Retention Over Replacement: Keeping Clients Instead of Constantly Replacing Them with Erica Wood

Mar 25

EPISODE: 39

What if one of the biggest growth opportunities in your business isn’t finding the next client, but keeping the ones you already worked so hard to win?

In this episode, I’m joined by Erica Wood, founder of Client Journey Advisors. Erica helps growing service-based businesses transform reactive service delivery into intentional, scalable client journeys that build trust and reduce churn. We talk about what “client journey” really means, why it starts earlier than most people think, and how easily trust can break down when founders get too focused on acquisition and not focused enough on the experience happening after the sale.

This conversation is a reminder that sales is not just about getting the yes. It’s about what happens next. Erica shares practical insight on where trust tends to slip, why the first 30 days matter so much, and how a few intentional touchpoints can make a real difference in retention, referrals, and client growth.

In this episode, we cover:

What a client journey actually is in a growing service-based business
Why the most important client is the one you have right in front of you
Early warning signs that growth is starting to strain the client experience
How to create intentional retention touchpoints, especially in the first 30 days
Small changes founders can make to reduce churn and build more trust over time

LISTEN TO THE EPISODE HERE 👇🏻

Speaker: [00:00:00] Only one out of 25 clients or customers will complain. The rest will just walk away. So putting some fail safes in place. To help negate that would be one of the first steps that I would suggest to people.
Speaker 2: Welcome to Sales is Service. The podcast designed to help you change your mind about sales.
Literally, I'm gonna help you change the way you think about selling. I'm Tam Smith, your host sales Bessie, and pitch partner next door. You're tired of bros with biceps telling you how to crush a million dollars in your sleep or battling imposter syndrome on your own. You've come to the right place. All you need to do is listen, then take action.
No gym membership required. Let's get started.
Before we get started, this show is shaped by real questions from agency owners and service based founders who want sales to feel relationship first and values led minus the cringe. If [00:01:00] you're wrestling with warm outreach, follow up. Asking for the opportunity or how to lead your own sales process without sounding
Speaker: like a salesy weirdo, send your question in, find me on LinkedIn, or email me at Hey tam at studio three 40 nine.com.
If it's something you are dealing with, chances are you're not the only one. Alright. Let's get into today's episode. Hey there, and welcome back to Sales of Service. I'm your host, Tam Smith, sales growth strategist and founder of Studio 3 49, and today we're talking about something that doesn't get nearly enough airtime in sales conversations, retention.
Because sales isn't only about winning new business, it's about keeping the clients you've already worked so hard to earn. The most important client is the one you already have, and my guest today knows this very well. Erica Wood is the founder and CEO of Client Journey Advisors, where she helps growing service-based businesses, build more intentional client journeys so they can strengthen trust, improve retention, and stop losing good clients to experiences that felt unclear, inconsistent, or too [00:02:00] reactive.
In this conversation, Erica and I get into what it actually looks like to shift from replacement mode to retention mode. We're talking about the warning signs that growth is training the client experience, where trust tends to break down and what founders can do to build something worth. Thoughtful from onboarding all the way forward.
If you've been so focused on the next client that you haven't looked closely at how you're serving the ones you already have, you wanna keep listening. Let's get into it.
Speaker 2: Erica, thank you so much for being here. Welcome to Sales of Service.
Speaker: Yeah, thanks Tam, for having me. I'm super excited to be talking with you today.
Tell us. In your words, who do you help and how do you serve? So I help CEOs and client experience leaders of growing service-based businesses transform reactive service delivery into intentional, scalable client journeys that build trust and reduce churn. Love it. What does client journey actually mean?
In the context of a growing service-based business. So the client journey is what your clients go through the minute they [00:03:00] start interacting with you. So I believe the client journey starts even in the marketing level, right when they start interacting. Looking at your social media, looking at your website, and kind of get that feeling of, Hmm, I might wanna work with this person.
