mike lieberman - how to grow the hell out of your agency

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HOW TO GROW THE HELL OUT OF YOUR AGENCY: 11.5 UPGRADES TO DO TODAY TO GROW TOMORROWMike LiebermanPresident, Chief Inbound Scientist, Square 2 Marketing

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Mike LiebermanCo-founder, President and Chief Inbound Scientist at Square 2 Marketing

As VP of Marketing, of a $20M software company, we spent $20k a month on SEO.

1. Context for these Stories

2. Strategic Upgrades to Drive Growth (3 Upgrades)

3. Sales and Marketing Upgrades to Drive Growth (3 Upgrades)

4. Operations Upgrades to Drive Growth (3 Upgrades)

5. Finance Upgrades to Drive Growth (2 Upgrades)

6. Wrap Up and Questions (the elusive ½ an upgrade)

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About Us – Putting the story in context

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• Clients on FIVE continents• 62 team members, both in-office and remote• Did $4.4 in 2014 and on pace to do $6.4 in 2015• 14% net profit• 48 active clients• $12,500 average MRR• 0 projects• $1,272,000 in annual licensing revenue for HubSpot

• Our business had doubled every year since 2012 in both revenue and team members

An Update On Square 2 Marketing

2015

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• Revamped our website design and development methodology TWICE with a focus on page by page site strategy to drive more results

• Added new UI/UX roles• Upgraded our own website home page and secondary pages (improved conversion

rate by 72%)• Implemented company wide Content Strategy and Planning for every client (monthly

or quarterly)• Inbound Sales Engagement V2 with CRM and Sidekick for Business• Upgraded and formalized Conversion Optimization engagement tactics • Testing Agile Marketing with Scrum Methodology for deployment company wide in

January

Changes We’ve Made This Year

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• Client website conversion rates associated with our new sites have practically doubled

• Designed content strategy have impacted profitability internally and improved results for clients

• Revenue from Inbound Sales engagements is improving 50% month over month

• Percentage of clients with Inbound Sales services is 20% up from 5% in January

• Client renewals through JULY were 100%

It Was Worth It

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2 Strategic Upgrades

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UPGRADE 1 – Hire A New Team Member Today

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• Ignore the OLD RULES and smash the old thinking!

Hire A New Team Member Today!

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• Ignore the OLD RULES!

• Start an “always hiring” mentality• Build a bench of people who want to work at your agency• Implement a “just in time” hiring program• Screen for Core Values and Culture• Interview for past performance and use behavior questioning• Test candidates with a “live” project• Look for in-house people for consulting roles

Hire A New Team Member Today!

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• Ignore the OLD RULES!

• Start an “always hiring” mentality• Build a bench of people who want to work at your agency• Implement a “just in time” hiring program• Screen for Core Values and Culture• Interview for past performance and use behavior questioning• Test candidates with a “live” project• Look for in-house people for consulting roles

Hire A New Team Member Today!

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UPGRADE 2 – Make The Decision To GO ALL IN On Inbound

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• It makes for a better story• Clients and prospects are less confused• It focuses you and your teams• You’ll get better at inbound faster• It’s a growing segment, instead of a stagnating segment• It’s differentiating in your local market• Commit to experimentation• Finding efficiencies within the organization• Applying technology

Make The Decision To Go ALL IN On Inbound!

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Everything gets easier…..when you go

ALL IN!

Make The Decision To Go ALL IN On Inbound!

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UPGRADE 3 – Upgrade Your Marketing Strategy Deliverables

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Most of the marketing strategy I see is just incomplete

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• Personas are only part of the puzzle• Technical details for a website is NOT marketing strategy• A content plan (blueprint) is NOT marketing strategy• A list of inbound tactics is NOT a marketing strategy

Upgrade Your Marketing Strategy Deliverables

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Marketing Tactics with Inbound• Blogging• Website• Content• Lead nurturing• Email marketing• Video marketing• Social media• Search• Etc,etc, etc

Marketing Strategy with Reality Marketing™• Personas• Messaging• Stories• Differentiation• Tactic details• Budget• Calendar• Lead goals and projections• Sample executions

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3 Operations Upgrades

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UPGRADE 4 – Create a Product Catalog and Continuously Add to It

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• Inbound marketing is conducive to product thinking• You repeat tasks over and over again• Playbooks for each “product” align perfectly• You’ll notice holes where you need services to round out your offering and

drive better results• Drive innovation by adding new products/services…Inbound Sales• Product catalogs support pricing, profitable growth, and value engineering

Create a product catalog and add to it regularly

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Alex turns to Ted, an entrepreneur and old family friend, who encourages Alex to pursue three criteria to make his business sellable: • Teachable: focus on products and services

that you can teach employees to deliver. • Valuable: avoid price wars by specializing in

doing one thing better than anyone else. • Repeatable: generate recurring revenue by

engineering products that customers have to repurchase often.

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UPGRADE 5 – Fire Your Worst Client TODAY!

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• You’re probably losing money anyway, at the very least it’s less profitable than your best client

• They’re extremely demotivating for the team• They’re never going to be a good reference for you…so they’re never going to

help you get new clients• They’re never going to be happy, no matter what you do• You’re not learning anything from the engagement• You’re actually opening a slot for a new, more profitable, happier, more

potentially referable client

Fire Your Worst Client TODAY!

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They won’t be surprised you’re firing them!

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UPGRADE 6 – Pulse Your Engagement More Quickly!

