Lead management success: 5 questions I ask every new OBM lead

Leanne Woff: [00:00:00] Hello, hello, hello! Welcome to the latest episode of the Audacious OBM. I’m Leanne Woff and [00:01:00] today we are talking all things leads management success. The five questions I ask every new OBM lead. Now, I wanted to share this with you as it came from a question from one of my students in OBM Academy, and it’s around the leads process and how much information is too much information.

And when do we ask what? So in my true style, I went back with exactly what I do in my business and what I have always done for years. And I believe it works really well. So there are five questions, and I believe these five questions give me enough information and insight into what my potential new clients are experiencing right now and where they want to go to.

And that usually gives me enough information to tell me [00:02:00] whether I can help them or not, without having a hundred different things that they have to give me. In this episode, I’m going to cover off the five. The first, what is happening in your business at the moment? So it seems very basic, tell me what’s happening, but the reason I ask this, the insight you will gain is what is the most pressing for them, the make or breaks.

So the beauty of an open ended question like this, is that they will tell you whatever is at the forefront of their mind. So they could say, Oh, in my business, I have 27 clients and I make a hundred million dollars. And we just got a new logo created, [00:03:00] or they can say, I’m really frustrated. I was trying to get my team to launch a new program, and I just couldn’t get them to work together, and then I didn’t sell any spots, and I just know I can’t do this anymore.

They’re going to tell you exactly what they’re experiencing, and the crucial pieces of information that usually tie into how you need to help them. It gives you a little bit of background, and what the pivot point is, which then brings me to the next question, which is what was the push or problem causing you to reach out for help?

Now, a lot of the time when people actually send me an inquiry, they call or they send me an email. It’s not the first time they’ve thought [00:04:00] about getting support in their business. It’s not the first time they’ve thought about maybe I need an online business manager. Usually it’s out of frustration or something that has happened repeatedly or something that they want so badly and something else has reminded them of it.

And this is really important for us to know because there’s emotion behind it. And so what asking this question gives us is, insight into what irritates them the most, what is, causing maximum pain or a desire that they want so badly that they’ve actually taken action to try and fulfill that.

So it’s telling you what matters to them, what matters to them, that matters to you right now. And it also tells you. What you need to [00:05:00] be able to resolve or what you need to be able to bring to life to then have a satisfied client. Okay, number three, what is your deadline? This question is purely about practicality.

So it’ll also give you insight into whether this client, perspective client is realistic or unrealistic or just has no clue. So it’s, it’s about seeing, okay, hey, let me know, because if you’re expecting me to reply, onboard you and have this job done in two days, the likelihood is it’s not going to happen.

And a lot of the time when I ask people what their deadline is, they’ll either give me a, like a solid date that’s in three months time, [00:06:00] or they’ll say, oh, I’m looking to onboard someone within the next few weeks and then hoping to get started by this day. Or they’ll say, I’m not really sure. And that’s okay too.

They don’t have to know. It is more about starting that conversation. And there’s a bonus advantage of this question. And that is you’re setting up the conversation to be a two way relationship. Your time matters. And my time matters. If your deadline is then that doesn’t necessarily mean I’m automatically going to say, yes, sure.

I actually need to know the deadline so I can see if that’s going to work for me. And it becomes a conversation and mutual respect.

Then we’re looking for, next question. What budget are you working with? Now this one tends to make people uncomfortable and a lot of online [00:07:00] business managers are too scared to ask. But it’s really important because the insight it gives us is the quality of the lead. Are they just tyre kickers and how much time should I as a service provider really sink into this lead?

Because I could talk to them and spend an hour and come up with a plan just to find out that they wanted to spend 50 dollars and they’ve already spoken to six other people and they found someone who can do it for 5 dollars. And so they’re not really interested and I have just wasted a big bunch of time and I don’t want to waste my time and I don’t want to waste their time.

So this helps you gauge where they’re sitting at the moment and what’s important to them because we want leads and clients who align with us and our values and who genuinely want a partner they can work with. [00:08:00] Someone who is skilled and talented, not just the cheapest person there is.

Then the final question, what are you trying to achieve? What are your burning desires for your business? This gives them the opportunity to tell you their big picture. It gives you insight into their overall vision. And then it helps you see where you could potentially slot in and help them achieve that vision.

We’re online business managers. It’s our job to pull things together so that we can get closer to that vision and closer to that vision. And for us to do that, we need to know what it is. And you might find by just knowing what that vision actually is. You can retrospectively start putting pieces together and go, okay if that’s where we want to go, I’m going to need this.

We’re going to need this. And have we tried this [00:09:00] and all of a sudden you get a feeling and you’ll get a feeling of, oh, this is exciting. And yeah, I can see that. And you get invested or you go, no, that’s not really what I’m about. That actually feels quite uncomfortable. And that tells you straight away that this lead.

Isn’t for you, but hey, you might know someone who you think that is this kind of person, that OBM would totally love this gig. And then you can refer them on and how cool is that? You avoid the misalignment and the friction that comes from that. You help somebody else out in your network, which I think is pretty cool.

So they’re my five questions and they are the five questions I send to everybody. I send them via email. I let them have a little think. And then once they’ve been able to answer that, I book in a call. And then I talk to them. And usually I talk through these questions again, so [00:10:00] I can get more of an answer and hear their tone and things like that.

