5 Tips for Starting Excellent Relationships with Your Clients

Throughout my many years of working with high-paying clients, I’ve racked up experience in a wide variety of industries and niches. No matter which industry or specialty you choose, or your level of experience, here are five tips for starting excellent relationships with new social media marketing clients before you sign any contracts:

1) Be sure you’ve set S.M.A.R.T. Goals

To avoid future confusion around expectations and deliverables, goals must mean the same thing to anyone who reviews them. Make them specific, measurable, achievable, result-focused, and time-limited.

(more on S.M.A.R.T. goals here)

2) Charge a healthy “setup fee”

There’s always something that you’ll need to set up before you can start collecting leads. Take this into account and charge realistically.

For example, setting up a sales funnel on software like ClickFunnels will take you a healthy amount of time, so make sure you’ve accounted for this in your pricing. A good price for a funnel is at least $2,500.

(More on pricing your services)

3) You will need a minimum budget of $500 for Facebook advertising

You need some money to play with to optimize your Ads campaigns. If they are hesitant about this budget, let them know that this is a test — if it works, you will continue, but it is mandatory in any case.

4) Charge for in-person meetings

This is one of my top tips for starting excellent relationships with new social media marketing clients. Avoid in-person meetings by establishing a policy where you charge a deposit when they are requested. In-person meetings are time-consuming and unless it’s an exceptional prospect, avoid the cost and inconvenience of this travel.

I charge upwards of $500. If it can’t be avoided, make them come to you and book a professional space such as a conference room in a hotel.

5) Only answer scheduled calls

This is not just one of my tips for starting excellent relationships with new social media marketing clients, but a tip for organizing your workflow in general. Can you pick up the phone and call through to Elon Musk? Absolutely not. Don’t make yourself too available or your time will not be viewed as valuable.
Furthermore, allowing yourself to be distracted by unscheduled calls pulls you out of your productivity zone and costs you focused time. It takes an average of 20 minutes to re-focus after an unexpected phone call. Time is money.

Know that clients will form habits around how to communicate with you and will form expectations. Create this rule of scheduling meetings/calls from the very start to make sure that things run smoothly.

Stay Consistent

As long as you stick to your goals and the aforementioned guidelines, you can form profitable and healthy long-term partnerships. Some amount of flexibility is important but remember: you are the expert in your field and the director of your work.

What are your tips for starting excellent relationships with new social media marketing clients?

For more information, check out the following guides:

• Stop Selling and Start Interviewing (Your First Sales Call)
• Self-Marketing: Get Clients via Social Media
• How To Use Psychological Triggers That Make People “Buy Now”