My Exact SMMA Client Onboarding Road Map to 10x Retention

Summary

This video presents a six-step framework for successful client onboarding, a strategy that has been instrumental in retaining high-paying clients at the presenter's agency. The video emphasizes the importance of honesty, setting realistic expectations, and exceeding them to build trust and client satisfaction. It also covers the benefits of automating the onboarding process to streamline client experiences and prevent feelings of neglect post-sale. The presenter shares tips on standing out as an agency, including the use of thoughtful gifts to foster relationships, and provides a detailed roadmap for an efficient onboarding funnel.

Takeaways

• 💼 The onboarding process is crucial for retaining clients, as it sets the tone for the entire relationship.
• 🎯 Retaining clients is more profitable than constantly chasing new ones.
• 🤝 Building trust with clients by being honest and transparent is essential for long-term success.
• 📊 Setting realistic expectations and then exceeding them leads to exceptional customer experiences.
• 📞 Clear communication expectations, including frequency and platforms, are vital to avoid clients feeling neglected.
• 🎁 Personalized gifts can strengthen client relationships by making them feel valued and appreciated.
• 🔧 Automating the onboarding process reduces hassle and enhances client perception of the agency.
• 🚀 A structured, step-by-step onboarding funnel creates a seamless experience and builds trust.
• 🎓 Educating clients during the onboarding process about your team's capabilities and processes establishes authority.
• 📅 Scheduling a strategy session as part of the onboarding process helps solidify the client-agency relationship.

Q & A

What is the main purpose of the video?

The main purpose of the video is to explain a six-step framework for onboarding clients in a way that maximizes retention and ensures long-term success for an agency.

Why is client retention emphasized over acquiring new clients?

Client retention is emphasized because it is easier and more profitable to maintain existing clients than to constantly chase new ones. Retaining clients leads to long-term relationships and recurring revenue.

What is the first expert tip for increasing client retention?

The first expert tip for increasing client retention is to be honest with clients. Building trust by setting realistic expectations and delivering on promises prevents clients from feeling manipulated or dissatisfied.

Why is setting expectations crucial in client relationships?

Setting expectations is crucial because it ensures that both the client and the agency are on the same page regarding deliverables, timelines, and communication. This helps prevent misunderstandings and fosters a successful partnership.

How can gifts help in nurturing client relationships?

Gifts can nurture client relationships by creating a sense of appreciation and personal connection. Thoughtful gifts that resonate with the client's interests can strengthen the emotional bond and increase their commitment to the partnership.

What is the 'onboarding gridlock dilemma' mentioned in the video?

The 'onboarding gridlock dilemma' refers to the time-consuming and frustrating process of back-and-forth communication between the agency and the client to gather necessary information and assets. This can negatively impact the client's perception of the agency.

What are the two methods mentioned for conducting client onboarding?

The two methods for conducting client onboarding are: 1) Jumping on a well-planned onboarding call to set expectations and gather necessary information, and 2) Using an automated onboarding funnel with pre-filmed videos, guides, and surveys to streamline the process.

What is the purpose of the 'welcome and setting expectations' video in the onboarding funnel?

The purpose of the 'welcome and setting expectations' video is to introduce the client to the agency's culture, mission, team, and the onboarding process. It helps establish authority and sets the tone for the client-agency relationship.

Why is it important to handle contract and invoice payment early in the onboarding process?

Handling contract and invoice payment early ensures that the financial aspects of the partnership are settled upfront, allowing both parties to focus solely on delivering and receiving services without financial distractions.

How does the 'strategy session' step contribute to the onboarding process?

The 'strategy session' allows the agency to review the client's provided information, introduce the team, and set up a kickoff strategy call. It helps build rapport and ensures that all team members and the client are aligned on the project goals.

