It's easy to talk about running a business. But often, it feels more like running in several directions at once.
While it's easy to think of your business as one huge project, it's actually a mix of distinct, concurrent processes, all of which need to be optimized individually in order for the whole business to work as it should and as you want it to. It's important to be able to break the pieces apart mentally, pinpoint the areas that are slowing you down or need work, and then take specific steps to get each phase of your business running like a well-oiled machine.
Today, we'll look at this through the lens of the client funnel. How do interested prospects come into your world? How do you convert them into appointments and ultimately clients? How do you deliver ongoing value and then continually generate referrals?
In total there are seven distinct phases on the path clients take as they move through your business. Each comes with its own set of demands and opportunities. In this post we'll look at all seven phases, so you can hone in on the areas that need your attention right now.
Phase 1: Attracting traffic
If you're going to acquire new clients, you've got to attract them first. It's critical to have a strategy for attracting new, interested prospects, because everything starts here. If you don't have enough new leads, appointments or clients coming into your business, you may have a traffic problem.
Now let's be clear, spending thousands of dollars on direct mail is not a traffic strategy. Blasting hundreds of radio ads per month isn't either. Those are tactics, and while they may be useful inside of a strategy, they're at best only one component of a fully defined traffic strategy. Again, everything starts with traffic. It's the first phase that must be working in your business when building your marketing plan.
Phase 2: Lead generation
You may think attracting traffic and capturing leads are the same thing. They're not. Attracting traffic is fairly easy compared to capturing leads. And this is often where we see a breakdown.
You can spend a lot of money on various tactics to generate lots of traffic, but to capture leads, you need strong messaging, visuals and calls to action, and you need to put them in the right media to ensure your message is in front of the prospects.
So what's your lead capture strategy? If you're not sure, then you may not have one.
Turning leads into clients requires a process and strategy around communication and selling. (Photo: iStock)
Phase 3: Lead development
Once you're attracting traffic and capturing leads consistently, predictably and at an acceptable cost per lead, it's time to nurture and develop those leads. We often use the example of a buying temperature scale to illustrate this point.
If, for example, we hypothetically assign every lead a buying temperature of somewhere between 1 and 10, (1 being cold, 10 being ready to buy today) we need to have a strategy for "warming them up" and increasing their buying temperature over time.
For example, someone who becomes a lead but is just beginning the search for what you offer may need much more nurturing than someone who's already a 9 or 10. Someone at 9 or 10 is ready to make a decision today. And while most of us have built our business around 9s and 10s while ignoring everyone else, automation makes a better way possible.
Let's say you spend thousands on a marketing campaign, generate a few dozen leads and close only a few. What happens to the rest? Do you mentally throw the rest away, ruling them out as bad leads?
Hopefully not, as they represent tremendous amounts of opportunity. Just the fact that they've already responded makes them a 3 or 4 on the scale, at least. Your job is to put systems in place to develop them and move them up the buying temperature scale over time. You neeed a lead development strategy.
Phase 4: Converting leads into clients
If you're like many financial advisors, you're not too worried about what your prospects will experience once they walk through your door. Most prospects presume that you know what you're talking about, and that you'll do a good job helping them implement the right plan. In fact, the consulting experience may not be the key thing that differentiates your practice. For many clients, products are products and plans are plans, and it's all a bit over their heads.
