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client onboarding sounds boring it sounds kind of nerdy but it is not it is an incredible part of your business that will lead to happier clients smoother projects things going your way every single time but the problem is you've probably neglected this most people once they get the client once they've gotten paid they neglect the relationship that happens after the fact even if you're good at fulfilling on what you get paid for the transition from paid to starting the project is lackluster at best so in this video i'm gonna give you the five step guide my personal process for onboarding clients the six figure creative way in a way that impresses them in a way that sets the project up for success from the very start if that sounds good let's do it [Music] all right so my entire onboarding process has been broken up into five different steps i'm gonna go through every single one of these with you today and also if this is too long of a video for you to sit through from start to finish because it's not gonna be a long video i'm sorry it's the way it is this is hard sorry then you can actually go download this entire process in pdf form so you can actually go sit and implement it step by step in your own timing just go to six figure creative dot com slash onboarding and you can download the full guide there it's like a 14-page pdf that has all these steps on there so this is broken up into five onboarding steps step one is getting the client agreement signed step two is getting the client onboarding form completed step three is creating a client profile step four is doing a damn good kickoff call with a client and then step five is following up until you have everything you need to start the project so let's dive into this with step number one right now and that is getting the client agreement signed by show of hands or comments leave a comment actually by show of comments how many people actually send a client agreement to their clients before the project starts you can literally leave a comment as you're watching this video right now and i want to know if you actually send this this is like a client contract people call them contracts agreements whatever you want to call it the thing that your client signs that states this is what i'm getting this is what i'm not getting it's got a bunch of stuff in there maybe some legal jargon in there if you're uh if you're one of those people that likes to have horrible legalese contracts with this and their clients but most people in a lot of cases especially in the creative field the six figure creative universe they don't use contracts at all and i'm guilty of this myself when i first started out and i was doing actually for the first 10 years of running my studio i never used client agreements and this is something i was proud of the problem here and the reason this is so important that you actually pay attention to this part is that the client agreement is what sets all of the expectations from the beginning of the project on money has changed hands this is where things can really go off the rails if you don't set proper expectations from the very start and the client agreement is how you do this now there's actually seven must-have parts of any client agreement that you send out so if you want my actual client agreement my whole template a whole guide on this just go to six figure creative dot com slash agreement that'll give you all the parts of the client agreement that you should have but this is just something that you send to your clients that they can read over that should clearly put out what they can expect what they're going to get and what happens if something comes up that wasn't part of the agreement that's kind of the gist there's seven parts of it just go download that full agreement at six figure creative dot com slash agreement again you can get my full template there but most people they just send the click the client agreement over something like uh panda docs or and those are like the two big ones that are out there but i actually use a tool that's infinitely better than this it actually makes the client agreement look really good you can see when they've opened it you can see how long they've read it you can see which sections they've already looked over and then you get a notification of when they signed it and also if you're the kind of person that likes to take the remaining balance once it's signed or you want to take a deposit at that point if you haven't actually collected payment then you can actually collect your deposit once they've signed the agreement or you can collect the remaining balance once they've signed the agreement so if you want not only that tool but my full client agreement template that you can actually load into the tool from without having to write anything you can just change some things around go to that link six figure creative dot com slash agreement and also if you look down in the description of this video there's links to everything that i mentioned including another video where i have that goes over all seven parts of the client agreement so you can see my thought process what goes into it and also there's the link to that agreement in there as well so at this point you have likely gotten a deposit from your client you've sent the client agreement to them and they have signed the client agreement now we move on to step number two and that is sending them an onboarding form for them to complete so here's what a client onboarding form looks like this is mine from one of my businesses good fortune media and this just really gives me all the information i need to have in order to start the project off the right way with my client if you actually want to see my form just go to good fortune dot media slash form you'll see this exact form that you're looking at right now so the reason this part of the process is so important like i mentioned earlier it lets you get all the information you need to get from the client but there's actually a second hidden benefit here and this is just another filter point to weed out potentially bad clients some of the questions