Outlines

00:00

📈 Six-Step Client Onboarding Framework for High Retention

The speaker introduces a six-step framework used for onboarding clients who paid over $10,000 to an agency. The video aims to address the common issue of client neglect post-sale and emphasizes the importance of client retention over constantly seeking new clients. The speaker promises to share expert tips for standing out as an agency, automating the onboarding process, and a detailed roadmap for successful client onboarding. Resources and visual templates are available for viewers in the description.

05:00

🔑 Keys to Client Retention: Honesty, Expectations, and Gifts

The speaker outlines three expert tips for increasing client retention. First, honesty is crucial in building trust; agencies should avoid overpromising and underdelivering. Second, setting expectations means underpromising and overdelivering to create exceptional customer experiences that delight clients. Lastly, gift-giving can nurture relationships and encourage reciprocity. The speaker suggests personal and thoughtful gifts to show genuine care for clients beyond business transactions.

10:00

🚀 Automating Client Onboarding to Enhance Agency Efficiency

The speaker discusses the negative impact of a lengthy and inefficient onboarding process on client perception. They propose two onboarding methods: a well-planned call or an automated onboarding funnel using pre-filmed videos, guides, and surveys. The latter is preferred for its scalability and efficiency. The speaker then introduces a six-step onboarding roadmap, emphasizing the importance of a structured sequence to build rapport and trust with clients. The steps include welcoming and setting expectations, ensuring contract and invoice payment, granting access to necessary accounts, conducting an audience survey, holding a strategy session, and providing final words to conclude the onboarding process.

Keywords

💡Onboarding

Onboarding refers to the process of integrating new clients into a service or system. In the video's context, it is the systematic approach used by the agency to welcome and prepare clients for the services they will receive. The script discusses the importance of an efficient onboarding process to prevent 'onboarding gridlock' and to ensure a positive first impression, which is critical for client retention.

💡Client Retention

Client retention is the ability to keep clients continuously satisfied, preventing them from seeking services elsewhere. The video emphasizes that retaining clients is more profitable than constantly acquiring new ones. It suggests strategies such as honesty, setting proper expectations, and exceeding them to foster long-term relationships with clients.

💡Service Providers

In the script, service providers are the agencies or individuals offering professional services to clients. The video discusses the common issue of clients feeling neglected by service providers post-sale, which is a primary reason for client churn. Strategies to stand out as a service provider and improve client retention are a central theme of the video.

💡Trust

Trust is a fundamental aspect of client relationships, as it influences the client's confidence in the service provider's ability to deliver on promises. The video script mentions that honesty is key to building trust, and that failing to meet promises can lead to client disillusionment and loss of trust.

💡Expectations

Expectations are the beliefs or predictions about what will happen or what is usually expected from a service or provider. The script advises under-promising and over-delivering to set realistic expectations and then exceed them, creating a positive customer experience and delighting clients.

💡Agency

An agency in this context refers to a business entity that offers services to clients, such as marketing, advertising, or consulting. The video provides a framework and tips specifically tailored for agencies to improve their client onboarding process and retention strategies.

💡Automate

To automate refers to the process of making a system or process operate automatically. The video suggests automating the onboarding process to make it more efficient and less time-consuming for both the agency and the clients, allowing for scalability and better use of resources.

💡Gifts

In the script, gifts are mentioned as a tool for nurturing client relationships. Personal or business-relevant gifts can make clients feel valued and appreciated, fostering a stronger emotional connection. The law of reciprocity suggests that clients are more likely to reciprocate the goodwill, leading to better partnership outcomes.

💡Communication

Communication is the exchange of information or news. The video highlights the importance of setting clear communication expectations to prevent clients from feeling neglected. This includes the frequency of check-ins, the platforms used for communication, and the process for client updates and approvals.

💡Strategic Partner

A strategic partner is a business associate that contributes significantly to the success of a venture or project. The video suggests that by thinking ahead and offering solutions, an agency can position itself as a strategic partner, impressing clients and solidifying its value.

