Top Advisor Marketing Podcast: 379. Powerful Relationship-Building Tactics From Our Client Success Manager Alison Friedel

What does client success look like?

How can your marketing help connect with clients and prospects?

In this episode, Matt Halloran talks to Alison Friedel, ProudMouth’s client success manager. Join them as they discuss ways to speed up your clients’ success and build lasting relationships.

Alison discusses:

• The admittedly terrifying –– but the most accurate way –– to define success for your clients
• Three podcasting strategies that are bringing our advisors the most success
• What drives engagement on social media (but advisors are shy to do it)
• How to make your podcast entertaining so people choose it over things like Netflix
• And more

Transcript:

[00:00:00] Matt Halloran: Welcome to the Top Advisor Marketing Podcast brought to you by ProudMouth. I'm your host, Matt Halloran. Being your own loud is not new to marketing, but the mindset, strategies, and resources to help you get there are evolving faster than this industry is keeping up. It is time to find a new perspective on what works, why and how to move your business forward.

Listen as I interview guests to help you learn from them how to be your own loud. Let's get to the show.

Hello and welcome to another Top Advisor Marketing Podcast. I'm your host, Matt Halloran. You know, we haven't done one of these in a little while and I'm super excited to actually start interviewing our team again. Now, one of the reasons why we haven't done it in a while is because we've been hiring like crazy people.

So, it was like…what? Six months ago? How long have you been with us now, Alison?

[00:00:53] Alison Friedel: That's about six months. Yes.

[00:00:54] Matt Halloran: Six months. Okay. So, you're due and it’s kind of like a rite of passage for all of you who don't [00:01:00] know this. After you've been with our organization, we really do try to get you on our podcast because well, we're a podcasting company, so you should probably be on a freaking show.

Alright. So officially your title is? And let's actually start there and then we're gonna dive into some other stuff. 

[00:01:16] Alison Friedel: Sure. Oh, my official title is client success manager, 

[00:01:19] Matt Halloran: Client success manager. So, we made a huge consciousness shift really a little bit more than six months ago before we brought you on board.

That client success is the most important thing that we need to be focusing on. Early on, we were really focused on a great product, right? That was our big thing. And we've kind of got that dialed in now. Now it's all about what can we do to make our clients more successful? And you are integral. And we're gonna dive into that a little bit more deeply during the show. But let's find out about you.

Where'd you come from, man? How did you…like, why are you here? What makes you tick? What do you do outside of work? All of those things. 

[00:01:53] Alison Friedel: Great. Thanks, Matt. First of all, thanks for having me. I was a little nervous, but now I'm super excited about this. [00:02:00] So, where did I come from? I don't know. I always joke that I think I have this little bit of an…what's that? Imposter syndrome?

Why is this girl from New Brunswick, Canada, all of a sudden a manager of client success for this fabulous start-up company and how did it start? And I just realized that it started back in high school. I was always the girl known as the talker. I was the one that raised questions in the class.

I was always the one that felt that questions needed to be answered and you don't get answers without the questions. And realizing as well that most people had the same questions. So, I asked a lot of questions, you know, went through my career, moved a lot with my husband in the beginning, tried everything.

I was a lumber grader, if you can imagine hard hat, steel toe, the whole kit and caboodle. I've worked in craft supply wholesale. I've done insurance, which was a big bulk of my career and probably where I got most of my client experience background. [00:03:00] And then did a little switch for the last few years into the beauty industry, which I think is also like a client success/client experience background, because you're dealing one on one with people and you want them to be happy.

Then knowing our chief operating officer from a previous life, she reached out and said, hey, wanna be a part of the best company up and growing in Canada and the United States right now? And I was like…hmm yes. And so, yeah, and that's when I came on board. 

[00:03:26] Matt Halloran: So, there is a lot of stuff there, but I'm gonna go back to the beauty industry thing. Cause you and I had a conversation a little while ago that I thought was really, really impactful. And I don't think people really, truly understand what you did and how those interactions have really shaped this next phase of your life. So, what did you do exactly? Let's talk a little bit about that.

[00:03:52] Alison Friedel: Sure. And I'll just back up that truck a little bit, Matt, in that, how I got into the beauty industry.

[00:03:56] Matt Halloran: Good call. Good call.

[00:03:58] Alison Friedel: Right. So [00:04:00] I was working for a large Canadian insurance company as a team manager, a team leader, client success team leader, if you will. And my mother passed and then a very good family member passed all within about a year and a half of each other.