And then it carries over into sales, making sure you're setting appropriate expectations, like really helping the client understand what the product is, what you can do for them. And then. The moment the client signs a contract, really the journey evolves and starts to begin even more, right? Like what, what that looks like for your clients from day one all the way through offboarding.
That's what a client journey is, and it's the path that you wanna take your client on and the experience you want to give them the entire time they're interacting with your business. And [00:04:00] I'm so glad we're having this conversation today because I feel like that's the part of the process that gets.
Dropped sometimes. And you know, for all the effort you've made to actually get the client, you know, ensuring their experience with you, you know, is that you deliver on, you know, the promise that you've made, you know, before they, you got the yes. You know, and to be able to retain and, and grow them within your business.
And I feel like a lot of times, you know, it's the, you get the yes and then it's, you know, you're on to the, the next opportunity instead of really focusing on how to really grow and build that relationship. Over the period of the client engagement. So I always love hearing people's origin stories. You said,
Speaker 2: you know, you never pictured yourself as an entrepreneur.
What finally pushed you from, I'm never gonna be an entrepreneur to, I'm gonna do this on my own terms.
Speaker: So yeah, definitely been a journey I back in 2019 was laid off from. A job. I worked in pediatric healthcare for [00:05:00] almost 20 years, and I was in a middle management position, restructure. They cut my position and I decided at that time that I wanted to make a pivot and get out of healthcare One.
My late husband and I wanted to sell our home, live in our RV and travel the states, right? And so I wanted to look for a job where I can work, could work from anywhere. So started thinking about that. Found a virtual staffing agency. Virtual assistant staffing agency located here in Atlanta. That was a completely remote business.
Everybody was remote, so I was like, oh, this is great. So shifted into that. I've always been on like the customer service, client relations side of businesses. Even when I worked in the hospital, a lot of people don't think they're like. A hospital, what's, what does that have to do with client relations?
But if you think about it, [00:06:00] patients and families are the clients of the hospital, right? So I always worked on that side of the business, and so I went into another client relations role. Starting with this virtual assistant staffing agency. Then life pivoted again. My husband, unfortunately, was diagnosed with cancer and I lost him in 2021, so I decided to kind of rebuild my life.
I moved to a new town. Rebuilt my life from the ground up and during that was recruited by another virtual assistant staffing company to come help them build the business from the ground up. So they wanted somebody that had experience working in the virtual assistant staffing world and wanted me to build out.
Their client experience and their client journey. And so I did. I built out their, their client experience, the client relations team. I built out the virtual assistant staffing side of [00:07:00] things, worked very closely with a manager of talent that I brought on, and we built that side out, built out the virtual assistant management team, and then unfortunately, in April, faced another layoff of.
Basically, I kind of pushed back on our CEO because he was setting unrealistic expectations in that marketing and sales phase. And we were working with a lot of clients that really probably we shouldn't be working with. And I pushed back on him and I got told I no longer fit in with the mission, vision, and values of the company.
And I was like. Okay, this is my opportunity. This is the door that God has opened. And he kicked me through it and said, here you are again. And I said, you know what? I don't wanna put my heart and soul into someone else's business anymore. I wanna build something on my own that I'm proud of. That is mine.
[00:08:00] And so that's what I did. I founded Client Journey Advisors in June and. Here I am. Congratulations. Thank you. Let's talk about some early warning signs that, you know, founder, business owner is, you know, growing in a way that is starting to compromise the client experience. Like revenue might look good, but you know, when you step into an organization kinda what are the first tell signs that the client experience is suffering?
That one of the tell signs is the team is always in reactive mode. They're always putting out fires. They live in chaos because there's no structure. You've got, you know, several clients that are always angry or upset, and I, I've read a STA statistic one time that said only one out of 25 clients or customers will complain.