💡Funnel

In marketing, a funnel refers to a series of steps designed to guide potential customers through the purchasing process. The video recommends building an 'onboarding funnel' with pre-filmed videos, guides, and surveys to streamline the client onboarding process, making it more efficient and scalable.

Highlights

Six-step framework used for onboarding clients at a $10,000+ agency.

Retaining clients is more profitable than constantly acquiring new ones.

The number one reason clients leave service providers is because they feel neglected after the sale.

Three expert tips to increase client retention: honesty, setting expectations, and giving personalized gifts.

Honesty is crucial: Avoid overpromising and underdelivering to build trust with clients.

Setting realistic expectations and exceeding them creates an exceptional customer experience.

Communication is key: Set clear guidelines for communication frequency and methods to avoid clients feeling neglected.

Personalized gifts can strengthen client relationships and improve retention.

Automating the client onboarding process enhances client perception and efficiency.

Onboarding funnels with pre-filmed videos and guides are scalable and time-efficient.

The six-step onboarding process includes welcome videos, contract signing, access setup, audience survey, strategy session, and final words.

Welcome video sets expectations, builds authority, and outlines communication guidelines.

Access setup ensures the agency gets all necessary assets from the client to start work smoothly.

The strategy session helps introduce the team, build relationships, and finalize the client's onboarding experience.

A well-structured onboarding process prevents clients from feeling neglected and builds trust, increasing client retention.

