I spent last Saturday having a fabulous afternoon and evening watching some brilliant rugby. Tries galore, and excitement and uncertainty as to who would lift the trophy down to the last minute of the last match.

Fantastic.

Whilst I was disappointed that England failed to clinch the trophy, I was nevertheless left elated by the theatre of the entire event. However, I suppose the overall feeling I had was that despite a seemingly impossible mountain to climb, in the end England could and should have won it.

The thing is there were masses of positives to take from the match. A huge amount of creativity, lots of effort, determination from all, and a clear desire never to give up. But, there was also a lot of the “headless chicken” approach, which meant that time and time again it was two steps forward and one step back every time the French scored.

The point is that this is something which can easily be applied to many businesses I work with. Working incredibly hard, lots of determination and effort to grow the business, but in their efforts to bring in new business, they forget to look after the clients they already have. In other words as fast as they bring in new business, there is a constant leakage of old, presumably loyal customers, who feel neglected and let down.

As we all know, getting a new customer is hard work. It takes a lot of time, money and perseverance, so once we have them on board; it is a huge mistake to lose any of our established customers. A short term gain can easily lead to a longer term loss, resulting in masses of effort with very little to show for it in the end.

Coming second is seldom worthwhile. So make sure you have all the right structure, staff and systems in place before you start to grow your business significantly. In that way you will be rewarded with new business as well as the steady repeat business of your loyal and happy customers.

When is it the right time to make changes? I know I have often blogged about this in one way or another, but it was brought to my attention recently by a “lead” who I have been following up for the past few months.

When I first contacted them last November, and had a very positive meeting, they seemed very keen to work with me on the coaching programme, but they couldn’t commit at that time, because they were on the run up to Christmas, and so didn’t have the time. However, they told me to call back in January so we could book in a start date. So I called in January, and this time they had a health issue, and therefore could I call back again in early March, which of course I did. Yet again it turned out that they could not commit to starting because this time they had just lost a staff member, and would therefore be far too busy until after Easter, and then it would be a good time to call. Then came the moment of realisation, because before I could say anything else, they then said “but of course there will be something else to stop me then, won’t there!”

And of course this is exactly what would have happened had they finally not realised themselves what they are doing. Essentially I believe they genuinely want me to coach them to make permanent and meaningful changes, because they can see that they can only keep going the way they are for so long. If they ever want things to change for the better they know that I can help them to do that, but it is the fear of what it will take, and the knowledge that they will be out of their comfort zone, which is still stopping them from taking the first exciting step into the unknown.

So I will call them after Easter, and this time I believe they will make the commitment to start, because if not this time, it is never going to happen.