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Painless Prospecting for New Business with Tom Martin

As times change, so must agencies. AMI does some research every summer and in talking to CMOs across the country, it's been very clear that clients are no longer interested in only working with just one agency anymore. In fact, our study showed that over 50% of them want to work with multiple agencies, allowing each other to do what they do best but not letting them run the show. In learning how to be a part of that blended family team, there is opportunity. That’s just one of the topics that I chatted about with my podcast guest, Tom Martin. He helps agencies take advantage of that opportunity. He gets them to the place where the client sees them as the ultimate partner, a consigliere, if you will, versus the guys that just execute ad strategies. He finds that the real money is in becoming a partner who can think, ideate and grow a client's business.   But how do you find those partner clients? He does all of this through his system of Painless Prospecting where you wake up, open your inbox, and there's a lead waiting for you instead of having to go create that lead. It’s investing in your agency to build not tomorrow’s lead, but the lead that’s six months or a year down the road. Tom and I dig into the nuts and bolts of this with: How prospecting for new business has changed over the years Why clients no longer believe in hiring just one agency How to define your value to your clients when delivering ideas instead of “stuff” Correctly positioning your agency in the days when your client first discovers you Painless Prospecting: how to get [...]

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Tips for Creating, Sustaining and Building Your Agency with Mitch Joel

Throughout the entire process of building your agency, you have a lot on your plate. Depending on where you’re at in the life of your agency, you may be struggling to eat something other than ramen noodles or on the flip side of the spectrum, you’re spending all your time servicing your clients and trying to keep up with the demand. Ideally, you are working towards being able to step away from the day to day and focus on big picture of working on your agency. You may have aspirations to sell your agency some day and really reap the reward of all your hard work. No matter where you are at, my podcast guest Mitch Joel can probably relate.   He has taken his Toronto based agency from a small three-man shop to a global juggernaut by doing all the things that AMI preaches to agency owners every day. He quickly moved his agency to specializing in a niche, he focused on what it took to be acquired – growth and margin, he found his sweet spot client filter, and on top of it all, he kept on learning and growing and gave his team the time and space to do the same.   Try to keep up as Mitch and I take you through all of these phases of agency life by showing you: Mirum’s unique structure Generalists vs specialists: the philosophical and financial reasons agencies should specialize instead of generalizing Building your agency so that it is sustainably specialized How to figure out if a client is a good fit for your agency Mad Men vs. Math Men: how to blend creative and data Why it’s more important than ever to stay [...]

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Why the Written Word is More Important than Ever in Business with Jody Sutter

Words matter. They’re often an agency’s go to tool for clients and biz dev. Your prospects spend time on your website, follow you on social media, and read your content long before they ever reach out to you – so your written word is critical. It’s the first thing that your prospects see, so it better be up to snuff.   My podcast guest, Jody Sutter has a long history with the written word. Jody works with agencies helping them develop a more proactive approach to growing their business, with a special emphasis around how they communicate - getting jargon, generalizations, wordiness, and sloppy writing out of their proposals and everything else they use to promote their agency. Through your writing, Jody helps you to differentiate yourself, so that your work stands out from the others by being clear about who you are and what you do best. Jody and I help you find your unique voice by showing you: Why strong writing is more important than ever in our digital age The major mistakes that agencies make when presenting themselves in writing How to avoid making the big mistakes agencies make when responding to RFPs Why editing is so important for improving your team’s writing, how to get good at it, and what you should keep in mind if you are outsourcing the editing How agencies can differentiate themselves through storytelling The Pixar pitch The “5 things that you can do to make your writing better right away” checklist What you need to do to assess whether or not your writing needs improvement Jody Sutter started her career in sales and ended up working in agencies leading the new business teams. Today she runs [...]

