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Dealstorming Methodology: The Combination of Deal-Making and Brainstorming & How to Use it to Grow Your Business with Tim Sanders

I know very few agency owners who love that the burden of sales sits squarely on their shoulders. Many of you don’t enjoy sales and would rather be back in the shop, creating or strategizing. Well, here’s some good news. You don’t and shouldn’t do it alone. My podcast guest and best-selling author (Love is the Killer App, Saving the World at Work and his new book Dealstorming) Tim Sanders believes that sales is a team sport which requires bringing together different perspectives from every corner of your agency and beyond. Tim has held the position of Chief Solutions Officer at Yahoo! and is now the CEO of Deeper Media, an online advice-content company. As a veteran sales, marketing and HR leader, he has some unconventional ideas for these unconventional times. His take on the combination of brainstorming and deal-making or “Dealstorming” will challenge your thinking about how to get sales done and may be just what you need to land that next big client. Follow Tim’s thinking as he and I explore: Tim’s start in sales working for a radio station Dealstorming methodology: 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 Tim Sanders is a veteran [...]

May 19th, 2017|

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 [...]

March 10th, 2017|

Interpreting the Results of the 2016 Agency Workforce Report with Susan Baier

Think you understand the Millennials in your agency? You might be surprised. Think you know what motivates your employees? You might be surprised. Think you know what your best employees want and need from you? You know the answer – they just might surprise you. Here’s the good news – we can give you a very healthy glimpse into the concerns, wants and needs of your team. This past summer, AMI partnered with my podcast guest Susan Baier and her team at Audience Audit to talk to almost 1,000 agency employees about their work. The result was the 2016 Agency Workforce Report. We set out to find the answers to the questions above as well as many others. A lot of what we think we know about our agency employees flies in the face of their truth. So we kept digging to discover what they value, what motivates them and what they want more of down the road. In this podcast, we walk you through the data and provide you with a snapshot of the results. If you want to get to know your employees and learn what you can do to motivate and keep them, this podcast should be illuminating. Come dig into the results with Susan and me:     Our 2016 Agency Workforce Report What made our 2016 research different from other research projects we’ve done in the past How we crunched our data The three types of agency employees that we found in our research: agency advocates, prosperity partners, and “Millennial Mindset” (and why the majority of Millennials don’t fall in the “Millennial Mindset” group) What your agency can do to have less “Millennial Mindset” employees than average Why the opportunity to [...]

February 24th, 2017|

How to Work ON Your Business, Not Just IN It with Ryan Ayres

How much of your day do you spend working ON your business as opposed to working IN your business?  If you’re like most agency owners, you are too busy fighting fires day to day to even think about anything else, let alone focus on the visionary work needed to move your business forward. It’s important to understand how to delegate tasks to let you better focus on the business as a whole. Most of us know how we are spending our days but don’t know how to change it. My podcast guest Ryan Ayres has been where you are and is here to show you how to get out of your own way.  It can’t happen without some hard work on your part but as he says, “Believe it or not, you can get yourself out of the day to day work and if you leverage your team, it can happen faster than you’d think.”   Join Ryan and I as we pave the way with … How Ryan got himself out of the day-to-day and got his team to take things off his plate that he did not need to be doing Why great employees will help you when you reach the point when you’re forced to sell what your business does instead of selling what you do Why — if you can’t get rid of 100% of what you’re doing — that doesn’t mean you shouldn’t get rid of any of it Why you need to make sure everyone understands and buys into your vision and why it benefits them Ryan’s employee rating matrix Why people very rarely stay or leave based on money (and why this means you don’t need to give as [...]

February 17th, 2017|

How to Simplify Your Business & Maximize Performance with Joe Calloway

Keep it simple. Sounds easy, right? Not so much. It’s one of those things that’s so much easier said than done. But until you begin to simplify your business, as well as the way you think about your business, it’s really difficult to maximize your performance.   Simplicity is the common thread that runs through my podcast guest Joe Calloway’s life. His newest book “Keep It Simple” has seven simple truths that he invites readers to follow and embrace if they want to take their business to the next level. As Joe says, “If you can make things simple, you can move mountains.” Follow along with Joe and I as we uncover: Why Joe wrote “Keep It Simple” and how it’s different from his other books What all effective leaders have in common What your vision/mission statement should sound like Why you need to follow Warren Buffett’s advice and say no to almost everything The Gold Standard: doing what you say you will do, the way you said you will do it, when you said you would do it Why you have to set the example inside your business Why you can’t get stuck doing what used to work Being better tomorrow than you are today How to simplify your business and why it maximizes your team’s performance Why you need to be so good at the basics that you are cutting edge Why you need to work on the relationships with everyone you work with Being your authentic self and believing in yourself Why — whatever happens — that’s normal Improving upon your strengths Why your success is dictated by your culture Why you need to get clear on the three things you need [...]

