Jermaine Edwards argues that customer relationships often deliver unequal value because inputs and outputs differ in impact for each party. He outlines three steps: audit your conversations for quality, define specific outcomes with the client, and leverage influence to move forward. Small, clearly defined exchanges like response time expectations can drive higher return on relationship.
Chapters
Hey, it's Jermaine Edwards, your customer growth guide here, and I want to talk to you about what your ROR is, your return on relationship, and we're going to have a little bit of an exercise here where we just talk through the context of what that might mean for you. So, your return on relationship, and let me just give this a clear distinction here, your R-O-R, your return on relationship. And so, your return on relationship is really fundamental here because in key account management, and we tend to see this right across the board, in our pursuit commercially with our customers, we can often expect this equal input for output in a relationship, but it doesn't always work out that way. In fact, in most cases, it doesn't have that same clear view of in and out, the equality or balance of in and out in terms of relationship outcomes. And we put something in and we get something out of the relationship. But not all inputs into a relationship and outputs are equal in impact in value, in meaning to both parties. And so, have you ever thought you were putting in tons of effort, right? So, you're over here with the client, and this is you and the client on the other side, and you are putting in tons of value. You're sending value the way of the client. And for whatever reason, whatever reason it is, what's coming back is less than what you're giving. You're getting— you're giving 3, you're getting 1 back. Now, what tends to happen here is that in our effort to want to deliver more value for a client, we will increase our activity, we'll put in more effort and lots of input. But what happened to the output. Well, someone who is relationship-focused, who is focused on the return on relationship, I should say, investment, seeks both sides to be equally measured and valued in ways which are meaningful for both parties. You won't experience or want to experience relationships in the same way, and the output and meaning of that relationship interaction, the value of that will feel and look different for each person. So someone who is relationship-on-relationship, return-on-relationship minded will ensure there are accurately defined commitments and expectations that drive mutual collaboration, right? So big, big themes here. So we've got expectation, Yeah, super important. We have commitment. Definitely want to commit. That's needed there. But also want to have things that are collaborative, right? So the commitment to relationship doesn't necessarily mean that collaboration is always self-evident, right? We, so we want to make sure it's intentional. So clear expectation, commitment, and collaboration. So once we have that in mind, and we're thinking about the benefit to the client, return on relationship, the key being defined here. If we study the work of social relationship theory, or look at the work of John Gottman, even in marriage relationships, what we'll see is a broad truth, right? All relationships can be enjoyable but not meaningful if both parties aren't honest and pursuing getting better. I'll say that again. All relationships can be enjoyable but not meaningful if both parties aren't honest and pursuing getting better together. So we all want to be mutually understood and respected partners with our customers. That are highly valued and sought after by both parties. So here's what we want instead. Instead, we want to have us here and our client, bring our client closer to, because we have clear expectations and commitments, and we have clear collaborative areas, that the value between us is actually the exchange between us is matched by meaning and clear rewards on those inputs. So an example could be here, the meaning of your communication is not always the response, right? So we want to— in that expectations, maybe the expectation here is that, hey, we would love for greater response to a specific kind of email, specific type of message. And so that response and the non-receiving of a response will mean something to you, and it actually has implications. So as long as we explain that upfront, and we have that clear set area with that client, then the response here, you're sending something of value, And then you're expecting a response within a reasonable time. That is also an exchange of value in the relationship. Speed, responsiveness. Oftentimes, we think about values, these very broad, oftentimes, sometimes existential areas of your feeling happy, feeling safe, and those things are really important. But oftentimes, the greatest meaning comes in the areas that we least expect. And sometimes it's in the small efforts of responsiveness. But if we aren't clear on the things that are most meaningful in the relationship to be successful, both for us and our clients, it's very unlikely we'll get the return on relationship that we want. So how do we make sure that what we're doing is not just enjoyable, but meaningful? 3 big ideas. So number 1, let's put this down. Number 1, Do a relationship audit. Yeah, so we want to do a bit of an audit and put some stuff in, right, bit of an audit. And what the audit is going to do is you're going to have a think about the actual content, the quality of the conversations that you're having, and whether or not you're actually getting the in-out experience that you're expecting. The second is, we're going to make really clear to ourselves, what impact do we want to make in this life? What do we want to have? What is this relationship to look like? What do we want this to look like exactly? I'm going to be really clear with that and make sure that we are going to express that clearly with our clients and ask for their input as well. The third thing here is we're going to think about influence. Influence. So how do we influence and move relationships forward? So we got the audit, which is a self-evaluation, impact in terms of what's most meaningful between you and the client, and influence is how do we move things forward. Now, obviously, we're gonna provide a resource to help you think about this. But overall, our ability to remain curious and open and proactive with our customer relationships will enable us to understand what inputs yield the biggest outputs so you and your customers can repeatedly get better. So always hold in mind, what is the return on your relationship? Inputs and outputs are not equal unless clear expectations, commitments, and collaboration is established. Think about the audit. What impact do you want? And then I'll show you exactly how to influence the steps moving forward. And I'll have that in the video link. See you soon.