But from this, I know if I’m the right kind of person for them, and if it is worth both of us spending more time chatting and getting to know each other. So if you are trying to establish a leads process, and do it a little bit more efficiently and effectively then these five questions, take them, use them, trust me.

Have a great day everybody. I’ll see you next week.

 [00:11:00] 

E14 The day it all turned to poo

 [00:00:00] Hey, hey, everybody, welcome to today’s episode of The Audacious OBM. I’m Leanne Woff, and today [00:01:00] I want to talk to you about a personal story. I have called this episode, The Day It All Turned to Poo. I know, charming, right? But it’s true. I want to talk to you about a time where I was probably the lowest point in my business, and I want to talk to you about what led me there and then what I did to turn it around.

I’m a big believer in being honest and being open and that we’re people that run businesses and life is never just smooth for anybody. And as people, things come up and we have to deal with them and it does impact our businesses because we’re very intertwined, even if we try not to be. Now, for me to fully explain to you what happened, there’s a couple things [00:02:00] you need to know about me.

Biggest one is that I’m a people pleaser. I always have been. I remember when I was a teenager and I would go to youth group and I made all different connections there. And one of my… Favorite leaders there, we went through a phase where she said to me, Leanne, you need to use the N word and like, what, what is she talking about?

Leanne, you need to learn to say no. You don’t always have to say yes. You can say no, and that’s okay, and so I want you to practice saying no, and so as a teenager, but over the next, couple of years, I’d be talking to her about different things that are happening in life, and she would say to me, Leanne, you need to use the [00:03:00] n word, and I would have to remember, oh.

Yeah. Okay. I can do that. I can do that. And then when I did and I started putting boundaries in place and I started saying no to different things for me, it was a big deal. And so I would go back to her and say, Sally, Sally, I said no. And then tell her what had happened was this big celebration, right? So it’s always something that I found really hard is to disappoint people or for what I believe or perceive is disappointing people.

The other thing that you need to know about me is I’m a perfectionist. At least I used to be, and I’m incredibly driven. I like to achieve things. And, you know, to the point where when I was older, so let’s move on from teenage years, I was going to the psychologist. [00:04:00] And she gave me homework. And the homework was to fail on purpose, which I just thought was ludicrous.

Why on earth would I do that? Oof. Where is the benefit here? And she wanted me to sit with how uncomfortable I felt doing that. And see that on the other side of it, nothing really changed. Even if I failed, even if I disappointed someone, if I was late to an appointment, nothing happened. And that’s okay.

So it was a big… Process of shifting my perspective as I’ve gone along in life.

So, I then continued. I went on my merry way. I built my business and it was all going, good. [00:05:00] And then life happened, like a tornado, and I had a series of events that occurred very close together that threw everything out of whack. So I, my six week old nephew died. My uncle died. These are people that were so entwined in my life that it had a massive impact.

My six week old nephew dying triggered my niece coming to live with me, it was one, it, there were all these things that had these offshoots and it was like such extreme circumstances . A few years before that, my mom had been hit by a bus, a truck, sorry, a truck, she got hit by a truck and I’m just like, this does not happen in real life, but it does.

So these things compounded and the reality of them was [00:06:00] unbearable and intense. And that became my new baseline. My baseline for existing was to expect that life was going to be that intense, which is a very skewed view. And at the time I had no idea. I had no idea that that’s what I had done or that’s how I was trying to cope with everything.

I was just, I just continued to work, continue to do what I thought needed to be done and tried to process my emotions outside of all of that. To be honest, it was a very bad choice. But I didn’t know at the time. And then I remember having a conversation with one of my clients, who is incredible. She is amazing.

And [00:07:00] she said to me, I need you to realize this. I’m taking things off you. You are so far beyond burnout that you can’t even see it anymore. And it was like I had been smacked in the face. I was devastated. Absolutely gutted. Not because someone has said these mean things about me that’s not what I’m meaning, but it was the reality she was right, and the entire premise of my business and of what I do is to be supportive, to relieve pressure, to help people expand and grow, and I’ve just been told I was doing the opposite, [00:08:00] and that my standard wasn’t my normal standard, I was missing things.

My perception was different. What is going on here? And I couldn’t keep going that way. That was the truth of it. And so I stopped. I lost the majority of my clients. And by lost I mean I said, Okay, we have to slow down. Or when we were coming up to renewal time, I didn’t renew people, like I just scaled way down because I did not want to be the reason my clients didn’t get the support that they needed.

And then I took a pay cut because I’d done that. Fair enough. I cried a lot about everything. There was [00:09:00] a lot of things that I went through and it was a big deal. And then I created a plan so that this would never happen again. I did not want this to tank my reputation, to tank my clients businesses, I did not want this to be an ongoing reality.

And so, I looked at everything. I did a massive overhaul of the way I ran my business. I changed the way I do pricing. I changed the type of people that I now choose to work with. I put personal boundaries in place. So now, even if I’m very driven to just work a little bit later, to just do a little bit more, I have to choose not [00:10:00] to, because then I end up being really tired.

And even though I’m happy to do it at the time, it compounds and then you end up exhausted and then you can’t think as clearly as you would have. So I had to learn some more things about myself and then put boundaries in place to help prevent that snowballing. I got realistic about the time I had available.

What does it actually look like? How much work time do I really have? And how much money do I need to make in that time? Because if my business couldn’t support that, it wasn’t doing what it needed. And I needed to be able to have a business that would pay me what I needed, operating at a high level and a great service.

