Does The Great Resignation Affect Client-Supplier Relationships?

In this article, we will look at The Great Resignation from the standpoint of the Supplier and Client relationship, as well as provide some insight into how you can use this as a prime opportunity for business growth.

During a recent interview between Anthony Klotz, Professor at A&M University, and Bloomberg Businessweek, Professor Klotz devised the phrase ‘The Great Resignation’. The Great Resignation refers to employees that held on to their roles throughout the Covid pandemic due to uncertainty and are now ready to begin pursuing alternative employment with the pandemic beginning to pass.

Many employees have realised that enjoying more time with family is very important. They now prefer to work from home more regularly and generally have pent-up resignations that wouldn't have happened had the pandemic not swept across the globe.

Whilst many businesses are naturally concerned at the risk of losing talented employees, at The Lead Gen Specialists, we also think that The Great Resignation shall relate to client and supplier relationships.

It is important to understand your client base and their potential reasons for review.

No matter what your product or service, all businesses, both B2B and B2C have two common goals:

Existing Client Retention and New Client Acquisition

Both of these go hand in hand! The Great Resignation is something that all business owners should be aware of. With people changing roles, you must understand that your key contacts within client businesses could leave. Therefore, there is a good chance that your relationship will be up for review at some point in the not-too-distant future unless you deal directly with the business owner!

Whilst the primary focus of most businesses over the last 18 months has been to survive, Decision Makers are now utilising the new status quo as a chance to reflect and improve… and this potentially means your relationship too.

As a strategic supplier, what can you do to help solidify your professional relationship? How can you use your supplier data to plan ahead?

With ‘The Great Resignation’ looming sooner rather than later, now is the time to begin further solidifying your existing client base. Considering that your key contact, if not the business owner, could be looking to move it may be worth beginning to build relationships with other members of the Decision-Making Unit (DMU).

In the lead generation industry, we often refer to prospecting to the Decision-Making Unit to generate more opportunities, but the principle remains the same for retaining your clients too. Initially, you need to understand who the members of the DMU are! As a rule of thumb, the DMU will be made up of a selection of the Business Owner and senior members of the following functions:

• Finance

• Operations

• Marketing

• Sales

• IT

The functions that make up your target DMU will depend on your offering.

Having identified the key functions that will be deciding your fate as a supplier, you need to begin building a relationship with them.

The biggest piece of advice we can offer is not to devalue your proposition! Do not consider offering discounts or promotions to entice your existing customers to stay with you… save this for negotiating contracts. By devaluing your proposition, you are almost giving the client permission to review you as a supplier. You may be asking yourself:

How Can You Start Connecting With New DMU Members Of An Existing Client?

Connect with all members of the DMU on LinkedIn – this way those key contacts can begin seeing the content that you are sharing.

Try to obtain their email addresses and include them on any retention-based marketing that you are distributing.

Use the relaxation of lockdown to your advantage. Try to arrange an onsite meeting to review your relationship… Wait… Isn’t that what we are trying to avoid? Absolutely, but by offering the review yourself, you are getting ahead of the game and showing confidence in your offering, do not forget a review is also an opportunity to upsell.

If you can position yourself that you are reviewing your relationship and services before your client reaches out to potential competitors, you can iron out any issues that there may be. Not only that, but you can use this as an opportunity to begin building relationships with other DMU members.

How you can make the most of ‘The Great Resignation’ and generate new leads.

If your client base is looking to evaluate supplier relationships, your competitors’ relationships are also up for review. Now is the time to begin building awareness among prospect DMUs, asking for the opportunity to present your proposition as an alternative to their incumbent solution. Whether you are using Telemarketing, LinkedIn, Email Marketing, or a combination of activities, by actively working with your prospects, you’re going to generate new opportunities.

Again, you need to identify who the members of the DMU are (this should be easy having already done it for your customer base) and begin prospecting with them. Offering them the chance to review their incumbent solution by putting forward your differentiating statements, and key selling points as a reason as to why they should consider your solution now.

At The Lead Gen Specialists, we work with a range of different businesses across multiple sectors developing lead generation programmes, allowing you to focus on business growth. If you’d be interested in discussing ‘The Great Resignation’ and how we can help you generate new sales leads that convert, give us a call on 03332 400 054 or email enquiries @leadgenspecialists.co.uk today to find out how you can utilise ‘The Great Resignation’ as an opportunity to grow your business.