The art of the pitch: Retaining contracts like a pro
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Posted: Thu 14th Nov 2024
Pitching for business is never easy. Pitching to retain a client or contract requires a completely different approach to winning something new.
In some ways the most striking difference is obvious.
Unknown versus known
If a client appoints a new supplier, they are taking a risk, albeit one they’ve carefully thought through. Why? Because a new supplier is an unknown entity.
The client will have listened carefully to what has been proposed. They may have talked to existing customers. They will have discussed a whole range of things in detail. But in a way, however much work and due diligence has been done on both sides, a new supplier marks a new beginning and only time will tell whether things work out the way both parties hope they would at the outset.
The contrast between new and old relationships couldn’t be starker because there is nowhere for the incumbent supplier to hide when trying to renew a contract. Why? Because the supplier is known.
The client will have intimate knowledge of their performance in terms of service, products and solutions. They will know the team who have worked with them and have a view as to their competence and attitude. They’ll have a more personal nuanced view as to whether they like working with them too.
In addition, they will draw on their experience and have a view as to the supplier’s strengths and weaknesses and to what extent they delivered what they promised when they were appointed.
Unlike the new supplier who describes their qualities with little challenge, the old supplier is anchored to reality.
This may appear to be a significant disadvantage. Competing against another company that can promise the earth, something good or great, is daunting. But for all that experience offers nowhere to hide, it is also a crock of gold.
Because relationships are two-way. Just as the client will form a view, so will the supplier and the secret of retention is to use this knowledge cleverly to inform ways of delivering better outcomes for the client in future, assuming the relationship continues.
So where to start?
1. Analyse the supplier’s performance
The first step is understanding and analysing the supplier’s performance over the current contract term. This includes an honest data-driven exercise to understand performance versus SLAs.
The customer-facing team will also know whether and why a client hasn't been happy. They will have been in touch with clients frequently and will know what has gone wrong, what went right, what they delivered over and above the client’s expectations and where the client can also improve.
I remember working on a retainment pitch project for an insurance provider. This first step was where the team began and the view from the top was that the relationship with the client was super-strong and there hadn’t been any significant issues.
With a little probing, it soon became apparent that just over a year before the senior client had had a serious falling out with the supplier’s team manager, who eventually had been moved to another account. What this meant, from the get-go, was that the supplier could not claim the relationship had been problem-free. To do that would have damaged their credibility.
Instead, the supplier was clear there had been relationship issues but importantly, they had been addressed and this demonstrated not only the supplier’s commitment to the client but an openness and honesty that was the basis of a strong relationship that should endure for the benefit of both parties.
2. Future improvements
Step two is to look at whether and how the way things work can be improved in the future and it is almost universally true that things can be done better in the light of experience.
The idea everything remains the same isn’t plausible. Therefore, the supplier should seize the opportunity to redefine how things could work in the future for the benefit of the client.
Renewal is a reset moment and therefore a springboard for change.
The positioning of a reset should be framed positively and should be a key part of whatever is being proposed. After all, no one would challenge a supplier who has learnt from their experience working with a client, new and better ways of doing things. It is not a cause for criticism but a testament to the evolution of the relationship.
Watch this webinar to discover how to close clients with ease without using aggressive selling techniques:
A very different proposal
The story of a renewal presentation or proposal therefore differs significantly from the newbie trying to win the work.
Unlike them, the incumbent supplier can:
present a detailed analysis of what has happened throughout the course of the current contract
point to problems and challenges and explain how they were addressed
propose changes to the ways of working that the client may not have even considered based on sound reasoning and evidence
set out a future that is both realistic and plausible
None of which a new supplier can easily compete with.
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