Then [00:11:00] I changed the way that I work with my team and the things that I hand over and the discussions that I have. I changed the way I communicate with my clients and what I communicate with my clients. And the last thing that I did was got a coach that I very, very much trust. So every time I work with this coach, my business grows.

That’s just the reality of it. And it’s, Because of who they are and how I feel when they’re in my corner and I feel like I can do what I need to do and I feel like I’m being held accountable, but not in a scary way, but it is let’s set some things that are actually achievable that we can do or let’s try this and see what happens.

And, hey people pleaser, it’s okay if it doesn’t work, because it’s all play. [00:12:00] And this point in my life, where it all turned to poo, I really do believe it will be the lowest point that my business has experienced. Like, there was a tornado. It was a living nightmare. And there were a lot of things I needed to change to right the ship.

And I’m so glad that I did them. I’m so glad that I didn’t just give up. I’m so thankful that I have clients that are open and honest with me, and that I was a brave enough person to actually hear what they were saying at that point, even though it was the last thing I wanted to hear. And I’m sharing this with you, because I want you to know that if you’re finding it hard in life, or if you’re building an OBM business and you’re finding that hard, [00:13:00] it’s okay.

And even if the worst things happen, you can always turn it around. I know I did. And I really believe that we need to talk about these things more because I’m fairly certain that some of the things that I changed, some of the things I experienced, just sharing them will help you in your journey. And when somebody else shares theirs with me, it will help me in my journey.

So I wanted to have and take the opportunity to allow you to get to know me a little bit better. A real, true, honest version of me. And that’s all for today’s episode. I hope that it gives you… excitement and confidence or makes you feel nice on the inside because I know that some of those things aren’t very fun to talk about [00:14:00] but I really do hope it’s equipped you with a new way to think about things.

Have a great day everybody. I shall see you next week.

E13 Creating Amazing Client Offboarding Experiences  Goodbye is never goodbye

 [00:00:00] hello. Hello. Welcome to another episode of The Audacious OBM. I’m Leanne Woff. Today, I’m really [00:01:00] excited. We are talking about the final piece for our Creating Amazing Client Experiences series. There’s a lot of S’s there, guys. Okay, so today’s episode is called Creating Amazing Client Offboarding Experiences.

Goodbye is never goodbye. So we are talking about the breakup and we want it to be good right till the very end. So even if you’ve ended on rocky terms, or you thought that the contract was going to go further and it didn’t, or the retainer was going to go on for a longer time, or they were going to renew and they didn’t, we still want it to be a really pleasant ending because you never know what’s going on behind the scenes.

Right. [00:02:00] All right. So I’m going to cover some things that you might not have thought about when looking at your entire offboarding journey. And it’s thinking from, again, the client’s perspective and what they might be thinking and feeling, or information they might need to know, and some things that you can do to pre empt any icky situations.

And I’ll explain a little bit more about that as I go. So the first thing we need to do, which is the same as when we’re looking at offboarding, when we’re looking at delivery, sorry, when we’re looking at onboarding, and when we’re looking at delivery, it’s looking at your process for offboarding at a high level.

So what are the things we need to do process wise? Here are the practical things. Well, I’m, I don’t need access [00:03:00] to your different accounts anymore. I need to do an offboarding call. I need to do a handover call. I need to delete any of your assets from my system. These are all the practical things. And some of them the client is involved in and some aren’t.

But we always start with the tangible pieces. So once you’ve mapped that out, I want you to look at when we need to start communicating in our offboarding journey. So if you know the end of a contract is coming up, at what point do you start talking about what happens next? Look at your system, your process, and work out where that is.

Because then you can create structured communication around it. And I want you to be really specific when you’re thinking about this. What needs to happen? When does it need to happen? When is an appropriate time to start [00:04:00] talking about it? And when we’ve kind of mapped that out, I might know, Okay, I run on quarterly retainers and we’re getting to the end of the quarter.

The client hasn’t told me if they’re going to continue for another quarter. I’ve asked them three times. So now I’m going to assume that they’re not going ahead. So at that point, I send them an email. I say, Hey, it’s been amazing working with you. I know you haven’t responded to me about whether you’ll be continuing or not.

So I’m just going to assume for now that you want to take a break for a while. Here’s what that means. So work out what your cutoff point is, because you need to be able to plan for the future, right?

Then, you work out what offboarding experience looks like for the client. At what point do I tell the client, Alright, we’re coming [00:05:00] to an end. So we need this to be After we know we’re finishing, right? Because if we’re still in the limbo mode of, are they continuing? Aren’t they? We can’t have this kind of conversation.

It just makes it awkward. But once we know for sure the contract isn’t going ahead anymore, it’s not renewing, we start our offboarding. From that minute is when we start offboarding. And I want you to be really specific when you’re communicating with your clients. I want you to be telling them what will happen, when it will happen, the order it will happen in, and what they’re going to need to do.

So again, it’s giving them as much information, relevant information up front as possible. So it might be, a month before we finish up and we start sending an email that just says, Hey! I know that the contract ends in a month, and [00:06:00] I just wanted to give you a heads up that this is how our offboarding process works.

We have a handover call. Then we we have a handover call. Then we remove our access to things. Then we get you to sign off on the project and then, and then, and then. And so when they get that, they already can see, Oh, this is what’s going to happen. When they remove their access, it’s because they’ve met this point.