that i have and some of the questions you should have in your forum which i'll go over in a second which you put you should put in your form some of the things that i have in there are kind of things that would trip up really bad client fits for me so it's one of those things where like if they put a certain answer in this question then i know this project's not going to go anywhere that i want it to go so we're going to at least have a really hard discussion on our onboarding call about why that's not the way things should be or that's not how things work and if they if there's still contention there i will refund their money and i will move on and we will part ways because i do not want to work with a bad fit client because i said that's a loss for both of us so let's talk about how you can actually make a good onboarding form for your client really quick the first thing is like what tool are you gonna use if you're on wordpress i really recommend using gravity forms that's what i have a lot of my forms built through but the form that you're looking at right now is actually through easy funnels dot io this is like a full service great website builder built for freelancers and for good fortune media for me it handles everything from my email list to my crm to my contacts to my portfolio to my landing pages everything funnels so i really like easyfunnels.io for this purpose so for your onboarding form it's going to differ completely from mine obviously you're not offering podcast production services for online business owners that's not what you're doing that's what good fortune media does and if you're doing that then you're competing with me and that's fine actually it's a big market out there but yours is going to likely look a lot different so i'm going to give you the types of questions you should actually be adding on your form i have four different types of questions you should add on your onboarding form the first type of question is just basic information this is the information you have to get from every single client and i'm not going to go over this because it's basic it's called basic information but get all that stuff don't you please god don't ever have to reach out to a client to get this sort of stuff this should be all entered into the form so you have everyone's contact information email addresses phone numbers preferably that kind of stuff the second type of information are what i call project inputs these are the raw materials that you need to actually produce whatever it is that you do so think about it like an assembly line in a factory you have raw materials that go into the factory at this at the start of the assembly line and by the end they have the finished project what are all the little bits and pieces that go into creating that final project that's the stuff you need to collect as much as possible of right now so information files login info any other resources you need put that in the form right there the only other thing i might stay away from is if you're not on a form submitting type of thing that can encrypt and have an ssl encryption there's like a lot of technical stuff there you may not want to collect login information so you might want to do that through something a little bit more secure but everything else due to this onboarding form so now the third type of questions to add to your onboarding form are what i call client desires so what are their goals and what are their expectations so what kind of questions can you add around those and this actually leads to question type number four and that is client roadblocks or red flags sometimes client desires or expectations will show you what sort of red flags that could be popping up in the questionnaire but there could be other things that you know are like gotcha questions and i'm really trying to drive this home because the earlier you weed out the client which before you even become a client before they ever pay you before you even get to the step you should have weeded out the bad ones but at every step of the way i want to make sure i am putting some sort of filters in place so that if there are misaligned expectations we can correct those at the very beginning that's really the root of what makes client onboarding so special is you're getting expectations aligned from the very start but also if we're so far out of alignment that we cannot align ourselves at the very beginning of the project then it's time to part ways you can do so amicably but sometimes if you get this far in the project you're gonna you're gonna step on toes you're gonna make people mad and that's okay it's way better than forcing the project to work it's like getting into a marriage with someone that you know you shouldn't marry you know from your very gut you shouldn't marry this person but you do it anyways and that rarely ends up in a good place so think about like how can we get out of this in the easiest way possible and these these questions you add to this form are going to be part of weeding out those clients that somehow slip past the process so far so so far you have sent the client agreement you've hopefully collected deposit all this stuff by this point you should have definitely collected a deposit by this point at the very least you have sent the onboarding questionnaire to them they filled it out and now it's time for step three which is to create what i call a client profile some people just call this a client information sheet or a one sheet i call it a client profile this is basically just a piece of paper or a google doc or some sort of area where you put all the information that you need from this client in one easy to find place and the reason this matters so much is because it saves time and it saves frustration with your clients instead of having to bother them or to slog through emails or to look through your onboarding form and log back into easy funnels and find all the information you have it all in one nice central location of in what i call your client profile and the easiest way to make this is to just start dirty you don't have to have any crazy elaborate template just open a google doc as you're going