The rest will just walk away. Which is staggering. Right? That's [00:09:00] huge. That telltale sign of things are not going well, is you do have a couple of clients that are taking up your team's time all the time. Right? And they're the squeaky wheel that the cl that the team is having to pay attention to. And therefore ignoring the rest of the clients.
And so they'll just start to slowly leak out the back and you won't recognize it until you know it's too late. And a lot of times what comes with that is there are warning signs of that clients will stop engaging. They will stop showing up for, you know, meetings that you have set with them. They won't return your phone calls, they won't respond to your emails, and they just silently just walk away.
So putting some fail safes in place. To help negate. That would be one of the first steps that I would suggest to people is looking at how your team is feeling on a daily basis. [00:10:00] Some of the other signs are you start getting more and more cancellations each month, right? Like if you're tracking your month over month.
Revenue and churn with your clients, you're gonna start seeing trends of more and more people canceling. I actually have built out what I call the R OI retention, ROI forecast tool. You can plug your data into it and it'll show you by reducing your churn by 10, 20% each month, what that will do for the impact of your revenue.
Annually because I, in my experience, one of the things I noticed is month over month that that cancellation rate starts to get hi creep higher and higher and higher. You may not notice it at first because it might be one, maybe two clients, but the more your organization grows and the, the bigger it gets and the faster you have new [00:11:00] clients coming in, you're gonna start seeing a trend.
That that number is gonna start going up. And then just the other telltale sign is when you get those clients that are coming in that have been told one thing in marketing and sales, and then they do the onboarding call and you're like. Wait, what? We don't do that. Whatcha talking about the lack of communication, right?
Between your marketing sales team
Speaker 2: has sold one thing and then Yeah,
Speaker: it's, you know, that communication breakdown between your marketing, sales, and client relations or product team. So those are some of the biggest warning signs that just stop and start taking a look at it. If you feel like your client journey might be a little rocky at all, those are the three biggest indicators that I would stop and take a look at.
And practically speaking, how do you recommend, you know, founders and business owners, you know, be intentional in getting and staying ahead of that? Like just, you know, what does that practically [00:12:00] look like in a daily, weekly, you know, monthly quar, quarterly timeline. Start documenting when you are having problems pop up, document them.
Then create a process and procedure to avoid it the next time. I'll give you an example. When I first started at my last company, the clients were being sold on the fact that the virtual assistants were be being completely trained and they were plug and play. Well, number one, I don't know any job you've ever been in tam, but you don't come in day one, knowing.
Everything and exactly what to do. You gotta learn, right? And that usually takes you about a good 90 days to feel like you're really understanding a role. And so I went back to the leaders and was like, guys, you gotta stop saying this. Number one, we're not training our virtual assistants at all. Like why?
Why are you telling people that they're being trained? They're not. And so we came up with a [00:13:00] process. We came up with, I created a whole training for virtual assistants to take the moment we signed them on with the client before they ever stepped foot in a meeting with the client. They had to do this mandatory training that we had developed.
So when you have issues like that, pop, pop up, sit down, brainstorm around it, and then create a process so that you. Won't it? It will fix itself. Right? And you won't have to navigate that again. So that's one of the things that I would suggest doing.
Speaker 2: And I would say for you, you think, oh, I don't have time to do that.
You know it. Yeah, sure. It's a little bit of an investment in time upfront, but I don't think you can afford not to do it for the cost to your business. You know when that problem comes up again and you don't address it head on.
Speaker: Exactly, and we have this lovely thing now called AI that helps, especially when it comes to like those procedural type things.
It can cut [00:14:00] down. I remember, I mean, I remember when I first started a couple of years ago, we didn't really have AI yet, right? Like it wasn't, it was out there, but nobody really knew about it yet. And it would take me sometimes days to write out SOPs, right? Now you can pop in your, you can verbally brain dump into AI and it types it out for you.
It's so nice and it's such a time saver.
