The final stage in the Managing Your Opportunities workbook is solidifying. Its opening page carries a line from Henry David Thoreau about the difference between looking and seeing, then asks what the stage is about, with two blanks, followed by a section called “Perspectives” with a single question: who am I? The next page introduces the empathy map.
The theme is clear. Solidifying is about seeing the relationship from the customer’s side, and using that view to keep and grow the relationship long after the first sale. This article looks at what the stage involves and how to do it well. The empathy map has its own article.
Why the sale is not the end
Many sales processes, and many sales incentives, stop at the signature. The customer is handed to delivery, and attention moves to the next prospect. That is a costly mistake, for several reasons.
Retention is efficient
It is widely observed that keeping an existing customer is generally cheaper than winning a new one. The exact ratio varies by industry and is often overstated, but the direction is consistent: an existing customer already trusts you, knows your work and does not need to be found, qualified and persuaded from scratch.
Satisfied customers grow
Customers who are well served tend to buy more over time: repeat orders, larger projects, additional products or services, other sites or departments.
Satisfied customers bring others
Referrals from satisfied customers are among the highest-quality sources of new business, as discussed in the prospecting articles of this series. Solidifying feeds identifying.
Customers teach you
Long-term customers reveal how your product or service performs in practice, what could be better and what they will need next. That insight improves everything from qualification to product development.
Losses are quiet
Customers rarely announce that they are leaving. They simply order less, stop returning calls or choose someone else next time. Without deliberate attention, losses are noticed only when it is too late to fix them.
What the stage is about
The workbook leaves two blanks under “this stage is about”. GoCore would fill them in as:
- Delivering on the promise: making sure the customer receives exactly what they were sold, and that it achieves the outcome they wanted.
- Deepening the relationship: building trust, understanding and value so that the customer stays, grows and recommends.
Delivering on the promise
Everything starts with delivery. No relationship survives a broken promise for long.
A clean hand-over
If the people who sold are different from the people who deliver, the hand-over is a critical moment. The delivery team needs to know what the customer needs, what was promised, what worried them and what success looks like. A customer who has to explain everything again feels that the business does not communicate internally.
Early wins
The period immediately after a purchase is when customers are most likely to feel doubt. Delivering something visible and useful early, such as a plan, a first shipment or a quick improvement, builds confidence.
Proactive communication
Keep customers informed about progress, especially when things change. Problems raised early are usually forgiven; problems discovered by the customer are not.
Checking the outcome
At the end of a project or after an initial period of use, check whether the outcome the customer wanted has actually been achieved. Not just “did we deliver?” but “did it work for you?”
Deepening the relationship
Regular contact that is not just selling
Customers notice when suppliers only call when they want something. Regular contact that adds value (a check-in, useful information, a heads-up about something relevant) builds the relationship.
Account reviews
For important customers, a periodic review (quarterly or annually, depending on the relationship) is valuable. A simple agenda:
- What has gone well?
- What could have been better?
- What has changed in your business?
- What are your plans and challenges for the coming period?
- How could we help?
These conversations surface problems early, reveal new needs and show the customer that you care about their success.
Multiple relationships
Relationships that depend on a single contact on each side are fragile. If either person leaves, the relationship is at risk. Building connections at several levels makes it more resilient.
Asking for feedback and acting on it
Ask customers how you are doing, through conversations, short surveys or reviews. Then act on what they say, and tell them what you changed. Feedback that disappears into a void discourages future feedback.
Asking for referrals
Satisfied customers are often happy to recommend you but rarely think of it unprompted. Asking, at the right moment and in a specific way, turns satisfaction into new opportunities.
Perspectives: “who am I?”
The workbook’s question “who am I?” under the heading “Perspectives” invites a shift in viewpoint. One useful way to answer it is to describe yourself and your business from the customer’s point of view:
- Who am I to this customer? A trusted adviser, a reliable supplier, one of several vendors, or a necessary inconvenience?
- What do they think of when they think of us?
- What would they say about us to a colleague?
- What role do we play in their success?
Answering honestly is often humbling. A business may see itself as a strategic partner while the customer sees it as a supplier chosen mainly on price. The gap between those views shows where the relationship needs work.
The Thoreau line at the top of the page makes the same point: looking at a customer relationship from your own side is not the same as seeing it. The empathy map, covered in its own article, is a structured way to see it from theirs.
Spotting relationships at risk
Customers who are drifting away usually show signals before they leave:
- smaller or less frequent orders
- slower responses to your contact
- a change of key contact
- more complaints, or suddenly none at all
- requests for quotes on things they used to order automatically
- a new manager reviewing suppliers
Watching for these signals, and responding with a conversation rather than a discount, often saves the relationship.
Handling complaints well
Complaints feel like setbacks, but handled well they are among the best opportunities to solidify a relationship. A customer who complains is still engaged; they are giving you a chance to fix things. Many dissatisfied customers never complain at all: they simply leave.
A reliable approach:
- Listen fully, without interrupting or defending.
- Acknowledge the impact on the customer: “I can see this has caused real problems for your team.”
