"When I was one year into my first consulting job, I learned a valuable lesson on maintaining consistent client communication, regardless of the value of the client contract. I had inherited over 80 accounts and prioritized them by size and opportunity potential. Some of these clients had been with the company for years but were small accounts. I quickly became overwhelmed, and I did not offer a timely follow-up to approximately 20% of my newly inherited accounts. Several weeks went by, and to my disappointment, one of my clients canceled their service with us. I realized that if I had kept in touch with the client, they would have stayed with us. I debriefed with this client, and it turns out they felt neglected and consequently left to a competitor. I quickly re-opened the lines of communication with the other accounts that I had been neglecting. I took the situation as a warning shot that other accounts would soon follow suit. I immediately changed how I tracked client communication and even created a communication schedule that I programmed into my CRM. No client ever fell through the cracks again. In fact, the following year, I earned a spot in the top 3 grossing consultants in our firm, out of 100 other consultants."