Speaker 2: Oh,
Speaker: I've, I've found that in my, you know, I'm guilty of, you know, have been one of the ones that, you know, have said, oh, you know, I just don't, I don't have the available time to do that and I'm so, you know, grateful for tools like that 'cause I'm able to, you know, great.
I can. Record a loom video, you know, of me actually, you know, doing the thing and then take that transcript and turn it into, you know, a formalized SOP I've, I've really tried to make myself deliberate, intentional, anything that I find myself doing more than once, I need to create a process around so that I have the opportunity to, to [00:15:00] delegate.
If it's not essential for me to handle, create a process around that, I'm able to, you know, have a team to support that. And that was one of the things we used to. Coach our clients on of like, when you're doing the task, just use Loom. The paid version will actually type out the SOP for you. Did you not know that?
Oh yeah, no. Yeah. And I have
Speaker 2: the paid version. How did I not know
Speaker: this? Yes. Oh my gosh, cam, I will have to show you.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker: But yeah, it'll type out the SOP for you.
Speaker 2: Oh, that's fantastic.
Speaker: Yeah. So you don't have to even take the transcript and pop it into. Chat or what other, whatever other AI tool you might use to Loom will do it for you.
Speaker 2: Okay.
Speaker: Yeah, that was a game changer for me. One of my clients at my previous company told me about that one day and I was like, 'cause I had sent 'em a loom for something. 'cause I use Loom all the time. I love to send personalized videos and I'd sent 'em a loom for something and we were chatting. And he was like, yeah, I've already created some looms.
And it, you know, it, it typed out the [00:16:00] SOP for me and I gave it to the virtual assistant and he was having issues and things weren't working, so we were brainstorming and I was like, wait, what? Loom typed it out for you? He goes, oh yeah, the paid version has a, where it'll create that, it'll create, create PR stuff for you.
It'll do all like, it's, yeah. It's amazing. Oh my
Speaker 2: gosh. Made my whole year need a better system for getting clients consistently. Grab my VIP Power Hour, a free daily rhythm designed to help you stay visible, nurture your network, and spark new conversations in just 60 minutes a day. It's not about cold pitching or chasing algorithms.
It's about showing up with intention. Do it for 30 days and you'll start seeing more confidence, more conversations, and yes, more revenue. Download it free at Studio three 40 nine.com/freebies. Now back to the episode.
Speaker: You know, for small teams, you know, or even like, you know, solo professionals or you know, that maybe just have, have a virtual assistant, like how can they start thinking like a client experience team?
You know, before
Speaker 2: they [00:17:00] actually can build, afford to build one out, you know?
Speaker: Right. One
Speaker 2: or two practical starting points.
Speaker: So one, you definitely need A-A-C-R-M-A, a client relations management system and taking things that you can pop into that and automate. One of the biggest things that I always suggest to people is creating a customized welcome email.
And what I mean by that is. Yes, it's a template. Yes, it's in your, in your CRM and it's automated, but create a video to pop in that email, right? You can create, customize, and create videos by, you know, saying the client's name or whatever. But then you have that manual step that you have to go and put it in the email before it goes out.
So I always suggest. Creating a, just a generic video of like, Hey, client, I'm so excited for you know that we're gonna be working together. My name's Erica. I'm gonna be your client relations person. Here are the next steps. [00:18:00] Book your call. The link is down below. That was always a great segue from a lot of times sales and client relations are two different people, right?
But if it's a, if you're a solopreneur, just customize the video. They already know you, right? So just make it like, just wanted to quick create this quick video to walk you through the next steps. That way you're not having to write out a huge long email, right? And then you just automate it where it goes out from your CRM, the moment the client signs the contract.
And the other thing I always suggest is everybody should have an onboarding meeting. With their clients within a couple of days of them signing the contract because buyer's remorse is real. And people will walk away even if they have a contract. 'cause they're, you know, within the first couple of weeks they're still trying to decide if.
They've made the right decision. Right? And if you don't take that step, then [00:19:00] there's a high likelihood that they'll be like, oh, th this person's either not organized or they don't, they just took my money and ran like they don't really care about me.
