Retaining and growing client accounts - when none of your team are account managers, with Jo Rogers.

Um, because I think sometimes account management can be seen, especially by the smaller agencies, as a bit of a luxury, you know, a luxury role that we can pull in eventually, you know, when we've, when we're big enough, when we're big enough.

Mm-hmm.

But that role still has to be addressed regardless of size, right? Somebody still has to take some level of ownership of it.

Yeah, absolutely.

It's not, it- I think people forget that, you know, we talk about account management, and an account manager could be a hybrid role.

And, you know, it has to happen whether it's just the founder or whether it's passed to, you know, someone who's doing the technical and the account management, but someone's gotta do it.

So it's really important.

Whoever it is needs to understand what it is that they're, they need to be doing to satisfy those clients effectively.

Yeah.

And the first part of that is what does that client success process look like? So what are the kind of first aspects a founder needs to consider when they're starting to map out their client success process?

Yeah.

So I think the important thing is to not straightaway overcomplicate it in the first instance.

You know, don't, you know, it's, it's very easy to start putting processes in place, and actually, particularly for smaller agencies, you can overcomplicate a little bit.

But equally, clarity is also really important.

So then the first thing that you've really got to do is understand actually what it is that your clients are wanting from you.

You know, what are they actually buying from you? What are their pressures that they've got internally? What does a great relationship look like from their perspective? The reason why I say that is that I've got certain agencies that I work with, smaller agencies that I work with, and actually the clients see them as partners, but they just want them to be what I would consider transactional.

I need you just to deliver on what y- I ask you to deliver, essentially as an exten- extension of the team.

Deliver on what I, I ask you to do it within a certain timeframe.

You're super agile, you're super nimble.

That's why I love you.

So I think that the, you know, for those na- those nano agencies, those smaller agencies, it's being able to be really clear on why have you been chosen over other agencies, and why are clients staying with you over other agencies? Because it could be some of the things that I talk about and you're going, you're going, "Well, that's disparative to what, you know, my clients seem to love from me." So don't get too caught up in what the bigger agencies need to do and has to do, because there might, there is probably a reason why they've gone for you as a smaller agency in the first place.

So important to really understand that piece so that you can set up your client success based around what it is that your client actually wants and needs from you.

Now, I'm always gonna caveat that with don't step into a transactional mindset with them, you know? Just because you are an extension of the team or you're- you're delivering on deliverables doesn't mean you can't add value.

It doesn't mean you can't be strategic.

But it's being clear on what it is that the client is buying from you and b- and how they want you to work with them.