When we think about the buyer’s journey, the path often ends when the prospect signs the contract.  However, as advisors, engaging and deepening your relationship with your clients is an ongoing process -- since clients can be repeat buyers, they’re always on the buyer’s journey. It’s your job to keep the ideas coming (proactive), even when the client isn’t asking for anything (reactive). So, it’s important for you to be able to continue anticipating their needs and their journey as a client so you can continue providing value after the initial period of engagement. If your buyer’s journey map ends when the prospect becomes a client, it’s time to re-frame your thinking and develop a client journey that helps you serve clients over the life of the relationship.

If your firm faces challenges like these, it’s probably time to give some thought to your client journey:

• You’ve become pigeonholed. Prospects and clients think you only do one thing, say tax returns. They have no idea you also provide advisory and wealth management services.
• Your clients would be happy to work with you again, but now that you’ve drafted their will, they probably won’t need you again until the next major life event. But if your firm does work for small businesses, real estate or offers mediation services, you can make sure they know they can turn to you in a variety of situations.
• Your clients are content, but you sense you’re in a bit of a rut with their monthly ongoing engagement.
• You know that maintaining an ongoing relationship with your financial advisor can help your clients meet their long-term goals, but it can be crickets from clients unless the market crashes or they can’t find a form in their portal. Anticipating their needs along the way will put your clients at ease and deepen your relationship.

The Benefits

Providing high-value service to your clients on an on-going basis certainly takes work, but it’s worth it!  Proactively addressing your client’s long term needs will help maximize the lifetime value of that client. Developing these deeper client relationships will shape your brand and set you apart in the marketplace and within your niche. Down the line, your pricing model may also change to align with the ongoing, regular value you provide, and a recurring monthly fee or subscription service might make sense for you. For firms providing excellent value to their clients, these alternative pricing models can increase profit margins. 

The Basics of Nurturing Your Client’s Journey

Not sure where to get started? Start with the essentials: 

• Send monthly newsletters with blog posts highlighting all of the different services you offer, a bit of firm news and a callout on current events that may impact your client’s industry or business, and share your articles on LinkedIn. Create a newsletter they will want to open each month! Keeping your eyes on the news and maintaining awareness of issues that matter to your clients will help shape your outreach and service offerings overtime. 
• Become intentional about client outreach and networking. Use your CRM to put clients on an outreach schedule. Some might get check-ins twice a year, while others are once a month. Taking the time to listen to your clients and getting to know their business will accomplish two things. First, it will give you a more clear understanding of their goals, and inspire ideas for how you can help achieve them, particularly if you know you want something to bring to the table for those meetings. Second, the more you are at the table, the more the client will see you as an integral member of their team. 

Creating Your Map

Already doing the basics? You may be ready to develop a sophisticated client journey map. 

It’s easy to assume you know what your clients are looking for and when. However, that’s the mindset that can lead to the waiting by the phone scenario. Instead, collect data from your clients to help create a full picture of how you’re serving them. You can do this yourself, or work with an outsourced marketing provider, which may encourage clients to be more candid. 

Start by creating a few lists. The first should be your best clients who you regularly engage with, and those who have been with you for a few years. You will want to ask them questions that explore why they chose to continue to work with you, what problems you solve, times when you really came through for them, and the turning points at which they chose to do more work with you. Understanding the events leading up to that decision will be crucial for developing your plan.

The next should be clients who only use one of your services or work with you infrequently. You will want to find out how much they know about your other services, other problems they currently face in their business and how they have chosen to address those issues. If they are going to other firms for solutions you could provide, that will be useful to know as you create your map.

Third, if you choose to work with an outside group, they can reach out to “the ones who got away.” If one of your clients actively chose not to go with your services and is working with a different firm for a solution you could provide, knowing why they went that route could be useful as well.

After you’ve conducted your interviews, it’s time to look for patterns. When are you consistently re-engaging clients for additional services or extending your current contract? What were the touchpoints that those clients received in that process? When did clients fall off and leave or look for other service providers? Were there points when you “ghosted” them instead of pursuing more work?

Putting it All Together

Now that you know what your clients need in order to do more with you, this is where your experience and knowledge comes in. Being able to anticipate the various phases of the client engagement means that you will be able to bring them the right idea at the right time. Whether it’s a suggestion that will make a difference in the work you are already doing, or advising them on additional ways you can help them reach their goals, having a plan for your client’s journey with your firm will give you the advantage of being ahead of the curve, rather than waiting for them to ask for things, or worse yet, be too late to sufficiently implement a great idea. It will also give you direction for where to spend your time when it comes to developing new solutions and services.

Conclusion

Knowing what your clients need before they do is the crystal ball of professional services. Just remember, it’s data and experience, not magic. If you’re wondering how you can provide better service, extend the life of client engagements and cross-sell more services, let’s talk! Contact me today.