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How are you controlling scope creep?

One of the biggest threats to your agency’s profitability and long-term existence is giving away the farm by over servicing clients, bad estimates, not issuing change orders and allowing clients to change the rules mid-game without any penalty or cost. Don’t get me wrong - I think it’s okay and smart to over-service certain clients on certain projects. I’m not suggesting you put military order into your agency. But conservatively — I believe most agencies can put another 10% to their bottom line if they rein in scope creep. The good news is — it’s easier to fix than you might think. I explored how scope creep happens and how agencies can contain it in a recent article for Hubspot.  Take a look and see if you can find a strategy or two that you can implement in your shop to help you slow down the bleed. The article contains several concepts that I teach in the Advanced AE bootcamp as well. Your account executives should be managing their clients’ budgets and profitability. That means they need two things — the financial data to know how they’re doing AND the tools/knowledge of how to manage both the clients and your internal team so that they aren’t writing time and money off every job. Our next Advanced AE bootcamp is in September (September 9 & 10 in Chicago) and you can register your AEs here.

July 8th, 2019|

What Does a Traffic Manager Do?

Within the last five years, an agency’s traffic manager has become the new production manager—building timetables for projects, tracking every single deliverable, and mapping out the company’s work. But the role isn’t valued as much as it should be. It’s frequently needed to be asked: ‘what does a traffic manager do?’ In this article, which was originally a contribution I made to Marketo.com, I discuss the intrinsic value of a Traffic Manager and why your agency may need one if you don’t already have one. I’d love to hear from you concerning your stance on the importance of maintaining a Traffic Manager. How has it benefited you? Has your agency suffered without one? Learn More About Getting it Done If you’re looking to answer more questions like ‘what does a traffic manager do?’ sign up to become an AMI member today!

June 22nd, 2019|

Do you have every base covered?

Business development is a challenge on many levels. If you don’t have every base covered...being good at all the other aspects may not be enough. Many agencies have not defined their sweet spot client — so they don’t bother chasing after prospects that aren’t a good fit Most agencies don’t have a consistent new business machine that is actively and regularly touching prospects and working a targeted list The lion’s share of agencies have a great win rate with smaller, less profitable clients but struggle to win with “stretch” prospects that could really change their agency and help them elevate their game About 50% of agencies do not have a retention program to actively and intentionally keep and grow their best clients A weakness in any of these areas can really compromise your efforts overall. As you begin to plan for 2020, having a holistic business development plan of attack (with action items, a calendar and most important — regular accountability meetings) may be one of the most important aspects of your vision for the next year. It’s not too early to start working on this. If you’re getting at-bats but not winning or if you’re not getting invited to the pitches/opportunities that you think you should be, we’ve got a great two-day workshop for you. AMI is partnering with the agency search firm Mercer Island Group to help you work all the bugs out of how you chase new business. These guys see proposals, RFP responses and live pitches from agencies big and small. They’re going to give you a sneak peek into the mistakes that you’re making, the missteps of agency positioning and so much more. This is a very hands-on, work ON [...]

June 17th, 2019|

Your Prospect’s Buying Journey — Attendee Details

Thanks for registering for the Your Prospect’s Buying Journey (and how to win at each milestone!) 2020 Workshop! We’re looking forward to spending 2 days with you, helping win at every stage of your prospect’s customer journey! We will definitely be adopting the AMI philosophy of — "you will gain in proportion to what you share" - so I’m hoping that everyone will come to the workshop ready to learn from each other and hopefully from us as well. We will also be honoring the AMI commitment to confidentiality so please come ready to get to know each other’s agencies — warts and all. Here’s everything you need to know for the workshop. You can download all of this information here to keep handy until the workshop: Download PDF LOCATION: Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort -- to make reservations, call 407-939-4686 or visit https://mydisneygroup.com/amijan2020b If you call, use group code GO776090 to get the discounted room rate of $299/night. SCHEDULE: We’ll start every morning at 8:30 am with breakfast in the meeting room. We will start the actual workshop at 9 am each morning. We’ll shut down on day one at 5 pm and on day two at 3 pm. ATTIRE: Please come to the workshop in casual clothes. Shorts, polos, jeans — whatever makes you comfortable. However — meeting rooms tend to be chilly and I tend to set them to chilly so you might want to bring a sweater, sweatshirt etc. MEALS: We will provide breakfast and lunch every day. You will be on your own for all dinners. We highly recommend you make dinner reservations (407-W-DISNEY) if you’re going to eat on property. There are a ton of great restaurants in the monorail hotels, [...]

June 11th, 2019|

Your employees need clarity

I know it seems like common sense and your brain may agree — but your mouth often takes a different path. If you’re struggling to work with some of your team members, odds are you have not embraced the idea that employees need clarity. Truth be told — most agency leaders struggle with this, especially if they are offering constructive criticism or even tougher — disciplinary action. One group of employees that really needs you to get good at the whole clarity thing are your millennials. They come into your agency with very different ideas about how employees behave, what success looks like and how they can contribute. They’re eager but raw. But if you really find a way to be straightforward and very directive with your feedback, I think they will surprise you. Be it millennials or any other group of employees, agency owners and department heads can be vague, passive-aggressive, or just absent in their management style (you may well be the exception to the rule) and I think there are a few reasons for that. In a recent blog post, I dug into what gets in the way of us being more clear and then offered up some tools we can use to get better at it. Check it out and let me know what you think.  

