EP 466: Building relationships that attract right-fit clients to you with Matthew Kimberley
Sep 9, 2024
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Matthew Kimberley, an expert in helping agency owners find right-fit clients, shares insights on building authentic relationships aligned with agency values. He introduces the 'Red Velvet Rope Policy' to clearly define ideal clients. Kimberley emphasizes the importance of nurturing relationships and maintaining trust in client interactions. The discussion includes strategies to avoid lowering standards for tough times, ensuring agency owners can focus on clients who truly excite them while fostering connections that drive sustainable growth.
Building relationships aligned with agency values is essential for identifying and attracting right-fit clients who contribute to long-term success.
The Red Velvet Rope Policy encourages agencies to be selective, promoting a client base that enhances productivity and aligns with agency mission and vision.
Nurturing relationships through consistent engagement and a personal CRM can shorten sales cycles and maintain top-of-mind presence with potential clients.
Deep dives
Emphasizing the Importance of Relational Sales
Relational sales are crucial for agencies as they sell intangible services rather than physical products. Understanding the ideal client is essential for building trust and fostering long-term relationships that lead to repeat business and referrals. By focusing on the characteristics that make a client the right fit, agencies can create a client base that contributes to their growth and success. This approach also ensures that the service provider is able to do their best work, which in turn showcases the value of their services.
The Red Velvet Rope Policy
The Red Velvet Rope Policy advocates for being selective about clients, helping agencies set standards for the types of clients they want to attract. This policy encourages agencies not to settle for clients who may bring short-term gains but can cause long-term issues due to incompatible working styles or values. By focusing on clients who are coachable and have aligned characteristics, agencies can foster a more productive and supportive working environment. Making prudent decisions about which clients to engage with ultimately enhances the agency's reputation and performance.
Long Sales Cycles and Relationship Building
Long sales cycles are a common challenge for agencies, but establishing strong relationships can significantly shorten these cycles. The podcast discusses how the foundation of these relationships can be built through consistent engagement and thoughtful communication. Maintaining contact with prospects, even when there is no immediate business need, keeps agencies top of mind and increases the likelihood of receiving referrals or business down the line. By continuously nurturing relationships, agencies can create a pipeline of opportunities that facilitates business growth.
The Role of Trust in Investment Decisions
Trust plays a pivotal role in a client's decision to invest in services, with larger investments generally requiring a higher level of trust built over time. Different prospects may take varying lengths of time to develop this trust, and the podcast highlights the importance of nurturing that relationship. Agencies should employ strategies that allow them to engage with potential clients regularly while building a personal connection. By offering value first, agencies create an environment where prospects feel secure in their investment decisions.
Building a Personal CRM for Networking Success
Effective networking involves maintaining a personal CRM to manage relationships and facilitate consistent follow-up with important contacts. By categorizing and tracking interactions with key individuals, agencies can systematically foster relationships that may lead to future business opportunities. This proactive approach encourages agencies to reach out regularly, resulting in strengthened connections and increased potential for collaboration. Personal CRMs help control the narrative of relationships, ensuring that agencies remain relevant and top-of-mind.
Finding right-fit clients is one of the never-ending juggling acts of agency ownership. We need to keep the pipeline full, but we don’t want to rely only on referrals or say yes to clients who don’t fit our niche or values.
The solution lies in how you build and maintain relationships. Not just any type of relationship — relationships that are aligned with the mission, vision, and values of the agency.
On this week’s episode, Matthew Kimberley shares his expertise in finding right-fit clients through tactics like the Red Velvet Rope Policy, which makes it clear who you are (and aren’t) for. His strategies make it simple to get clear on your right-fit client criteria so you can focus on working only with those who excite you.
As any good agency owner knows, we’re in the relationship business. So Matthew also shares how to nurture relationships with clients and prospects once you dial in on who you want to serve.
This episode serves as a good reminder that even though building and nurturing relationships with right-fit clients might seem like a simple concept, we can always take the opportunity to reevaluate who we want to work with and how to go after them.
A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
The core tenets of attracting right-fit clients
Determining who your ideal right-fit client is
The Red Velvet Rope criteria
Setting boundaries that make it clear who you are and who you want to work with
Diversifying your offers to different tiers of clients
Maintaining and nurturing client and prospect relationships
Prioritizing who to keep in touch with
Identifying your outreach network of 90
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