Consulting Client Acquisition

🗺️ Useful Customer Journey Maps (+ Figma / Miro templates) (https://lnkd.in/eQnd6K-c). Helpful guides and starter kits to design better journey maps ↓ ✅ We create user journey maps to visualize user’s experience. ✅ We start by choosing a lens: current state vs. future state. ✅ Then, we choose a user who experiences the journey. ✅ We capture the situation/goals that we are focusing on. ✅ Next, we list high-level actions users are going through. ✅ We define the first and the last stages, and fill in-between. ✅ You might start from the end to explore alternative routes. 🚫 Don’t get too granular: list key actions needed for next stage. ✅ Add user’s thoughts, feelings, sentiment, emotional curves. ✅ Add user’s key touchpoints with people, services, tools. ✅ Map user journey across mobile and desktop screens. ✅ Transfer insights from other research (e.g. customer support). ✅ Fill in stage after stage until the entire map is complete. ✅ Then, identify pain points and highlight them with red dots. ✅ Add relevant jobs-to-be-done, metrics, channels if needed. ✅ Attach links to quotes, photos, videos, prototypes, Figma files. ✅ Finally, explore ideas and opportunities to address pain points. ✅ Layer customer journeys to find frequent flows and map priorities. As Stéphanie Walter noted, often user journeys start way before users actually start interacting with our product — so always consider non-digital touchpoints as well. Users might even need to consult other tools and services as they interact with yours, so keep track on them, too. Personally, I found it remarkably useful to map user journeys against specific mobile and desktop screens that designers have been working on (Spotify model). Not only does it visualize user’s experience *in* the product — it also maps key actions to key screens that the teams must relentlessly focus on. More in the newsletter → https://lnkd.in/eQnd6K-c -- 👋🏼 I'm Vitaly Friedman, a UX lead who loves design, usability, writing, checklists and running UX workshops. You can find some useful UX resources in the “Featured” section in my profile and in the Smart Interface Design Patterns video library (https://lnkd.in/d4CNaTxR). Thanks for reading, everyone! 🥳

We talk a lot about content, channels, and campaigns in #demandgen.  However, the most important thing is understanding your customers.  Without that knowledge, you're just guessing. Jumping straight into campaign mode is a big mistake. Even if you already have a file of your Ideal Customer Profile (ICP), it's still worth it to double-check for any new trends to understand your audience in real-time.  👉🏾Who are they?   👉🏾What are their (present) frustrations?   👉🏾What keeps them up at night? Understanding these factors changes everything. There are many ways to gather such insights:  👉🏾Using surveys gives you quantitative data. 👉🏾Interviews provide qualitative depth.  👉🏾Social listening (very important) reveals what people are saying online.  👉🏾Competitor analysis shows the overall landscape. Recently, I was working on a campaign for a new product. My assumptions were way off, especially after reviewing recent customer interviews, which revealed a different path. Together with my team, we updated our messaging and saw a massive increase in engagement. To say the least, market research saved the (our) day! #b2bmarketing #ABM #marketingstrategy

Old GTM vs. New GTM The game has changed… Have you? 🤔 Outbound used to be simple: 📩 SDRs blasting 100+ Cold Emails a day 📅 Book as many meetings as possible ✔️ This worked, until it didn’t. Today, GTM teams don’t scale by hiring more SDRs. They scale by hiring/creating GTM engineers who design better systems. But here’s where most go wrong: 🚫 AI isn’t just for replacing manual tasks. ✅ AI + Automation are redefining GTM roles entirely. What’s actually changing? 1️⃣ Outbound isn’t just about volume anymore. The old playbook: → Buy a list → Spam 500 cold emails → Pray for a 1% reply rate The new playbook: ✅ Target smarter: Use Clay, Apollo, LinkedIn Sales Nav, Crunchbase to identify ICP-aligned companies before outreach starts. ✅ Prioritize intent: Tools like Trigify.io, Unify, Common Room help you focus on buyers already showing signals. ✅ Engage proactively: Platforms like RB2B, Maximise.ai, Leadfeeder reveal who's interacting with your website before they raise their hand. ✅ Personalize at scale: AI-driven tools like Twain, Lavender, Claygent tailor messaging based on behavior & profile data. 2️⃣ SDRs aren’t just SDRs anymore, they’re GTM Engineers → They design workflows, not just run scripts. → They integrate AI into multi-channel outreach. → They automate what used to be manual. 3️⃣ Process > People, but People > AI. 🚫 Hiring more reps won’t fix broken GTM systems. 🚫 AI won’t fix bad strategy. ✅ But great people building great systems? That changes everything. 🚨 The middle ground is disappearing. Companies must choose: ❌ Keep running Outbound the old way → Burn out your team, tank response rates. ✅ Engineer GTM systems that blend AI automation + human strategy → Win more, with fewer resources. This isn’t the future. It’s already happening. Are you adapting fast enough? Let me know in the comments