June 10th, 2019|

Your Prospect’s Buying Journey (and how to win at each milestone!)

"I attended the 2019 workshop with Mercer Island Group and immediately implemented what I learned. Within 60 days, we'd won over $500,000 in new business and when we asked why we were selected, it was like our new clients were reading from the Mercer Island playbook! I will never miss one of their workshops!" If you've attended in the past -- this is new content that will build on what you've already learned.  If you've never attended before, you're in for a mind-blowing, notebook-filling, win ratio crushing few days. These workshops are taught by Robin and Steve Boehler from Mercer Island Group, agency search consultants who have helped hundreds of clients select new agencies and have learned through that experience how clients approach an agency search and Drew McLellan from AMI, who works closely with over 250 agencies every year, coaching them on how to differentiate themselves. Adding to why you should attend -- we will be onsite at the Grand Floridian Resort with an incredible $299/night rate! What you'll learn: Are you winning at every stage of your prospect’s customer journey? Today, most clients complete most of their research into possible agencies BEFORE the agencies even know they are looking. What can an agency do to win more business when so much of the prospect’s search work is happening out of sight? The key is to understand – and interrupt – the prospect’s customer journey towards selecting a new agency. In this two day workshop, we’ll cover: The agency industry’s very first customer journey – a definition of the prospects’ steps and actions Agency readiness: how to interrupt the journey Agency consideration: activities to win each step in the journey Winning: Building your agency’s [...]

June 5th, 2019|

Do your employees trust you and do you care?

As we struggle to find and keep great employees, we need to do a quick self- assessment. Are you creating an environment that breeds trust and connection among your team? Especially with you and your leadership team? MediaPost asked me to explore how agencies can create a culture of trust and connection and I’d love your thoughts on my recommendations on the topic. So, how do you find out if your environment is one of trust and connection?  You ask.  We have built an assessment tool that will help you measure the health of your agency in five key areas - account service, finance, Bizdev, staff management, and agency owner happiness. We're aggregating a large number of agency owner participants so we can come back to you this summer with a comparative analysis of where agencies ranked on these issues. And so you can compare your rankings with other agencies. All you need to do to take the assessment is click here. Just a few minutes of your time and you will get your results as well as a follow-up email with your results.  Later this summer I will be letting you know that we're going to do a webinar where we will walk you through the results and you can compare yourself to everybody else and see how you're doing.

June 3rd, 2019|

5 CMO related triggers you need to know for biz dev

Thanks for signing up for the AMI member only webinar with Dave Currie (Winmo) and Lisa Colantuono (AAR Partners).  Below you will find the replay and their deck if you'd prefer to review it that way. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m1MlyLUGukQ   You can also download their deck here:  FINAL Webinar_ Why CMO Tenure Data Is Your Key to Agency Business Development.

May 28th, 2019|

Is podcasting the new business tactic for you?

I had a great conversation (podcast) with Stephen Woessner, the host of Onward Nation about the value of podcasting, how my podcast Build A Better Agency has served my business and why I think it’s a strategy worth considering for any agency owner who is trying to establish a sustainable new business effort. Take a listen here. In the podcast, I talk about how podcasting creates a position of thought leadership and gives you a chance to connect with your prospects in ways you haven’t even imagined. It’s also killer for content creation. If it’s crossed your mind, the episode might be worth a listen. FYI — The AE bootcamp that we’re doing on September 24/25th won’t be offered again until 2020. So if you’d like your newer (5 years experience or less) AEs to actually understand their role in helping the agency and their clients make money and learn how to make that happen consistently — sign them up before we fill up! Register them today here!

May 27th, 2019|

What is Thought Leadership in Marketing?

What is thought leadership in marketing? Thought leadership is one of the hottest trends in marketing, but it may also be one of the oldest tactics in the book. Today, informed consumers want to know everything about the brands they support. Sadly, many marketing teams take that as a license to churn out generic thought leadership that does little to show audiences why they should care. But it’s the team’s responsibility to create meaningful content: its members must cultivate thought leadership strategies that forge real connections with audiences. In this article that I contributed to SpinSucks.com, I discuss the value of intentional thought leadership content creation and the value of follower loyalty. If you want to leverage thought leadership content but have struggled to do so in the past, don’t get discouraged. Continue reading and I’ll outline the most important ideals to cling to when mapping out your way forward. If you’re looking to learn more at an in-person event covering topics similar to “what is thought leadership in marketing?”, sign up for our Money Matters workshop. If you’re already an AMI member - register for our money matters workshop with your discount here.  Not a member? Learn more here.  

May 25th, 2019|

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