through the client onboarding form and start listing things out that you know you need for the project or for this client and i have three sections that i think you should put in your client one sheet or your client profile and that is first client information this is kind of like the the heart of the profile that's just where you put everything from the onboarding form or whatever else the second section is what i call the pre-call clarification questions or to-do's so this is everything you need to do before your onboarding call that needs to either be clarified with a client or things that you or your team needs to actually do actions that need to be taken before you can have a successful onboarding call this way again the onboarding call people mess this up so much because they have not properly prepared everything they need for this call and this call is so important to starting everything out on the right foot so this part just getting all the to-do's done getting all the clarifying questions listed out and taken care of ahead of time this is where i put these things which is in this client profile the third section i put in this client profile is what i call talking points this is for the onboarding call the things i know i need to discuss with them things that are not things i need to clarify beforehand these are not things that i need to just assume at the very start these are things that need to be an actual back and forth discussion because not everything can be solved through an onboarding form not everything can be solved just by googling you have to discuss certain parts of the project or else you're probably not really providing much of a valuable service so this is where you have all the discussion points for the call listed out ready to go from top to bottom for the call and this really honestly sets up the whole call for success from the very start this is also where you list out anything that could be potential roadblocks or red flags so when you have this onboarding call the things that you know you need to discuss you likely want to bring those up earlier in the call instead of waiting for later because again the earlier you stop a bad client from moving forward the better off you're both going to be because you're just wasting each other's time if you know it's not a good fit or if you think it might not be a good fit and you know there's discussion points that need to be happening before then so now we move on to step four and this is the actual kickoff call again people mess this up but if you've done all the work and done all the three steps leading up to this point this is where all the hard work starts to pay off and the reason this matters is because this is really their first opportunity to see what it's like to work with you now maybe they talked to you before when you were selling them on your services maybe you had some sort of brief call or coffee or lunch but this is your first like you've collected deposit they're technically your customer because they've paid you money so this is the first interaction you've had as a client with your client so this is your chance again to wow them from the very start so that you not only start the relationship off on the right foot but they feel comfortable and confident that they hired the right person for this job now the way you do your onboarding call from top to bottom is really going to be dictated by that client profile that you created earlier and how you like to do things but i do have a few rules that you should follow on every onboarding call that you have with your clients the first rule is and this is actually before the call happens no calendar tag do not send dates and times for them to choose from that is amateur hour use an actual calendar booking tool the most popular one is calendly if you use easy funnels which is the tool that i recommend for the landing pages and for your booking forms it also has built into it as a scheduling tool like calendly so they can just go to your schedule they can pick a date and time that's free for you and them and there's no back and forth calendar tag so that's the first rule is no calendar tag allowed when it comes to booking your call the second rule i have for onboarding calls is to either do the call in person or do it on zoom either way there needs to be a face-to-face element there are so many things that you can read from people's body language and micro expressions and tonality that you can't necessarily pick up from just a phone call and so i would always prefer you do it in person when you can but at the very least do it on zoom the third rule i have is to just make sure you get everything you need from them if there was anything in your list make sure you address it if there's anything you know you need to get from them make sure it's all done here so you don't have to do useless follow-ups in the future um i will say you're never gonna get this perfect you'll always have to follow up for some reason and maybe even schedule another call in the future which is obviously it's not the end of the world but it's not ideal for anyone involved but this is just basic stuff make sure you get everything you need so that's a rule that i have and the fourth and the final rule and this is one that people do not do ever is use this opportunity to get a referral from them think about the situation that they're in right now they just paid the deposit they're excited they've done the onboarding form you've just crushed this kickoff call they're impressed they're looking forward to the future relationship you have together on this project they're at a high right now and the best time to ask for a referral is when someone is on a high they're excited they see the future together they know everything has been flawless so far so they're more likely to give referrals so there's an easy way to ask without being pushy or overly eager and please god don't use this script word for word this is actually in the onboarding guide that i told you to go to uh download at the beginning of this video but this is just a script that you could use and alter for your own things so it basically goes like