Speaker 2: And I'm a firm believer, like the way the relationship starts.
Speaker: And those first moments after you've gotten the Yes. And particularly like that first, you know, 30, 60, 90 days is really an indicator of, you know, it, it sets up the whole, whole client experience and the whole, you know, the whole way that engagement is gonna go and ensuring that they have a positive like onboarding experience and feel confident in the decision they've made is essential.
Yeah, absolutely. Absolutely. Do you have like, any kind of, sort of before and after stories you could share about, you know, a client that's made a shift in prioritizing and being really deliberate in how they set up the client journey and like what changed in the process and the impact it had on the business?
So I, yes. I have experience from my last position where we were building everything out from the ground up. So. The ex, the, the example I gave [00:20:00] of, they were setting unrealistic expectations and I was like, guys, you've gotta stop doing this. That really shifted. Once they stopped selling that the virtual assistants were plug and play, it really shifted, like clients came in with better expectations and it allowed me to really like create a partnership with that client, right?
It really allowed me to, instead of having to react. And put out fires of like, oh, those are the, those. That's not actually true because again, that sets up the relationship of like, oh, well I don't trust you now. 'cause I was sold something different. Right. And it really helped me. Start building a great partnership from the very beginning instead of having to backtrack and like realign on expectations and almost resell it to the client.
So that's one example. Another example is trying to [00:21:00] think, think of like a specific client that I worked with. Uh. My last job, this one. Okay. This one was around training as well. We were setting appropriate expectations and the clients still didn't realize that they needed to train. The virtual assistant didn't realize that they needed to set them up with an email and a, and a, a voiceover IP line and all the things that came with that so that we stopped.
And I, I was talking to kind of my right hand girl at the time, and she was like, well, what if we create a checklist? That we send in a welcome email. 'cause at the time we weren't doing a welcome email. We were just, they signed the contract and sales was giving them our scheduling link to schedule a call with us.
I was like, well, let's take it a step further. Let's create a welcome email that automatically goes out and let's put a video in it to introduce ourselves. Because [00:22:00] we were getting people that were thinking they were still gonna be working with the salesperson and not. Us. And so that's how we fixed the problem.
We created that process. We created the checklist so that the client had a list of like, you need to create an email. You need to get them access into your systems. And, 'cause we were having clients show up to the, we called them go live calls with the virtual assistant and they were showing up and hadn't prepared anything, right?
Like. Didn't even know that they were supposed to set up an email for the virtual assistant, which to me is just common sense. But at the same time, I was living that day to day. So what? What is, you know, what I think is normal and what you would do on a regular basis in this situation, not everybody's gonna think of.
So that was one thing that we. Implemented to kind of take care of the problem and it [00:23:00] helped so that we didn't have to like backtrack again. You know? And it's very critical in that first couple of touch points with the client that you're really setting that up for success and you're setting the client up for success.
Speaker 2: So, yeah,
Speaker: those are a couple examples.
Speaker 2: So I'm hearing like, if I could summarize it, it's, you know, first and foremost, set appropriate expectations over communicate and. Kinda that,
Speaker: that's that first, you know, 30, that first initial touchpoint. How do you like, recommend to clients as far as the, you know, happens kind of 60, 90 days in and then just that sort of, is there a periodic, you know, check in just to sort of measure the temperature of, hey, how are, how are things going?
Yes, absolutely. So we also set up intentional. What we call retention touchpoint, and I suggest everybody do that, like sit down, map out what your key milestones are for your product or your service, and then set up your touchpoint cadence. [00:24:00] Surrounding that. So obviously the first 30 days is the most critical point, usually in any type of service, right?
Like getting that client bought in, keeping them, and building that relationship. So your touchpoint should be very heavy in the beginning and then it can taper off once you've built a relationship with the client and all that. But to give you an example, at our last, actually the last two virtual assistant staffing companies I worked for.
