Who do you work with?

UK B2B services organisations with a turnover of £5M or more, whose revenue rests on a small number of high-value clients and whose service is delivered by people, so each relationship carries real commercial weight. Our core sectors are PR and communications, advertising and creative agencies, media, media intelligence and market research.

Do you work outside the UK?

Not at present, although we can where that would be useful to you.

How is this different from key account management training?

Training builds individual skills and leaves people to apply them. We work alongside your team on named clients, using the RelaValue System to show where each relationship is heading and what to do about it.

Our client relationships seem fine. Why act now?

Drift is easy to miss until it impacts on the numbers: one contact holding the relationship, meetings becoming irregular, orders slowing. The first example below began in exactly that way. An Entry programme on three named clients shows whether there is something to act on, and part of our fee is tied to results, so we share the risk.

How will we know it is working?

At the start we agree a revenue baseline for each named client, and progress stays visible throughout. Twice a year you also receive a benchmark of relationship value across your own clients, so you can track results year on year.

Company story

Why we started. Most B2B services leaders know the moment a major client leaves without warning. Our founder, Liz Ashton, has lived it twice. She has also turned a drifting partnership around with an engagement plan, wider relationships and a clear account of the value delivered: a new two-year contract followed and revenue rose significantly.

What we learnt. A systematic, more strategic approach to managing client relationships works, but most organisations would have to devise their own and apply it consistently. Few have the time or the inclination. Another piece of software, bought but rarely used, was not the answer.

What we built. In October 2024 we set up Symbioss around tailored programmes, run by client specialists with at least 15 years’ sales experience and five years in your sector. Each programme runs on our modular RelaValue System, which gives leaders and client-facing teams a shared view of each relationship, a clear plan for it and the structure to manage it, where these were missing before. Our specialists stay involved afterwards, so the changes last.

Our perspectives

What the best-performing organisations do differently

Eight research findings on how the strongest organisations work with their clients, and the results linked to each.

Leading organisations grow mainly through existing clients

Their main source of new revenue is further work from the clients they already serve.

80%

of the value created by the world’s most successful growth organisations comes from their core business, mainly through new revenue from existing clients.

McKinsey, March 2023. Consultancy estimate from client work.

When the whole organisation puts clients first, more of them stay

Decisions across the organisation start from what clients need, so they have fewer reasons to drift away.

51%

better client retention reported by organisations that are customer-obsessed by Forrester’s definition, compared with those that are not.

Forrester, 2025. Self-reported; Forrester sells advice on this model.

A structured approach can save at-risk client relationships

Important clients are managed through a structured programme, so a relationship under strain can be repaired before the client is lost.

95%

of organisations say they have repaired or saved a major client relationship through strategic account management.

Strategic Account Management Association. The association’s own claim; no sample published.

Buyers still want a person to check AI findings

Buyers do much of their research alone and with AI tools, but at crucial moments they still want someone at the supplier to confirm what they have found. That is the opening to earn the trust of a new decision-maker.

69%

of B2B buyers prefer to check AI-generated insights with a salesperson. In the same survey, 67% said they would rather buy without one, so at least a third of buyers hold both views.

Gartner, May 2026. 645 B2B buyers; country mix not disclosed.

See the evidence behind these findings, and how our programmes put them into practice.

See the evidence

See our programmes

The fastest growers are clear about who they serve

Leaders know which markets the organisation is best placed to serve, so time and investment go to the clients and opportunities that fit.

83.1%

of high-growth professional services organisations report a clear understanding of their target markets, against 61% of low-growth organisations.

Hinge Research Institute, January 2025. 770 professional services organisations, mainly US.

Client insight, used well, goes with stronger sales

What people learn about each client is captured, shared across the team and used to decide where to focus, rather than sitting in individual inboxes.

50%

of the organisations making most use of client data analysis report sales well above their competitors’, against 22% of those making least use of it.

McKinsey, 2014. Survey of 400 senior managers in 2013.

Organisations that measure the value their clients receive grow faster

Alongside fees and satisfaction scores, leaders track what clients actually gain from the relationship.

22%

more measures of client value are used by fast-growing B2B organisations than by slow-growing ones. Fast growth here means more than 10% a year.

Forrester, May 2020. Sample not published.

Top performers plan for growth from their clients

Opportunities with each important client are identified, agreed and written into a plan, rather than left to chance or individual effort.

2.5 times more likely

top performers, compared with everyone else, to have an effective process for building client plans.

RAIN Group, 2024. Top performers are the 13% with the strongest growth across their key clients; RAIN sells training in this area.

Our mission

A world where B2B services organisations treat their client relationships with as much rigour as their finances, so growth is something they can plan for with confidence. Leading and developing those relationships becomes a recognised commercial discipline, and earning clients’ loyalty and advocacy is something every organisation can learn and repeat.

Read our research briefings

The team

Liz’s experience covers:

Sales and business development

Corporate reputation and communications

Marketing, branding and positioning of organisations

Mediation and conflict management

Partnership and ecosystem development

Strategy creation and implementation

Clients describe Liz as approachable and pragmatic, someone who gets things done while strengthening the relationship.

liz@symbioss.co.uk
07710 444363

Liz Ashton, Founder

Liz has set up and successfully run her own global business, and has worked for Diageo, Yardley and ASDA, as well as for medium-sized organisations in the UK and Australia.

Paul has managed and led work in:

Sales and business development

Corporate reputation and communications

Marketing, branding and positioning of organisations

Strategy creation and implementation

Partnership development

Clients describe Paul as strategic, with a great eye for detail and a clear way of thinking issues through.

paul@symbioss.co.uk

Paul had a long and varied career at the BBC's commercial arm, where he ran a number of successful business units, latterly and most notably BBC Motion Gallery, its video archive business. He then went on to consult, working with a variety of organisations, both established and developing, to help them realise their commercial potential.

Paul Maidment, Adviser

Athene’s background is in client service and administration, with a focus on:

Data analysis of market trends

Commercial awareness and strategic thinking

Organisation and planning for clients

Pragmatic problem solving

Clients describe Athene as highly personable, someone who builds rapport quickly and keeps things moving.

Athene Moody, Assistant

athene@symbioss.co.uk

With more than four years in customer-facing roles, Athene builds and sustains strong working relationships. Her communication and administrative skills keep client work organised and moving, both within Symbioss and with the clients we support.

Contact us

What working with us is like

We have led B2B services organisations ourselves, so we understand this work from your side: the pressure on your time, the sensitivity of the conversations and the need to see results. So we:

fit around your leadership team and keep disruption to a minimum;
agree how your data is stored, accessed and retained before work begins;
handle internal sensitivities with care, so the work stays constructive;
make it safe to be candid, so it is never a blame exercise;
focus on actions you can put in place quickly, not long reports;
keep progress visible throughout, so you always know where things stand;
build your team’s capability, so the approach continues without us.

Let's speak

Common questions

How we have made a difference

We supported a global media rights business whose key agency client had drifted: one contact, irregular meetings and sporadic orders. Within four weeks of a pilot, the agency placed three new orders.

We also helped a B2B coaching company build a new approach to audience outreach, by analysing and segmenting its existing client base, setting out a rationale for targeting specific segments and developing a new approach to reaching them.