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How to Increase B2B Sales with These B2B Sales Techniques with Ryan O’Donnell

The typical agency owner isn’t a natural salesperson. They don’t enjoy chasing after business but they love engaging a prospect once they walk in the door. The idea of cold calling in our business has always been dismissed as “never works” but what if there is a happy medium? My podcast guest Ryan O’Donnell joins me on the show with his message that sales is really all about automation and efficiency. Ryan explains that when you use automation in the right way, you lay the right foundation for sales, which inevitably gets you in front of the right people and gets you more opportunities to have the right conversations. Ryan and his team are behind two successful products, Sellhack and Replyify, which were built to help people drive sales into their organizations through automation. Join Ryan and I and start thinking a little differently about how you approach sales for your agency with: Why sales is all about automation and efficiency Using data to take the guesswork out of the prospect search Crafting compelling emails to prospects based on what you know about their competition (that you already work with) Figuring out how many prospects you need to capture every week at the top of your sales funnel in order to get the number of new leads you need at the bottom of the funnel SellHack’s algorithm for verifying the email address of a person who you might just know their name and company Replyify: a tool specifically devised for sending out cold email campaigns and building a sales process to contact prospects in other ways Strategies for crafting an email using B2B Sales Techniques that works for cold selling B2B products and services How [...]

November 30th, 2017|

3 Essentials for Driving Revenue from your Thought Leadership

Registration is NOW OPEN for 3 Essentials for Driving Revenue from your Content Thought Leadership Thursday, November 9, 2017 @ 11:00 a.m. EST This web workshop is FREE but space is limited to the first 150 people. Register now to secure your spot and learn how to turn a vital marketing cost for your agency into a reliable revenue stream! Reserve Your Spot Now! In the webinar, We’re going to focus on three key areas: To turn your content into genuine thought leadership – you need to have a strong point of view. We’ll explore what that means and how to define it in a way that serves you. A true thought leader leverages multiple content platforms and understands how to atomize content to spread the message without watering it down or having to reinvent the wheel every week. Mine the riches that are in the niches. A known and respected thought leader has an area of expertise. You can’t be an expert in everything and actually – you don’t need to be. We’ll show you how fishing in a more defined pond actually increases your revenue. Plus, Q&A. This is not a feel good session. It’s not touchy-feely. Instead, we’ll talk about the challenges and why they exist. I’ll also share with you some of the best practices for addressing those challenges. I know you’re busy. But I promise that if you take one idea from this webinar and implement it – you will put money back in your pocket, time and time again. I hope you’re among the 5% who will take action and declare war on the costly mistakes inside your agency. With every improvement, you build a stronger agency, a more secure [...]

October 30th, 2017|

Webinar Template

Registration is NOW OPEN for The Critical Question The question you need when you’re recruiting, leading and retaining Millennials! Friday, August 19, 2016 @ 11:00 a.m. EST This web workshop is FREE but space is limited to the first 150 people. Register now to secure your spot. Reserve Your Spot Now! By the year 2020, 45% of the workforce will be Millennial… are you ready? Even though many agency owners don’t understand millennials and can find them frustrating to supervise, attracting, retaining and growing millennial employees is critical to pull in the talent and digital savviness Millennials have, and your agency needs. The #1 reason a millennial stays AND the #1 reason a millennial leaves is their direct boss. Are you and your management team bringing the type of leadership that inspires your employees to fully engage and deliver with excellence? Do you know the strategies you need to spark incredible loyalty… even with your youngest team members? One key question can make the difference. Knowing the question and asking it can make all the difference in inspiring your employees of any age to bring their best work and to stay loyal. So let’s get you this Critical Question! In the webinar, we will focus on these three key areas: A critical leadership concept for managing millennials (This tends to be in most Boomer and X’er’s blindspot) A key question every leader needs to be asking every team member… especially Millennials Specific and practical strategies for boosting engagement and loyalty with Millennials (and team members of all ages) Plus, Q&A to follow the presentation. Reserve Your Spot Not! About Drew McLellan Drew McLellan is the Top Dog at Agency Management Institute. For the past 21 [...]