this so before we wrap this call up i just wanted to say that i can already tell i'm going to love working with you so off the top of your head do you know any other blank like you who might be looking for service or outcome whatever it is that you do and the optional thing is like i.e do you have any clones and then laugh awkwardly again don't use this template but the whole point of it is saying do you know of any more blank like you who need blank the service that you offer that's basically the gist of it if they if anyone's top of mind they'll obviously oh yeah i know joe from whatever toys r us needs why did i use that example joe from toys r us needs your services their business is failing and they're trying to make a comeback which they actually are toys r us is back by the way y'all and if they don't have anyone top of mind or if they don't feel comfortable referring to you yet they'll just say no one comes to mind and you just move on it's not it's not a big deal it's a good way to end the conversation to where you're getting some names from people and these are what i call lukewarm leads instead of cold leads people that have no relationship with you whatsoever these are people that have a common connection so when you go to these people i go to joe from toys r us and say hey joe from toys r us i heard you're trying to make a comeback johnny our mutual friend said that you were looking for help so i wanted to offer my services to you that way there again there is some sort of mutual connection you're gonna have a much higher likelihood that they reply in a favorable way and you can start the conversation from there get them on a sales call and close them so now we're on to step number five you've done all the steps so far you're doing great we're on step number five and that is follow up this is the part of the process where if you mess anything up or if there are any additional steps or things you're waiting on you're just this is your final push to get everything you need to be able to start the project if there's any like hanging loose threads that need to be tidied up before you get started with them and the reason this matters is because if you follow this process to a t from the very start with this client you have a lot of momentum going from this point you're ready to get started with a project you have so much momentum that if you don't properly follow up to get all the parts of the things you need to actually do the service that you offer then they're you're just gonna lose momentum and things are gonna start to slow down and then they lose excitement and you lose excitement and it's just it's kind of a bad hill to start sliding down so i've got three easy steps for this the first is send an email to the client after the call it sums up all the client onboarding stuff that you discussed on the call have a to-do list that's step number two have a to-do list for any action items that your client has on their plate and there's one secret to this that you have to do the secret is put due dates on anything that you assigned to them there has to be a due date if there's not a due date they will take forever to send you back stuff and with the due date there needs to be a consequence you don't have to frame it as a consequence but just say i need these by october 19th if i don't get them by this date we're gonna have to push this project back by a week or two weeks or a month just put the deadline and an outcome of a negative outcome that happens if that doesn't get done on time and the third rule i have for the follow-up process is to follow up and keep following up until you have everything don't let emails just die in the inbox don't let them read it and not reply always have a next step and so if you use a crm which is customer relationship management system which we've talked about on the six figure creative podcast multiple times if you aren't listening to that you should be then you can just set a follow-up every single client and lead should always have a next step attached to it with a reminder so that way you're not having to think of this stuff you don't have to remind yourself of this stuff you just open up your crm every day and you see what are my reminders today you open those up you take action and you move on so that is it for the five step onboarding guide there's actually the pdf companion that comes along with this if you want to follow along and implement this yourself just go to six figure creative dot com slash onboarding and if you're gung-ho on setting up an onboarding process for your clients this guide is a must-have because this is a lot of information this is a long video like this is probably 20 25 minute video if i'm if i'm looking at this right and you're you're likely gonna be overwhelmed you're gonna have to keep going back and forth in this video to figure out what did brian say in this part so just again just go download the guide and you can actually reference it visually and a lot of there's a lot of stuff in that guide i didn't even talk about in this video which is awesome because i'm better at writing than i am at speaking and doing videos like this which i'm improving we'll see if i get better in future videos but my final call to action to you is don't be the dummy that says yeah i need to implement this i should definitely do this and then you never do it don't be that dummy instead go download the guide six figure creative dot com slash onboarding take the next week start implementing the process and then reap the rewards for the rest of time the good thing about a process like this is once you've set it up you just put everything every single client through it there's no additional work for you from now on it's actually going to make everything faster for you once you devote the initial time it takes to build this process out so if you leave a comment below this video and say i will set this process up over the next week then i will follow up with you in a comment i will hold you accountable because accountability is awesome so that's all for this video stay tuned same place same time next week for another video for the six figure creative