They’ve already told me that’s going to happen. And what’s not going to happen then is the access gets removed. And all of a sudden your client is thinking, Oh, they’ve removed themselves from everything. Are they stopping right now? Or what’s going on? Purely because you’ve told them. It also gives you the opportunity to book in the things that you need to book in.

So if you’ve explained, we’re going to have a handover call. [00:07:00] You can book in that handover call before your contract is over. Okay, your contract ends in a month. So in about three weeks time, we need to have a handover call. Here are the dates that I have available. Do these work for you? Here’s what happens in a handover call.

So it’s setting up the rest of that process to flow really well to have it be an ongoing conversation where your client is considered and they’re actively participating in it. Then I want you to think about the things that they need to do. So map out on your process. At this point, I need the client to sign off.

This is really important. Otherwise. I might be in trouble legally, or otherwise the accounts will all still be in my name. Like, what are those things that [00:08:00] you’re definitely going to need before closing? And then make sure communicating about them is sprinkled in your offboarding process till they’re done.

We don’t want to miss anything super crucial just because we forgot to talk about it or ask for what we needed. The other thing that you can do is ask your clients what they need from you. Because they’re in this too, they’ve been working with you for how long, so closely. Hey, I know we’re ending soon, I just wanted to see if there was anything else you need from me.

I’ve removed all my access, I’ve sent you the handover, call recording. This is the opportunity I just wanted to check. Because there might be something you haven’t thought of. Oh, I gave you the password for this thing and I don’t know where it is. Or I know you set up this account for me, but I have no idea how to [00:09:00] access it.

Oh, no worries. That’s here, here and here. Not a problem. All of a sudden. That’s a much nicer experience than it is a, Alright, we’ve done handover, it was lovely working with you, goodbye. The next thing is the consideration of when things happen in terms of it’s final, removing access, deleting data, what are your data storage

protocols?, because it’s important and I know as part of my process, I tell my clients how long I keep their assets for and at what point I’ll be deleting them off my servers. So they need to make sure they keep their own copies and I remind them about that. In offboarding, because that would be awful, right?

To lose all of your stuff because you thought that your supplier had it and your supplier had already deleted it. [00:10:00] So let’s give them the opportunity to get what they need. We also need to discuss access and what can be removed at different stages because sometimes you might need access to some things and other things you can get rid of sooner, other things you might need to keep on a little bit longer, you might be moving to a different kind of service, maybe a lower retainer where you don’t need access to so much anymore.

And so just be really clear about when you’re removing access. Why you’re removing it, and if it’s that the client has to remove your access, you want to remind them to do that too.

Then let’s look at, this has been a great working experience. We have put in a lot of time and effort into building a relationship with this client. And as is pretty standard, we want to ask for a testimonial and it can [00:11:00] be a little bit awkward to ask for testimonials, but if you build it into your process, it won’t be and it can be really casual.

“Hey, I really loved working with you and I hope that you’ve enjoyed the experience too. Would you be willing to give me a testimonial?” And you can give them links and instructions to make it really easy. You can say to them, I’ll only present the message, I won’t put your name. Or you can say, “I’m going to use your name and your photo and put it on my marketing.

Is that okay?” So you’ve got to work out where in the offboarding that that is best placed. Then you also might want to be asking for referrals. Hey, you’ve told me this is amazing. If there’s anybody else in your sphere that you think might benefit from my services or need me in their world, could you please let me know or could you send them my way?

Then, [00:12:00] I want you to make a note to get back in touch with that person. This is not a flows and runs situation. You’ve built… This relationship with this person, and it’s been awesome. You don’t have to stop talking to them. You don’t have to pretend they don’t exist. You want to keep that relationship.

So make a note to circle back to say, how are you going? To say, Hey, do you need my services anymore? And be social. Jump online, connect with them. It can still be very professional and from a professional manner, but we’re human beings. And just because we’re not going to work with each other anymore, or just because you don’t need my services right now, or can’t afford them, or whatever the reason is, It doesn’t mean you can’t keep that connection, these relationships are still very important.

And so, I think it’s important for us to factor it into our process, because [00:13:00] we are very process driven. The more that we do that, the more our clients feel like we’ve invested, we’ve actually committed, we actually care about them, about their business, and it filters all the way through. So even though we’re not working with them anymore, they’re still going to remember the way they felt working with you, and the fact that you still care, and when they need something else, they’re coming back to you.

Or when their friends need something, their business friends or colleagues or, you know, suppliers, when they need something, they’re going to think of you because you’ve really built in that human element right up to the very, very end, which really isn’t the end. Goodbye is never goodbye.

Always assume it’s goodbye for now [00:14:00] in this capacity. So we’ve come to the end of our creating amazing client experiences. This is something that I walk all the students in OBM Academy through. It’s one of my nine crucial steps in my six figure OBM roadmap because I believe it is so important. And I hope across the last four episodes.

I’ve given you a really solid foundation of how you can create these experiences and the benefit of doing it. I would really love it if you could let me know if you’ve tried any of these things. I always like to see the different techniques OBMs are trying or things they’re adding in to their processes to expand that experience.

It’s really exciting. It’s fun. So yeah, get [00:15:00] in touch. You can send me a DM, send me an email, however you wish. I will speak to you next week. Thanks everybody.

