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What Does Business Development Do with Jake Jorgovan

​​My podcast guest Jake Jorgovan from Outbound Creative made a provocative statement.  He said: “Block out at least an hour a day, typically in the morning, as a way to put time in working on your own business before you dive into client work.” I can feel many of you twitching already. Not look at your email first thing in the morning? Not fill your mornings with meetings? Not jump like Pavlov’s dog to every ping, text or slack addition? You might even wonder “what does business development do?” It may seem radical but it is one of the many ways that Jake suggests to jumpstart your biz dev efforts. Jake believes that most agency owners hate new business because they’re not sure what to do and feel stuck. Let Jake and I take you through his simple, no-nonsense approach to growing your business through new business development with: 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 [...]

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How to Develop Thought Leadership Content that Keeps You Top of Mind with John Hall

Thought leadership. Content creation. Owning a topic and being the authentic expert in that space. These elements are critical components of an agency’s business development plan today. As you have heard from me many times, it’s all about moving your prospects through the know-like-trust model so that when they are ready to buy, they already have faith in your ability to deliver. But it’s not just about doing that from an arm’s length through content.  It’s also about doing that the old-fashioned way – face to face. The agency business is really a relationship business, as we all know. So how do you start, nurture and grow your relationships today? That’s what I wanted to talk to Influence & C.’s co-founder and CEO John Hall about because he has the gift.  Fortunately, he outlined his strategies in his new book called “Top of Mind.” John and I discuss the tangible ways of getting networking in this digital and analog age. Listen in as we chat about: 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 content 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 [...]

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Defining Category Design and Why it’s Important to Brand Positioning with Christopher Lochhead

Agencies are brilliant at helping their clients differentiate themselves from the pack.  And yet, this is the Achilles Heel for most agencies.  You look and sound just like everyone else on the block, in the pitch or online. It’s not easy to find the kernel of what makes you unique and the right fit for your clients.  And you can’t use the same trite language (full service, integrated, we love to partner with our clients, etc.) and sound different. Maybe it’s not about how do you differentiate yourself from everyone else in the pack.  Maybe it’s about creating a new category so you truly stand alone? That’s the premise of my podcast guest Christopher Lochhead. He’s a longtime CMO, entrepreneur and author who has had just enough of the right mindset, courage and faith to unlock the key to differentiation. His book, “Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets” details the method to his madness -- what he calls “category design.” He explains it as “creating your own niche to become nouveau riche.” If you want to drive growth on both the agency and client side, follow along as Christopher and I go through the steps of adopting category design with: Chris’ career journey that took him from Silicon Valley CMO to coach to podcast host Chris’ book: “Play Bigger: How Pirates, Dreamers, and Innovators Create and Dominate Markets” What category design is and why every agency needs to get great at it Why “category” is as important as “product” and “company” How to position your agency in a category that you can dominate The two kinds of problems that need solving The three questions to ask to start creating your [...]

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7 Things to Consider When Taking On an Employee as a Partner

Let’s say you have an employee named Bob. He’s a great employee. Not just great, stellar. You can’t see the agency functioning without him. You don’t want to lose him. So how do you ensure that he’s happy and not being wooed by a competitor? Or maybe you’re 55 and beginning to think about your exit strategy. What if Bob could buy you out? Or you could still keep a piece of the business but not work so hard? In both cases, the solution I often hear agency owners come up is, “Why don’t I offer him some sort of equity or employee partnership in the agency?”   Taking on an employee as a partner may be a brilliant solution all around. Or it could be the demise of your agency. This is a huge commitment that involves many more moving parts than you might be considering. My solocast sheds some light on the issues that I have helped agency owners walk through as they are considering this option, including: Why you need think long and hard before making employees partners Why partnerships will look different if you’re a C Corp than any other structure (S Corp, LLC, etc.) Why you need to make sure someone actually wants to be a partner before you offer them a partnership Why you need to sell shares and not gift shares Why you should only bring on one partner at a time Why -- if your employee doesn’t have the skills they need to be a partner -- and they probably don’t -- you need to teach them Why it usually takes about 10 years to groom someone to take over for you Why you really need to [...]

