Structuring for Success
Bogged down in busyness but still lacking business momentum? Perhaps it's time to polish your business foundations.
To truly experience significant and consistent growth, or as we like to call it, “ring the 6-figure bell”, it's essential to have efficient business systems in place. If you aspire to deliver high-quality results to your clients and maintain your sanity while managing a team, there is a method to the madness.
So, what is a business system? Simply put, business systems form the backbone of your business. They determine how your business functions and operates. They're the distinguishing factor between business owners who fail in the follow-up and those who find fortune in it. It's not a question of who is "better in business", but rather who has discovered the key to operational success. The core system we will delve into now is your client journey.
Let’s dive in.
1. Your initial contact with a prospective client - Lead intake & follow-up.
Firstly, follow up within a week and continue to do so until you receive a “no”. If you haven’t heard no, keep following up. People are busy and may be interested, but if you don’t stay top of mind, you might be forgotten.
Next, ensure you have a central & digital location where all your contacts and leads are stored. Ideally, this should include all your business contacts, otherwise known as a CRM. My favorites are all-in-one CRM’s that also offer Email Marketing. The fewer tech tools to piece together, the better.
Lastly, what information do you want to store about them? Are they a potential client, collaborator, or connector? Remember, everyone is one of the three, or they just aren't your people. Use tags to segment your leads and start the reach-out process with hot leads first being those who have shown genuine interest in working with you.
2. Scheduling discovery calls with prospects.
The process of getting prospects onto your calendar should be seamless and straightforward for them. Avoid endless back-and-forth emails about availability. There are digital solutions for quick scheduling, such as Calendly, Doodle, and Google Calendar appointment scheduling, which facilitate getting prospects onto your calendar swiftly. Some CRM systems also have built-in calendar scheduling.
3. Onboarding & Client Experience.
If your clients haven't already been wowed by your service, this is the phase where you provide some quick wins and reinforce why they made the best choice by choosing you. For customers, consider offering a coupon or sign-up bonus with emails tailored to the products they purchased, and start providing value to build brand loyalty. For clients, be responsive once they sign on & make their first payment. The first email should go out within an hour - this can be easily achieved by setting up an onboarding series of emails in your email marketing system and tagging the contact as 'Client Onboarding' so the sequence will start.
Be responsive, provide value, & set expectations along with providing the project details to kick off a wonderful client experience and relationship. It's essential to have a checklist in your Project Management tool that outlines every step of the project so you know what each client needs at each stage. We do not want to be constantly re-creating the wheel. Also, with tasks planned and set, you can identify where you can automate or delegate tasks, leading to an amazing client journey, more referrals, more profit, and freeing you up to serve with more passion and purpose.
4. Offboarding.
When a client's contract or project is nearing its end, ask for feedback. Conduct a survey to understand what can be improved, what should remain the same, and request a testimonial. As a bonus, ask if you can conduct a case study so others can benefit from the transformation they experienced.
Now go & be amazing!
This is a general overview of how to provide a wonderful client experience. The process, people, & tech needed are what we do best here at Niche Nerdz Consulting. If you're interested in streamlining your client journey to wow your clients & automate mundane tasks reach out to us at hello@nichenerdz.com.
