Why Client Discovery Matters During the Onboarding Process

Imagine taking a road trip before Google Maps was just a few taps away. You have a full tank of gas, your favorite snacks, and your road trip playlist (on CD or cassette tape, obviously, since Google Maps didn’t exist yet). 

As you exit familiar territory and settle in for the trip ahead, you realize you’re missing something really important—your map.  

If you keep driving, you’ll end up somewhere. But it probably won’t be where you intended to go. 

When we start working with a new client, the discovery meeting is our road map. We think of those 90 minutes we spend together as a fact-finding mission. By asking pointed questions, we dig deep to determine your starting point, your destination, and what routes we’ll take to get you there. 

Carving out time to have those discussions is critical. No one wants to end up in the middle of nowhere. 

What to Expect During Discovery 

Our discovery meeting agenda may vary slightly depending on the scope of our work together. But generally you can expect to see these questions on the list. 

What can you tell us about your business? 

No, you aren’t having deja vu—you probably already answered this question. So why do we ask it again? 

During discovery, we invite key stakeholders into the conversation. As we dive into the history of the organization, the core values it represents, and the overall mission, we get each stakeholder’s unique perspective. This gives us the opportunity to see all sides of the business and understand the role everyone involved will play. 

It also frames the conversation for our next topic. 

What’s working and what isn’t? 

That time you posted a photo of your CEO in a tutu on Instagram and it went viral? Or the time you increased traffic to your website by 200 percent with a well-written blog post? We want to hear about it! 

Tell us about the successes you want to repeat and the mistakes you hope to avoid. Our goal is to understand your marketing efforts, past and present, so we can help you plan ahead for the future. 

This is when it’s useful to involve multiple stakeholders. In practically every discovery meeting, we’ll ask a question that leaves all but one person scratching their head. And that one person’s response might be an essential piece of information.   

Who are your customers? 

This includes both your loyal customers and the ones you haven’t met yet—your ideal customers. Maybe they’ve heard of your company, or maybe they don’t even know you exist. (We’re here to fix that.) 

How old are they? Where do they live? What social media sites are they most active on? What are the primary challenges they face? 

The better we know your target audience, the better we can help you find more of those people. 

Who do you compete with and what makes you different? 

Most business owners we talk to have at least one arch nemesis. The arch nemesis has lower prices or flashier marketing. They have an insane amount of five-star reviews on Google. 

As you think back to the first question we asked about your business—your mission and values—what are the things your competitor can’t claim? Is it years of experience? The quality of a product or service? 

Just like you, we care about what your competitors are doing. Not because we want to copy their strategies, but because we want to create a strategy that sets you apart. 

Take that, arch nemesis! 

What brands do you admire? 

There’s no wrong answer here. Just because you work in real estate doesn’t mean you can’t look to Nike for inspiration. 

What attracts you to your favorite brand? Whether it’s the cleverness of their marketing, the simplicity of their products, or their brand loyalty, we can help you think about your brand and the products and services you offer. We specialize in taking elements of those companies and brands and making them uniquely yours. 

What does success look like? 

If you answered, ‘More sales,’ that’s only the tip of the iceberg. The road to success is paved with checkpoints, also known as KPIs, or key performance indicators. 

There’s no clear-cut answer to this question. For some businesses, success might be increasing the number of Facebook followers. Or appearing on the first page of Google’s search results page. For others, it might be increasing revenue through email campaigns. 

Once we know what success looks like for your organization, we can determine the KPIs that will help us measure it. 

Where do you see yourself in 6 months? A year? 

We promise this isn’t a job interview. 

If 2020 has taught us anything, it’s that the future is unpredictable. But it’s always a good idea to know where you want to be so you can make a plan to get there. 

Your vision for the future will influence the strategy we develop together. For example, if you see yourself expanding into a new market in the next six months, well, we’d better get cracking. Building a marketing plan to help you reach this goal would require significant planning for both your team and ours. 

The most important question: Who’s making the coffee? 

Discover More About RAD 

From content marketing to search engine optimization, digital advertising to email marketing, and (almost) everything in between, River Avenue Digital can help differentiate your brand. 

Reach out and learn more about how our services add value to your organization!