And I went into a depression. I'm not shy to talk about it. I feel it's something that needs to be talked about. I have a fantastic family doctor. I saw an amazing therapist and got myself where I wanted to be. However, it wasn't in the corporate world at that time. So, I sat down and thought, what could I do? And I just happened to have a really good friend who owned a salon and she said, well, why don't you do this?

You're a people person. You're creative. You enjoy talking to people. You know, as long as you have some hand and eye dexterity, you'd probably be really good at this. So, at the ripe age of 44 years old, I went back to school. That was a challenge in itself. Going back and, you know, being with 18, 19, 20-year-olds [00:05:00] learning a new craft, but I loved it.

So, my career then entailed working in a salon that was actually located in a nursing home. A nursing home, retirement home, assisted living home, however you wanna call it. And I got to meet some of the most amazing people. We also did what we call outside business or street business, if you will, and how I think customer experience and client success related to that was just having these one-on-one conversations.

Getting to know the people. Oh, I loved it so much. I have one lady, her name's Dorothy, don’t know if I'm allowed to say that on here, but what the heck? Dorothy is my absolute favorite. She's 98 years old and remembers things that I don't. She and I have a really special bond. I even still go visit her in the last six months since transitioning over here to ProudMouth.

So, I was a nail tech. I did gel nails. I did manicures. I did pedicure. You know, I even rubbed people's feet and while that's not for everyone, [00:06:00] I didn't mind it.

I was actually getting known to be one of the best pedicures in the city because I did a really good job and really took the time to make people feel special, even if it was just, you know, a little extra pressure here, a little extra essential oil there, whatever it took. And I built friendships with my clients. And that's one of the things that I really, really enjoyed about it. 

[00:06:22] Matt Halloran: And now you're bringing that here. Right? And I wanted you to deconstruct that cause number one, doing that in a retirement community is a very, very different thing than a high volume. Right? You were all about the relationships and they wanted to come back and spend time with you.

And they wanted this experience. And that's really what we brought you here for. We wanted that level of attention and care and listening. And guys, I want all of you to think about this from a– you're a financial services professional. Listening is your most important tool that you could ever have.

And one of the neat things [00:07:00] about Alison being here is her desire to listen, listen to our team members, listen to our clients, and then take that information without any predisposition or judgment and say, okay, this is the direction that we really need to do. And I absolutely love that. But let's break down client success.

So, you have always been interested in making sure that the clients feel successful. What does that mean? And how do you break that down here?

[00:07:27] Alison Friedel: So that's a really good question, Matt, because I have been doing a lot of research into that. I go online, LinkedIn, you know, there's a lot of client success managers and different groups.

I even Googled courses, turns out there's only one client experience or client success manager course right now in all of North America in San Francisco, because it's not something that's taught in school. But what does that mean to me? That means really having those relationships. What it looks like for me is the client to feel that relationship, [00:08:00] knowing that they could either pick up the phone or write us an email or send us a note, whatever they need to do, that it's gonna be answered.

It's gonna be listened to, and we're gonna work together to make them a success. When you and I were talking before the podcast, you mentioned to me about possibly reaching out to our other founder, Kirk, our CEO, Lisa, and asking them what we want client success to be. But I don't think that's the right way to go.

I think if you wanna know what client success is, ask the client.

[00:08:31] Matt Halloran: That's terrifying for people, Alison, and you know that. I mean, when you were back in the big corporate world, I mean, oh my goodness gracious, getting client feedback's terrifying. And we know that that is the most important thing, but it does take a level of bravery and it takes a little bit of humility.

You know, I mean, we've really tried hard to build one hell of a business here. And we found out that we fell short on a couple of things and now we're doing whatever we can to [00:09:00] remedy that, but we never would've known that if we didn't ask. 

[00:09:03] Alison Friedel: Exactly. And, you know, I reached out to a couple of clients personally with, you know, concerns that they had.

I don't ever like to call them conflicts or complaints. To me, they are learning opportunities. They are reasons that we can grow. You know, there's all kinds of reasons why a client might reach out. Tone in an email or a note doesn't really relay the best message. So, sometimes, the best answer is just picking up the phone.

And even just recently reached out to one of our clients, had a really great conversation with them about what they wanted. We hear a lot of times, oh, I don't wanna sound salesy. And I was like, well, what is sounding salesy to you? Right? Is it asking for business? You're in the business of making business, like getting business.