December 16th, 2016|

Systemizing Your Agency Using Documented Processes with Andrew Dymski

“We were kind of just flying by the seat of our pants, to be honest. We weren't operating off of a tight scope. We were just out there creating stuff that we knew we should be making, but there was no structure or order to it at all. We aren’t sure how to streamline processes at work.”   Sound familiar?   That sounds like an agency in need of some processes and systems. My podcast guest Andrew Dymski was describing his own agency in the quote above. Fortunately, he realized that they had to stop reinventing the wheel with every new project or client. What he discovered is that by creating documented processes for each step of the client journey, they were able to become more focused and much more profitable. So many agencies know they need to systematize their agency but it’s a daunting task so the excuses are easier. As Andrew put it during our conversation, “you’ve got to put a firm date on the calendar when you're going to step back, pop the hood, and look at the agency and the way it's running.” Follow Andrew and I on his journey down the process and systemizing your agency rabbit hole and how his agency came out on the other side:   How Andrew and his business partner Gray MacKenzie started their agency while they were still in college and the transformation that GuavaBox has undergone since then How Michael Gerber’s “The E Myth” transformed how Andrew’s agency was ran Using blogging as a method for separating yourself Why clients will leave if communication is poor — even when you’re doing great work DoInbound: a tool for creating templates that power the delivery of services just [...]

October 21st, 2016|

Building Your Business for the Future with Jason Swenk

One of the goals of many agency owners is to build a business that has enough value that someone will want to buy it from them down the road. If you got a call with a cash offer for your agency tomorrow -- would you be ready? Would your agency be? That’s exactly what happened to my podcast guest, Jason Swenk and because he had a plan -- he was ready.   He calls himself the defender of truth, justice, and effective business practices and he knows what he’s talking about when it comes to agency value. In his opinion, the only difference between an eight-figure agency owner and someone who is struggling is their systems. It's not about how smart they are or their experience. It all comes down to having the right systems in place. This is just one area that Jason’s expertise can help you in building your business/agency with the future in mind. Learn more as Jason and I explore: How Jason prepared his agency for sale The importance of systems inside an agency What to do when the systems you put in place make you nonessential for day-to-day operations Lead generation: why this is the biggest pain point for agencies and what can be done about it How agencies can deliver exceptional value to clients willing to pay a premium price and how to get those clients in the first place How to recognize which clients to seek out and which to avoid Jason’s Agency Playbook Things agencies do to get in their own way Agencies and niche: why you need to start very, very small What can agencies do right now to take action on the ideas in this [...]

July 5th, 2016|

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 [...]

April 25th, 2016|

The Evolution of Digital Marketing in the Agency Space with Nick Westergaard

A lot of agencies are still trying to figure out how to wrap their arms around digital since the evolution of digital marketing - what it means, how they deliver the benefits of it to their clients, what parts of digital to embrace internally and what parts to outsource. My podcast guest Nick Westergaard has been down that road already and has blazed a trail for the rest of us to follow.   Nick’s agency transformed from a very traditional ad agency (Westergaard Agency) to the digital powerhouse they are today -- Brand Driven Digital. They saw the writing on the wall with the evolution of digital marketing and decided to jump in with both feet and make some big changes to keep moving their agency moving forward. They even went so far as to launch a live, in-person annual event called the Social Brand Forum to bring all things digital to the Midwest. Nick and I explore all the ways that you too can look outside your box and move your agency forward in the digital space with: How Nick took his traditional agency and transitioned it to becoming a digital powerhouse The evolution of digital marketing versus traditional marketing in the agency space The differences and similarities between traditional and digital marketing and why they really aren’t all that different Social Brand Forum: Brand Driven Digital’s yearly live event The business strategy behind having a live event Why you should get out and attend events The importance of prioritizing your agency as a client Why experimentation is so important for your agency’s success Nick Westergaard is a strategist, speaker, author, and educator. He is the chief brand strategist at Brand Driven Digital, where [...]

April 12th, 2016|

How to Write and Create Valuable Content with Ann Handley

As agencies, we're constantly struggling with how to write and create good solid content for our clients while at the same time, doing it profitably enough so that we don’t lose our shirts in the process. We’re also trying to step up and take the role of helping clients make sure that their content is meaningful, useful and unique. That’s a tall order and sometimes we just don’t have the time or the skill level on our staff to get it done. This world of content is where my podcast guest, Ann Handley shines. As the Chief Content Officer at MarketingProfs, she has a handle on what it takes to get all of that accomplished as well as some invaluable strategies and resources to make us all better writers and content officers in our own right. In my podcast conversation, Ann and I really get down to the core of writing and writing well and why it is so important in content creation and the role all of that has in building your agency. Some highlights include: How agencies can educate their clients The MarketingProfs B2B Forum How to write valuable content that your clients will absolutely love Strategies for working on better content instead of lots of content Why you need to focus on writing during the hiring process and throughout your agency’s work Resources for editing whether you have the budget for a human editor or not Why you need to find writers with an audience-centric point of view (and the pros and cons of hiring journalists) Tips for creating spaces for creating your best writing Ann Handley speaks and writes about how you can rethink the way your business markets. Cited in [...]

March 14th, 2016|

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