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Discussing Marketing-Led Innovation and Strategy with Gavin Heaton

Everyone talks about digging into your clients’ issues and discovering “ what keeps them up at night.” But are you really doing that? Is your staff trained to do that? Doing so makes your agency better at innovation and strategy – which is what clients are hungry for, according to the research AMI does with CMOs every year. When you can deliver on this need – you get to charge a premium and those clients stick around. In my podcast conversation with Gavin Heaton we dig into this topic and talk about how to make it a reality. Gavin works with agencies showing them how to build value and create opportunities by really listening to the client’s wants. He provides agencies with ways to implement creative and innovative thinking in their businesses to become a true strategic partner for their clients. Gavin and I explore many of the ways you can become a more valuable asset for your clients by: Focusing on the things the client wants, rather than what an agency wants to push to them, which ultimately creates more value for the client. Grappling with a problem that is worth solving, rather than pursuing an idea of interest.  Taking a lesson from the start-up point of view and focusing on the audience and their wants first, and then building your product. Solving your client’s problems and as a result, becoming less of a vendor, and more of a business partner.  Getting your team to think creatively and innovatively. Gavin is a marketing technologist, strategist, and advisor. He is the founder of the Disruptor’s Handbook, a network of entrepreneurs and innovators that help businesses innovate like startups, which Gavin calls “marketing lead innovation.” He has led new venture [...]

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How to Develop a Compelling Value Proposition and Differentiate Your Agency from Others

A potential client asks you to describe your agency. How do you communicate your compelling value proposition to the client and differentiate your agency from others? Quick – what makes you stand out in the agency crowd? Do you find yourself using words like full service, strategic, creative? Or maybe you say, “We partner with our clients.” “We've been here for X number of years.” “We’re not a traditional agency.” “We don't do digital, we are digital.” Unfortunately, the truth is, whether you like it or not, you sound just like every other agency out there. Even if we think we're standing out in a crowd, we tend to sound very much the same. We all believe that we sound distinct but the truth is our words all blur with the same phrases that every other agency uses. So how do you truly develop a compelling value proposition and differentiate your shop when the competition is getting tougher and tougher and we sound and look more and more alike? By clearly defining your mission, vision and values. In this solocast, I help you flesh that out by exploring: How to communicate a compelling value proposition to your clients by telling your own story via content. How to put a stake in the ground and say this is what we do and how and why we do it. How to answer the following big questions: Why do you do this work? What is your why? What would happen to the world if your agency simply faded from existence? How to specifically define your mission, your vision, and your compelling values. Drew McLellan is the Top Dog at Agency Management Institute. He has also owned and operated [...]

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Integrating Marketing and Customer Service with Jay Baer

Integrating both marketing and customer service is extremely important to effectively running your business. But do you know exactly how important it is? I’m not sure you do. Imagine working for a company that actually has a position called your Director of Customer Experience. Now that’s a company to watch. Now, imagine if the Director of Customer Experience’s job was to triple negative feedback. All for the purpose of revolutionizing the customer experience. That’s today’s version of customer care and it will have huge impact on the work agencies do for clients. The customer service game as we know it has been turned on its head and there’s huge opportunity for your agency. You all know Jay Baer from Convince & Convert and his work in marketing, content creation and all things digital. You’ve probably read his best selling book Youtility. But Jay’s latest book – Hug Your Haters is a research based look at the customer service climate in today’s 24/7 wired world. In this podcast, Jay and I delve into how important customer care has changed and what companies and agencies need to do to answer the demands and expectations of today’s customers. Among other things, we cover: How agencies can capitalize on the next wave of customer service How to turn negative feedback into tremendously invaluable help The importance of the honesty audit and how to get hired to do this The challenges of moving from doing marketing work for clients to doing marketing and customer service. Jay Baer is known for many things. He’s the world’s most retweeted digital marketer. He is also a renowned business strategist, keynote speaker, and The New York Times bestselling author of five books. He also [...]

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Hey agency owner — 2016 Content Conferences for Agencies

I recently had an AMI agency ask me which 2016 content management conferences for agencies I would recommend they consider putting into the budget. First -- bravo to the agency for actually baking professional development into their budget.  Most agencies underspend in this area and it costs them their best talent. A recent survey showed that agency employees consider being sent to a workshop, conference or other professional development opportunity as being equal to a 17% raise. Whether they are telling you or not -- your people want to keep getting better.  You have a responsibility and frankly it's just smart business, to help them sharpen their saw.  Do they have a responsibility too?  You bet.  I wouldn't send anyone to a conference or workshop if you don't see evidence of them also trying to learn on their own and them bringing that new knowledge into the agency as a teacher. You co-own the responsibility and the best employees are the ones who are hungry to learn and to teach their peers. And of course, whether they want to get better or not -- you NEED them to get better.  You invest so much into your people and they are your primary source of revenue, so you'd better keep investing in them. In our world today -- even if you know everything today, you will be woefully behind in a blink if you don't keep adding to your knowledge base. So your folks need to keep improving.  If not, you have to keep trading up and that gets very expensive. And it should go without saying but I'll say it anyway -- YOU my agency owner friend also need to keep sharpening your skills, knowledge and exposure [...]