Why would asking for the business sound salesy? If you don't ask for it, you're not gonna get it. If you don't ask for the ice cream, you ain't gonna get the ice cream. Right? That's the way I look at it. So, I reached out to them and said, [00:10:00] what do you wanna sound like? What do you want? What is success for you?

How long is it gonna take you to get there? What are your expectations of us? Would you like to know what our expectations of you are? And reiterate that as well because we have expectations for our clients and our client success, as well as they have expectations from us. 

[00:10:20] Matt Halloran: Yeah. Yeah. Well, and if you don't know the expectations, you've been married for quite a while, and we've talked about that offline.

Right? You know, well, he should know that. Oh, okay. Well, you know, even after 30 years, 20 years, whatever, it's still good to make sure that you're both clear on those expectations. And we wanna have long term relationships with our clients. So, let's talk about what you're working on.

So, some of the core fundamental things that you've been working on in the last six months. Let's have our audience hear that. 

[00:10:46] Alison Friedel: Sure. So, definitely opening the lines of communication is very, very important to me. We are, as Matt said in the beginning of the podcast, we are hiring because we want to have the [00:11:00] capacity to have those relationships.

So, I've been highly involved in all of the hiring process for our new client success coordinators, who are the first point of contact after talking to Matt. And we are growing that department so that they are prepared to have those conversations. They are wanting to have those conversations, but we have the capacity so they can have those conversations.

So, that's first and foremost, one of the biggest things we've been working on. And so far, you know, we are having a lot of success with that. Second thing we're working on is reviewing our onboarding process. How can we make this easy for you? As mentioned in the beginning of this podcast, I said I was a little nervous and now I'm excited, but we know that our clients are nervous to podcast.

They want to podcast. They have all the ideas in the world, but they don't wanna sound silly. They don't wanna sound funny. So, we wanna make sure that when they come on board, that the process is super easy, super communicative? I'm really bad [00:12:00] at enunciation sometimes. And we want them to feel like they've come home.

They are ready to podcast. We are here to help them. So, that's a big project that we're working on, and we have some really great team members that are doing a lot of work to get us there, 

[00:12:16] Matt Halloran: Having somebody be comfortable behind the microphone. And we, so Kirk and I, failed at that miserably when we first started the Top Advisor Marketing Podcast. We get people to come on the show and they're freaking out.

It's the day…like we're ready to record and they're like, I'm not ready. I'm not ready. So, we thought, okay, what do we need to do to change that? And we've been building systems in place, much like the systems that we are now implementing for the client success journey.

But let's talk about– So, you've had conversations and you're dealing with the hundred and some odd clients that we have now. You are involved in a lot of the conversations. What are you hearing that is making these clients of ours successful? What is like a common thread or [00:13:00] what are you gleaning from that?

[00:13:02] Alison Friedel: Oh man, I'm loving this question. One of the major things that I'm seeing of our most successful podcasting clients is kind of twofold. One, they're prepared. They are coming prepared for their podcast. They've got their show notes. They know what they're gonna talk about.

They know who their guest is, what their guest can talk about. They are ready. Okay? Actually, I'm gonna say threefold. Okay. The second one is that they are also promoting their podcast. It's not a magic world where you record it, we do everything for you, and magically, there's a million listeners. It doesn't work that way.

Share your podcast. That's all I can say to you. Send it to your friends, even if they're not interested in the financial industry or the law industry or the medical industry, or whatever happens to be the industry that they're not interested in, but share your podcast with your friends, right? Share it with your prospects.

Everybody has a prospect list. You [00:14:00] know that client that reached out that's not quite sure they wanna pull the trigger yet? Share it with them. Share it with other financial advisors to say, hey, I'll share mine. You share yours, right? Like such a collaborative agreement. Right? And I think the third thing that we're really starting to push for that is going to have a ton of success that we've been working on really hard is personalization and humanization.

I actually listened to one of Matt's webinars. Matt is an authority on podcasting. He's amazing at it. And one of the speakers in the group mentioned, don't be talking about your trade all the time. People know what you know. Yeah. Right? Start talking about yourself. Why would they wanna work with you? Why would they wanna see you at a baseball game?

Because it shows that you have a life that shows that you are concerned about your own life. And it shows that humanization, that personalization that [00:15:00] is going to get you followers, watchers, listeners, whatever you're looking for. Don't beat them over the head. It's like flogging a dead horse. Right? If you start putting out content of the same thing, same thing, same thing, right?