Transcripts

so in today's video I'm going to walk

you through the exact six-step framework

that I used when I was on boarding

clients that were paying me $10,000 Plus

at my agency that I had for 6 years now

this video has been a long time coming

why because no one really does it

correctly most agencies hurt their

business without even realizing it I

mean really think about this it is so

much easier to keep a client than it is

to sign a new one the real money is made

in retaining clients not constantly

chasing new ones and the number one

reason clients leave service providers

is because they feel neglected after the

sale is made so in today's video I'm

going to break down the three expert

tips to stand out as an agency so that

way you're able to 10 times your client

retention how to automate your entire

onboarding process as well as my exact

six-step road map to client onboarding

success so let's dive in now as always

on on the extended Channel I've gone

ahead and created some resources some

visual templates so if you want those

you'll be able to access those in the

description now let's discuss the three

expert tips to stand out as an agency

and literally 10x your client retention

and the first one I know this is going

to be weird to hear but be honest people

buy from people that they trust and the

best way you're able to build trust with

your potential client is just to be

honest the worst thing you can do as an

agency is to promise the Moon and only

deliver a rock this really puts your

agency in an awkward position where you

haven't delivered what you promised

which in turn makes the client feel

manipulated and builds a distrust as a

result of buying from you so do not wait

for issues to arise anticipate potential

challenges and address them before they

become problems with your current

clients and potential clients on sales

calls now this not only prevents crisis

but also shows your clients that you're

always thinking ahead on their behalf

offering solutions to problems that they

hadn't even thought of yet can greatly

impress clients and really just solidify

your value as a strategic partner next

we have setting expectations a superior

man is modest in his speech and exceeds

in his actions and a wise man called

confucious once said that and if you

want me to put that simply it just means

under promise and overd deliver when you

set realistic expectations and then

exceed them you're not just delivering a

service you're creating an except

itional customer experience and by doing

so you surprise your clients with your

efficiency and dedication going beyond

what they anticipated now this doesn't

just satisfy them it Delights them

leading to Greater client retention and

positive word of mouth which are

absolutely invaluable in today's

competitive market and a few examples of

expectations that must be set include

what results can clients expect what the

expected timelines are for these

deliverables and results and more

importantly what is expected from the

client to ensure a successful

partnership and then finally what they

can expect from your agency to ensure a

successful partnership now it is

extremely important to set your

expectations from the get-go because if

you don't set them your client is going

to assume their expectations which you

won't ever be able to fulfill now

expectations regarding communication are

also a must because the number one

reason clients leave service providers

is because they feel neglected after the

sale is made so it's very important that

you let them know how often

communication is going to work what

medium or platform your communication

will solely be on how often do you jump

on check-in calls Etc next I want to

talk about gifts and this is actually

crucial because if you can get your

client an amazing gift that resonates

with them on a personal or business note

then you're nurturing a relationship and

the client will be more inclined to make

your partnership work because as the law

of reciprocity states when someone does

something for you you feel obligated to

reciprocate or do something in return

for them and be creative with this one

send your clients merchandise with their

business logo on it if they're into

cigars send them a few of your favorites

and write a handwritten note to

accompany it and this really shows that

you genuinely care about them Beyond

just the business transactions and

personal touches like these help build a

stronger more emotional connection

making clients feel valued and

appreciated and by the way if you want a

great book regarding this topic go ahead

and read gifology by John rulin now

let's get into some fun stuff let's talk

about how to automate client onboarding

now most clients who have worked with

agencies in the past are familiar with

what I like to call the onboarding

gridlock dilemma basically the Dilemma

of having to hassle with back and forth

messages and emails and calls to give

access to everything the agency needs in

order to start serving them you need to

understand that for the client this is

timec consuming and results in an

unnecessarily long onboarding process

that really negatively affects your

client's perception of your agency I'm

telling you right now the onboarding

experience is the first thing that your

client experienced if it's sloppy

sluggish slow not well thought out well

then how do you think your clients are

going to feel you think they're going to

go oh you know what these guys really

seem to have it covered I'm so excited

to start working with them or you think

they're going to go M you know what

maybe I made the wrong decision and

start getting buyers remorse now when

they see your client onboarding process

in contrast where if you actually focus

on this video all of your things get

done quickly it's all in the same place

there's no back and forth on messages or

emails they're going to see you as an

experienced Authority who has most

likely gone through the same process

with countless clients and as a result

must know all the ins and outs of what

you do this gives your clients peace of

mind because they feel that they are in

good hands now there are two ways that

you can conduct your onboarding first

you can either jump on a well-planned

onboarding call with your client where

you run them through a specific agenda

to set expectations as well as acquire

all the assets and information that you

need to get to work or and this is by

far my favorite option you can build an

onboarding funnel with pre-filmed videos

guides and surveys to collect all assets

and relevant information that you need

the former is timec consuming and

tedious whereas the ladder which is

building a well-crafted onboarding

funnel is scalable and provides you with

leverage leverage to use that time for

more pressing tasks within your business

such as signing more clients rather than

spending north of an hour on boarding

your clients manually and leverage to

again show that you are an experienced

agency that operates with efficiency

professionalism and has a set way of

doing things instead of jumping on a

call you simply pop your client a link

to the funnel where everything they need