E12 Creating Amazing Client Service Delivery Experiences: Giving clients what they need, when they need it, the way they need it

Leanne Woff: [00:00:00] hello. Hello. Welcome to another episode of The Audacious OBM. I’m Leanne Woff and [00:01:00] today we are talking creating amazing client service delivery experiences, giving clients what they need, when they need it, the way they need it. So I wanted to tackle this as part of our Creating Amazing Experiences series.

And so we’ve covered why we need to do it. We’ve covered the onboarding experience to create, now we’re looking at service delivery. So this is the part where you actually do the work, where you deliver, right? So the first thing that we are going to do is map out our delivery process. Now, what I mean by this is look at your service, look at the service you have sold your client, and I want you to really think about the steps that you take [00:02:00] to complete that service and what you need to be able to do it well.

So the information that you need, and it might be assets that you need from clients, but just do a map of that because these are our known factors, right? So we always start there. Let’s map them out. Now you can do this using timelines or using milestones. So depending on how you work, if you know that. You know, it usually takes you a week to do a certain thing or two weeks to do a certain thing.

You could map out your delivery based on that time, or you can do it based on outcome. Okay? Once I’ve taken the brief, that’s this milestone, then I do the first draft, then I, and create your milestones. So either way is fine. We just wanna get some of our [00:03:00] known quantities down right. Now, once we know the things that have to happen and we know the things that we need to make them happen, I want you to think about communication.

I want you to think about. What ways could we possibly get all of those assets or get that information sooner in the journey? So I know that I spoke to you in our last episode about my onboarding process and how I ended up creating this massive client onboarding form, but I didn’t explain what really led me to do that.

And it was when I was looking at my service delivery and I was looking at. Where are the delay points or where are the bits where we’re asking for more things or I can’t make a decision and then I have to go back to the client, and it was [00:04:00] these places where I didn’t have enough information and I thought if I could just have all of that information upfront, then when I get into delivery, I have my foundation knowledge, but I also have the exact pieces that I need from the client already, and then I can just keep going.

Because here’s the thing, right? If you are working on something and you are getting some traction and it feels good, everything is making sense, you wanna keep doing that, you don’t want to stop that boulder from rolling. You wanna keep going and get it done. And if we stop and start all the time, we’re actually less efficient because we have to get back into understanding what it is we’re working on, where we stopped, what we left off, and we switched to something else.

So we are context switching too much. So it was that that caused me to make that big form. I actually looked at each step [00:05:00] of my, each step of my process so that I could then get what I needed. And the whole project would run smoother and it worked. The other things. So not only asking for pieces of information, but the other type of communication I want you to think about is how your client is feeling as you progress through this journey.

What are they thinking about? What are they feeling? What are their questions? And what is their perception? Of what you are doing. Because I know if I work with a supplier and they say to me, yep, cool, it’s gonna take one month to do it. And then I sign off and they do the engagement, and then I don’t hear from them for three of those weeks.

I start to get a little bit nervous. Are they still doing it? Have they forgotten about me? Don’t they need my [00:06:00] logo? And I create all of these questions in my head, that might not be true at all, purely because I’ve not heard anything. And then I feel the need as a customer to email and go, just checking you haven’t forgotten. And then hope they don’t get offended. And I really think that this is something that we need to tackle better in our OBM businesses, is thinking about what is the client’s perception here? Because I know I said to them, I’m going to deliver this thing in two weeks, and no, it hasn’t been two weeks yet, but maybe I need to give them an update before that two weeks is up, even if it is a, Hey, I’m just checking in.

I wanted to let you know that I’ve done phase one of this job. It’s looking good, and I’ll be back in touch if I need something more. None of this has to be super impressive or, like lots of detail. It is more [00:07:00] about easing some of those concerns and answering some of those questions your clients might have.

So I want you to think about the important messages along that journey, along that delivery process you just mapped out. And you might have a few different ones of these depending on what services you offer, right? And it’s not always going to be the same thing. If your service changes, the process changes.

And some of this will translate across, but not always. So you might need a few. So let’s map those important messages, answer the important questions. Think about our clients. Another thing I want you to do is start to really think about the frequency of your communication. So we work quite closely with clients.

We’re online business managers. And it might be okay if you were an accountant and you spoke to your clients once a fortnight or once a month [00:08:00] and you had, a regular meeting scheduled in and every quarter you did their tax. And that might work well and that might be all your clients need. But for OBMS, that’s not the case.

We are in, in, in businesses and we need our connection with our clients to thrive, for their businesses to thrive. So our communication has to be much more frequent. And the more frequent means it needs to be more purposeful. And what I mean by that is we don’t wanna just send messages to say, hi, how are you?

Hi, how are you? And it doesn’t actually have any substance. We wanna communicate clearly. We want to go to them with clear objectives or clear discussion points, so we are not wasting their time, especially if we need to talk to them a lot. And obviously we still want the friendly approach, but we don’t just want conversation for no purpose.[00:09:00] 

So if you are working with OBM clients, think about how you communicate, what form, what mode of communication? Do you meet with them in person? Do you WhatsApp? Do you have a Task Management System? Do you do Zoom calls? Because if you’re frequently talking to someone, the likelihood is you need different modes of communication.

You don’t wanna sit on Zoom all day every day just to get a question answered. So I really want you to think about the different ways you can talk to your clients and how frequently they want information from you and how frequently they actually wanna see the progress and how they wanna see it, because that matters.

