Today, simply fulfilling on what you say you do isn’t enough.
We’ve entered a new era of service where businesses that are serious about scaling and retaining their customers — especially businesses using continuity models (payment plans or monthly subscriptions) — have no choice but to over-deliver at every touch point.
Your task is to figure out how to deliver infinitely more value that whatever the customer paid for your service, and that starts before they’ve converted as a customer during the prospecting stage.
Delivering much more than clients asked for is the only way to create the kind of coherence that leads to unfettered loyalty. How do you do that?
I’m going use a fictional use case to illustrate the type of above-and-beyond client obsession you have to incorporate to stand out and survive. Let’s jump in.
The Perfect Client Experience
Let’s walk through a mock prospecting, onboarding and fulfillment example to showcase the kind of devotion and love you have to demonstrate for your customers. Humor me as we go through this.
Step #1: Prospecting: A new lead, let’s call him Brian, schedules a call with you. You read through his intake form, and instead of assuming there’s a 50/50 chance he shows and passively waiting until the call, you dig through his website and social media. You pull out 2-3 golden nuggets about what he’s doing that you can help improve upon or just complement.
You like five of his best Instagram posts and leave lengthy thought-provoking comments on three of them.
Within an hour after Brian’s call being scheduled, you make him a quick self-recorded Loom video thanking him and priming him for the call. You send it over along with a link to a private recording of your best inner circle VIP call recording plus an “ultimate guide” PDF you created with actionable steps that he could take, implement, and change his business with.
Step #2: The Call: Brian is amazed at how hands-on and helpful you’ve been leading up to the call that he doesn’t even consider missing it. He shows up for the call and even though the meeting goes well, he mentions he’s going to do his due diligence before he’s ready to sign up.
“No problem at all,” you say, confident that no one else could match the value you’ve brought in three days even over a three-month work scope. “Just so you don’t have to chase me down to reconnect, if you have your calendar up now, would it make sense to get a re-connect scheduled here in about 5 days so we can just see where we’re at?” He’s perfectly willing due to your non-pushiness.
“In the meantime, if it’s okay with you, I’d also like to go ahead and get you complimentary 14-day access to the platform just so you can actually get in, check out how everything works and demo some of the use cases.” He obliges and feels his guard come down completely.
As a cherry on top, you ask for his address in a non-creepy way to send him a book that you mentioned earlier on the call which has changed your life. “…Not to stalk you or anything,” you laughingly say, “I just wanted to send you that book that I mentioned, I think you’d really find a lot of value in it.”
You also mention that you’ll recap everything discussed on your call in an email, and that you’ll put together an in-depth PDF auditing/evaluating Brian’s business complete with screenshots, analysis, and recommendations for hidden opportunities he could fix immediately to level up his business.
You’ve already added him on LinkedIn, but you navigate to his profile and endorse him for 5-7 of his top skills while re-sharing his latest post with added commentary that also showcases your expertise.
To this point, you’ve given extravagantly and excessively. You’re still not done giving, whether Brian converts or not.
Step #3: The Conversion: Due to your generosity, personalized advisory, and ability to identify and solve problems for free, Brian decides to sign up with you two days later, despite what he said on the call.
The first moments after someone makes their payment they will begin questioning the investment. Aim to get them a quick emotional win as soon as possible to counterbalance this inevitable feeling and to earn their trust and confidence. Then use the quick win to get buy-in for the long term game plan that will require more patience for long-term results. You can also negate the probability of new clients feeling buyer’s remorse by initiating immediate steps once they sign up – you should have an automated onboarding email that includes a personalized video and defined steps they can take to begin. Overall, show new clients you won’t let them fail and reassure them that this was the best decision of their life.
You calmly tell him you know that he’ll be incredibly successful, and that you’re excited to work with him. You ask for ten minutes to prepare the Terms of Agreement and payment link, then send it right after the call with a text message to confirm his receipt and to let you know once he signs it. You don’t celebrate, jump for joy, or react with amazement. You expected this sale. You also know the journey has only just begun – now comes the hard part: fulfilling and retaining.
