Clients can be the driver of your success

Clients push me forward, occasionally it feels like I might fall, but I never do

Yes it’s true, clients are very frequently the ones who push me towards learning new things or framing what I do in ways that make sense to other clients.

And this happened again today, most unexpectedly (the best things usually are) when I went onto a Zoom call with a new prospect. I always enter these things with a completely open mind, no agenda, no bias, no expectations. I don’t try to ‘perform’ I just be myself and if we seem to hit it off that’s great.

My new prospect was a particularly inquisitive person (just like me in fact) and asked me how I got into the work I do. They are starting a completely new business and feeling some of the fear I felt back in 2015 when I launched Caxton.

During the conversation, my prospect said something like: “Oh that’s great because you can look at the bigger picture, see the problems and decide what tools you need to use to fix them.” (There was something about a carpenter and nails in there too…)

It was a lovely fly-fishing^ moment for me and I stopped what I was about to say so I could reflect on it right there and then. And I realised my prospect - who had known me for all of 10 minutes at this point - was absolutely right.

Because of my work background, education and training, I have a much more well-rounded view of many situations and I have always looked at websites, social media and all the other marketing channels in my kit as tools that do one job: communicating.

I know why I’m creating a website or writing a blog and how it fits into the bigger picture of a business. And it’s why I love to get my hands on the data too. It gives me immense satisfaction to know that the work I do impacts on the bottom line of the businesses I work with, so the more data they can give me, the happier I am.

And I’m even happier when a client asks: “Can you do…?”

Of course I can’t, and don’t want to, do everything. But I love a technical challenge and so when a client has a particular need that is not ‘off the shelf’ I roll up my sleeves and get to work. What I love about Squarespace* is how it enables me to build fabulous looking sites very quickly but with the flexibility to do, well, anything I want really.

I’ve a very good feeling about this particular prospect. Oh, did I win the work? Yes!

^Fly-fishing moment: some months ago I saw a person making a 'fly' for a fishing line. I noticed that it looks quite a lot like a fly when it wiggles around. Then I realised why it's called fly-fishing...