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The WP Minute brings you news about WordPress in under 5 minutes -- every week! Follow The WP Minute for the WordPress headlines before you get lost in the headlines. Hosted by Matt Medeiros, host of The Matt Report podcast.
Eric Karkovack (00:00)
Hi everyone, and welcome to the WP Minute. I'm Eric Karkovack Today's episode features a segment from my interview with Rachel Berry Rachel is the head of client services at Filter and shared her experiences working with WordPress enterprise clients. She offered some terrific advice for agencies and freelancers looking to enter this segment of the market. Now you can catch the entire interview over on our WP Minute Plus podcast.
Visit thewpminute.com for all the details.
Eric Karkovack (00:34)
so I wanted to pick your brain a little bit for your expertise on just advice you have for, for someone who is trying to break into this enterprise market. Like what.
What sort of ⁓ tips do you have to maybe help someone establish themselves with these type of clients, showing that you're capable and that WordPress is the right way to go?
Rachel Berry (00:56)
⁓ I think it's getting really clear on your niche and what you're going to provide as a solution and then investing in the presentation of that. ⁓ As I say for us, it's about making sure that you're when you're selling something, it's very clear. The process is very clear, strong communication, understanding the client organization and doing research into that and going in prepared to understand their problems holistically.
especially enterprise because it's not just technology. ⁓ It's a holistic sort of challenge. You know they might be looking to move into different ⁓ markets and things like that so really understanding their pain points as organizations to then present a solution that can be covered off with WordPress. I think WordPress could do so much for organizations at an enterprise level so I suppose finding those issues and then creating a solution, a holistic solution around it but
To me, mean, it's honesty, it's realism, it's positioning yourself as a partner, building that relationship. ⁓
And where my expertise lies is really on client service. We are a service agency, and that's not to be old school, but ⁓ prompt in our responses, making sure the client's always aware of things and where things are at, building that confidence, that relationship.
especially remote, know, we're working across different time zones and doing all we can to be there for our clients and make them feel confident in our offering.
I actually have some quotes for tips that I could read to you that I thought were really great, express my ethos around that is clients don't stay because of contracts. They stay because of trust and clear communication builds confidence, confidence, builds those long-term partnerships. Your best clients always feel heard. They don't feel sold to.
Eric Karkovack (02:41)
absolutely.
Rachel Berry (03:03)
Strong relationships are built between projects, not just during them. Under promise, they always say under promise is over deliver, but I think that's wrong. think it's more about under promise than over communicate and then just deliver consistently. I think is really the key. And most client problems aren't delivery problems.
I think they're expectation problems. And a surprise client is really a happy client. again, constant communication, making sure everyone knows where they stand. Clients don't want more features, they want outcomes. And I think that is really very true, again, in the enterprise space. You know, they don't really...
Eric Karkovack (03:46)
yeah.
Rachel Berry (03:47)
care so much about the underlying solution. They want to know how that solution is going to bring them growth and business outcomes at the end of the day. great client services about helping clients make good decisions, not just fast ones.
We often get asked from very senior stakeholders for their budget planning for the next year. It always comes no matter how prepared. The last minute and I think, you know, making stock and trying to think about things for the long term is really important and asking for more time. think timelines are always flexible. And when clients succeed, agencies grow. And so, you know, for us as an agency, making sure that we do all those things is really important because
is how we bring in a lot of our business. So we want people to have a really enjoyable experience working with us, a great product, and kind of go from there and spread that word. And as they move on in their careers, they always come back to us to continue the work that we can do with them. So that's my ethos. It served me well. And hopefully that's helpful for others to hear.