Client Engagement Strategy

Episode 102: Client Engagement Strategy, with Jamie Shibley

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Client engagement strategy must be established to allow better conversions. Learn from Jamie Shibley on developing your own client engagement strategy.

I am so thrilled Jamie Shibley joins this episode of Sell With Authority for an encore interview. Jamie is the CEO of The Expressory, a strategic gifting agency that believes the key to accelerating your business growth and profitability relies on your ability to effectively nurture meaningful relationships through your client engagement strategy.

Also joining this episode is Hannah Roth, Mad Scientist and Strategist here at Predictive. We dive into the critical world of nurturing client relationships and the artful science behind measuring the impact of your touchpoints. Jamie brings to the table her proven spreadsheet strategy for tracking engagement that’s skyrocketed results to an incredible 80% engagement rate.

We also pull back the curtain on how to understand the goldmine hidden within your prospect list. Jamie shares key insights on the importance of knowing not just who’s on your list, but who they really are — their goals, ambitions, and what lights their fire.

We tackle how to create emotional bonds that not only cut down the sales process — but build unshakeable trust.

Don’t miss the chance to transform your client engagement strategy with Jamie’s expertise!

What you will learn in this episode about client engagement strategy:

Constraints agency owners face when trying to nurture right-fit prospects
Where to start when building a list of right-fit prospects
The most important things to know about your right-fit prospects to help you stand out from the sea of sameness
How to get the attention of your right-fit-prospects
Why crafting a process for client engagement strategy ensures consistency and scalability
How to measure the ROI of strategic engagement

Resources:

Additional Resources:

Website: www.predictiveroi.com
Visit our newly expanded Resource Library
Join us in our free How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline Facebook Group
Read more about client engagement strategy from this Predictive ROI blog

Client Engagement Strategy: Full Episode Transcript

Welcome to the Sell With Authority podcast. I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI, and my team and I created this podcast specifically for you. So if you’re an agency owner looking to sell more of what you do so you can grow a thriving, profitable shop that can weather the constant change that seems to be our world’s reality, then you’re in the right place.

Do you want proven strategies for attracting a steady stream of well prepared, right fit prospects into your sales pipeline? Yep, we’re going to cover that. You want to learn how to step away from the sea of competitors. So you actually stand out on the ground you’re standing on. Yeah. We’re going to cover that too. Do you want to futureproof your business so you can navigate that next challenge that you know is going to come your way? Absolutely. We will help you there as well.

I promise you, each episode of this podcast will contain valuable insights and tangible examples of best practices. Never theory from thought leaders, experts, owners who have done exactly what you’re working hard to do. So I want you to think practical and tactical. Never any fluff. Each of our guests, who built a position of authority and then monetized that position by growing their audience by nurturing leads and yes, by converting sales.

But all the while, they did it by being helpful. So every time someone from their audience turned around, they were given a helpful answer to an important question so their prospects never, ever felt like they were a prospect. I also promise you, every strategy that we discuss, every tool we recommend, will be shared in full transparency in each episode.

So you can plant your flag of authority so you can claim your ground and fill that sales pipeline with a steady stream of right fit clients.

Client Engagement Strategy: Following the Story Methodology

Okay, so before I introduce you to our special guest expert today, I want to take a moment to tee up today’s topic and some of the constraints. The given, the way. However, when they’re solved, when the constraints are solved, it will be like you just poured lighter fluid on your biz dev activities.

But first, there’s this misunderstanding. One of the most erroneous statements about authority marketing is that it only serves the top of your sales funnel. And we could not disagree more. Yes, if you produce random pieces of content and push that content out onto social channels, the top of the funnel statement might be accurate, but you’re not going to do that.

Instead, if you follow the sell, what’s the story methodology that Drew McLellan and I document in our book? You’ll be providing incredible value for your prospects throughout their entire buyer’s journey. Whether that takes a day or a decade. Now I can hear you thinking, Holy bananas, Steve, in a day or a decade, this could take forever. I need some new clients.

I can’t wait for those skittish prospects to take years to need our help. Well, some good news. That’s what your dream 25 strategy will solve. It’s the accelerant in your business strategy at the dream 25 stage. And the sales funnel, you get very specific about prospects, and then you ramp up your efforts. That’s why you can’t have more than 25 prospects at this stage at any one time.

