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The analogy between gardening and growing client relationships is an obvious one. Here’s an example of how it can go wrong.
The sad looking picture to the left is of my onion seedlings. You may just be able to pick out tiny flecks of green amongst the vermiculite. But there’s not much left.
I like gardening. And the two things I grow the most are chile plants (because I love chillies) and onions (which I hate).
I grow onions out of a sense of duty, and a bit of obsession. Back in the North East of England where I’m from (and particularly in Ashington), onion growing is a big thing. Growing big onions (really, really big onions) is a source of huge pride amongst men. The World Leek and Onion Growing Championships were held in Ashington for 28 years with the heaviest onion regularly weighing in at over 14 pounds.
As someone who grew up there, but moved away, I feel that i ought to keep up a little bit of tradition.
So every year, I buy seeds of either Kelsae or Robinson’s Giant onions. And I plant them very carefully in the best growing medium. And I keep them heated in a propagator in a greenhouse at just the right temperature. And I use artificial lights to augment the daylight to make sure they get all the sunlight they need. And I keep them perfectly watered with water kept at the same temperature as the seedlings so as not to shock them.
But this year, I just plain forgot them for a week.
It was freezing outside, and I had a ton of work on my plate and a load of things to think about.
So when I went to check up on them earlier today, most of the seedlings had withered and died.
All my perfect preparation, the ideal conditions, my fancy equipment: all counted for nothing. They had no water – so they died.
And so it is when you’re nurturing client relationships.
It doesn’t matter how well you start the relationship. It doesn’t matter if you give it the perfect conditions early on. It doesn’t matter if you took them out to the fanciest restaurant or sent them the most insightful article ever. If you leave the relationship too long without “watering it” – it’ll die.
And I’ll now have to beg for a bunch of seedlings from my uncle who still lives in Ashington, and who will no-doubt gloat at my idiocy.
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So how about you? Have you got a gardening-related client relationship or business development story? Post it in the comment box below. Thanks!
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{ 5 comments… read them below or add one }
Ian,
Haha… been there!
Here’s a related tale of nurturing gone bad: My husband and I grew a lovely batch of various peppers from seed last summer. After months of tender loving care the plants were abundant and beautiful. Throughout the month of September we told each other it was time to harvest–we’d do it tomorrow or the next day, we were too busy today. Well, you can guess what happened. September rolled into October. The first frost hit and blackened the plants. The entire crop was lost.
Lesson learned: When the time is right, you must harvest!
best,
Mary
Great story too Mary. There’s definitely a lesson there on closing.
Ian
Ian, good analogy. Brought to mind, the plants I have in my balcony. It doesn’t matter how good I was to them if I don’t water them for a week. I have found a (monthly) newsletter or a periodic personalized email – even if on a non-business topic, a great way to keep in touch and water the relationships.
Not only am I a fellow mancunian, now living in rural Norfolk, When we bought our small farm, I was determined to ‘grow my own’ much to the amusement of the local farmers! For the first time I had six acres to choose my plot. My potatoes were fantastic! (the farm lads said I could have had theirs for free!) My spring onions superb! My raddishes, amazing, I had several hundred too many and could not give them away, however my new alsation pup decided she liked them, but we did not like her after a while PHEW! My lettuce got eaten by something before we got to them, my tomatoes never came up and nor did my strawberries ah well maybe this year, however I discovered about 25 Apple trees, eaters and cookers, they were wonderful and a plum tree, so sweet. I will not give up this year, the farmers can laugh, but the joy it brought us to eat our own was amazing.
keep on onioning!
Gillian Linge
Lack of TLC can ruin a garden, but so can too much.
I’d been an obedient organic gardening helper when I was a kid, but a few years ago, this city gal became “horticulturist-in-chief”, responsible for her own garden, vegetable plot and small orchard. I knew zilch. So I read every book and website I could find and talked to the village’s elders. A wet spring came on the heels of a mild winter, so by early summer, the garden suffered from a wide assortment of ills I was determined to heal. My well-intended efforts were overkill.
Like in business development, choose your seeds (prospects) well, ensure your soil (target market) is suitable, tend to them with regularity –not excess (be helpful, not an irritant), practice prevention rather than cure (anticipate client needs), celebrate blooms (debrief and thank clients), and carefully collect seeds for next year’s planting season (ask for referrals).
I’m becoming a better gardener