My business partner and I have a meeting with a client today.  We’re going over marketing and media plans for 2009 and talking about a whole host of issues related to what we accomplished this past year and where we’re going in the next.

But when I talk to some of my friends who are either freelancers or own their own small agencies, they’re too busy scrambling to get work done for this year to even think about sitting down with clients and talking about the year to come.  And that’s a major problem.

As I mentioned in my post on Marketing in a Recession, you have to make sure your happy customers are exactly that: happy.  And that’s because the 80/20 rule quickly turns into a 90/5 situation.  The economy will force more of your eggs into a smaller basket – to not take the time now to make sure that basket belongs to you is foolish.

I can hear the moaning from the gallery now.  “How can we get our client to focus on the future when there’s so much at stake in the present?”  “We don’t have time.”  “We can’t get our clients to talk about budgets in good times, there’s no way they’ll tell us what they’re going to spend now.”

Get real.

There is a lot at stake right now.  No doubting that.  But putting out fires today without regard for what’s coming up down the road will do nothing more than extend the anxiety.  You have to take the long view for both your business and your client’s.  You owe them that much.  Be the counselor or advisor or fiduciary steward you claimed to be when you pitched the account.

Or as my wife and I say to each other from time to time when our kids are misbehaving: “It’s time to be the grown up.”

Dealing with a failure to focus
The key to making an impromtu planning meeting work is planning.  You need to be prepared and have a way to get the meeting done over lunch in less than an hour.  Just make sure you’ve got some empty time in the schedule after the lunch.  Trust me, if you’re good and relevant, your client will inately see value in the meeting and will let it last as long as it takes.

As soon as the meeting ends, document the decisions and direction coming out of the meeting.  If you’re working with an account team, they’ll love you for the notes (at least until the beer runs out in the break room).  Make sure you send a concise summary to your client – he or she will secretly thank you time and again as end-of-year spending questions and beginning-of-year planning questions start to fly.

All you have is time
For the nay-sayers who claim they don’t have time, you’re living in denial.  All you have is time.  And if you fail to plan or (at a bare minimum) talk about the future with your clients, employees and business partners, you’ll find you have a lot more time on your hands in the first half of 2009.

Consider it a form of job security.

Making the time to work on your business instead of in your business gives you the perspective you need to make sure you’re still valuable and relevant to the clients, employees and suppliers who matter most to you.  When I ran a mid-sized agency, I used to do this every year at Thanksgiving time.  I’d have some quiet time to myself and spend a few hours sketching down “big ideas” for the agency and making notes on how those dreams impacted our client mix, the services we offer, the business relationships we keep.

Now, with the economy taking its wild swings on a daily basis, its more important than ever to have a clear vision of where you’re taking your business.  Make some quiet time for yourself, sketch out the possible scenarios and think about what you’ll have to do to survive and grow.

Getting your clients to talk about budgets
Nobody likes to talk about money.  Especially when money is in short supply.  So, how do you get clients to open up and talk about what they might spend with you next year?

You do it by not talking about money.

Instead, talk about something they understand: results.  Ask your clients where they see their business heading and what they hope to achieve in what is expected to be a very rough 2009.  It’s critical you understand what their expectations are for the future.

Then comes the tough question.  Ask where you (or your firm) fits into their plans for making those expectations a reality.  Assume you’re part of the solution and you’re likely to be surprised at the reaction. 

If the client is pleased with the work you’ve been doing, your assumption won’t be presumptous at all.  They will likely parrot back a summary of what you’ve done for them in 2009 and expect you to “do more of the same.”  At that point, you have them right where you want them.

If you’ve established the client’s business expectations (ideally tangible, measurable objectives) and the client has acknowledged that you or your business is part of the solution for meeting those expectations – money, time, etc. just becomes a simple resource issue.  Obviously, it will take time and money to meet those objectives, so what does the client have in mind?

Spending money to make money is not a hard concept to grasp.  And talking about it can sometimes get your client to open up even more to identify the potential obstacles his business faces, political dynamics inside the organization, operational issues that might delay things, etc.  The money and expectations talk is essential to your business, though, because it helps you solidify your plans for the future.

Good luck in 2009.  Your 2010 conversations should start in about four months.

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