I don’t care how big your agency is or how many people you have working on biz dev. For this strategy to work, it requires persistence and personalization, and no agency can do that well for more than 25 of your hottest prospects. But even though the dream 25 strategy can be the wind in your biz dev sales, I will tell you when we begin working with an agency to help them sell more of what they do, it is incredibly rare that the agency is already working on a dream list of prospects.

Client Engagement Strategy: The Five Constraints

Instead, we typically talk through five constraints. Or, if you want to call them justifications, why they haven’t yet built their dream 25 list. So I’m going to share the five with you now and then. I promise you, during this episode we’re going to help you get past each one. Okay, so here we go. Constraint number one. The agency doesn’t have a list of rights.

So prospects because building the list is time consuming and they don’t know where to start. Constraint number two is the agency does have a list of right fit prospects. They typically don’t know anything about the prospects on the list. Constraint number three the agency is unsure how to get the attention of the right fit prospects. Constraint number four the agency doesn’t have a process for creating strategic engagement with their right fit prospects and then bringing us home here.

Constraint number five the agency is unsure what and how to measure the impact of their efforts. So here’s the reality. And I know that you already know this. But to get around, over, under and all through these constraints, you and your team need a plan that maps out the 6 to 8 touchpoints a year that you will use to stay in front of your dream prospects by sharing something helpful in every single thing that you share with your dream prospects should answer this question.

How can I help my prospects be better at their job today? Whatever you send should be personalized with a handwritten note from you and be spot on in terms of targeting. And when you do that, and when you do it well and when you’re consistent, you will make yourself an easy yes, because I’m telling you, very few, if any of the agencies you’re competing against will do this work.

Client Engagement Strategy: Jamie Shibley’s Introduction

So to help us build that plan for how to create strategic engagement, that makes you an easy yes. I invited Jamie Shibley, CEO of The Expressory to come back for an encore interview in full transparency, everyone. If you’ve ever received anything from predictive in the mail, it was most likely curated, packaged and shipped by Jamie and her team of engagement experts.

They’ve been incredibly helpful to our team, and I’m looking forward to Jamie sharing more of her insights with you so you can then sell more of what you do. I also invited Hannah Roth, our math scientist and strategists here at Predictive, because Hannah works in the trenches every single day alongside our clients, helping them fill their sales pipeline with a steady stream of well prepared, right fit prospects.

I promise you, if you take and apply the insights and wisdom Jamie and Hannah share with you during this episode, you will roar through 2024. Okay, so without further ado, welcome to the Sell with Authority podcast, Jamie and Hannah.

Client Engagement Strategy: Topics to Cover in This Episode

Yeah. Hey, thank you Ellie, I’m so excited about today’s episode. Just excited to dig into the topics. These constraints are things that we hear over and over again.

And these constraints are problems that Jamie solves every day with her team. So, I just can’t wait to hear her insights, and get her smarts around how to serve your prospects throughout the entirety of the sales funnel. So I think that’s a big point that we’re going to cover today. Well. And it was almost like I felt like I just wanted to take that whole intro and I can put that on my website and like, sell it for me.

And like, you guys get it. It was a robust intro, but, you know, all true. So and this is, you know, from the conversations that we’ve had with you and from your brain and you’re smart. So excited to dive in. So, Jamie, I know you’ve been on the show before. So we don’t want to, you know, ask you to kind of add to the intro.

We know you’re on episode 24, so if any of our listeners want to go back and listen to, you know, a little bit more about you and what you do in The Expressory and things like that. Please check out episode number 24. It’s a great episode. So, with that, I know we have a lot to cover today, so if it’s okay with you, Jamie and Stephen, I would love to just go ahead and dive into that very first constraint.

Client Engagement Strategy: Building a List of Right Fit Prospects

So, awesome. So the first constraint, as Stephen mentioned, is that most agencies don’t have a list of right fit prospects because building a list is time consuming and they don’t know where to start. And we see this all the time. They have this idea in their head of clients that maybe they like or maybe clients in the past that they’ve served.

Well, but kind of extrapolating that and taking that forward to curate a list of right fits feels daunting to them. And Jamie, I know that you are an expert at doing this. You do this all the time for your clients. So, my question for you is where do you start and how can our listeners know where to start and what to do and what that process even looks like?