We had a series of intentional touchpoints that we had to have a call with the client. And to take it one step further, at my last company, we developed touchpoints. As soon as that email, that welcome email went out, we created an entire series after that, right? And processes and procedures around making sure we're getting that client.
Set up getting them their virtual assistant as soon as we could, and then [00:25:00] once they went live with their virtual assistant, checking in on a very regular basis, like for example, once they went live with their virtual assistant, two days in, we're reaching out. Hey, client. How's the first couple of days been?
Have you gotten them access? Have you done this? Have you done, like, how's training going? Are they picking things up? And then the two week mark, and then it was the 30 day mark, and then it was the 40 day mark. And then the, so it was at every kind of an every other week touchpoint. And it was intentional calls like.
We would schedule a call with the client. Also, pro tip, when you're on a call with a client and you need them to be on another call, say in two weeks, go ahead and schedule it on that call so it gets on their calendar.
Speaker 2: I'm all about scheduling the next meeting before you get off the current meeting. Yeah.
Yeah,
Speaker: because if you don't, you're never gonna get back on their calendar. I, I have learned [00:26:00] you're never gonna get back on their calendar. So yeah, so you create those intentional touchpoints. And then usually after the 90 day mark, when the virtual assistant was going, you know, things were going really, really well.
We would drop to like a quarterly, but again, we scheduled it to make sure, and then sometimes just calling. Just to check in right after that 90 day mark. That way we weren't showing up only when something went wrong. I love that. So kinda just to summarize, thinking back to set appropriate expectations
Speaker 2: over-communicate and set up intentional retention, touch touchpoints.
I mean that's just the, the basics. I think that's fantastic. Let's jump into our fast five. Your, I can't live without its software or app
Speaker: right now. I feel like it's chat.
Speaker 2: GPTI
Speaker: used it. Every day, all day. Sometimes, like, especially when I'm brainstorming things right, I just like, I love to just verbally dump in there and it just, it, it just really helps me like [00:27:00] collaborate and brainstorm even though, you know, I don't have anybody here
Speaker 2: with me.
That's how I think of it is my like, thought partner. I mean, it's just great to have a, a, a thought partner in the room with you. Best advice you've ever received about sales and business development?
Speaker: I would have to say that it takes time. It, it doesn't happen overnight. I get frustrated because I, I want it to happen on my timeline.
Speaker 2: Uhhuh
Speaker: not always the case, and everybody I've spoken to that has been at this, you know. Being an entrepreneur for some time now, they're like, it's not gonna happen overnight. Mm-hmm. And I'm like, but why? I want it to happen overnight. I'm moving off of savings right now. I need clients to start coming in.
And then I think back to like, I wasn't heavily involved in the sales process at my last company, but I was there for all the big discussions. 'cause I sat on the leadership board or leadership team, and [00:28:00] I knew there were some clients. It took years. Sometimes for our CEO, before we actually had a sales team, it was taking some of them, it took them years because it was a big client and they were getting a lot of virtual assistants at once.
And so I have to keep that in mind of like. It's just gonna take me a little bit.
Speaker 2: Thank you for that reminder. I think we all all need that reminder. 'cause you know, there's just this in the age that we're in, you know, it's just, we've been so spoiled with, you know, instant gratification and you know, we think our business success should be the same way.
Speaker: Exactly. Yeah. My late husband used to always say, 'cause he was in the, he was in the service business. He owned his own business and so he dealt with the public all the time and he used to say. Amazon has ruined us. Amazon has created a, I want it and I want it now and I can have it now. Culture.
Speaker 2: Ugh. Your morning routine must have
Speaker: coffee.
For sure and French [00:29:00] press, my boyfriend has gotten me to start drinking French press coffee, which I thought was like super fancy when he first started making it for me. And then he actually showed me how to do it and I was like, this is it. This is how you make French. That's not hard at all. To the point where I bought my own French press and an electric tea kettle to boil my water to make it even faster for my house.