So we’re looking at, and I know a lot of this is unknown, you might not know the answers to these. I don’t know how [00:10:00] my clients want me to talk to them. I don’t know how often. I don’t know if they want me to update them when I finished every phase or when I finished three phases. It’s always gonna change and there is no exact answer.

The best thing. That you can do is ask them. And that’s what I did. And that’s how I built out my delivery process. The next thing that I want you to factor in is the points where you’re going to need sign off or you’re going to need, permission to proceed to the next step. So if you are looking at your process and you’re like, okay, here I like, here is a clear cut draft one is finished before I do draft two, I’m going to need it signed off.

And then I want you to factor in when you could possibly start communicating that [00:11:00] with your client so that they know, hey, when we get to this stage, this time, this date, I’m gonna need you to set aside some time to review this. Here’s how much time I think. Here’s what it is. Here is the impact. If we don’t get it done on time.

Now this is a big one. Sometimes we forget to explain why we need it, and we assume the client knows. “Well, they know if they don’t do their bit, I can’t do my bit.” Yes, you’re correct. They absolutely do know that, but they don’t know the impact on the project as a whole because they’re not in it. They’re not looking at the whole timeline because that’s your job.

So we need to explain to them, Hey, if I can’t do this bit on time, it means this piece is gonna be delayed. We’re not gonna get to the printer in time, and then we won’t be able to have this asset at all. [00:12:00] So try and be as clear as you can just to create that full understanding. The less guessing our clients have to do the better.

Okay, next thing, factor in, surprise and delight. Now this bit is my favorite. So we looked at our process, we’ve mapped out when we’re talking to clients, what we’re talking to them about, the different things that we might need from them, the different points that they need to be aware of, that we need them to keep some time aside for us, how we’re communicating with them.

Do we have an email nurture? Do we have a process where we send a text message? Is it client calls? What does this look like? Now we get to our ‘surprise and delight’, and that’s where I look at the process and I go; right, now what other [00:13:00] ways and what other things can I implement to make them feel good or to make this journey easier?

And that’s when I start sending gift boxes or pencils or I remember I used to send my clients sprout pencils, so it’s like a gray lead pencil, and once you’re finished using it, you put it in a pot with soil and it turns into a herb. It grows. Just different things depending on what your clients like and need.

It might be that you work with a lot of a D H D clients. And so instead of sending them sprout pencils, you might send them, an A D H D organizer planner. There’s so many different things you can do that will make your client’s journey easier and just give that little bit of a perk for them.

The, hey, they’ve really thought about this and they thought about me and this [00:14:00] is amazing. And just keep, as long as we’re delivering everything we need to deliver. We’re communicating and then we’ve got this extra thing, like the experience is amazing. Like we’re trying to not just do the mediocre experience that anyone could do.

We’re trying to be amazing, and I think that this is a really easy way to do it. The other thing I want you to think about is points of personalization. Now, what I mean here is life is not linear. And it’s not like that for our clients either. And so it doesn’t matter how much we plan, sometimes our plans aren’t going to come off the way we want them to, and we can’t account for every situation that will ever occur.

So for instance, in OBM Academy, one of my students, her dad passed away. [00:15:00] And I could have just continued on my way delivering the content and going above and beyond and trying to make sure everybody understood what we were doing and make sure they were progressing and they were getting the results they needed.

But right then, this student didn’t need that. What she needed was someone to see her and appreciate her and recognize what she was going through. And so instead, I sent her flowers and she was completely surprised and amazed because I thought about it and because there is no way I could have assumed that was gonna happen and I did what I thought I could do that might make it just the teeniest, tiniest bit easier, or for her to feel less alone.

And so that’s what I’m saying, have. What you could have is like a backup list, okay? If we know that someone’s sick or having a hard time, here’s a list [00:16:00] of different things or different suppliers where we can source something and send it to them. Or it could be a card. It could be a special pack you have in your office.

It could be, okay, if I have a client and they’re going to have a birthday, this is what we’re gonna do. If I have a client and they’re getting married, this is the kind of thing I wanna do. So look for, some of those points where it might not be clear cut, but you know, you want the human element of you to come out there.

All right. And then the final thing, this is a really big one, are you listening? It is. Listen closely. Listen closely. A lot of the time, our clients are telling us what they need, but we’re not hearing it. And filling that need will [00:17:00] make the experience amazing for them. So if they’re repeating something like, ‘I’m really, really visual’, and you keep sending them emails that are written, they’re going to be frustrated that entire time, not because you’ve done something wrong.

But because you missed the opportunity to present something in the way they needed it to make it feel amazing. If they’re saying to you, I’m just wondering where this is up to. I’m just wondering where this is up to. Do you need anything from me? That’s telling you, you’re not communicating enough. So I want you just to listen to the things that aren’t being said or the things that are being said.

But we’re not paying enough attention to them because we’re so involved in meeting our deliverables and just getting it done. So if we can look for things like that and be aware and pay more attention and then put in place some things to [00:18:00] improve those, your experience will be amazing. So, I hope that that has helped and it has given you an understanding of how you can craft an intentional, amazing client service delivery experience with you.

So not only do you deliver exceptional work, but they feel incredible the whole time. Thanks for listening. I’ll chat to you next week.

 [00:19:00] 

Creating Amazing Client Onboarding Experiences – How to get clients to love you from the get-go

[00:00:00] Hello. Hello. Welcome to another episode of the Audacious OBM. I’m Leanne Woff, and today we are [00:01:00] continuing our series on client experiences. Today’s focus is creating amazing client onboarding experiences, how to get clients to love you from the get-go. Is it possible? Yes, it is. How do I know? Because I’ve seen it before.