Yeah, but it’s funny because you said in the intro, Stephen said it’s very rare that they actually have the list. Right? And that’s what we find too. Clients line up to work with us and say, okay, we want to go down this path. We want to develop a system to nurture those prospects.

Okay, great. Where’s your list? We don’t have a list. Crickets. Right. Yeah. Yeah. And you’re right. You know, half the time it’s because they don’t know where to start. I think I think as agency owners, we’re so used to it coming to us, and then we’re so busy, right. Managing and doing all the work to be good at serving them that then we let this piece go by the wayside.

And so where do you start? We’ve already established that we’re looking at a list of because one of the first things we’ll tell you is, okay, what category of relationships, when it comes to these prospects. So we’ve established that what we’re going to go after, the first thing we’ll say is what are your typical right fit clients?

What do they look like? Give us an example of your favorite one to work with. Right. And let’s use them to look alike. You know, we’ll start with a simple LinkedIn like sales, the sales navigator tool. Let’s go through each of the parameters in a search there based on that client that you already told us, it’s one of your right fit, is probably one of your top clients.

Let’s plug those into Field Navigator and see what fits back out. And let’s start with that as a list. Right. And usually we will develop a list. We’ll let it run something more than 25, because then we want you to take that list back, and we want you to sit with that.

Right. The information we can glean just from that first view and rule out do any of those maybe not make sense? Maybe someone on the team has once worked with them, you know, something about them. And let’s just start rolling some stuff out, right? Because from there, we’re going to go deep. But really, it’s funny because and I will admit, back when we were, you know, first growing this was hard for me too.

I didn’t have my own list. And we’ve worked really hard to get our own, and it’s a really exciting time when you can do that, but we follow the same process for ourselves. We just take that simple action of actually going in and starting again.

Client Engagement Strategy: Choosing Your Ideal Clients

So Jamie, as you’re sorting that out and you’re starting to look through or look for criteria.

And you mentioned they look alike. I think it’s really smart. Right. Like sometimes we can get stuck or spare wheels in the mud. And in going back to the point about the look alike and really, truly thinking about, you know what, when we worked with these three, 4 or 5 clients, or maybe it was just two, it was not just that they had the right budget to, you know, that we could be helpful, but it was like working with them felt like a joy, right?

It felt like a great joy for our team. It was awesome to work with them. Maybe they pushed us, maybe we pushed them. We grew together and just snapped back and forth. It was just a wonderful, wonderful relationship. So I think this is a really important point that teasing out here when you mentioned the look alike, because it’s really easy to get kind of stuck in sort of the demographic aspects of it all and then go into things like you mentioned, Sales Navigator and finding these bits and pieces and stuff, but like the relationships where you really had that connection and there was a really awesome tension and you really grew as a result of that. Like, that’s super important too, right? Right.

And you know, I think some of this work, the going deeper comes in with the second challenge that you raised, but usually those demographics and stuff that, you know, about those clients give us enough of a starting point to then start to go into what was it that you liked about those top clients, right where you feel that great connection and like, bring up two when you are choosing your look alike.

Yeah. Would you have words for this even when you pick your Dream 25. Any one of those clients who actually if they become a client they should represent what percentage of your business. Yeah. It’s a great question. And I can’t lay claim to this. This is something that we actually learn from Drew, during his Money Matters workshop.

But 5 to 10%, no less than five, no more than ten. So you’re not looking for guerrilla clients, but no less than five so that they are, from a financial perspective, this is going to sound really crass, but you’ll know what I mean from a financial perspective, that it’s worth the sort of spearfishing effort that you’re going to put in.

So 5 to 10% of total revenue is what they should represent your total revenue. Exactly. And so if you start from that place and you analyze your client to find that look like that represents your top 5% it is. And then you go into the tail navigator and you put in the demographics and you answer all those questions and get another list.

That’s your starting point, right? That’s where we’re jumping off. Perfect. I love that, Jamie. And I want to point out another just really insightful thing that you said, is that when you, you know, establish this list, I think that some people get stuck in thinking that it has to be perfect right away. So they have to have 25.

It has to be perfect. Like they have to have all these criteria. But I think, you know, one of the things that you said that I loved is that you start with more than 25 and then you weed them out, because I think that sometimes there’s power in finding out ten of what you don’t want or those criteria that you’re like, oh, that’s actually not a right fit.

