For many agency owners, sales is a necessary evil. For others, it’s your natural gift, and you look forward to doing it. Either way, you can always benefit from making it easier and better for you.
One of the biggest benefits we cover in today’s episode is shortening the sales cycle. Many agencies struggled with elongated sales cycles last year, but that doesn’t need to become par for the course. Stephen Steers joined me on the podcast to teach us how storytelling in sales is one of the most effective ways to make sales faster and easier.
He shares a ton of nuggets of info from understanding why people buy, why agency owners need to stay in contact with prospects (and how), and how to use storytelling to catch the attention of prospects and keep them interested.
The bottom line is sales doesn’t have to feel icky. By embracing storytelling, you can build trust, forge deeper connections, and get prospects excited to work with you.
A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
- Why founders and agency owners should aim to fire themselves from sales
- The Magnificent 7 reasons why people buy
- Maintaining relationships with prospects throughout the sales cycle
- What is storytelling in sales?
- Unlocking urgency for prospects
- 4 questions to ask yourself before telling a story to a prospect
- Why storytelling is so effective and what we get wrong about it
- Preparing for 3 types of objections from prospects
- The AREA Framework
We’ve spoken before about how podcasting is a great tool for building an audience that sees you as a thought leader. That’s still true, but simply having a podcast is not enough.
To truly be successful in podcasting, you must know how to engage that audience and be worthy of their time. As our guest Tom Weber says, “You don’t have a right to have an audience.”
An audience must be earned.
Tom shared some insights about the importance of knowing who you’re really speaking to. It’s not just about demographics; it’s about understanding your audience’s needs, fears, and desires. We also explored how to build a captivating narrative that engages listeners and how to ask the tough questions that get you honest feedback.
If you want your podcast to engage your audience and make it past the first seven episodes, it’s worth investing the time and effort to make it truly exceptional. Your audience will thank you for it — and more importantly, they’ll keep coming back for more.
A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
- What podcasters get wrong about marketing their shows
- Respecting the audience’s time commitment that they’re making to you
- The #1 way to promote a podcast
- Why creating a compelling narrative is extremely important in podcasting
- Making your show something people want to listen to
- Getting on your audience’s level
- Don’t put out any content you’re not proud of
- Getting effective input and feedback from your audience
- Starting a conversation with your listeners
- Knowing what your audience wants to hear and learning from them
As agency owners, we’re always looking for ways to improve our business development strategies and stand out in a crowded marketplace. This week, I’m flipping the script and sharing an episode where I was a guest on Susan Quinn’s podcast, Better Experiences by Design.
Susan asks some great questions to help get to the bottom of the two main biz dev strategies modern agencies can count on today — niching and thought leadership.
Doing these two things can transform your agency’s growth trajectory. We cover several key components, including how to leverage thought leadership effectively, why niching down is crucial for agency success, and how to overcome the fear of narrowing your focus.
We also explore common mistakes C-Suite executives make in marketing their own firms, the importance of consistency in business development efforts, and how to identify and attract “right-fit” clients for your agency.
Success in agency biz dev today is about being consistently interesting and relevant to your ideal clients over time. By focusing on your expertise, generously sharing your knowledge, and staying top-of-mind, you’ll be the natural choice when prospects are ready to buy.
A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
- How thought leadership is a critical part of biz dev
- What clients should think about when hiring an agency
- The riches are in the niches — narrowing your focus
- Knowing when you’ve narrowed your niche enough
- Why referrals aren’t the best way to grow your agency
- What does a right-fit client look like?
- Taking advantage of AI as an industry disruptor
- Bettering your best with constant learning
Systems and processes are a tough nut to crack for agency owners, and it’s even more challenging once you get clients involved. Many of us are accidental agency owners who thrive in the chaos and disarray of agency life but know that operating this way will reduce profitability.
This week, we’re sitting down with Xenia Muntean to share her journey of becoming an accidental agency owner and what it taught her about agency systems and processes as she began to build her own workflow software.
We dug into some meaty topics that I know are on your minds: How do we balance creativity with structure? Is it possible to have systems and processes without stifling innovation? We explored how bringing clients into the process earlier — especially for social media work — can lead to faster approvals and better profitability.
Systems and processes can be the bane of most agency owners’ existence. But with the right mindset and tools to get the job done, it can open the door to increased profitability and happier clients.
A big thank you to our podcast’s presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They’re an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here.
What You Will Learn in This Episode:
- Xenia’s journey from accidental agency owner to software entrepreneur
- The importance of balancing creativity with systems and processes in agencies
- How larger agencies involve clients earlier in the content creation process
- The value of getting client buy-in at the concept stage, especially for video content
- Why operating reactively creatives operational debt
- How to customize workflow while still having systems and processes
- AI’s potential to improve operational efficiency in agencies, beyond just content creation
- The challenge and opportunity of embracing AI in agencies
- How to be more systems and processes minded in how we operate