October 27th, 2017|

Growth-Driven Design: A Smarter Approach to Profitable Web Development with Luke Summerfield

Web development seems to be a constant conundrum for most agency owners. It’s hard to hire and it’s even tougher to make money on web projects these days. On top of the profitability issue, there’s the scope creep and timeline challenges. Many agencies have actually gotten out of the web dev side of the business. But is that the right choice? My podcast guest Luke Summerfield would say no. He’s got a different way of looking at building out websites and other digital assets. He calls it Growth-Driven Design, a smarter approach to web design. It’s a methodology that puts a whole new perspective on web dev both for your shop and your clients. Rather than a one and done product as most agencies view websites, Luke and his team take an iterative approach to making their websites an ongoing project with stages and continuous improvement. Join Luke and I as he walks you through this new way of selling and creating websites that deliver for both your clients and your agency. Growth-driven design: what this “smarter way to do web design” is all about Why the platform you use for your website doesn’t matter with growth-driven design How growth-driven design was born out of the pain both agencies and clients felt around web development and why this system is so much better than previous ways of doing web dev Step 1: getting an empathetic understanding of your client’s audience’s world Step 2: building a “launch pad” website -- something that looks and performs better than what the client already has but is not the final product Step 3: continually improving websites How to sell and price growth-driven design to clients Why you should always [...]

October 26th, 2017|

Everything You Need to Know About Working at a Virtual Company with Gerald Sexton

Technology has brought many changes to the workplace and one of the biggest has to be the ability and desire to work remotely. Many agencies swore they’d never allow an employee to work from home – be it down the street or across the country.  That tune has changed for sure. Some agencies are making the shift to a work-from-home environment a few days a week or a hybrid agency where some of the staff is in common shared office space and others are scattered around the country.  Today, in our AMI owner peer networks – several of the agencies have taken the plunge and gone totally virtual. My podcast guest Gerald Sexton is the head of HR at a company called Goodway Group.  Goodway is an agency that specializes in programmatic media and they are 100% virtual.  Going all out virtual may not be right for you or your agency at this very moment but Gerald gives us some food for thought with regards to this changing workplace environment and how we can best adapt. If his retention and production numbers have anything to say about it, going virtual has been nothing but great for his agency. Join Gerald and I as we wade into these changes and give you some things to consider by learning: The history of Goodway Group Everything you’ve ever wanted to know about working at a virtual company How Goodway succeeds with a virtual company with employees in 41 states The best tools for managing a virtual company What Gerald looks for in the hiring process to figure out if someone is suited for the hiring process or not Why Goodway looks at their team members results -- not [...]

October 19th, 2017|

How the Creative Director Role is Changing in the Digital Age

Our industry isn’t just changing, it’s evolving. What we offer clients, how we’re measuring success and the tools we use are all constantly changing. While the changes are helping us grow our agencies and future proof our businesses – it also means some painful changes to how we’re structured. The biggest change I am seeing within agencies is the shift in how we use the creative director role. I’m seeing more and more agencies realigning their agencies to meet the current demands of today and more often than not, that doesn’t include a traditional creative director.   Creative directors have played a significant role in agencies since their inception but now, out of necessity, they are morphing into all sorts of new roles. Join me as I detail out the changes that agencies are making to revamp their creative director roles such as: Why the days where creative led agencies have passed and why creative has been replaced by strategy, content, and lead gen The shortage of writers compared to the abundance of art directors and why that’s a pretty big issue for agencies Why the creative director role isn’t in that high of demand anymore, and what traditional creative directors look like in the agencies that have them Administrative, account service, and creative services: the three departments that make up most agencies today The triad of leadership - a writer, art director, and digital producer form to lead the creative services department in lieu of a creative director Why you don’t usually even need to produce spec creative for a pitch anymore Figuring out which roles inside your agency you still need Allocating funds from cut positions elsewhere to serve your clients better Drew [...]

October 12th, 2017|

Are Creative Directors Going to be Extinct? with Drew McLellan

[easy-social-share buttons=”facebook,twitter,google,linkedin,mail” counters=1 counter_pos=”topm” total_counter_pos=”leftbig” style=”icon_hover”] Drew McLellan is the Top Dog at Agency Management Institute. For the past 23 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 gives him a unique perspective on running an agency today. AMI works with agency owners by: Leading agency owner peer groups Offering workshops for owners and their leadership teams Offering AE bootcamps Conducting individual agency owner coaching Doing on-site consulting Offering online courses in agency new business and account service Because he works with those 250+ agencies every year — he has the unique opportunity to see the patterns and the habits (both good and bad) that happen over and over again. He has also written two books and been featured in The New York Times, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called his blog “One of 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read.”   What you’ll learn about in this episode: Why the days where creative led agencies have passed and why creative has been replaced by strategy, content, and lead gen The shortage of writers compared to the abundance of art directors and why that’s a pretty big issue for agencies Why creative directors aren’t in that high of demand anymore, and what traditional creative directors look like in the agencies that have them Administrative, account service, and creative services: the three departments that make up most agencies today The triad of leadership – a writer, art director, and digital producer lead the creative services department in lieu of a creative director Why you don’t usually even need [...]

