Notes

Notes on staying necessary.

On client leadership, commercial discipline and the craft of staying necessary. Home of The HOLD Letter, every two weeks.

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Answers

Short practical answers to the questions these issues sit behind.

The HOLD Letter · Issue 09New

Biggest client, smallest profit.

The client you name first can be the one that leaves you nothing. So rank clients by what is left after hours and overhead.

18 October 2026·5 min read
The HOLD Letter · Issue 08

Paying to fix their problem.

Some client problems are not yours to fix for free. When you pay for a client's problem, the client never sees what it costs.

4 October 2026·5 min read
The HOLD Letter · Issue 07

The answer you never gave.

A date given instead of a yes or a no is not a postponement. It is the answer, and the client hears no. The three answers that replace a timetable.

13 September 2026·5 min read
The HOLD Letter · Issue 06

The clients I did not keep.

Eighty per cent retention has a second half. Two clients lost for two different reasons, and the four rules that came out of the one that was my own mistake.

23 August 2026·6 min read
The HOLD Letter · Issue 05

Drop the credit and keep the client.

The moment you are proved right is the moment they look bad. Saying so takes something from the person who signs your renewal.

9 August 2026·6 min read
The HOLD Letter · Issue 04

Lead the handoff or lose the renewal.

The handoff is the first test of a relationship. The advisor stays present through it, and the work holds without them.

26 July 2026·5 min read
The HOLD Letter · Issue 03

Own the bit that was never in scope.

Scope is what you were hired for. Ownership is why you stay. The advisor owns the bit outside the brief that decides the outcome.

12 July 2026·5 min read
The HOLD Letter · Issue 02

Have the call before they ask for it.

The hardest call is the one nobody asked you to make. The advisor raises the hard thing before the client does.

28 June 2026·6 min read
The HOLD Letter · Issue 01

Why agencies lose the clients they should keep.

The client did not leave over the work. The four moves that hold a relationship in place when the drift pulls it apart.

14 June 2026·6 min read

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