So I wanna start this episode by sharing a story and I believe that client onboarding, Is the process that can make or break an entire relationship with a client. And this story highlights why. So I remember I had a new client, this is a few years ago, and they were wonderful, lovely, lovely new client, really awesome human.

And I was in the onboarding phase with this [00:02:00] client and I was just following my process. The way I’ve done every other time and focusing on what we needed to do, when we needed to do it, how we needed to do it and chatting to this client. So we moved through the onboarding process through all of my predefined deliverables in my process, and my client says to me, ah, I’ve referred you to one of my business friends.

I don’t know if it’ll be a great fit, but she needs someone. And I thought of you and I gave her your details. I hope that’s okay. And I was surprised and was just like, yes. This is incredible. Thank you so much. And then I ended up speaking to the contact and I actually [00:03:00] onboarded that client’s friend as well.

Now, the reason this has significance here is because I hadn’t actually done any work yet. We were just doing the onboarding process and my client was already referring me, and that had never happened to me before. So after that happened, I had to do a little audit myself to go, what? What did I do that was so good in this situation and how do I do that more?

And it was the onboarding experience because the tone of the relationship for the rest of the time was always positive and appreciative, and I really think it’s because of how much effort I put in front. And the time and the energy that I put into crafting what this onboarding experience would be and the things it should include and the things it shouldn’t, and the [00:04:00] time that I had taken to refine it as I went.

So that’s the purpose of today’s episode, is to give you some of the tools to create an onboarding process that rocks. So let’s look at what the purpose of a great onboarding experience is. I believe your onboarding process should do three things. One, make your clients feel seen. Two, make your clients feel heard, and three, make your clients feel secure.

We’re human beings, right? So we all want. To feel safe, heard, secure, seen, noticed, appreciated, validated. They’re just our nature and [00:05:00] we’re all built with those things inside. And I think if we can give people the security and stability that they need from the very beginning, that will flow through to everything else.

So it’s really important. That we pay attention in our onboarding process. Here is the time to get to know the people you are working with, to identify what really matters here, and to give them what they need to set the tone for the rest of the relationship. So how do we do that? How do we make clients feel, seen, heard, and secure?

It’s a nice thing to say, but in reality, what does that look like? Well, we do this by being informative, so we need to put our authority cap on and we need to be the guide. We need to tell people what to [00:06:00] expect. We wanna let them know what’s coming up and how this is going to work. We want to tell our clients how things are going to progress and when.

Explaining what we’re going to need from them and when, and keeping the process as clear and concise as we can. We do not want to overwhelm people from the very beginning, especially because we’re online business managers, so we can do process and we can manage lots of information. But generally our clients are coming to us, so they don’t have to do all of that.

They want someone who’s gonna do it with them and make it a little bit easier, and you are thinking at that level so they don’t have to. So it’s really important that that shines through here. Okay, so if we know that that’s what we have to do, what [00:07:00] steps do we take to get there? When I went through my audit of how I got this extra client, this referral from onboarding.

I mapped out what I did to create that process, and there were six things. If I sum it all up, there are about six things. And it’s a really great way to get started if you don’t have something in place or you are looking to improve your onboarding experience right now. So the first one is to map out your onboarding process at a high level so we can get overwhelmed if we try and think too deeply, or we try and plan too many things at once.

So the first step is to put down the rocks. What are the [00:08:00] things that have to happen that may not be glamorous, but you know, they need to happen? So it might be, I need to get details for a work agreement. It might be I need to create the work agreement. I need to get the client to sign the work agreement.

I need to work out invoicing. I need to have a kickoff call. List out all of those things, and at this point it’s gonna be a little bit messy, and that’s fine because this is just our planning phase.

Once we’ve had a look at it, when it’s all mapped out in front of us, you should be able to see where you can reign it in a little bit, and you’ll also be able to identify which pieces are for you and which are for your clients. This is going to help you then inform your client what’s going to be needed from there.

So we are looking high level. Once you’ve done that, [00:09:00] group that process into a few stages. So it might be okay. First we do all of the administration piece, then we do a deep dive call, and then we start taking action. Once you’ve done that, because it’s a lot clearer now, right? There’s only three things your client needs to see that’s happening and that’s easy to consume, and it’s, they’re easy to understand what those things are because they’re general things.

Don’t forget that onboarding isn’t a really strange unfamiliar process no-one follows. We do onboarding in our lives on a regular basis. It’s just called all different things. So we wanna give them things that they can relate to and connect to. Once we’ve done that, we wanna turn those stages, those groups in your process into a marketing tool.

[00:10:00] So a really great way when you are onboarding is to do the pre-onboarding in your marketing. And so if you start talking about, Hey guys, I’m an OBM. I work with rockstar Empire Builders, and when I get a new lead in, this is what it looks like. We go through three main phases. The first one is to sort out all the admin, get our contracts in place so everybody is covered legally, and we don’t have to think about that anymore.

Then we create a plan through a deep dive call, and we get to know all the ins and outs. Of our clients’ business, we get to know each other a little bit better, and we set some goals so that we can always be headed in a strategic, purposeful direction. And then this is the best bit. This is when the magic happens.