Sometimes that helps people narrow it down intentionally versus just thinking, oh my gosh, I have to find 25 right away and they have to be perfect and that has to be it. So I think that having a bigger list, allowing yourself the space to brainstorm and then narrowing it down based on, you know, certain criteria that come up from actually doing that exercise, I think is so powerful.

Client Engagement Strategy: Going Deeper into The List

So I didn’t want to move on to the second aspect without highlighting that. Well, thank you. And because that brings up, let me share some real examples of this because I think it starts to make it very clear it gets easier. Okay. So the list you’re going to start with is perfect for now. Write it in whatever it is, whatever form it is.

But I promise you that when you get that Sales Navigator list and you start to pull just those basic facts so that you can sit with the list of how, you know, let’s say 30, 40, it raises questions right there that starts helping you, making you think deeper. So, we had one of our clients that, well, we want to serve this particular region, the north northern area of the state.

And so we go and we pull based on revenue and employee size. And in the northern part of the state. And as soon as they look at it, they say, oh, first of all, this revenue size, let’s just get rid of those right now. And then also, you know what? No. And they actually gave us a map and they’re like, this is the area we want you to serve.

Right. So now we had to go down even deeper and we’re pulling them out. We had another client that when you start to sort the initial list based on type of industry, it was very clear. Ooh, you know what? We should also say no, we don’t want this type of company. And they could quickly see where to with that list.

So just that initial research is going to start to form more questions that are going to be valuable for this process. Yeah. That’s great. That is really great. So when we were bantering back and forth a couple of minutes ago, I don’t know if it was, I was so excited to get into constraint number two, because it’s so important. They’re all important.

Client Engagement Strategy: Developing A New Relationship with A Client and Nurturing It

But let’s go a little bit deeper now into number two, which is that even if they do have a list, they typically don’t have or don’t know much about the prospects on the list, and I’ll and I will, kind of hook this back into just a few weeks ago when you really pulled our cookies out of the fire and we had, like this urgent thing I’m texting you early that Friday morning.

I’m not saying everybody got a text on early Friday mornings. But I’m texting you really early Friday morning and I’m like, oh my gosh, I got this idea and I want us to send this thing and then you started asking me questions about the prospective client. And I knew those answers. And you’re like, oh, look at that.

You know, you’ve got some good contacts there. And then you put together this really amazing package and, and whatnot. And that was incredibly helpful for, you know, us in developing a new relationship and nurturing that further. So how should an agency go about finding out the things that you need to know? Because your team are engagement ninjas, but they need some data points too, right?

But it’s funny because I think if people think, all right, now I’ve got this list and I have to nurture them. So off we go. All right. And that might work. You might get a few. You’re in there. Right. But it’s not enough just to know that address in a contact okay. If you want to be strategic about this there are some frameworks we have to work with here.

And so this is the point where our team takes this list. And we go deep into learning more about those companies. All right. And we’re looking for some specific things. And I’m going to share one of the frameworks we work with when we design thoughtful touch points that are going to nurture these relationships to even have the basis, the foundation of a relationship, a person needs to know that you understand them.

They need to feel that you validate what’s important in their world. Number two, what are their goals? What are their ambitions, what’s important to them. And number three, they need to feel like you care, have to see you. You are showing that okay. And so the reason we go deep and we start researching these companies is so that when we reach out to them, we can show them, we understand you, we understand what’s important.

And growing your business. Yeah. And we care. We want to help. Even if you aren’t a client of ours yet. All right.

Client Engagement Strategy: Learn About the Business In-Depth

So we go and we start looking at different platforms. Now that we’ve got a list, we’re going to take a look at their website. We’re going to take a look at LinkedIn, both on the business front and the person’s LinkedIn page.

We’re going to look at social feeds for their company and maybe even the owners or some of the key contacts. We’re going to look at Instagram. We’re going to look at the different places that the company has a presence. And we’re searching for some key things. All right. So we’re going to look at what the goals of that company are.

And if you can’t get to the company level sometimes industry level will help us okay. What does that company value and mission? What do they stand for? What causes are important to them? So if I look on Facebook, do you see them posting about their team, you know, as they’ve been out building habitat for humanity homes. They’ve contributed to this certain cause.

