How to Foster Trust And Eliminate BS In Client Relationships
I talk a lot about the importance of building trust with your clients, in order to have great relationships.
Today, I’m going to share a really simple framework that you can use with all of your communication with clients, to ensure a great outcome at every step.
That way, you don't waste time on the BS that can happen when communication goes astray.
The right kind of communication
So, it’s February - the month of love and relationships!
And since we’re talking about how to build amazing client relationships - the kind of relationship where the client loves you and they trust you implicitly.
They sing your praises to everyone they meet, which is not only valuable to have projects that go off without a hitch, but it also leads to more profitable projects because you don't waste so much time and all the BS.
It's also a way to generate referrals organically - when clients love working with you and they get a great outcome at the end, they just can't help but tell their friends.
So today let's talk about communication.
If you're in or have ever been in a long-term relationship, you’ll know that communication is key.
Now, that might be true with a spouse, but it's true with anybody in your life and it's definitely true with clients.
But when it comes to managing projects, I find a lot of creatives rest on the wrong forms of communication that don't actually lead to the outcome we are looking for.
When you have great communication with a client, it will usually mean that the client is following your lead.
They usually won't communicate with you outside of the systems that you've already created, they usually won't go out of sight of your process and they usually won't question what's happening next.
But what I find is a lot of creatives go back to things like the contract.
I asked inside our free Facebook Group, No BS Agency Owners, (which you should totally join if you're not there yet) about revisions.
How many revisions do you give your clients? What do you do if they ask for more?
What I got back was a lot of comments saying…
‘Should I charge them more for those revisions?’
‘Should I let them have two or three revisions as per the contract?’
‘Do I send them the contract to remind them?’
There were a lot of comments about the contract.
And I used to do this too.
I remember that when I struggled with keeping clients in scope, I would always go back to the contract and try to get it more and more specific because I thought, ‘Okay, well, if at the beginning, I tell them that at every step, they only get two to three revisions, then I can keep them to that.’
The problem is, if a client needs more revisions because they're not happy with your work, and you say ‘Go to the contract’, it doesn't really feel good to the client, does it?
It doesn't really feel good to me as the service provider - I don't want them to stick with something that they aren't happy with.
And I certainly don't ever want to send a client back to a contract when we have a disagreement.
In fact, my philosophy is, if you're ever referring to the contract, it means your communication wasn't clear enough.
Yes, there is a contract. Yes, you have it signed. But it's really a legal document.
Everything that is important to a project should be communicated through a phone call, and documented in email.
Managing client meetings
And so this is the simple framework that I want you to think about applying to every communication you have with a client.
I like to think of it as bookends.
Anytime you speak to a client, whether it's for an official meeting, or an unofficial meeting, I like to book in a conversation.
The ‘book ends’ are ‘What is the purpose of the meeting?’ and ‘What is the outcome we are looking for?’
Be very clear in the beginning so that when you talk, you know what we're going for.
This also makes our meetings and phone calls much more efficient.
Okay, so we set up the meeting, then we have the meeting, right?
We might set up this meeting and say, ‘Hey, we're going to share the three logos that we're presenting to you.’
And I have a whole speech scripted out that I teach inside the No BS Agency Mastery Program for exactly what to say before you show three logos, so that clients are ready to pick one on the spot.
But suffice it to say, this speech beforehand really sets up the entire mindset of the client when they're going into this decision.
Then at the end of it, I recap the meeting, and tell them what the next steps are.
So as an example, when we do our BrandShrink, (our lead product), what's the first thing we do in our process?
Instead of a proposal, it's an interview, and then afterwards, we write a brief. After we deliver that brief, we have a phone call scheduled to go over the brief.
So I would use this framework on that phone call, I would start by opening the phone call and saying,
‘Okay, the purpose of this call is to go over the brief to get your questions answered to talk about next steps.’
Then we'll go through it and I'll get their feedback, I'll answer questions, then we'll talk about next steps at the end of the phone call.