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• It has to be more than just delivering “stuff”• The faster your client teams are able to cycle or pulse the engagement, the

better the results• A cycle represents a series of activities with specific outcomes in mind• The team needs all the resources required to pulse more quickly• You can’t have organized chaos, so some mechanism needs to control the

process of pulsing

Find A Way To Pulse Your Engagements Faster

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Find A Way To Pulse Your Engagements Faster

Analysis

Review

Respond

Action

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Find A Way To Pulse Your Engagements Faster

Analysis

Review

Respond

Action

Data in HubSpot

Team Discussion

Action Plan

Implement the Plan

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Find A Way To Pulse Your Engagements Faster

Analysis

Review

Respond

Action

Data in HubSpot

Team Discussion

Action Plan

Implement the Plan

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• A quote from the book “the Agile Methodology and Scrum is perfect for creative and highly complex tasks.”

• Inbound marketing is a creative and highly complex set of tasks that repeat over and over again with the result being a desired set of outcomes – LEADS!

Find A Way To Pulse Your Engagements Faster

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In 2016, we’re taking the entire company AGILE and deploying a Scrum Methodology for every engagement

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UPGRADE 7 – Create a Defined Sales Process and Stick To It Religiously

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• Make it about your prospects, not about you• Anyone who asks you to deviate from your process is not a good fit• Make your prospects feel safe• Use content the same way you’d tell your clients to use content• Use the automation tools – CRM and Sidekick• Model for your clients….this sells inbound better than anything else• Practice what you preach

Create a defined sales process and stick to it

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Don’t be afraid to say no…people always want what they can’t have…play hard to get.

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“We have to hire this company!”

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Inbound Sales Is Ready For Prime Time

http://www.square2marketing.com/inbound-sales-effect-read-the-first-chapter

Special Limited Time Offer

Get a pre-release version of the first

chapter TODAY and get notification when

the book is available for full download.

Visit This Special INBOUND 2015 Link

www.square2marketing.com/inbound-sales-effect-read-the-

first-chapter

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UPGRADE 8 – Tell An Inspiring Story

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We build Marketing Machines for companies who want a click to close system to ensure you exceed revenue goals every month.

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In everything we do, we believe in teaching entrepreneurial CEOs, marketing and sales execs to think differently about how they sell and market their

businesses.The way we help clients is through the strategic

implementation of inbound marketing and inbound sales; making it simple to understand and apply.

Reality Marketing™ + Inbound Marketing + Inbound Sales = Revenue Growth

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You NEED A Mission!

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UPGRADE 9 – Clients Want Leads, Don’t Do Things That Don’t Generate Leads

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• Websites without content, offers, compelling messaging• Content out of context or without landing pages, CTA buttons and lead

nurturing• SEO (getting on the first page of Google is NOT a lead)• Logo Redesign (ever pick a company based on their logo?)• Press releases• Outdoor advertising• Promotional campaigns…discount coupons• Cold-calling• Inbound marketing without optimization software

Things That Don’t Get Leads

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A lot of those services have been commodized down to almost no value and that’s not how I want spend my day.

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INSTEAD…build your inbound marketing methodology (the machine) and get good at delivering it so you drive results and increase efficiencies in your agency…this is how grow revenue and profits.

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4 Financial Upgrades

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UPGRADE 10 – Raise Prices RIGHT NOW!

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• Raise your monthly retainers by $1,000 a month• If someone is paying $5,000 AND they value what you’re doing for them,

they can afford $6,000• The value you’re providing them is NOT equal to what you’re getting paid• If you’re getting them leads, does it matter whether it’s $9k, $10k or $11k a

month?

Raise Prices NOW!

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Magic Question…

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Magic Question…

How much would you pay if I could give you a Marketing Machine that delivered the exact amount of leads you needed to hit your revenue goals every single month?

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Make Prospects and Clients Answer This Question with Real $$$$$$

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$200,000?

$400,000?

$1,400,000?

$2,000,000?

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UPGRADE 11 – Get More Intimate With Your Numbers

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• Visits, Leads and Conversion Rate for your agency – DAILY• Blog Views and Blog Subscribers – DAILY• Average Client MRR – MONTHLY• Client Profitability vs Target Client Profitability – WEEKLY• Team Utilization Rate – WEEKLY• Percent Billable by Team Member and Company Wide – WEEKLY• Company Net Promoter Score - QUARTERLY• Current Renewal Rate and Projected Renewal Rate – QUARTERLY• Team Member Happiness Score – MONTHLY• Cash on Hand – WEEKLY (two months of payroll)• Client Program Performance – Weekly/Monthly (Leads vs. Lead Goals)

Numbers You Have To Know Cold!

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Flash Reports• Finance – DAILY• HR – WEEKLY• Client Services – WEEKLY

I Don’t Do Reports Often, But When I Do… They’re Flash Reports

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UPGRADE 11.5 – Ask For Help

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Helpful Content and Advice

www.agencies2inbound.com

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New Coaching Cohort Is Launching In SeptemberSpace is already limited but if you’re interested

www.agencies2inbound.com/coaching-sign-up

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• If you love servicing but selling is challenging

• If you’re concerned about trying to “figure it out” on your own

• If you’re all in on Inbound and share our vision

• If you want to be part of a bigger team

• If you want to selling. stop collecting money, sending invoices, or

handling office admin

Let’s Talk!

We’re Still Buying Agencies

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Questions and Thank You!

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You’re NOT Alone

mike@square2marketing.commike@agencies2inbound.com215-491-0100215-880-6290

Follow Me On Twitter@Mike2Marketing