The Plateau Isn’t the Problem — Silence Is
You don’t lose clients when the work stops working.
You lose them when you stop asking if it still matters.
That’s usually how it starts.
Not with a dramatic “we’re moving on” email, but with a subtle slowing.
Fewer questions. Less energy in meetings.
The spark that used to exist between strategy and possibility starts to dim.
And if you’ve been in client advisory work long enough, you’ve felt it:
The Plateau.
Let’s get one thing straight: plateaus are normal.
They’re not a failure—they’re a phase.
Every long-term client relationship moves through one eventually.
And as Blair Enns (of Win Without Pitching) explains, it’s because innovation and efficiency are mutually opposable forces.
At the beginning of a relationship, innovation is high. Everyone’s learning, building, testing, and pushing boundaries.
But as the systems solidify and results stabilize, efficiency takes over.
The work gets smoother—and a little safer.
The same energy that made it great also starts to make it… predictable.
That’s the natural drift toward what Enns calls “innoficiency.”
And if you’re not paying attention, that efficiency can quietly suffocate innovation.
But here’s the real danger: silence.
It’s not the plateau itself that ends a client relationship—it’s the lack of conversation about it.
When we stop asking:
Is this still the right focus?
What’s changed in your business or market?
Where are we coasting instead of growing?
…we create a vacuum.
And that’s where perceived indifference creeps in.
Clients don’t expect perfection—but they do expect engagement.
They want to feel like you’re as invested in their next level as they are.
When that goes quiet, they start listening for someone new who isn’t.
So what do you do?
You normalize the plateau. You name it early and often.
You build the expectation from day one that:
“We’ll hit moments where things level out. That’s part of long-term growth. When it happens, we’ll pause, reassess, and reimagine what’s next—together.”
You treat the plateau like a pulse check, not a postmortem.
And when you feel it happening, you say the thing no one else will:
“It feels like we’ve hit a steady point. Want to explore what might move the needle again?”
Your clients don’t need you to be perfect.
They need you to be present.
They need you to stay curious, to keep asking, to bring energy when theirs dips.
Get CURIOUS
Plateaus aren’t the end of a relationship—they’re an invitation to deepen it.
Your job isn’t just to create momentum.
It’s to keep earning it.
Try this:
Next time you sense things going flat, open the next meeting with:
“I think we’ve reached a point where the strategy’s working—but maybe not stretching. Want to revisit what ‘next level’ looks like now?”
That’s how trusted advisors talk.
That’s how you keep the partnership alive.