If they've decided, ‘OK, we're moving forward’ I then tell them, ‘Here are the next steps, I'm going to send you an invoice, I'm going to send you a contract, you're going to sign them by this date, then you're going to get this onboarding package.’
And then I have to follow through on that exactly as I promised.
So I will then get off the phone, and I will send them that invoice and that contract.
And I will reiterate in the email ‘Hey, great talking to you. Here's what we discussed. Here's the dates that we agreed on. Here's the invoice and the contract, as promised. As I mentioned, here's when I need them back.’
And then we will take next steps - super clear, super specific. It's been said out loud and it's been reiterated in an email.
The framework for clear communication for agency work
You can use this formula or framework for every single interaction you have with a client. The importance of doing this is that at every point, the client has a written proof of what the next step is.
When you do this, especially when you're working with a client over a project, they will always know the next time that they need to do something, and the next time that they are going to hear from you.
That’s really important, because I found when I didn't do this, I would sometimes have clients reaching out to me saying, ‘Hey, when am I going to see that next piece of work?’ or, ‘You know, hey, I was thinking about this,’ or ‘I had a thought’ or ‘Blah, blah, blah…’
The reason that clients reach out to you with those thoughts is because they don't know when they're supposed to talk to you about them.
They don't know exactly when the next step is, they don't have a meeting on the calendar to discuss this, so they're just going to reach out to you.
In my experience running an agency that way, what I ended up doing is fielding these communications all the time.
You might think, ‘Oh, it’s just an email here and there - what's the big deal?’
Well, if you have a bunch of clients, and you have emails here and there, each email, even if it's short, is going to take 10-20 minutes.
Plus it's going to distract you from the other things you need to do and that time adds up.
And this is a No BS Agency blog post, so we're trying to eliminate all of that BS!
Great communication, where you are setting up expectations for every next step, clearly, both live on a phone call, and again in writing, is what is going to eliminate 99% of those extraneous communications.
It makes your communication clear, so that everybody's always on the same page moving forward, and it gets rid of the communication that you don't need.
That's total bullshit - we don't want to be having side conversations about ideas here and there. If there is a time and place for that, it should be in a meeting that has already been scheduled.
I shared different ways of doing this throughout the process of running a Lead Product interview, running the follow up conversation that upsells into higher paid projects, and of the Intensive itself.
In every meeting, we use this framework to move the process along, so that clients are always clear on what they're expected to do and when and what the next steps are.
I have found that when you really implement this framework at every step of the process, clients just relax into it.
They are so thankful that everything is clear, and they don't have to think about it.
They're much more likely to go with what you're telling them is the next step.
We as the clients don't want to micromanage this. We don't want to have to question things or run things. We want a confident leader who will manage them for us.
And the clearer you are in your communication, the easier it will be for us to trust you.
This is also just a great framework for communicating with anybody about anything like plans. Anytime you're making plans with friends, or with your spouse or with your family, you can always use this framework.
You don't have to be so professional about it, but if you think ‘Hey, we're sitting down at a family meeting to talk about our vacation, we're gonna brainstorm places we want to go by the end of it, and let's pick three things that we want to explore.’ And then this will be the next steps.
You are going to be much more efficient in your execution of all things in your life.
You can frame all of your communications in this 3-step process, and implement this at different stages of the process.
And this is one thing that I go into in great detail inside the No BS Agency Mastery Program for 1-2 person branding agencies looking to scale up to $30k- $50k months without a bloated team.
If that's something you're looking to do in 2024, go to nobsagencies.com/apply. Tell us a little bit about your business and hop on a call with my team and see if now is the time for you to jump in and take your business to the next level.
Here’s what you need to get…
Building trust and eliminating BS in client relationships starts with a simple framework that lets you lead the conversation at every stage of the branding project.
Not only that, but it also makes your work progress much more easily and efficiently and makes your projects way more profitable.
P.S. You can always jump on a call with my team if you want to level up your client communications, and learn all my other tools and strategies to scale up your agency - just go here to get started!