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How to Establish Yourself as a Thought Leader with Content Marketing with Aaron Agius

Think back to the first year or two of your agency’s existence. Odds are, it was pretty hand to mouth. You survived but you weren’t eating ribeye every night. That’s where my podcast guest started too. Today, Aaron Agius is the CEO of Louder Online, one of the world’s leading digital agencies. He has used his aggressive style of thought leadership to help him pursue and land clients like Salesforce, IBM, Coca-Cola and Intel. But he still remembers the days when he charged his first client $200 and was grateful for the income. In our conversation Aaron talks about how he learned to invest in himself, build his credibility and how making a name for himself became a priority.  It’s all in here including:   Why you absolutely must work on and invest in the business (no excuses!) How Aaron established himself as a thought leader through guest blogging and what he would recommend doing today Why you need high-quality proposal documents Why you need to be cooperative rather than competitive with agencies that you share a client with Why Aaron has created smaller sister agencies in other countries instead of using freelancers Aaron’s genius strategy for leveraging LinkedIn How to prove the ROI of your work to a client Why it’s the CEO’s job to stay on top of what’s coming next Resources that Aaron himself uses to stay current How continually writing blogs, being on podcasts, hosting webinars, etc. helps you keep the clients you have Why you have to write for readers, not search engines Aaron Agius is one of the world’s leading digital marketers according to Forbes. He is CEO of Louder Online, one of the world’s leading digital agencies with [...]

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Effective Team Building and How to Get Your Team to Work Well Together with Marcus Blankenship

For every agency the team you’ve assembled has a huge impact on your bottom line. You absolutely want to hire skilled, smart team members. You also want to have every player enhance the culture of your shop. But at the end of the day, you need them to work within your agency’s system and contribute to making the entire agency stronger and better. In my conversation with my podcast guest Marcus Blankenship we explore how to create the a dream team through better hiring, smarter accountability and the importance of regular feedback. Effective team building and keeping that team intact is what makes an agency money. Marcus and I show you how with: Why you must identify your high and low performers Why you shouldn’t be a passive-aggressive leader Why you can’t hire anyone you can’t fire Structured management: why you can’t set people free without management and why you need to set up strong management systems when your agency is small How to effectively build a team How to get your team to work well together Why consistent one-on-one meetings are so crucial What happens in your employee’s head when you cancel a one-on-one meeting How to create a safe environment where the people below you are willing to give you the feedback you need Why you shouldn’t let feedback sit more than a week Marcus’ one-on-one framework guide Marcus Blankenship is a management consultant, trainer and executive coach for software managers and leaders. He helps companies hire the right people, create the right culture, and set up the right process which achieves their goals. Managing a team isn’t something learned in college. In fact, his clients often tell him “I never prepared for [...]

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How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline with High Quality Leads with Dan Englander

You hustle hard to get business, win a big account, spend the next three months up to your ears in work, and then it's all over and your pipeline is empty again. Sound familiar? It’s the feast or famine cycle of agency new business. It seems that we can counsel our clients about the importance of new business sales and the whole lead gen thing but somehow we can’t seem to get around to doing it for ourselves. My podcast guest Dan Englander and his team at Sales Schema are the experts at solving the agency sales, lead gen, and new business problem.  Dan and his team have a systemized process that they believe can put prospects into your pipeline and money into your pocket. Dan and I will walk you through the important steps he takes when counseling agencies including: How Dan helps agencies fill their sales pipelines Why you can’t rely on referrals from your network for sales Why creating content is not a sales strategy Why you need to systematize pipeline work and why you need to allot daily time for working on your pipeline Honing in on a particular niche when generating quality leads Why driving prospects to your website is not what you want to be doing Why you need to have a follow-up plan in place for your cold emails Why you need to get on the phone with a lead as soon as possible How to word cold emails so they actually resonate with cold leads How Dan’s company helps agencies hone in on their niche Why cold emails have to come from a real person (and which person inside an agency they should come from) Why you [...]

