A 
significant and often unmeasured amount of time, energy and money goes into prospecting a new client. Suppose you are a modeling talent who is marketing yourself towards a fitness magazine. You send them materials (which involves you spending the time to develop the materials, finding the person to which you will submit said materials, building that relationship, printing out all the materials, shipping the materials, and so on) to advertise who you are and what you can do for them. This process can be ongoing for days, weeks, months, even years before you could have the opportunity to do a project for them (in this case be featured in their magazine).
Then what happens once you are featured in that publication? Sadly; most talents then shift gears completely and try to begin the process from scratch with a new client. They begin the relationship building, material development and marketing all over again. And what happens to that first client? They may never again hear from that modeling talent. This happens in most businesses as it illustrates the difference between those who look at each business deal as a transaction versus those who look at it as a relationship.
Rather than moving on, let’s think of the benefits of keeping the relationship with the previous client alive.
For starters, you’ve already put forth all the time, money and effort. At this point, the amount of each you have to invest is greatly reduced.
Secondly, they have already shown they like and trust you. They did feature you or give you work did they not?
So if you don’t have to invest as much, and they’ve already proved that they are willing to give you work. Why not focus your energy on cultivating that relationship to an even higher level?
Perhaps they gave you a small feature in the publication. Could you work that up to a column? Could you build that up to a full spread? Could you grow it to a cover?
Although prospective new clients and business is an integral part of growing your career, do not overlook the great opportunities with the clients you’ve already had the opportunity to work with.
James Patrick
www.jamesmpatrick.com
www.theproexposure.com
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