Making Yourself Valuable

I tagged this post on Duct Tape Marketing for comment a while back...

I have mixed feelings about what John is saying here. Yes, it makes sense to provide ongoing services to your clients and integrate yourself into their marketing activities. It gives you staying power.

On the other hand, there's a danger to controlling too much; you can get resentful clients. If they feel like they're being held hostage, things can blow up in an unpleasant way.

So what's the right mix between being part of ongoing activities - and hanging on to information and processes that make you hard to replace - and giving the client the freedom they need? I think you need to be very sure that they know you're adding value every step of the way in order to avoid that "hostage" feeling. I've got no clear cut answer, but pay careful attention to your clients and what they are thinking about you.