Do you see the owner posting about being part of certain nonprofits, those kinds of things? Okay, what awards do they want? Maybe it’s their people or the company. What conferences do they attend? Do they have what podcast webinars are they authors? What topics do they teach? What are their hobbies or interests that people, for instance, we notice that some company, they had Halloween cup, costume contest, they had holiday, you know, office decorating party.

I mean, you can see. So they’re competitive. Some teams had, there was one company who had Olympic games on the beach, like, okay, you I mean, you get a sense for who these people are. And if you see where I’m going now, what we always do when we’re doing our research, we tell people, you get bonus points if you get fined.

Three other noteworthy things of interest about the company or the people. Okay. And you see, what we’re doing is that because all of the information is going to later feed the things you’re going to do to reach out to them? Yeah, I love this. Jamie. Well, first I just want to say that if you know, if you ever want to join the CIA, I think you’d be a perfect candidate for.

If I think about it, she’s an intelligence officer, is what you’re saying, right? Exactly. I think Jamie’s, you know, got a secret identity here. Maybe this talk is for good. Yes. No. But in all seriousness, I think this is incredible. Everything that you just said, because, as Stephen mentioned, I work with agency owners every day. That’s what we do.

That’s who we serve here, Predictive. And typically they’re very knowledgeable about awareness. And obviously they love to close sales. But it’s always this kind of middle of the funnel nurture that they aimlessly wander. They don’t know what to do. They don’t know how to find the information. They don’t even know what information is good. So then they fall into this kind of generic loophole, or this generic cycle of sending like, oh, well, you know, we know their birthday.

Client Engagement Strategy: Taking Action After Gathering Information

Yeah. Okay, cool. So does every other, you know, business out there that’s trying to court them or nurture them. But what you just talked about, I mean, talking about their values, their mission, what’s important to them, the causes they support, and then the inferences that you make. So you even take that a step further. Not only are you gathering the info, the intel, but you’re taking that a step further to make inferences that actually make a difference.

And I think that is so powerful and awesome and such a great guide for our listeners. You know, so they don’t have to aimlessly wander through the nurture process for their prospects. And, it’s just awesome. So after you do all of those things, obviously you want to take action on it. And I think that this leads into constraint number three for our audience and our listeners is that they don’t always know how to get the attention of their right.

So prospect. So if you’re in, you know, a highly competitive field or a highly competitive market, we know, you know, sometimes healthcare is a competitive market. And it’s like, you know, there’s different people vying for our attention all the time. Sales and marketing has always been a fight for people’s eyes, time and attention. And so, how do you kind of take all of that intel that you’ve gathered and those inferences that you’ve made and orchestrate them into something that actually gets the attention of a right set prospect?

This is where the fun comes in for me, right? Like, now you’ve gathered all of this information and as you said, every day we are all faced with 10,000 or more brand messages. And if we looked at our screen right now, there are so many brands represented all over our balls. The things we wear everywhere. People are being trained just by the nuisance of it all to block it.

Right. And so how are you really getting attention anymore from these people you want to report? There was also a study from the postal service that sells physical mail. Yes, it’s making a comeback, but because what they find is that something tangible in hand triggers the part of the brain that triggers emotion. And so it is related to perceived value.

So if I have something in my hand and it triggers that emotion, I automatically believe you are of higher value and worth my time. So that is why for us, we’re going to lean heavier when we’re designing touch points. And how can you get something in these people’s hands to capture their attention? Okay. And then I pull back that framework of and you’re going to do so from the lens of I see you.

I understand you. I find value in what is important to you, right? I validate you and I care. And then the next framework we bring in is something we call, strategic storylines. And so when we create a, or we design an experience, what is the story that is crafted about what is going into their hands?

Client Engagement Strategy: Creating an Emotional Bond

So this is why, you know, I will give you an example, hold on that this is why we bring in all of these facts that we’re working on. So for instance, one of my favorites, when we were doing some of the research, one of my favorite companies, what we found is that they had recently gone through some rebranding. And her logo with one of those Karen’s, those stones.

Is that what you call it? Right where it’s the stack of stone. And her whole thing was about well-being. They believed that there was a balance between your finances and your future and your well-being. Okay. I was in love with that branding because there’s so much we can do with that. She cares, we care.