That's not how you bring them into you. And I don't know if it's Matt. I think you'd always say people like people who are people.

[00:15:20] Matt Halloran: Yeah, well, so on that webinar, which was a whole bunch of fun. We did that with Advisor Websites and Snappy Kraken, and it was an all-star lineup.

Like these were powerhouse people. It was really fantastic. There are statistics that back that up. So, content, content, content, personal content. So, one of the ladies, who's a really good friend of ours, her name is Shauna. She was talking about how she posted a picture of her and her dog hiking somewhere.

Right? It got 10 times the amount of views and interactions because people like it. And now, every time they talk to her, they're like, “oh [00:16:00] my god, I'm a dog person, too.” Right? People are looking for the connection. Why aren't you providing that connection in your marketing and your content? It baffles me.

[00:16:11] Alison Friedel: It does. And me too. I'm the same way, Matt. I've been using LinkedIn now for some time, you know, I just hit my hundred connections. I know that's a big step for me. I'm really excited about that. And I will share the work things. I will share the work things. I will write the content, you know, about our job, about podcasting, et cetera, but every now and then, I throw in a picture of me on my kayak.

Yep. And sometimes, I relate it to what I'm learning in life or what I'm doing in life. And sometimes, I just put a picture of my kayak. 

[00:16:42] Matt Halloran: Yeah, I took a picture. I was out. I had to get out. We all work from home. And so, I went to a park that I absolutely love. It's got Wi-Fi. I mean, it's just like this wonderful park here in Michigan.

And I took a picture of myself in this park and I said, this is where I come to think. Where do you go to think? [00:17:00] We got 3,000 people who interacted with that post and I'm just like, why am I– you know? So, it is really wonderful. And in the world of podcasting, in the world of what we do for our clients, it's the human factor.

So, we talk about it with the perfect podcast formula. It's education, entertainment, storytelling, and call-to-action. The storytelling, some of those should be about you. 

[00:17:21] Alison Friedel: Yes. Yes. Or about experiences you've had. One of my favorite podcasts…and I think I can throw a client's name out?

[00:17:30] Matt Halloran: Absolutely.

[00:17:31] Alison Friedel: Okay. Larry Heller was talking about how to get prepared in the event you lose a spouse. And he tells this story of a woman rolling into his office with a suitcase full of papers going, “I don't know what to do, but I saw your name on something,” right? And that story has stuck with me, ‘cause I kept saying, “I don't wanna be the woman with the suitcase.”

Right? I remember back, this is a good one. And when I was in the insurance industry, there was a program called the chartered insurance professionals. It's like getting your CPA, [00:18:00] but as an insurance agent, and I loved it cause anytime I can get education or anything like that, I just love it. And I was taking probably what was the hardest course, which was liability.

And like everybody, Canada, U.S., doesn't matter, liability is such a gray area when it comes to what is covered, what isn't covered. And my teacher was a storyteller. And he had worked in claims and different liability claims and farm claims and you name it. And he told a story once of a guy who pretty much got scalped by some farm equipment. And like the whole kind of flap came off and he kind of pushed it back and held it on and kind of went in and called his insurance company before an ambulance.

Anyway, and so I'm now in my exam writing my liability exam and a farm question came up and I'm literally in the exam with my hand on my head writing my answer because the visual, the storytelling, made me think of that story. So, if anybody looked over, [00:19:00] it looked like I was doing, you know, some independent movements, but it's that connection that I made. And our clients are making connections with you if you make connections with them.

And if all you talk about is Roths and 401(k)s and, you know, pension plans, you're gonna maybe lose a little bit of that audience. You gotta bring it back in. Talk about your own pension plan if you have to. What kind of plans you're making for the future so that they realize, okay, this is not just about me.

This is about everybody. And I fall into that category. Maybe some advice, 

[00:19:42] Matt Halloran: One of my favorite things is, you know, physicians. Right? So, when I went in for my last knee surgery, which I have had many of, you know, we didn't talk about the surgery. Right? Like I didn't care about the tools he was using or the anesthesia or whatever.

[00:20:00] We were talking about what I was going to be able to do after the surgery. Why aren't we doing that? And our more successful clients are doing that. So, “hey, look, we do a Roth conversion, blah, blah, blah. But here's really why we do a Roth conversion is because it's gonna massively impact your taxable income, blah, blah, blah, blah, blah.

