My fellow marketers,
We're onto Week 12 of the weekly marketing roundup email.
A series where I share posts from our Marketers Utopia directly to your inbox so you can execute on the value inside.
This weeks content:
5 Golden Ways to Managing Client Expectations
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5 Golden Ways to Managing Client Expectations
You scratch my back and I’ll scratch yours.
Such is the relationship between an agency and a client.
Maintaining a good agency-client relationship is the most crucial part of running an agency - otherwise, no one gets paid.
However, I am NOT imposing a perfect relationship. Miscommunication, fallbacks, clashes; everything ugly does exist and will cross paths with you.
All I am saying is, all of these can be avoided or resolved by managing your client expectations to save your relationship from falling apart.
Setting your agency up for a healthy and growth-oriented client relationship starts from the very beginning of your onboarding process.
Below, I’ve outlined the 5 golden ways you can manage your client expectations throughout your relationship with them.
Ways To Manage Clients Expectations
1. Align Goals When Onboarding
Before you perform one of your happiest dances when landing a client, take a step back and focus on your mutual goals.
Don’t just set them but document them.
Many disagreements occur from a different understanding of what was said during agency consultations and what was delivered.
To avoid that from happening at any point of your journey with your client, you need to create a structured onboarding process that;
>> lays down your client’s expectations
>> outlines their goals
>> describes work scope
You can also create a report template that highlights your client’s goals and share them. You also need to let them know that they’ll receive the reports each month to display progress on their goals. If any issues may arise in the future, you can always refer to the goal document or report template to resolve them and clear up the air.
This is the very first step you are taking to stay on the same page with your client and work towards the same end result.
2. Outline Your Strategy & Deliverables
After documenting your client’s goals, it’s time to create a plan on how your agency would reach those goals - Your Ultimate Strategy That’d Bring Results.
All strategies aren’t made equal, but there sure are the winning ones. They all have these 3 essential elements in common:
Well-defined deliverables - Your deliverables are your tangible outcomes. In plain words, it's telling the client exactly what you are going to do.
Realistic timeframes - Negotiate enough time for your team to meet deadlines. You can’t afford work delays and past deadlines as it’d erode away your client’s trust.
Metrics to measure progress - Define which metrics are important to measure and why. Be clear and concise while doing so.
By outlining the above-listed elements in your strategy, you'll avoid any misaligned client expectations in the future.
3. Create a Communication Strategy
You, I, and everybody else know the importance of great communication, and yet, this is where most agencies' biggest conflicts take place.
Why?
We don’t have a communication strategy in place alongside our main strategy (previous point).
A winning communication strategy is comprised of the following elements:
a. Clearly determines times, channels, and contacts - Define exactly when you or your team can be contacted, through what channels, and how often.
b. Defines the client’s responsibilities - Make sure that you outline what you expect from your client in addition to what a client should expect from you to not let them be the biggest bottleneck.
c. Establishes reporting standards - Report everything in a standardized and formal way. Define exactly how often you send reports; weekly, monthly, or quarterly? What will each report include?
Just make sure, your clients are not sending you messages over the weekend unless it’s an emergency. You have to state it in the contract while onboarding before you actually get the payment to let them know that it might take a day or a few hours for you to respond back to them.
They are your client, you are not their client. You aren’t working for them, you aren’t whipped by them.
You get to do what you want here, you just need to deliver results over here. Most of all, it’s not mean of you - that’s just how you want your agency to run.
4. Under-promise & Over-deliver (rather than the other way around)
This golden rule is the one to live by. If you understand your offer and align it perfectly with your client - you can go the extra mile and sneak in a few extra things that you can do for them, throughout your entire process. This would make them really happy and satisfied with all the extra work your agency has put in to get the results. This way they’re going to stay with you longer.
The better the expectations with clients → The happy the clients are → The longer they’re going to stay with you → The more monthly recurring revenue you’re going to be getting.
But on the flip side, never promise or sell something you know you can’t deliver the results on.
The reason why?
Because a lot of people are great sellers but If you can’t deliver the results;
That’s morally incorrect
You’re going to get the clients to hate you, ruining your reputation in the industry
Aim at exceeding your clients’ expectations at all times to generate a revenue stream based upon the values of trust and happiness.
5. Showcase Your Journey
You need to make sure that you showcase how difficult is the journey you’re going on in order to help deliver the results for them. If they think the process is easy and all they’re seeing is great results from you, they’ll think anyone else can do it. But, if you showcase;
>> how much you’ve struggled
>> how much you’ve worked at the backend
>> how many challenges and shortcomings do you have to overcome to get to this point
They’d be happier. They’d believe in you more. They’d stay with you longer.
BONUS: Things You Need To Have In Your contract
Always agree in writing. This is one of the most important steps to setting client expectations and maintaining those.
Your contract should have the following points:
1. When and how often can your agency contact a client?
2. When and how often can your client contact your agency?
3. Detail of services your agency will be providing an overview of each one
4. Agency milestones according to clients’ goals with a well-developed timeline
5. Your agency’s payment terms and penalties
6. A statement of ownership and rights
7. The cancellation procedure in the event your client or you choose to move apart
Final Thoughts
Defining realistic expectations and managing them throughout would set you up for success, and vice versa.
As we’ve seen, managing client expectations is more than simply setting goals or delivering results. It goes one step further than that. You need to ensure that you manage the client’s expectations for your strategy, your work method, and communication - not leaving a single hole untackled.
Work through each of the steps outlined and you're in a certain position of having a healthy and profitable agency-client relationship.
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