We care that she wants our clients. Right? So there’s so many levels of well-being. So if we send her, if you create experiences that reflect what’s important to her, you’re automatically creating that emotional bond. You’re getting attention because she’s paying attention. Well, this person Tommy, they see what we’re up to and it gives them a story.

Because look at what this company just sent me. Right. And now this physical thing is going to sit there. And at some point when they’re ready to reach out, they’re going to remember you and connect with you, and you’ve shown up for them. Now, it’s not the only thing we’re going to stand over time. I’m going to send her other helpful things, because I also know that in her industry, they struggle with client engagement.

Right. So we might send them research or books or things like that to help them with their own work, that their own, you know, learning that they’re trying to do. We also found some research. I’m just sorry. There’s a lot of passion here. So we kind of all over what you were saying when you asked.

Client Engagement Strategy: Love Language in Business

All right. We have this list. We know this stuff, but how do we really get their attention? We know that this is one of the top challenges for people. Have you ever heard of the five love languages? Right? Yes. So to love languages, it’s life changing. I feel. And so there’s a way that you like to receive, and there’s also a way you like to give or show love.

Right. And I was talking and there’s some research that shared that when it comes to what love language is the hardest for you to express? People believe that gift giving is the top one that’s hard for them to express, and words are the toughest one for words of affirmation. Okay, so that’s your top two. And what’s funny is that that is the top two things people ask us to do for them.

And that is what this is all about, is how do you create an experience that reflects you understanding this person and you say the things that show them you care. Yeah. And you want to support them so that you build the trust it takes for them to give you an at bat. It’s so good, it’s a lot of stuff, but it’s also really great.

As far as building the foundation of the plan and like when you and I. Jamie, when we first started working on this together, for the betterment of Predictive. And we were talking about like, one thing in the overall strategy and you really helped bring our vision to life in that was like, you were so in sync with our desire that when somebody opened the box that their first reaction would be, oh yeah, oh, yes.

Oh, wow. Because going back to your point of saying you understand them, you validated what’s important, to them in their world, they see that you care. And you can only do that when you truly know someone, when you’ve truly taken the time to curate something just for them. It’s not about buying a thousand of these and smacking a stamp on it and sending it out.

It’s true, when they open the box and they go and they can’t wait to like, take a picture, post on social media and like bring their teammates into the office to say, can you believe what I just got? Right? Okay, so this has been really, really great. But my guess is some of our audience is saying, that sounds like a crazy bag of cats.

What’s the process for this? So, if you could share some insights around the process because that was the fourth constraint. The agency doesn’t have a process for creating strategic engagement. So then it just doesn’t get done. They might have the ideas but then they don’t. They’re consistently inconsistent in how they execute it.

Client Engagement Strategy: Bonus Example On The Process

So can you give us some advice on the process? Yes. If I can also give you one more example. Oh okay. Because I got a bonus example. Yeah. Bonus. We’re going to whine away because I go to your wow thing. Just to remind me. So in our own world when it comes to process, we welcome new clients with a welcome gift. Okay. And we sent this particular client, they’re two partners in the business.

And we sent them. They each got, gift of a set of grill smoking kits for grilling. Okay. And do you know those meat brands, right where you can brand your steaks? Okay, we got them a branding iron that was custom made with Elvis signature. So they can stamp me to give Elvis the signature. Now, here’s why.

Because what we knew in the conversation with these guys, they’re Elvis fanatics. They, you know, they subscribe to they’ve been to all the places. They collect things that it’s important and it’s a known story with their clients and the people they do business with. They will send Elvis cards. They do all this stuff. Okay. So when we try to figure out, well, how do we send something meaningful to them or ideas that reflect how we understand their world.

We knew we wanted something with Elvis, but what we also knew is we remember listening to them argue about food, okay. And one doesn’t like natural no sugar. It shouldn’t be this, it shouldn’t be that. But what they both agreed on was meat. And so we said, well, they know, we know they like meat.

Something fun and unique with meat in the branding iron. And let’s talk velvet. What could get right. So we tell them that the whole package is welcome, blah blah blah. And they emailed us and they said, I just want to know, how did you get to that? The other we had no idea, but the guy is a, he does woodwork.

And that same branding iron can, you know, obviously damp wood. And so he was blown away. And then, the discussion of the process for getting there. Boy did they listen. And they’re like, this is why we hired you. Because we want to know how you get there? Like, did you tell them that you’re an intelligence officer for the CIA?