We start getting things done. [00:11:00] See how now it’s a marketing pitch, but if someone hears that and then they come to work with you, They already know a little bit about what to expect, and they’re excited. It doesn’t feel scary. It doesn’t feel intimidating. You’ve already told them, and that’s before they’ve even contacted you.

So we wanna build it in and use it as a marketing tool. The third thing is to put your onboarding process on your sales page. So you can do it in three chunks like that you can break it down into a little bit more detail. You can turn it into a story, but the idea here is to show a visual kind of map something people can see and it’s another way that they can feel secure.

It’s another way to cement. This is what’s gonna happen. This is what I can [00:12:00] expect. It’s not scary. It’s easy. Three quick steps and we’re in. That feels great. And it’s a simple way to do it. It just takes a little bit of thought in how you wanna articulate or how you wanna phrase that process, and don’t overthink it.

Sometimes. Simple is all you need. The biggest objective here is to make sure it’s clear and understandable, because we wanna make it feel easy – and complex never feels easy. So once you’ve done your process map or your three stages or your story, put it on your sales page, ‘cos again, you’re using it to help nurture those leads in your marketing.

The fourth thing I did is I created minimal onboarding documents. I found [00:13:00] that. When I first was an OBM, I had all these different forms or all these different things that needed to be done. I had a work agreement. I had a client onboarding form, and I had an email that went out to get different information from the client.

I had a list of tools I was going to need access to, and I just found that it was a lot, each of the pieces were necessary. But to be getting four different emails or five different emails with all these different things that you have to do, it is overwhelming and it is confusing, and I didn’t like it. I never had a client complain about it, but I didn’t like it.

It felt messy for me, and that is not the kind of experience I wanted to deliver. So I looked at each of these pieces and I looked at the purpose of them. And then I looked at my process map of when things happen and why, to see what could be consolidated, [00:14:00] what could happen maybe a bit later or in a different way.

And I recreated it. And I tell you now, I ended up with a client onboarding, like deep dive form, and it takes my clients at least an hour to complete it. And I tell them that upfront and because I’ve told them, they go, they expect it to take that long. The feedback I get from that form is amazing. Every time it is,

Oh, that form made me really think. I had to really think. And then I thought well, why aren’t I doing this? And maybe I do need to do this. Because my time and energy has gone into that form and I ask specific things to get my clients thinking so they can get results at the same time is giving me all that information that I needed.

And so that’s [00:15:00] become a really successful thing, even though it seems like, oh, but I could have had five little things or one big thing. Mm. It’s a lot of time to invest in filling in a form. I have all these stories in my head of why it could be a bad idea, but it has worked really well, and it means that then there’s less admin for me, less admin for them, and it flows really well.

All right. Number five, once you’ve done all of those things, So we’re using our process in our marketing. We’re sharing our process as a visual on our sales page. We’ve streamlined our collection of information and we’re looking at our high level map of what our onboarding process [00:16:00] is. Now, we wanna consider.

What opportunities we might have missed. So if we’re looking at this process and we see, hmm, we do these three things and then there is a gap for 60 days. Yes, I’m being highly exaggerative. There’s a gap for 60 days that probably doesn’t feel very good. What can we do? To pull that 60 days forward. Can we take something out from later and bring it forward a little bit?

What makes sense for this to flow a little bit better? What things can I be saying at a different time? What could we be doing in a different way? How can we make our client feel really great? And part of it is the [00:17:00] “surprise and delight piece” is we want to factor in not only the process and those practical things that need to happen, but things that we put in purely to help our client and to make them feel valued and valuable.

And so for me, When I’m doing this and I’m looking at my own processes, I think about where along the onboarding journey we are, what our, what my clients might be thinking, feeling, and based on the service, what it is that might help them in their journey. 

 And then once we’ve highlighted all our gaps, considered our missed opportunities, created a plan to maybe fill some of those opportunities. The final thing we need to do is review our communication. Now, this is a big one. [00:18:00] Communication is something that I think goes wrong a lot of the time just because it’s not thought out well enough.

And it doesn’t take a lot to improve it and to clarify things and to make the journey smoother, which is the purpose of this. We wanna look at that map we’ve created. And look at the different kinds of communication we have, what we’re communicating, when we’re communicating it, and how we could do that better.

So maybe instead of if we’ve got five emails in a row, maybe we need to have a phone call somewhere in there, or maybe we can send a text message or maybe we can put that information into a beautiful brochure. How can we upgrade the experience and the communication and are we communicating clearly what’s going to happen next for [00:19:00] every step?

You are never going to go wrong by giving your client a heads up about what’s coming. So great. Thanks so much for sending me this. I’ll be in touch in three days so that we can book in our call where we’re going to go through all of our goals and objectives, and then we’re going to get started. So it is just about reminding them and keeping them up to date so that they don’t have to try and remember everything, or they don’t have to dig through their email to work out what’s going on and what happens next when if you can preplan it, it’ll be quite easy for you.

And then you implement that as a process and they will love it. Let me know if this has helped you with your onboarding process, and I would be really, really interested to hear how you go [00:20:00] when you are reviewing it all. Have you found some gaps? Has it given you a different perspective? You can find me on Instagram at Leanne Woff, on Facebook, on LinkedIn.

But yeah, connect. Say hi. Let me know how you’re going. I would love, love to know. Next week we’ll be back and we will be talking about creating an amazing client service delivery experience. Speak to you then. Bye.

 [00:21:00]