Because I was only getting it at his house. So that's what I drink now is French press every morning,
Speaker 2: your walk-on song, the one song that always pumps you up.
Speaker: Um, so I'm kind of obsessed with Jelly Roll, probably his newest one. He has one out right now with, I think it's Kerry Underwood, but I can't remember the name of it because I haven't added it yet.
But yeah, it would probably be his newest song. Carrie Underwood.
Speaker 2: And if you only had one hour each day for business growth, how would you spend it?
Speaker: One hour each day for business growth? Probably on entrepreneur stuff, honestly, like shout out to Entrepr. Misa. That's right. [00:30:00] Probably on there. Hitting people up in dms.
Just networking and relationship
Speaker 2: building. Yeah,
Speaker: which is what I love to do. It's one of my favorite things to do is just to meet people and network, which is odd for an introvert. But I do consider myself a true introvert at heart. 'cause I need my time to recharge and I need alone time. Like leave me alone to recharge.
Where can people network and connect with you online? Where can they reach out and find you and learn more about? Client journey. Yeah, absolutely. So I do have a website, which is client journey advisors.com. You can also find me on LinkedIn. I have my personal page and a business page, and then certainly can shoot me an email if they would like at Erica E-R-I-C-A-W.
At client journey advisors.com.
Speaker 2: Thanks so much for being here today.
Speaker: Yeah, I loved it. Thanks for having me, Tam. It's been fun. And that's it for today's episode. Thank you again to my guest, Erica Wood. [00:31:00] Be sure to check out the show notes to connect with Erica and learn more about Client Journey Advisors.
The biggest takeaway from this conversation is this, the most important client in your business is the one you have right in front of you. Sales is not just about getting the yes, it's about what happens after. It's about how you build trust and make it easy for people to keep saying yes to working with you again and again and again.
Because if you're constantly focused on replacement, you miss one of the best growth opportunities in your business serving your current clients well enough that retention, renewals, referrals, and expansion become a natural next step. So here's this week's sales as service challenge. Take 20 minutes this week and map out your current client journey.
From the moment someone says yes to the moment the project or engagement ends. Look at each step and ask yourself, where might a client be confused, disconnected, or ensure? What happens next? Then choose one place in that journey where you can add more clarity or more care this week. Maybe that's a better onboarding email, a proactive check-in.
A simple, here's what to expect next message, [00:32:00] A clear offboarding step that keeps the relationship open. This is. Really a timely episode for me because I'm actually in the process of reviewing my own client journey for Studio 3 49, and I'm not trying to rebuild everything at once. I'm simply looking for the places where I might unknowingly be leaking trust.
That's how better client experiences are built, and that's how sales starts to feel more sustainable. As always, thanks so much for listening, and if this episode gave you something to think about, be sure to share it with the business owner who's working hard to grow and wants to keep the clients they've already worked so hard to win.
And if you're not already following the show, be sure to do that now and I'll see you right back here next week on Sales as Service.
Speaker 2: You've just listened to the Sales As Service Podcast, the podcast to help you shift your mindset around selling. If you liked what you heard, be sure to hit subscribe and share it with a friend, because we're all about more sales. Awesome and less sales awkward. See you next [00:33:00] episode.

✦ YOUR SALES AS SERVICE CHALLENGE

Take 20 minutes this week and map out your current client journey from the moment someone says yes to the moment the project or engagement ends.

Look at each step and ask yourself: Where might a client be confused, disconnected, or unsure of what happens next?

Then choose one place in that journey where you can add more clarity or more care this week.

That might look like:

Improving your onboarding email
Adding a proactive check-in
Sending a simple “here’s what to expect next” message=
Creating a clearer offboarding step that keeps the relationship open

Don’t try to rebuild everything at once. Just find one place where trust may be leaking and fix that first.

RESOURCES & LINKS

Learn more about Client Journey Advisors
Connect with Erica on LinkedIn
Join us for the next SAS LIVE Office Hours Event!
Simply sales with the VIP Power Hour - download the FREE guide
Learn how to consistently book 3–5 sales-qualified meetings each week - Book an Alignment Call

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