to onboard is in one place so how should

you structure your onboarding funnel

well firstly it's very important that

your onboarding funnel is composed as a

sequence this means that it has a start

point and an end point and let me

explain by running through the exact

six-step onboarding road map that I used

internally at my Agency for many many

years now I've actually taken some of

these visuals from my Flagship program

agent agency accelerator where I help

literally anyone scale their agency to

10,000 20,000 even $30,000 a month with

our pro version so if you're interested

in joining agency accelerator we

recently reopened enrollments the link

is in the description but if you just

want the free resource there's also a

link to that below now before I run you

through each step it's really important

to note beforehand that your onboarding

funnel is composed as a sequence this

way the client feels they went through

this whole journey with you rather than

feeling like they paid and then were're

left high and dry with a plethora of

tasks to complete which is one of the

most important experiences you can

create for your client because as I

touched on earlier the number one reason

clients leave service providers is

because they feel neglected after the

sale is made so really by creating this

handheld experience you build rapport

and trust with your clients making sure

they feel as though they are in good

hands now I suggest you use a similar

structure to my six-step onboarding

process and just adapt it to your

specific service that you deliver step

one welcome and setting expectations in

this video you welcome your clients and

set expectations on how your

relationship is going to work and this

is really a great place to create some

Authority and put yourself in a position

of the one setting the rules for the

relationship now here's a complete

structure of what should be included in

this video you obviously want to welcome

them then you want to talk about culture

and Mission you want to build Authority

by name dropping current and former

clients you want to talk about your team

and really hype up their abilities you

want to explain how this onboarding

process works and why it is superior to

other agencies and then what the client

can expect from you as an agency in

relation to communication guidelines

such as bi-weekly calls and weekly Loom

updates for example what they can expect

from you in terms of reporting and how

often you're going to send them updates

as well as approval process for the

services that you provide for example if

you run an email marketing agency you

would get all of the copy approved

before blasting it to their email list

to ensure that you're representing their

brand in the best possible light then

you want to move on to the formula for a

successful relationship now this would

include what you expect from the client

to ensure a successful partnership and

some principles to follow to allow your

client to have clarity about what they

should and shouldn't do and then you

congratulate them on taking action and

then you show what's coming next in the

onboarding process and this brings us on

to step number two which is contract and

invoice payment now this is where you

make sure that they have paid you and

signed the contract of a cble now

ideally they should have paid the

invoice inside of the sales call itself

but sometimes this doesn't happen for

multiple reasons so here is a place to

remind them about the invoice and make

sure they pay it now before moving on to

the next step this way you can get the

money out of the way and focus solely on

doing the work you should have also

emailed the contract at this point so

just make sure you remind them about

signing it inside of this stage step

three is access now this is where we

usually walk clients through a step-by

step on how to give your agency access

access to anything you may need now this

includes ad accounts social media Pages

Etc anything that your agency needs in

order to start working now in case you

offer them advertising services in this

step you would talk about how to

basically give you the agency access to

their Facebook manager their Google ads

manager the Tik Tok manager LinkedIn ads

manager whatever it is now in the case

that you offer other types of services

you need to make sure that you have

access to everything you need in order

to start working with your client if

you're doing their email marketing well

then of course at this point they need

to give you access to their email list

at this stage just make sure to ask

everything that might be needed for that

to happen and also show the client how

to give you access to such things in

case it is not too intuitive now step

four is audience survey this is where

you would survey your clients on who

their target audience is so that way you

can properly write ads and come up with

effective targeting strategies for them

now this step may also vary depending on

the service that you offer the main

point that I'm trying to get across here

is just make sure all of the

intellectual input and information that

you'll need later down the line when

you're actually delivering the services

is attached now I'm going to attach the

link to my very own type form that I

used to survey my clients when we were

working with my agency so I'll go ahead

and leave that up on the screen so you

can see what questions we asked then we

move on to step five which is the

strategy session now the strategy

session is where you run through all of

the information given by the client

inside of the onboarding funnel as well

as actually introduce your team to the

client where necessary and this gives

gives the client a warm welcome and

allows them to build a relationship with

not only yourself but your team members

to create an inclusive feel and also for

them to be like oh wow okay these are

the people that are actually working on

my account now the strategy session page

is where you ask them to book their

kickoff strategy call directly in your

calendar and this is going to avoid all

the back and forth messages trying to

set up a time that works for both of you

I suggest that you create a new cand

event specifically for this kickoff call

and in case you have more team members

you get add them to this event this way

cly will set the availability for when

everyone in your team is available this

prevents clients from booking calls at a

time when maybe one of your team members

might be on a call with a different

client or just busy with other tasks and

lastly we move on to step six which is

final words and this is basically where

you mention any final things that need

to be mentioned you basically let the

client know that they are now on boarded

as a client and also let them know that

you're looking forward to speaking with

them in your kickoff meeting and that is

about it so congratulations once you

have all this set up you are ready to

onboard a clients and most importantly

keep them so as I said you can find all

that information in the description

below you can also find the link to

enroll in agency accelerator and on that

note as always I'm watching from afar

and I'm rooting for you

[Music]