Value Streams vs Customer Journeys and Business Capabilities... and how to bring them together Continuing my series on business architecture concepts (https://lnkd.in/ewSnvsGK) in this post I will look at how service blueprints link difference concepts together. - Customer Journeys A Customer journey maps the experience and emotions of the customer, before, during and after interacting with a business or service. - Value Streams Value streams show how value is delivered (and the waste) to customers across an organisation from the point of view of a customer (internal or external). - Business Capabilities Abstract and strategic, business capabilities define the competencies or abilities that an organisation must have to deliver on is strategic objectives. Values streams typically span across many business capabilities. Service Blueprints Poor customer experiences are often due to internal business process challenges. While user research and the frustrations customers experience when trying to complete jobs may be clear, we need to discover the root cause of these obstacles and customer pain points. This is where service blueprints can help. They are a companion to customer journey maps, linking customer touch points to value streams and capabilities, thus making them something that we can focus on to drive business outcomes that will result in both business impacts and customer benefit. If journey maps reveal customer pain, then blueprints are the treasure maps that help reveal business weaknesses. Service blueprints typically contain the following: - Customer actions: Key actions taken by the customer, aligned with the journey map to connect it with the service blueprint. - Front stage actions: Employee actions or technology that directly interfaces with customers to complete their actions. - Backstage actions: These are the activities that systems or employees do to complete a customer action. For example, this is customer service agents using internal systems to give a customer information or fulfil their request. Support processes: Processes that enable and support the front stage and backstage actions. e.g. internal automated checks to see if the customer qualifies for a loan. - Business measures: It is useful to add metrics to provide additional context and evidence to the service blueprint, especially if it supports something that is a pain to customers. - Pain points: Just as we captured customer pain points on a customer journey map, we should capture business and employee pain points. Highlighting where we have issues, backed with the measurement evidence, can help us to identify where to focus our efforts on improvement and type that will align to and result in customer benefit as well. All of the concepts and models are featured in my new book “The Accidental CIO: A lean and agile book for IT leaders” . Amazon UK - https://amzn.to/48J7T3i Amazon US - https://lnkd.in/eYEW6R2n Also on Audible!

#EY's recently launched 𝗚𝗹𝗼𝗯𝗮𝗹 𝗪𝗲𝗮𝗹𝘁𝗵 𝗥𝗲𝘀𝗲𝗮𝗿𝗰𝗵 𝗥𝗲𝗽𝗼𝗿𝘁 𝟮𝟬𝟮𝟱, captures insights from 3,600 wealthy clients across 30 key markets. Key Insights from the report: 🚀𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘯𝘵: Overall, client satisfaction with wealth management services is high. However, 45% of clients expressed concerns about the increasing complexity of investments and market volatility. 🚀𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘣𝘦𝘩𝘢𝘷𝘪𝘰𝘳: The traditional notion of client inertia is rapidly changing. 29% of clients plan to switch their primary provider, and Multihoming is on the rise, with clients using an average of 2.3 wealth managers and 32% planning to increase that number. 🚀𝘗𝘳𝘰𝘥𝘶𝘤𝘵 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴: There is a significant demand for alternative investments, with 61% of clients indicating a desire to discuss these options with their advisors. Additionally, 51% of clients now have some exposure to alternative investments. 🚀 𝘚𝘦𝘳𝘷𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘴: Tailored, professional advice remains the core driver of perceived value among clients. However, only 42% of clients report to be fully satisfied with their provider's products and services. 🚀𝘞𝘦𝘢𝘭𝘵𝘩 𝘵𝘳𝘢𝘯𝘴𝘧𝘦𝘳𝘴: Many clients feel unprepared for wealth transfers, with 50% expressing a lack of preparedness despite the importance they attach to inheritance planning. 🚀𝘈𝘐 𝘦𝘹𝘱𝘦𝘤𝘵𝘢𝘵𝘪𝘰𝘯𝘴: A remarkable 60% of clients expect wealth managers to leverage AI in their services, and 43% are open to AI delivering financial planning without a human advisor. Wealth managers must prioritize agility and responsiveness to effectively address evolving client preferences. By offering more customized high-end solutions, they can build stronger relationships and enhance client satisfaction, ensuring long-term success in a competitive market. Explore the full 2025 EY Global Wealth Research Report by clicking the link below. Jun Li, Meghna Mukerjee, Karl Meekings, Jyoti Bachwani, Mohit Maheshwari, Shristi Sarda, Siddhant Mallela, Ankit Srivastava #EYGlobalWealthReport #WealthManagement #InvestmentTrends #EYInsights https://lnkd.in/gBNxmvKc

