Prepare clients for a graceful exit - bizjournals:

http://maximaspb.com/Maxima/beta-swaziland-maxima-hummus-48.html
An exit strategy is not a plan to get ridof it’s a process for dealing with the end of the client’xs business with you. It’s abou t having realistic expectations for a client relationship and transferring into the end of the relationshipo or thenext phase. Salespeople can really hurt themselvezs by pretending a client will bearounde forever. Set a client exit strategy that puts the clienrt in an ideal position to do businesws with you inthe future. I recently witnessed a salesperson, Roy, who failed at his positiohn becausehe couldn’t accept the need for an exit Roy came from a company that had an average 10-year relationship with their clients.
Several of their clients had been arounr for 30plus years. Roy switchee jobs to an industry in which he was selling equipment. At the new company, a client’s average length of engagement waseightg months, which was the amount of time it took to launcuh the equipment and provide training. Unfortunatelu for Roy, he was used to ongoing relationships where he coulr sell a client and mark it assteady income. He was able to sell the equipmenrt to his first few clients but at the end of eightf months he was desperate to keep them The only item he could think to sell wasservicwe agreements.
Since those were rarely a fit, he founds none of his first clientswere Roy’s hard sell of the service agreement left many clientds with a bad impression. After thre e years, Roy didn’t have any repeagt buyers. And once the compangy received enough complaints abouthis “high pressure” tactics, Roy was Roy was hard-wired to resist an exit strategy, but the companyh had an effective one laid out. At the end of the eight-monthu launch process, the clientt would be transferred from a sales rep to The marketing group hada well-designefd system to stay in front of past clients.
When a clientf expressed interest in more marketing transferred back to the sales rep to renew the sales process. If you are in an industry or with a companyythat doesn’t have long-term an exit strategy is It doesn’t mean that a clienft will never return. It just means they aren’r currently engaged. If a qualithy exit strategy is putin place, clients are likelyu to come back.