My Exact SMMA Client Onboarding Road Map to 10x Retention

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]