And how you can live in retirement. Let's talk about what retirement could look like if you had an extra couple thousand bucks a month.” That's humongous, right? Yes. Alright. Well, I'm gonna ask you my favorite question.

[00:20:26] Alison Friedel: Well. I am going to add to that if you don't mind. Yep. I actually brought this subject up with my husband. So, my husband works in pensions and benefits.

He works in retirement. And I heard a term the other day on a podcast, and I wish I could credit the client right now, but intentional retirement. Having things to do intentionally when you retire. I love that. And I said to my husband, “we have an intentional retirement. And he's like, ‘yeah, we do.’” So, that's what you're talking about.

What can your money do for you when you retire so that you can have the life you want? What do you [00:21:00] wanna do when you retire?

[00:21:02] Matt Halloran: Well, and I think retirement has fundamentally changed, too. And in the intentional retirement, and that person who runs that show, one of the interesting things about that is, it's not always sitting on the golf course, gardening, you know, playing bingo.

It's what are you actually gonna do? And if you're working with an advisor who has those conversations and it's not all asset management, asset allocation, seeking out X percent of return or guaranteed income, that's entertainment, right? Yes. We get back to that all the time and you have to understand that this is a show.

And if you come into it as a show and you bring that entertainment quality with great stories and good education, then when you go to that call to action, people are willing to do what you asked because you gave so much. And you've given us so much, Alison, thank you so much. By the way, we love having you on the team.

We're so proud to have you here. You are such a great person. You as a human are a magnificent human and that's starting to resonate with our team, and we just couldn't have asked for [00:22:00] that any better. But I love asking this question because, you know, I don't know what I don't know.

And I usually try to prepare very well for these, but what should I have asked you that I didn't?

[00:22:09] Alison Friedel: Oh, my goodness. You know, I thought about this and, you know, at first, it was all about what should our clients do? But then I thought, no, I'm gonna make this entertainment and then make this storytelling.

So, little known fact, I have a motorcycle license. I decided I needed to have my own hog, then decided I didn't want my own hog. So, I'm now downgraded to a scooter, which I absolutely love. I'm also a ballroom dancer. My husband and I took lessons for years. The teacher ended up being my absolute best friend in the whole wide world.

And we even taught for a little while. So that was a lot of fun. And I'm an avid baker. I can read a recipe and tell you if it's gonna be good or not, like that's a talent in itself [00:23:00] because, you know, I know people who can't read a recipe. They're like, oh, this looks good and they'll do it and be like, oh. And I was like, no, I can tell you right off if it's gonna be it.

So those are some of the fun things I like to do in my spare time. And those are all things I feel like have built who I am. You know? Learning to ride a motorcycle, you know, dedication, education, you know, trying new things. Being a ballroom dancer, again, education but entertainment, doing something fun for myself. And baking, again, is learning, applying skills that I have.

Yeah. Someday, I'll have to show you some of the really funky cupcakes that I made, Matt. 

[00:23:39] Matt Halloran: Yeah, that would be awesome. I would absolutely love that. Well, Alison, again, thank you for being a part of our team. And for those of you who are clients of ours, you're gonna get to know Alison cause she's involved in a lot of our client stuff.

And if you are a client later down the road, you're gonna be feeling the results of Alison because it's all about client success. So, Alison, thank you very much for being on the show and [00:24:00] yeah, I can't wait to continue to work with you. 

[00:24:02] Alison Friedel: Thank you, Matt. And I think we should include the link to your webinar on the personalization in our show notes so that you guys can watch Matt in action as well.

And we'll have all of our contact information as well. 

[00:24:14] Matt Halloran: Magnificent. Well, and listen, if you are still on the fence and you think to yourself, you know what? Gosh, I'd really like to be able to start a podcast, but I don't know where to start. I don't really have a major budget for it, but I just wanna dip my toe in the water.

Listen, join the academy, everybody. The PodRocket Academy is free. There's the course Podcasting 101, which is absolutely fantastic. It's a great way for you to find out everything you need to know. We tell you everything you need to know in order to successfully start your show. So, with that, for Alison, all of us here at ProudMouth, this is Matt Halloran. And we'll see you on the other side of the mic very soon.

Thanks for listening to the Top Advisor Marketing Podcast brought to you by ProudMouth. If you wanna know more about how you can be your own loud, visit us at proudmouth.com and sign up for the PodRocket Academy. Through courses and office hours led by [00:25:00] professional podcast producers and digital marketers, you will learn everything you need to know to become the trusted subject matter expert you are meant to be.

The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.