Think right. You know, you have woodworking. But, you know, if we say CIA a few more times and we’re going to pick up some government listeners. But anyway, I digress. I think we have one right here with us as our guest. Oh, that’s right, he’s our guest today. Jimmy should be on it until it says Intelligence officer level five.

Yep, yep. She can neither confirm nor deny. No, I can. We’re going to have to move on. No. So when we talk about processes. Yeah, right there is the way and the reason we do all this research and we do this live and then we we’ll look at scheduling these touch points is because there is a way we want you to do this once and then be able to just apply the next lift every year.

Client Engagement Strategy: Being Thoughtful and Helpful to Your Client Every Now and Then

Okay. So once we have the combined intelligence that we’ve now gathered when it comes to prospect nurturing, as you heard Stephen say in the intro, you want to look at over the course of a year, let’s say seven touchpoints every seven weeks, okay? Every seven weeks, something needs to be in front of them. It can be a combination of digital and physical and should be, but no matter what it is, you need to be thoughtful that it is helping them in some way, validating something you know about them that’s important to them, or showing that you care.

Okay, so what we do, we look at the first time around, we’re going to look at about a quarter of the time, right. Design a quarter’s worth of touch points and then move out to the next and move out to the next until your year is done. And these people are slowly moving through it. You’re testing this out. You may not get it right the first time.

You may not get high levels of engagement. You might have to change some things as you get into it. However, ideally this works well enough that the next you just get your next list and run it through. And the year after that same thing. Right? Okay. So what we want to do is go back to like say the goal, right?

You found out what the company’s goals are. So at the high level this year, they want to be more intentional about their own client nurturing. They’re not doing a good job. Okay. So maybe you’re sending them. One of your touchpoints is, hey, we know it’s really important to you that your client experience is top notch.

Client Engagement Strategy: Building And Testing What Works and What Doesn’t

Here’s a couple of goodies you can use to reach out to your, you know, your top clients this year. You’re giving them tools to do something good that has been on their list, right? Or hey, here’s a book that talks all about how to have high level customer experience. We know this is something that’s continuous learning for you.

Let us know what you think is one of the top strategies shared in this book. Or maybe you point out we really love chapter five. Let us know what you think, right? But you’re feeding something that’s a goal to them or them. All right. So you kind of get some idea of how we’re working with this. Yeah. And I think the golden nugget in this process piece is you’re not crafting an entire year at one time, especially if this is the first crack at it.

You’re building out a quarter. And then, you know, you mentioned testing, experimenting, which we’re big fans of. We’re always running things through the Predictive Lab and Hannah’s running point on those experiments. And we’re testing some of them were great, some of them were absolute dumpster fires. But, you know, and we share all of that, as you know.

But the point is, I really like the way that you’re approaching this by building out a quarter or two at a time, testing, adjusting, and then building it out for the year. And then what’s great is once you have quarter after quarter after quarter after quarter, that really works, then your two becomes so much easier, right?

Yeah. And the other thing I want people to know is when I say build this out, I mean, you should know what date you’re going to send the stuff, what it’s going to be and what it’s going to say. I’m glad that it’s out, because otherwise you’re not going to do it, so that comes, you know, two weeks before that, it starts getting prepped and it’s in the mail and out it goes by the deadline.

Use that as your team already knows what to write and what’s going in each package. I love that, Jamie. So I know we’re coming up on time here. We need to bring it in for landing.

Client Engagement Strategy: Recapping The Process

So we’re going to go through the last constraint. But before we do that, I just want to recap quickly, for our audience.

So, you know, step one, create a list of lookalikes. Don’t get caught up in being perfect. Just build the list. And one of the insights that Jamie shared that I thought was so powerful is that, it’s not just about knowing who to look for, it’s knowing who not to look for. So those are both equally important.

Number two, do your research. So go deep into knowing how to make someone feel understood, validated, and cared for. So when you’re going through, and you’re thinking about what’s important, ask yourself those questions. Will this make them feel understood? Will this make them feel validated? And does this make them feel cared for? Number three, you want to establish touch points through the lens of the prospect.