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How to Clear the Obstacles that Prevent You from Growing and Scaling Your Business with Karl Sakas

Starting an agency is easy. Growing and scaling your business is anything but. There are lots of obstacles and landmines, not to mention just trying to run the agency, which can get in the way.  My podcast guest Karl Sakas and I chatted about those obstacles and how to move around them.   Some of the specifics we talked about included: the number one question owners must answer in order to understand what type of agency they want to grow ways to delegate work so you can focus on what you love about agency work how agencies can manage their time, stating, “no one will defend your time but you” how to figure out where you want to go and get people to help you so you can get there faster. Karl Sakas served as the #2 man in a couple different digital agencies before he created the Marketing Agencies community at Inbound.org, which has over 1,000 agencies in 48 countries. As president of Sakas and Company, Karl advises agencies worldwide about strategy, operations, and leadership.He has recently published a book entitled, “The In Demand Marketing Agency: How to Use Public Speaking to Become an Agency of Choice.” To listen – you can visit the Build A Better Agency site (https://agencymanagementinstitute.com/karl-sakas/) and grab either the itunes or Stitcher files or just listen to it from the web.   If you’d rather just read the conversation, the transcript is below. If you're going to take the risk of running an agency, shouldn't you get the benefits too? Welcome to Build a Better Agency, where we show you how to build an agency that can scale and grow with better clients, invest in employees, and best of [...]

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SMART Goal Planning is Key to Running a Successful Agency

I recently recorded a podcast about the value and process of smart goal planning for your agency. I know you’re crazy busy with the day to day. I get that you never have more than 10 minutes uninterrupted.  Which is why you absolutely MUST carve out time to put together a plan for where you want your agency to go and how you’re going to get there. But before you do that – I want to encourage you to also think a about your own life goals and why you’re working so hard. As part of the podcast, I walk you through two documents – The Life Plan and the One Page Business Plan.   In the Life Plan, you’ll get very clear about what you want from your life, the legacies you want to leave and some tangible steps for creating a life of purpose and contentment. With the One Page Business Plan, you’ll identify the #1 goal you have for your agency in six key areas and prioritize those goals so you know which one to tackle first. I promise if you use these two documents, you’ll be stunned at what you will accomplish over the next twelve months. Just like you tell your clients – the lack of smart goal planning is a plan, just not a very good one. Take this opportunity to get very clear on where you want to take your agency and why. Drew McLellan is the Top Dog at Agency Management Institute. He has also owned and operated his own agency over the last 20-years. And all through the year, he straddles the fence of working in his agency and working with 250+ small- to mid-size agencies [...]

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Essential Business Building Strategies You Need to Grow Your Agency with Jason Falls

As an agency owner, you know that if you're not ready to evolve your agency with business building strategies, you'd better get ready to retire. The agency business is undergoing an incredible metamorphosis and most agency owners are running at full speed to keep up. That's where my conversation with Jason Falls, Senior Vice-President, Digital Strategy at Elasticity and author of several books on social media and email marketing, started. (listen to the podcast here) From there we move to agency hierarchy and structure, the impact of millennials on current day politics and the importance of building strategic alliances. It's a whirlwind hour of debate, stories and a few good laughs.  I think you'll not only enjoy it, but you'll also get some business building strategies you can put into play right away. To listen – you can visit the Build A Better Agency site (https://agencymanagementinstitute.com/jason-falls/) and grab either the iTunes or Stitcher files or just listen to it from the web. If you’d rather just read the conversation, the transcript is below. If you're going to take the risk of running an agency, shouldn't you get the benefits too? Welcome to Build a Better Agency, where we show you how to build an agency that can scale and grow with better clients, invest in employees, and best of all, more money to the bottom line. Bringing his 25 plus years of expertise as both an agency owner and agency consultant to you, please welcome your host, Drew McLellan. Drew: Hey everybody, this is Drew McLellan, and I am really excited to be with you today. As an agency owner, I know all too well the risks we take every day. This podcast is about making sure if we're going to take [...]

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