It's easy to talk about running a business. But often, it feels morelike running in several directions at once.

While it's easy to think of your business as one huge project,it's actually a mix of distinct, concurrent processes, all of whichneed to be optimized individually in order for the whole businessto work as it should and as you want it to.

It's important to be able to break the pieces apart mentally,pinpoint the areas that are slowing you down or need work, and thentake specific steps to get each phase of your business running likea well-oiled machine.

Today, we'll look at this through the lens of the client funnel.How do interested prospects come into your world? How do youconvert them into appointments and ultimately clients? How do youdeliver ongoing value and then continually generate referrals?

In total there are seven distinct phases on the path clientstake as they move through your business. Each comes with its ownset of demands and opportunities. In this post we'll look at allseven phases, so you can hone in on the areas that need yourattention right now.

Phase 1: Attracting traffic

If you're going to acquire new clients, you've got to attractthem first. It's critical to have a strategy for attracting new,interested prospects, because everything starts here. If youdon't have enough new leads, appointments or clients coming intoyour business, you may have a traffic problem.

Now let's be clear, spending thousands of dollars on direct mailis not a traffic strategy. Blasting hundreds of radio ads per monthisn't either.

Those are tactics, and while they may be useful inside of astrategy, they're at best only one component of a fully definedtraffic strategy. Again, everything starts with traffic. It's thefirst phase that must be working in your business when buildingyour marketing plan.

Phase 2: Lead generation

You may think attracting traffic and capturing leads are thesame thing. They're not. Attracting traffic is fairly easy comparedto capturing leads. And this is often where we see a breakdown.

You can spend a lot of money on various tactics to generate lotsof traffic, but to capture leads, you need strong messaging,visuals and calls to action, and you need to put them in the rightmedia to ensure your message is in front of the prospects.

So what's your lead capture strategy? If you're not sure, thenyou may not have one.

Related: Optimize your lead-handlingprocess

Turning leads into clients requires a process and strategyaround communication and selling. (Photo: iStock)

Phase 3: Lead development

Once you're attracting traffic and capturing leads consistently,predictably and at an acceptable cost per lead, it's time tonurture and develop those leads. We often use the example of abuying temperature scale to illustrate this point.

If, for example, we hypothetically assign every lead a buyingtemperature of somewhere between 1 and 10, (1 being cold, 10 beingready to buy today) we need to have a strategy for “warming themup” and increasing their buying temperature over time.

For example, someone who becomes a lead but is just beginningthe search for what you offer may need much more nurturing thansomeone who's already a 9 or 10. Someone at 9 or 10 is ready tomake a decision today. And while most of us have built our businessaround 9s and 10s while ignoring everyone else, automation makes abetter way possible.

Let's say you spend thousands on a marketing campaign, generatea few dozen leads and close only a few. What happens to the rest?Do you mentally throw the rest away, ruling them out as bad leads?

Hopefully not, as they represent tremendous amounts ofopportunity. Just the fact that they've already responded makesthem a 3 or 4 on the scale, at least. Your job is to put systems inplace to develop them and move them up the buying temperature scaleover time. You neeed a lead development strategy.

Phase 4: Converting leads into clients

If you're like many financial advisors, you're not too worriedabout what your prospects will experience once they walk throughyour door. Most prospects presume that you know what you're talkingabout, and that you'll do a good job helping them implement theright plan. In fact, the consulting experience may not be the keything that differentiates your practice. For many clients, productsare products and plans are plans, and it's all a bit over theirheads.

But what about before each consultation? During the lead-up tothe appointment how do you keep them warm and keep the conversationgoing? Did you know that you can use automation to deliverimportant information in advance of each appointment? Thisleads to not only converting more clients, but giving them alandmark experience they've never had from anyone else they'veworked with.

Related: Attract the right clients by repelling the wrongones

In fact, don't stop there. If you were to envision or scriptyour ideal Starbucks experience, what kinds of things could you orwould you communicate before and after each appointment? Howabout reminders? Maps to your office? An outline of expectationsfor the meeting. Maybe a list of commonly asked questions prior toeach appointment.

All of these things communicate that you care, and deliver ahigher end experience for prospects as they determine whether ornot to do business with your firm. And the great news is, if youthink it through once, you can automate it so every prospectreceives this high touch experience with your firm.

Phase 5: Up-selling and cross-selling

In other words, maximizing your lifetime client value, or whateach client is worth to your business. You see what mostadvisors do is close a client, deliver the product or service, andthen forget about them and move right back to prospecting for thenext new client. But acquiring a new client is the most cost- andlabor-intensive thing you'll do in your business.

Instead of starting all over again with a new cold prospect,first make sure you've developed a strategy to increase the valueof each client you bring into your practice. This can have hugeimpact on your net profit at the end of the year, as all additionalbusiness you generate beyond the initial sale is almost pureprofit.

Related: Why aren't you cross-selling life & healthproducts? 6 excuses and the reality

Most of us as advisors tend to have a particular area of focus.Whether it's managed money, life insurance, annuities or somethingelse. But in reality, every client could benefit from a combinationof these products. Once we solve the core issue that brought themto us, we can and should be up-selling and cross-selling themadditional products and services.

Besides, if they're going to eventually need them anyway, mostclients would rather get them from someone they already trust.

Referrals are usually your best source of new leads. (Photo:iStock)

Phase 6: Client retention

Because it's so costly to acquire new clients today and takes somuch effort to gain their trust, you need to make sure you'reretaining each client that you close. One way to do this and thusboost your retention rate is to deliver ongoing value andeducation.

Think about it. What's the number one reason client's leave?They almost always say, “My advisor never calls or communicateswith me!”

Related: 4 undeniable tips to keep clients forlife

The reason this is so important is because every year that thoserelationships remain with your firm you earn or have the potentialto earn additional revenue and referrals, especially if you managemoney. So make sure you've designed and implemented a clientretention strategy.

Phase 7: Referral generation

Referrals are, by far, the best source of new leads. They costus nothing, they're usually very warm to start with, and they cometo us on a favorable basis. The challenge, though, is how togenerate them consistently. If your strategy is simply to ask yourclients when you see them once or twice a year, I would bet you'vegot some serious untapped potential.

Instead of being content with only getting a handful ofreferrals each year, you could implement an automated referralcampaign that prompts all of your clients periodically to give youa referral. Automation makes generating referralsmuch more scalable and efficient, not to mentionprofitable. So ask yourself, “What's your referral strategy?”

Each phase builds on the next

I'd encourage you to take this seven-phase blueprint, lay itover your existing business and really think about where you couldbest invest your time, money and energy as you move your businessforward. By breaking your client funnel into distinct, but mutuallydependent, processes, it's easier to identify what's slowing downyour growth and begin to see where working on a specific phasecould quickly accelerate your growth.

Related: 4 referral myths that might be slowing youdown