When I toured a coffee roastery recently, something struck me. You could see every step of the process: the green beans arriving, the roasting, the grinding, the packaging. Watching it unfold makes you appreciate how much thought and craft goes into a simple cup of coffee. It made me realize how rarely we give our clients that same visibility. Most of the time, the people we serve only see the finished product of the report, the deliverable, the campaign, the insight. They don’t get to witness the expertise, preparation, and decision-making that bring it all to life. But when customers understand the steps behind your work, they value it more deeply. They begin to see the layers of experience that make your results possible and the thinking that separates your process from anyone else’s. Every professional, whether you’re in consulting, design, education, or tech has a unique way of doing things. Those steps might feel routine to you, but to your clients, they can be fascinating. It’s how they start to understand the “special sauce” that makes your work distinct. Mapping out your customer journey isn’t just an internal exercise. It’s a way of telling the story of your expertise. It shows how you gather insights, make choices, and translate ideas into outcomes. When you make that process visible, you invite your clients to come along for the ride. They feel invested, aligned, and more confident in your approach because they can see the logic and care behind every stage. That transparency turns ordinary transactions into long-term relationships. It builds trust, fosters appreciation, and reminds people that your value isn’t just in what you deliver—it’s in how you do it.

IQ isn't a problem for Management Consultants. But consulting asks you to be relentlessly logical and emotionally fluent. And when you're tired, switching between IQ and EQ can be hard. Tight deadlines. Shifting priorities. High-stakes delivery. It's easier to tell your teams and clients "just get on with it." But you need calm, empathy, and influence to drive the best outcomes. Here are 7 EQ Superpowers Every Consultant Needs: 1. Emotional Regulation 💡Lose your centre, lose the room. ✅ Use a pause as power. ✅ Know your triggers before they hijack you. 2. Empathy 💡What your client says isn’t always what they mean. ✅ Tune into tone, not just words. ✅ Listen for intent without planning a reply. 3. Self-Awareness 💡Manage your tone, energy, and impact. ✅ Debrief meetings: what did you notice in yourself? ✅ Ask for feedback and use it. 4. Burnout Recognition (Team) 💡High performers rarely ask for help. ✅ Look for shifts in tone, energy, or output. ✅ Ask: “How are you really?” 5. Influence Without Authority 💡EQ is how you move things without pushing. ✅ Speak in their style. ✅ Frame ideas around their priorities. 6. Conflict Navigation 💡How you manage friction is important. ✅ Get curious, not defensive. ✅ Ask: “What would a win look like for you?” 7. Cultural Awareness 💡Today’s work crosses borders. ✅ Learn the norms (spoken and unspoken). ✅ Be curious and flexible. What works in one room flops in another. IQ solves the problem. EQ gets it implemented without burning bridges (or people). The best consultants aren’t just smart. They’re emotionally fluent, empathically sharp, and alert to what’s unsaid. That’s what makes you not just intelligent but irreplaceable. What EQ skill is most underrated in consulting? ♻️ Repost to help your network. ➕ Follow Deena Priest for more like this.