October 9th, 2017|

How to Develop a Thought Leadership Content Strategy with John Hall

Now more than ever before, you have to differentiate yourself as an agency but with so many channels out there to consume content and distribute it in, how do you do it?  Two words - thought leadership. Agency owners talk about the idea of thought leadership and the importance of it but never seem to get off the dime. They just don’t know how. My podcast guest John Hall has thought leadership down cold. As the the co-founder and CEO of Influence & Co, he spends his time advising agencies on how to differentiate themselves with thought leadership and leverage the content they are creating. John and his team have helped agencies position themselves as leaders by creating content that is helpful, unique and truly their own. Join John and I as we lay out a blueprint for you to finally get that thought leadership done: Thought leadership: why it’s something you have to do Creating a thought leadership content marketing blueprint Why your blogs should have the author’s name for a byline -- not the agency’s name Strategies for creating content that isn’t generic How to build thought leadership into your schedule so that you actually spend time on it -- and what to do if you can’t Finding the ideal mix for publishing content on your own site vs. externally Big mistakes agencies make with their content Why thought leadership content marketing is here for the long haul John Hall is co-founder and CEO of Influence & Co., a content marketing agency that helps companies and individuals extract and leverage their expertise to create, publish, and distribute content to their key audiences. In five years, John has grown Influence & Co. into one [...]

September 28th, 2017|

Marketers: Take Digital Out of Your Vocabulary

“Going digital” isn’t a passing trend. Companies are learning — and proving — that building a flexible, integrated agency with a digital emphasis is essential. And that lesson is still being learned the hard way, even at the world’s most prestigious organizations. BuzzFeed leaked an internal report from The New York Times this week, providing an intimate look into how one of the world’s leading journalistic institutions is struggling with the exact same problem most agencies are: integrating digital into its existing company structure. So, what can this teach the rest of the world? It shows that combining traditional and online media isn’t easy for any company, and even the most prestigious of organizations make common mistakes, including treating it as something that’s separate — and often secondary — from the rest of operations. Digital Dividing Lines Although many companies have employees who specifically focus on online media, all employees need to think about it. Whether they’re focused on strategy, creative, or media, they need to know the landscape inside and out. Why? Because digital isn’t a department; it’s a way of thinking. When digital was new, it was used as a buzzword to set innovative agencies apart from those that weren’t savvy. That’s not true anymore. Today, it’s a given. When you tell a client your marketing firm does digital, it’s like telling them that newspapers have writers on staff. Duh. Most clients now realize that a mix of channels and strategies — including digital — is the most effective way to communicate with customers. They know that most potential customers don’t just wander into a store to shop. Instead, consumers start their search online. Digital helps your clients snag customers earlier in the sales cycle. But there’s [...]

September 21st, 2017|

What Makes an Effective Leader

Organizations that don’t have a set of guiding principles find themselves struggling to be consistent and to always be moving towards their bigger picture goals. A lack of defined expectations also makes it difficult for your team to understand what makes an effective leader. If you don’t give them a sense of what the company values and how you expect your leaders to behave – they have to make it up as they go along. Those challenges become even more pronounced in times of rapid change. And if there’s anything you know for sure about our industry – it’s that we are experiencing a state of constant change. My podcast guest John Rossman had a front row seat in being one of the co-creators of the leadership principles that have steered one of the biggest titans of industry, Amazon. They too exist in an industry that doesn’t even begin to resemble itself from a decade ago! Since he left Amazon, John has been using what he learned to help clients define and live by their own guiding principles.  He also wrote the book, The Amazon Way: 14 Leadership Principles Behind the World’s Most Disruptive Company. In our conversation, John talks about some of the most critical of Amazon’s principles and how they apply to agencies today: What makes an effective leader Why you need to get really clear on what your future looks like John’s favorite Amazon leadership principles Why you need to be proactive and take action The importance of prioritizing getting to the right answer over getting along Structuring interviews so you find the employees that are actually willing to grow and improve Amazon’s “think big” and why it’s all about experimentation John’s [...]

September 14th, 2017|

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