- Take ownership of putting it right, even if the cause is complicated.
- Agree what will happen, with clear actions and dates.
- Do what you said, promptly.
- Follow up to confirm the customer is satisfied.
- Fix the cause, so it does not happen again, and tell the customer what you changed.
Customers often remember how a problem was handled long after they have forgotten the problem itself.
Solidifying in different kinds of business
The principles are the same everywhere, but the practices vary.
- Project businesses (construction, consulting, design) solidify through excellent close-out: confirming results, gathering feedback, and staying in touch for the next project.
- Repeat-supply businesses (wholesale, components, consumables) solidify through reliability, easy reordering and regular reviews of changing needs.
- Subscription and service businesses solidify through onboarding, ongoing value and early warning of disengagement.
- Retail and consumer businesses solidify through experience, after-sales support and reasons to return.
Each business can ask the same question: what does a customer need from us after the sale to be glad they chose us, and to come back?
From satisfied customers to advocates
There is a difference between a satisfied customer and an advocate. A satisfied customer is happy and may buy again. An advocate actively recommends you.
Customers tend to become advocates when they have experienced something beyond the basic transaction: a problem solved exceptionally well, insight that helped their business, or a relationship that felt genuinely personal. Small acts of care, such as remembering their priorities, introducing them to useful contacts or flagging a risk before it hurt them, often make the difference.
Advocates are worth recognising. Thank them when they refer someone, keep them informed of what happened, and treat their referrals with particular care.
Growing customers the right way
Growing an existing customer, sometimes called account development, should follow the same principles as winning a new one: understand the need, then offer what genuinely helps.
Good growth looks like:
- noticing a related problem the customer mentioned and offering to help
- suggesting an improvement that would make their current solution work better
- expanding to another site after the first is successful
Poor growth looks like pushing products the customer does not need because a sales target demands it. Customers notice, and trust erodes.
Ending relationships well
Not every relationship should last forever. Sometimes a customer’s needs change, the relationship stops being profitable, or the fit is no longer right. Solidifying includes knowing when to let a relationship change or end, and doing it well.
- Be honest early if you can no longer serve a customer well, rather than letting service quietly decline.
- Give reasonable notice and help with the transition, such as handing over records, recommending alternatives and finishing work properly.
- Part on good terms. Former customers talk to others, and circumstances change. A relationship that ends well may resume later.
- Learn from it. Why did the relationship stop working? Was it a poor fit from the start that better qualification would have caught?
How a business ends relationships says as much about it as how it starts them.
A worked example
A small commercial cleaning business wins a contract with a medical centre. This is an illustration.
The owner meets the practice manager at the end of the first week and again after a month to check that the standard meets expectations. She learns that the reception area is the centre’s biggest concern, because patients see it first, and adjusts the schedule to clean it twice daily. A quarterly review six months later reveals that the centre is opening a second site. The cleaning business is invited to quote and wins the contract without competition.
A year in, the practice manager recommends the business to two other medical centres in the area. The original contract, nurtured deliberately, has produced three customers.
Measuring the solidifying stage
Useful measures include:
- Retention: the share of customers still active after a year.
- Repeat purchase: how many customers buy again.
- Growth in customer value: whether existing customers are spending more over time.
- Referrals: how many new opportunities come from existing customers.
- Satisfaction: feedback scores or simply the tone of account reviews.
Many small businesses track new sales closely and retention not at all. Tracking both gives a much truer picture of health.
Common mistakes
Disappearing after the sale. The customer notices.
Poor hand-over. Customers forced to repeat themselves lose confidence.
Waiting for complaints. By the time a complaint arrives, the relationship may already be damaged. Many dissatisfied customers never complain at all.
Treating every contact as a sales opportunity. Customers tire of constant selling.
Never asking for referrals. A free, high-quality source of opportunities is left unused.
Applying this in a small business
- Create a simple after-sale routine: a thank-you, a check-in at one week, another at one or three months, depending on the business.
- Hold account reviews with your most important customers at least annually.
- Track retention and repeat business alongside new sales.
- Make a list of satisfied customers and ask a few for referrals each month.
- Write the “who am I?” answer for your top customers, and test it against what they actually say.
Questions to reflect on
- Which of my customers would recommend us without hesitation, and have I asked them?
- Which customers have I not spoken to in the last three months?
- What did we promise our last five customers, and did each of them get it?
- Which customer relationships depend on a single person on either side?
- If a key customer left tomorrow, would I have seen it coming?
Honest answers to these questions usually reveal the next few actions worth taking.
Bringing it together
Solidifying turns a sale into a relationship. It rests on two things: delivering on the promise, and deepening the relationship through regular, valuable contact, honest feedback and genuine attention to the customer’s success. Seen from the customer’s perspective, it is simply what a good supplier does.
The stage also completes the loop described at the start of this series. Customers who are well looked after stay, grow and bring others, and those referrals become the next round of identifying.
Topics and structure drawn from the Managing Your Opportunities sales workshop workbook (Charlie Pidcock); the explanations and examples are GoCore’s own. Examples are illustrations, not real cases. This article is general information, not professional advice.
