Did Gandhi worry about the short term?
How do you determine the value of a customer? It’s not a single sale, project, or even a multi-year contract. You determine the value of a client by the lifetime value of that customer plus the referrals given by that customer. Need an example? If you sell new cars at an average of $30,000 each, that customer is not only worth that initial $30,000 in revenue because, if treated properly, they may buy a new car every four years and over the course of 20 years, that makes them worth $150,000 in revenue ($30,000 x 5 cars). If you offer not just good customer service, but outsanding customer service, you earn the right to ask for referrals. If they refer four people per year and only one of them buys, that makes the original customer now worth $750,000 (the original $150,000 plus 20 referrals at $30,000 each). You can even go a step further and cascade the original referrals to second level referrals and that original customer could be worth $6.45 million.
The problem? Most salespeople jump to a new company well before hitting their stride. You’ll never realize the true value of a client by job-hopping or only focusing on new clients. You need to be in it for the long-haul, because longevity breeds success.
One Moore Thing: If you’re unhappy with your job, take this year to be the best that you can be. Become the top producer on your team… you won’t be miserable when you’re #1. But if you are still unhappy, then you know you’ve done everything possible on your end, and it either comes down to your organization or your attitude (although the odds of you being #1 with a poor attitude are about zero).