Even though your LMS automatically redirected him to a welcome page with five easy next steps, you immediately record another welcome video, this time screensharing directions to get started plus expert hacks to help him really get off and running. You email him the welcome video and a link to get scheduled with you for an in-depth 1:1 to create his personal gameplan so he’s absolutely bought in and you’re both signed off on the vision.
You ensure Brian has your cell number so he can text you anytime with any issues, big or small.
Step #4: Enablement: You assign your best client success manager on Brian’s account and ensure he’s scheduled for your monthly training workshops as a non-negotiable.
You see what other freebies you can share to add additional value. You make a calendar note for yourself to proactively send him biweekly text message voice note check-ins to make sure he’s making progress and actually completing the work so that there’s no possible way he wouldn’t succeed.
You personally check in on Brian’s business – signing up for his newsletter, following him across social media, and eventually asking to interview him for a case study on his experience thus far.
Step #5: Feedback: After two months working with Brian, you send him a feedback survey to gauge where he’s at using qualitative and quantitative questioning – you do this for every client to benchmark satisfaction and for continuous iteration.
Meanwhile he is absolutely amazed at the depth and quality of your training (due to your effort in putting together the most all-inclusive program on the market in your niche). He has already told four of his friends about you – one of which has just scheduled a call for tomorrow due to your impact (and generous referral program).
Step #6: 1:1 Care: You’ve texted back and forth now a few times, but when Brian shoots you a text message one evening with a question, you record a three-minute Loom video response which prompts him to ask if you have 15 minutes for a quick impromptu call to expand on what you shared – “if not, it’s totally fine,” he adds. “I know it’s a Saturday so no worries, I want to respect our boundaries.”
Even though it’s a weekend, you gladly make time – not because you’re pretending to care, but because you actually do.
After chatting for a half hour, you’re able to connect on a level you’ve never been able to outside of the frame of the “work hours” relationship up to this point.
Brian confides in you with personal information that pertains to his business challenges and now trusts you like a true partner, helping to forge a much deeper relationship and giving you key insight into the inner workings of how he thinks about life and how he makes decisions. You’re now able to understand his motivations more granularly, and gain his trust on a whole new level.
Step #7: In-Person Workshop: A few months down the line, you plan a small weekend get together for your “VIP clients” that just so happens to be near Brian’s city.
You share the idea for the in-person workshop with five other clients who aren’t too far, and offer to take care of their flight if they’d be willing to join you for this little two-day event in exchange for a simple testimonial of their experience with your business so far.
At the event, which you bill as an “exclusive 2-day, inner circle mastermind” your highest-performing clients will get together for exclusive networking, advanced implementation, and insider tips. Brian plus five others gladly agree to fly in.
During the event, you and your cofounder each prepare a 4-hour seminar on best practices, and empower each of the attendees, including Brian, to present their learnings and experiences for the group, further solidifying the relationship.
Brian leaves the event absolutely blown away at the value he’s received. His business is booming and you’re to thank.
Conclusion
At the end of the day, the client in the above scenario is going to feel incredibly cared for. They’re going to feel like this program is irreplaceable – that nothing else has or could ever compare. They’re going to be surprised at the admiration they feel from you. They’re going to blow past their goals, far surpassing their expectations.
You care deeply for the client, but you also want their success more than they do because your business is dependent on client testimonials which leads to more awesome clients just like Brian.
This type of client care, endless devotion, and obviously overwhelming attention serves as an example of the obsessiveness needed to win in today’s saturated market.
The above example can be applied in almost any business model in any industry. The main takeaway I want to get across: today’s buyers are more skeptical and desensitized than ever before; to really make an imprint, you have to actually bring real transformation to people’s lives. That doesn’t happen with run-of-the-mill SLAs. You literally have to go above and beyond to survive. Are you willing to make that commitment?
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➤ For more on value creation & high-growth frameworks, follow me on Instagram, subscribe to my podcast & feel free to email me if you’d like help driving more customer value in your business.
