There are a number of things practice owners should do to ensure their clients are looked after through the process of selling their practice
A key part of my journey in No More Practice involves maximising my earn-out in the process of selling my practice. Having built the business over many years and established close relationships with many clients, one of the most challenging aspects of this journey for me to-date has been communicating the sale to these clients and keeping them engaged. However, I have found there are a number of things that practice owners should do to ensure their clients are looked after through the process of selling their practice.
For those who will continue to stay in the business after the sale, the most important thing you can do is position your clients for life post-sale. So stay in regular contact with them and ask them how they’re going.
Phone is the best way to do this; I certainly wouldn’t do it initially by emails. I think emails can be a cop out in terms of communication – they justify you attempting to do something but they really won’t give you the best solution that you’re looking for, especially when it comes to meaningful client communication. We live in a world that still requires us to eyeball people. In my mind, this is critical to the success of any ongoing client relationships, and if there’s something wrong you should let the client tell you that.
Depending on the relationship, it’s critical that you communicate a change of ownership to your clients face-to-face. So organise a time to drop in and ask them how they’re going and how things are in their life – these are the important things that helped you build the relationship in the first place. So you need to cushion the impact of the change for your clients.
Another key to sustaining client engagement through a sale is your staff. You need to maintain staff morale and communicate with them through the sale for them to be engaged with the business and its clients.
One thing that has helped us is that we have been genuine in the decisions that we’ve made. The decision to tell staff that the practice was being sold was not an easy one, but it was a necessary discussion and I explained the rationale for selling the business and I also asked them for their blessing and support. I asked them if they would please continue to support me over the coming months and years in their own way, and I think we have been fortunate in that our people really love coming to work and in personally helping our clients. So this has not only contributed to client retention but also staff retention.
