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Build a Better Agency Podcast

Scale and grow your agency with better clients, invested employees, and a stronger bottom line, with Drew McLellan of Agency Management Institute.
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Build a Better Agency Podcast
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Now displaying: May, 2017
May 29, 2017

Dave Currie is the CEO of List Partners Inc., the home of: Winmo, Localead, and Catapult. He is a leading entrepreneur in sales intelligence and lead generation for the advertising, media and tech industry. Having joined List Partners Inc., in 2005 when he was 26, he has led the company and its brands on a rapid growth path, one recognized by their customers and the industry at large as one of the leading and fastest growing private companies in America.

Best known as the agency new business implementation go-to-guy, Dave has lead proactive and organic business development programs for regional, national and global agencies for the past 16 years. When you commit to growing your agency, Dave and his team are one of the very first ports of call.

Dave collaborates with agencies, their owners, leadership teams and new business directors, helping them calibrate their agency to market, and most importantly implementing effective new business programs that produce the desired sales results.

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • How the List has evolved over the years and what they do today to help agencies grow through
  • their three brands Winmo, Localead, and Catapult
  • The biggest mistake agencies make in their business development efforts: not having a plan
  • List’s CMO tenure study
  • How successful CMOs keep agency relationships longer than their less successful counterparts
  • Why agency-client relationships moving away from AOR engagements is a great opportunity for agencies
  • Separating marketing and sales and giving them their own plans
  • Building sales plans for both growing business with existing customers and bringing in new customers
  • How small agencies can win huge projects
  • Why being the one to implement shouldn’t be the goal of your first conversation with a marketer
  • Why you must keep your nano list -- your list for sales -- to 25-30

Ways to Contact Dave Currie:

Resources:

We’re proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

May 22, 2017

Drew McLellan is the Top Dog at Agency Management Institute. For the past 21 years, he has also owned and operated his own agency. Drew’s unique vantage point as being both an active agency owner and working with 250+ small- to mid-size agencies throughout the year, give him a unique perspective on running an agency today. AMI works with agency owners by:

  • Leading agency owner peer groups
  • Offering workshops for owners and their leadership teams
  • Offering AE bootcamps
  • Conducting individual agency owner coaching
  • Doing on-site consulting
  • Offering online courses in agency new business and account service

Because he works with those 250+ agencies every year — he has the unique opportunity to see the patterns and the habits (both good and bad) that happen over and over again. He has also written two books and been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called his blog “One of 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read.”  

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why agency owners are confident again and why new business is easier to come by right now
  • The trend where talent inside agencies has become a scarce resource
  • What to do about having to hire underskilled employees
  • The challenge of providing clients with the right data
  • Having an answer when clients ask agencies about diversity
  • Opportunities for agencies with old school media
  • Why you have to be great at marketing automation

Ways to contact Drew McLellan:

May 15, 2017

Tim Sanders is a veteran sales, marketing, and HR leader with expertise in sales collaboration, relationship management, leadership, and customer experience design. For almost 20 years, Tim Sanders has closed deals and led B2B sales teams to victory using his Dealstorming methodology. He was an early member of Mark Cuban's broadcast.com and then later, CSO at Yahoo during their best days. Today he consults with leading companies on how to drain their pipeline, secure major accounts, and beat the competition with teamwork. Financial Times calls his latest book, “Dealstorming: The Secret Weapon That Can Solve Your Toughest Sales Challenges” a 'force multiplier.' He gives some unconventional insights that just may get you to the finish line on your next big selling opportunity.  

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Tim’s start in sales working for a radio station
  • Dealstorming: how Tim took dealmaking and brainstorming and put them together
  • The difference between collaboration and cooperation
  • How to strategically build your dealstorm team
  • Turning your peer group into “competimates” that you can collaborate with to make each other stronger
  • Why you absolutely need diverse perspectives in the room (and why you should have an external voice on your dealstorm team)
  • The secrets to making your dealstorm meeting a magic meeting with results
  • New business through rapid problem solving
  • The hacker, the chef, and the artist: the three personas for solving different problems
  • How leaders lead culture

Ways to Contact Tim Sanders:

We’re proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

May 8, 2017

For several years Jake owned a video production agency. His business partner was the brilliant technician and he was the guy who got the agency the work. Jake landed multiple Fortune 500 clients and A-List touring artists by running a dream client campaign.

After leaving the video agency, Jake went out and worked as a digital marketing and web consultant for several years and eventually realized that he was much better at getting the work than he was doing it. At that point, Jake started pairing with other agencies to help them win more clients.  

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • Why you need to look at new business as an art form
  • How to get started getting better at new business
  • How to make the most of your time at conferences as it relates to new business
  • How to effectively follow up with contacts you make at conferences
  • How to stay top of mind with people who aren’t ready to buy now
  • Why your prospect list can’t be too big and why you need to stay very personal with them
  • Why strategic partnerships have gotten even more important as agencies become specialists
  • Why you need to carve out at least an hour a day for working on new business (and why it’s a good idea to do it away from the office)
  • Why you need to figure out what your actionable objectives are and then break them down
  • How to get referrals that are exact fits for the kinds of clients you want

Ways to Contact Jake Jorgovan:

Resources:

We’re proud to announce that Hubspot is now the presenting sponsor of the Build A Better Agency podcast! Many thanks to them for their support!

May 1, 2017

John Hall is co-founder and CEO of Influence & Co., a content marketing agency that helps companies and individuals extract and leverage their expertise to create, publish, and distribute content to their key audiences.

In five years, John has grown Influence & Co. into one of the largest providers of high-quality expert content to more than 1,000 of the world’s top publications. Under John’s leadership, Influence & Co. was ranked No. 72 on Forbes’ “Most Promising Companies in America” list in 2014 and was named Empact’s “Best Marketing and Advertising Company of 2014” at the United Nations. Influence & Co. was also recently mentioned in Inc. as the No. 1 company dominating content marketing.

John has weekly columns for Forbes and Inc. and has contributed to more than 50 publications, including Harvard Business Review, Fast Company, The Washington Post, and Mashable. John was recently recognized as a “must-see” and one of the most authentic speakers in Forbes. His talks have inspired thousands of leaders, marketers, salespeople, entrepreneurs, and others to improve their performance.  

What you’ll learn about in this episode:

  • John’s new book "Top of Mind: Use Content to Unleash Your Influence and Engage Those Who Matter To You"
  • How John’s book fits into his thought leadership strategy
  • Why staying top of mind is a great strategy for developing trust
  • Short-term to long-term memory: consistently engaging people so that they remember forever
  • Why you need to make yourself approachable
  • Why showing your failings and foibles does not diminish your thought leadership
  • Why you must understand what is truly helpful for individuals
  • Why you must help people without expecting anything in return
  • How to tell people how you helped them without it sounding self-serving
  • Why you shouldn’t be too aggressive and should build a relationship over time
  • Why you need to start small with changing how you relate to others

Ways to Contact John Hall:

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