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How to Achieve Your Dream Life

There’s always a lot of talk about building your dream life or living out your dreams.  For many people, that’s a myth. They don’t have the opportunity to make the changes and choices that will allow them to move closer to the life they aspire to have. But business owners have a unique set of circumstances that make that a real possibility. In this solocast, I’ll tell you a little bit about an exercise that I believe can help you define how you’d like your life to be and begin to move in that direction. I know it can be a powerful experience because it has had a huge impact on my own life and getting closer to living my dream life. Join me in mapping out the future that you are uniquely positioned to create. In this episode, we’ll talk about: A CPA I recently met in San Diego who has built his life around what he loves most of all An exercise that a coach I had about 10 years ago shared with me and the impact that exercise has had Why my life would not look like it does today if 10 years ago I hadn’t visualized what I wanted it to look like ten years down the road Why it’s okay if everything doesn’t play out exactly the way you visualize How to do the exercise my coach gave me Drew McLellan is the Top Dog at Agency Management Institute. For the past 20+ 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 [...]

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How to Inspire Creativity and Innovation in Business with Jason Keath

On your mark, get set, be creative! Wouldn’t it be awesome if being creative on demand was that easy? And it’s not just confined to your creative department anymore. Today, everyone at the agency has to be creative whether it’s your account service team bringing fresh business ideas to clients, your biz dev team trying to figure out ways to get on your prospect’s radar screen or, of course, your creative department in all aspects of what you produce. So, how do you keep the creative juices flowing?   My podcast guest Jason Keath, the founder of Social Fresh, is steeped in creativity and innovation in business and is here to help you develop and define creativity and show you how to bring it to life inside your shop. In reality, creativity is a process. And it’s within this process that the answers are found. Join Jason and me as we follow the road to creativity with: Jason’s background Why Jason started Social Fresh How to get your whole team to be creative Why you need to hear bad ideas and how to manage your team so they aren’t afraid to voice them Why you should brainstorm at least 50-100 ideas for every one that you actually put into place How having your team prepare ideas anonymously in advance will save you time and result in a discussion that’s more free How infusing creativity and innovation in your business leads to business success Why creativity comes from having at least one core competency (and how to figure out what your core competency is) The filter phase of the process post brainstorming where you take ideas and combine and eliminate ideas until you’ve broken them down [...]

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Why Networking is Important for Business Development Success with Judy Robinett

Networking. The mere mention of the word conjures up images of sweaty glad-handing at chamber meetings and networking events that are filled with salespeople rather than decision makers and just waste your time. Your biz dev plan can’t all be referrals. You have to have a path that will help you generate new business for your shop. My podcast guest Judy Robinett shows you how to take networking to the next level with Power Connecting and why networking is important to business development in your agency. Judy uses three simple questions: How can I help you? Do you have any other ideas for me and who else should I talk to? These form the backbone of every successful networking opportunity. Let her show you how to develop a networking foundation that serves others and in the end, serves you too. Judy and I show you how to get out of your own way, push aside your fear and take the networking risk with: Judy’s background Why networking is important for biz-dev (and why referrals alone is not a biz-dev strategy) The 5+50+100 Rule: why you need to target 50 people Why there is no lack of money keeping you from getting funded Positioning yourself to be invited to the right events (and which events you should target) Judy’s strategies for being a good networker and how she interacts with strangers How to deepen the relationships you already have Why you need to kick fear to the curb and just talk to people How to provide consistent value to your network so that you keep relationships fresh Why you should reach out to people you feel like are above you Judy’s Top Ten Power Connecting Tips [...]

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