Systemize Client Acquisition
Setting up SOPs and systemizing as much of your processes as possible is essential to business success. It is not reasonable or helpful to reinvent the wheel every time a job needs to be done. There are many different ways to do this onboarding but most client acquisition processes look something like this (and this is how I apply it to my business): 1. The initial interest - When a client shows interest in services, I ALWAYS focus on disqualifying them as fast as possible. Do NOT waste time on clients that cannot be clients or are less likely to become clients. There are a few ways to do this. For most businesses, having some sort of a request form or contact form for the client to input their data and request to have someone reach out is very helpful. In the form, you can implement practices to gather information and ask qualifying questions. For my business, the 3 major questions to book a discovery call is "Tell me more about your business and provide links for your website and all your social media pages", "What are your goals for your business and what do you hope to gain from working together (be specific)", and "what is your budget for monthly services and/or 1 time services?". Once they answer these and I know I have services within the budget that align with their goals and needs, then I answer the request to book the discovery call. If I don't think I can accomplish what they want within their expectations and within their budget, then I will let them know that we are likely not a good fit and refer them to someone that would be a better fit. 2. The discovery call - The discovery call is the opportunity to go more in depth about the business, learn about what the client has done or tried, more specifically what their needs will be and what exact services would be best, get a feel for the personality to see if it's a good fit from a personality perspective, and pitch services based on need and budget. If the client wants to move forward, then we go onto the next step.