The paper, authored by sales-performance specialists Huthwaite International, is one of the 'action lists' on the 'Learningmatters' website. The site is Echelon's 'virtual warehouse' of over 2,000 downloadable bite-size performance solutions, including action lists for everyday business problems, self-development solutions to help build a skill, best-practice essays, and interviews with top business thinkers. Also available are diagnostic and audit solutions to monitor current performance.

Among the paper's key points are:

• Dissatisfaction is the first step to losing business, so the best way to keep your existing business is to ensure that any existing client dissatisfaction, no matter how small, is detected and addressed at the earliest possible opportunity. Companies should check user satisfaction regularly and respond quickly.
• Develop perceptions of value, so document all the good news. If clients have no understanding of the value your business is bringing to theirs, it's not surprising that they see little problem in changing suppliers.
• Maintain and extend your network of contacts, rather than maintain links with an ageing and shrinking pool of business contacts. In a downturn, companies shed people - and losing your key contact can leave you vulnerable to change.
• Develop accounts, don't just maintain them. Explore what changes the customer plans to make to cope with the slowdown and consider the extent to which such change can provide opportunities for your business as well as threats.
• Expect price pressure, but take time to check the full cost of any concessions you are being asked to make. Make sure customers fully understand the value of what they are getting, and plan how you will negotiate if price becomes an issue.
• Watch your own cost of the sale, and don't chase business where your chances of success are low. We can fool ourselves into believing we are making progress when, in fact, we are wasting time and money on a client where nothing is going to happen.

"The paper stresses the importance of looking for ways to enable your organisation to become an active part of your customers' activities", commented Echelon's chairman, David Hill.

"Following this advice should enable businesses to improve their relationships with their customers - making it more difficult for them to sever business links. In the current economic climate, that could mean the difference between retaining business and losing it to a competitor."