week. (Yes, I do that. Because sometimes simple works best.)

What makes the list

Each one has to be something you can actually finish this week. "Implement new CRM software" might be a month-long project. That's too big. Chunk it down.

"Hold the team training on new CRM" is something that can be done by Friday.

IMPORTANT: They have to be the three most important things. Priorities 1, 2 and 3. That means some things that would feel productive don't go on the list.

Why it works

Once those three are done, you have a finish line. So if, by chance, they're done on Thursday, you could knock off and call it a good week on Thursday. You might choose to keep working, and that's fine. But you already know you won the week.

The idea is simple, and it's still hard to do every single week. But if you get to Friday and can say you worked on the right things, you'll outrun 95% of the people you're racing against.

So then, I have to ask - do you know what three things would make this a good week for you?

Season 4 of The Business Owner's Journey Starts Next Week

Season 4 of The Business Owner’s Journey starts November 4. Here’s what's lined up for the next few weeks:

• How to get real value from AI, starting with knowing when not to use it, with Jake George.
• How to build leadership capacity in yourself and the people you lead, with Mark Cole, CEO of Maxwell Leadership.
• How to get as good at earning trust and influencing others as you are at your craft, with Brett Bartholomew, founder of Art of Coaching.

Here is a short preview of Season 4.

I can't say enough good things about these guests. They just keep raising the bar. 🫡

See you next week!

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