An ecommerce company recently approached my team to do an email audit as they were facing challenges with low open and click-through rates. After analyzing their email account, here are our main recommendations to revive their email marketing channel: 1. Strategic Email Segmentation: Currently, your emails lack personal relevance due to a one-size-fits-all approach. This is a crucial area to address. Action Plan: Implement segmentation based on purchase history, engagement levels, browsing behavior, and demographic information. 2. Personalized Content Creation: Generic content won't cut it. Your audience needs to feel that each email is crafted for them. Action Plan: Develop emails specifically tailored to the different segments. This includes curated product recommendations, personalized offers, and content that aligns with their interests. 3. Subject Line A/B Testing: Your current subject lines aren't doing their job. You need to be implementing ongoing A/B subject line tests, as this is low-hanging fruit to improve your open rates. Action Plan: Regularly test different subject line styles and formats to identify what resonates best with each segment. Keep track of the metrics to inform future campaigns. 4. Mobile Optimization: A significant portion of your audience reads emails on mobile devices. Neglecting this is causing a decrease in your email engagement rates. Action Plan: Ensure all emails are responsive and visually appealing on various screen sizes. Test your emails on multiple devices before sending them out. Additional Campaign Strategies We Recommend: - Launch a Monthly Newsletter: This should include new arrivals, style guides, and user-generated content. It’s an excellent way to keep your brand in the minds of your customers. - Seasonal Campaign Integration: Tailor your campaigns to align with holidays and seasons. This approach can significantly boost engagement and sales during key periods. - Re-Engagement Campaigns: Specifically target subscribers who haven't interacted with your brand recently. Offer them unique incentives to rekindle their interest. Next steps: 1. If you found this helpful, please leave a comment and let me know. 2. If you own/run/work at an Ecommerce company doing at least $1 million in annual revenue, message me so my team can audit your email channel to see if there's a good fit for working together.

Do clients keep negotiating and reducing your profit margins? Here are 7 strategies to ace those negotiation conversations: 1) Offer Price & Boundary Price Have an Offer Price (the first price you quote) and a Boundary Price (the lowest you’re willing to go). The range in between is your negotiation window. This way, the client feels like they’ve won by getting a better deal — and you win by closing it at a profitable price. 2) Make Them Win Go into the conversation with the intention to make the client feel like a winner. Give them something unexpected — an extra deliverable, a reduced turnaround time, a payment plan, or a small discount. It makes them feel valued and drastically elevates their buying experience. 3) Partnership Mindset Reaffirm that you're the right partner for them — you understand their problems, have the solution, and proven success stories. 4) Position Value Don't over-explain product features. Only talk about the value and benefits your customer will receive after the purchase. 5) Be Dumb, Not Desperate If you sound desperate, clients will push the price down. Instead, play it cool. Ask questions. Ask for their support in closing the deal. 6) Win-Win or No Deal You and the client should both feel like you’ve won. If not — the deal should be called off. It’s that simple. 7) Mentally Present During negotiation conversations, people often overthink and get lost in their heads. Don’t do that. Stay mentally present and focus on solving the client’s problems. Share this with your network and help an agency owner scale their business.

Market Research is like having a compass in the ever-changing landscape of consumer needs and preferences. So, how do we effectively conduct market research for a D2C brand? 1. Start with Your Current Customers: They are your richest source of information. Surveys, feedback forms, and even direct conversations can provide invaluable insights. 2. Explore Social Media Trends: Social media isn't just for marketing; it's a goldmine for understanding what your potential customers are talking about and interested in. 3. Keep an Eye on Competitors: Understanding what your competitors are doing can offer clues about what works and what doesn’t in your market. 4. Utilize Online Tools and Analytics: Platforms like Google Analytics can provide data on consumer behavior, preferences, and buying patterns. 5. Regularly Update Your Research: Consumer trends change rapidly. Regular market research helps you stay relevant and responsive. 6. Review reports from credible sources: Industry reports and market analyses from trusted research firms can offer macro-level insights and validate your own findings. 7. Looking at global trends: Understanding these trends can help in anticipating shifts in consumer preferences and in adapting your products or marketing strategies to stay ahead. In my experience, market research is more than just a business activity. It’s a continuous conversation with your market, a process of listening and responding to the changing rhythms of consumer needs. I'd love to hear from fellow D2C entrepreneurs: How do you conduct market research for your brand? What tools or strategies have you found most effective? #india #startups #entrepreneurship #D2C #market #research #insight