In service-based businesses, especially in the cleaning and building service contracting world, long-term success often hinges on relationships—not just contracts. According to Larry Levine, author of Selling from the Heart and a respected business coach, many companies believe they have strong customer relationships without ever defining what those relationships actually look like.
“When I start thinking about the service-based industry, it’s highly relational—very relational,” Levine said. “But here’s the flip side. How many of these people can really understand and define what the relationship looks like?”
Levine explained that many service providers assume consistency equals connection. Showing up regularly, fulfilling a contract, and handling transactions can feel like a relationship—but that doesn’t mean customers see it the same way.
“They may say, ‘I’ve got good relationships with my customers,’” Levine said. “But are they congruent? Is there alignment? Is the relationship you believe you have the same relationship the customer thinks they have?”
That question, he said, should cause contractors to pause. Without alignment, there is opportunity—and risk.
Moving beyond transactions
Levine challenged contractors to rethink what “relationship” truly means in a recurring service model. Just because a company services an account repeatedly doesn’t mean the connection is meaningful.
“What do you really know about these people?” he asked. “Just because you show up and sell them things doesn’t constitute a relationship. That may constitute a transaction.”
He urged contractors to think about their best customer—the one whose loss would genuinely hurt—and ask hard questions.
“What is it that you really know about that customer?” Levine said. “How many people do you really know? How many of them really know you? What are their goals, their initiatives, their challenges? What are they working on in the next 90 days?”
For Levine, those answers reveal whether a business is building long-term sustainability or simply chasing short-term revenue.
“This has everything to do with creating long-term sales sustainability in a highly relational-based business,” he said. “Every business you sell to has goals, initiatives, and challenges. And even if they don’t, that’s your opportunity as a professional to help guide them.”
When service providers take that role seriously, Levine said, the business impact is clear. “If you can help guide them, guess what happens? They buy more things from you at higher prices.”
Choosing the right customers
Levine also addressed a common trap in service industries: The desire to take all the work available.
“We’ve all taken on customers at some point and thought, ‘Why did we do that?’” he said. “It’s the transactional mindset. ‘I want everything. I want it all.’ It doesn’t work that way.”
Instead, Levine encouraged contractors to seek customers who share similar values and expectations.
“If I can find customers that share the same values, the same characteristics, I can build better relationships,” he said. “That creates sustainability. Client retention goes up, referrals increase, and profitability improves.”
Those relationships, he added, feel more like partnerships than contracts—where both sides grow together instead of simply exchanging services.
Words matter, but actions matter more
Levine cautioned that many companies use terms such as “trusted partner” or “long-term relationship” without substantiating them.
“You all have to back it up,” he said. “People are a lot smarter than you think they are. It’s not their first rodeo.”
Authenticity, he emphasized, comes from how companies show up consistently—with integrity, curiosity, and intent—not from marketing slogans.
“It’s hard to build a genuine, congruent relationship if you walk, talk, and act like a transaction,” Levine said. “People will pick up on it.”
A simple but uncomfortable challenge
Levine closed with a practical challenge for contractors willing to test the strength of their relationships.
“I want you to sit down with your best customer—face to face,” he said. “Not over email. Not over the phone. That’s the chicken way out.”
He suggested expressing gratitude first, then asking a direct question: What does a trusted business relationship look like to you? What words would you use to describe it? How do you know when you’re in one?
“And then you pause,” Levine said. “You can’t say a word.”
If the relationship is strong, he explained, the answer will come easily. If not, the silence reveals work that still needs to be done.
“That’s my challenge,” Levine said. “Because if you want long-term success, you’ve got to stop chasing transactions and start building relationships that actually mean something.”
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