So this is so important because I cannot tell you how many things I get whether it’s digital or physical, that is all about the company. And really, I don’t even know how to connect the dots to how that attracts me or relates to me or anything like that. So establishing touch points through the lens of the prospect. So again, that they feel validated, understood, cared for.

It’s very important. And then number four, as Stephen just kind of recaps the process once a quarter, runs it through experiment, test. And to Jamie’s point, just get super granular with it so you don’t have any excuses if you know the date, if you know what, and if you know what to say, then, you will set yourself up for success.

Client Engagement Strategy: There’s Always a Way to Measure Everything

So with that, let’s go into constraint number five. Get Jamie’s insights around that. And then we’ll need to come in for landing. So constraint number five that I think a lot of people struggle with Jamie. So even if they do, you know, one through four correctly, they want to have validation, they want to have ROI, right? They want some kind of something that says, hey, this was worth the time and effort, but they don’t know how to measure the impact of their actions.

And I think from what I’ve heard, you know, firsthand is that, oh well, these are soft metrics, so there must be no way to actually measure them. Oh, these are soft metrics. And it kind of just ends there. And I have to be honest, I think that’s an excuse. I think there’s a way to measure everything. You just have to get creative about how you measure it and the things that you look for.

So, can you shed some light on how you measure what’s important and what those criteria are? You know, how do you measure the ROI of nurturing people? So this is the unfortunate reality here. Only you are going to be able to measure this, but we will give you the help to do it right. And so what we found is when you do these mailings, if you have a theory of measurement but I say how do I describe Nigeria?

Yes. Criteria. Thank you. Words are failing. If I give you the criteria and all you have to do is sit down and make a hash mark. But this person, you know emailed me, this person texted me, this person called, right. If I go through all of these things and I count that up, we can give you an engagement percentage.

Client Engagement Strategy: Expect Things to Happen as A Result of That Engagement

So what we do is we actually make a spreadsheet the very first time that first mailing goes out, that is the first touchpoint you want to keep track of. Did you hit someone, email you, text you call, send a card, or talk about it in a meeting? If any of those things happened, that’s engagement. Now the results of that, did they ask you for a chance to talk about more business?

Did they say they had something new in mind? They invite you to speak. Did they ask you to be on a podcast? Right. These are all things that can happen as a result of that engagement. And it’s very granular, but it’s as easy as just the checkmark in each person’s name. And I would tell you in doing that and being meticulous about keeping track of it, we’ve seen some incredible results.

I mean, we’ve got people having 75 to 80% engagement results, and those are good opportunities. You got to think. Yeah, opportunities. And how much if you have 80% engagement and or a relationship beforehand, that’s probably equitable to an 80% reduction in the sales process when it’s time to actually talk about, you know, selling when you’re trying to close, you know, when you’re trying to to land the deal or whatever.

Imagine if the friction in that process was 80% less. That’s amazing. There’s already trust, right? I like you, I love you. This, you know, but again, it’s only going to happen if you take the time to be that meticulous about it, I love that. Me too. Jamie, this has just been awesome. And we really appreciate you sharing your insights and wisdom.

I know we covered a lot in a very short period of time, so I’m sure there’s things that we missed just due to time constraints. So before we go, before we close out and say goodbye, any other points, any other final pieces of advice that you’d like to share, and then, please share with our audience the best way to connect with you, Jamie.

Client Engagement Strategy: Final Advice and How to Connect with Jamie

You know, I have shared that we’ve got a lot of stories, so I am full and I hope that the audience is as well.

But we’re always happy to continue to have these conversations, if there are, you know, some additional ideas. You can reach out to us on The Expressory’s website. There’s a few ways. There’s even some guides that help, you know, talk about some of this, help you design your own. So TheExpressory.com is where you can find us.

Yeah. Thank you for having me. This is a fantastic conversation. Oh, my gosh, thank you too. And we will be sure to put those links. Today’s show notes. So. Okay, everyone, no matter how many notes you took or how often you go back and relisten to Jamie’s words of wisdom, which Hannah and I sure hope that you do.

The key is you have to take what Jamie so generously shared with you, take it and apply it. Build your process and be consistent because when you do, it will be like putting lighter fluid on your business strategy. You will absolutely accelerate your results. And Jamie, we are grateful that you said yes again to come on to the show, to be our mentor and guide, to help us move our businesses onward to that next level.

Thank you so much. Our friend. Thank you.

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