0

Agency Sales Book by Jason Kanigan

Fast Shortcut To Agency Sales: The Book Is Here!

Let’s talk about selling agency services, and the struggles agency founders have in doing so. If you’re one of these founders, especially a new agency founder, there’s a bit of information I’m about to share that no one may have let you know yet. The truth is that you have to develop certain competencies to have an agency business…or any kind of business. The first and foremost of those is the competency of reaching out and starting conversations with your ideal customer.

the fast shortcut to selling agency services jason kanigan agency sales book

The First Competency Agency Owners Need

New agency owners have their attention on the wrong thing. Ask yourself: what are you most concerned about at this time? Sales, right? Getting new customers paying you and onboarded for your services.

But this is wrong.

You have a way to go before you can do that. Right now, you need to develop that competency of connecting with and starting conversations well with members of your target market.

Let me be crystal clear: if you can’t do that, you won’t be making any sales.

Now the industry will shove any number of fancy tools at you supposedly for accomplishing this without you having to talk to anybody. I recognize that this idea is appealing. But it’s a lie.

Do you really believe emailing unqualified leads and asking them to sign up for your services is going to work?

Does it seem likely that doing some sort of Loom video auditing their site–an unsolicited criticism they didn’t ask for, remember–is going to result in them crawling on their knees over to you, begging you to help them?

Agency Sales Tactics That Work NOW

As I’ve said before and for many years, just about anything will work. If you give something enough time, and do it with enough repetitions, it’ll give you the result you want just by accident. Me standing in a pink bunny suit at the main intersection of the small town I live in, holding a sign in my paws with an offer on it, will eventually result in a customer. Traffic is light. I might have to wait a couple of years.

Do you want to wait a couple of years?

Or would you rather be on the road to making sales of agency services NOW?

Of course I understand that you’d like to get customers. And I’m telling you that the first step to get a customer is to develop the competency of reaching out to and starting good conversations with your target market.

You don’t need anything fancy to do this. Just a telephone and your voice.

Oh, and the right, proven words that open the door and get you what you want.

You Can Get That Compentency Today, Instead of Probably Never

As I said, no one talks about these competencies you have to develop as a business owner if you want to succeed. Why would they? Instead, they want to keep selling you magic bullets that don’t really work. I’m interested in equipping you with proven scripting to get those customers you want.

Oh, you could figure this wording out on your own. Maybe. It’d take you at least a month of consistent calling at least two hours every weekday, blindly trying different wording, getting hung up on, being treated like a flunky. What’s that? You’d never get past the first day? Correct.

So why not let me save you that time and grief, and actually give you something proven to work today.

Be On the Road to Selling Agency Services Within the Hour

You need to develop the competencies of reaching the person you want to talk to, and then starting a conversation with them effectively enough that there IS a rest of the call. I realize that might sound basic, but consider whether anyone else has ever put it so clearly to you.

Now I’ve distilled the precise wording that is required to accomplish those two things. I’ve put them in a book. But not a long book. This is what Kindle calls a Short Read. No padding. No filler. Just the facts. You’ll be through it in under an hour, and you won’t have to flip through it looking for the page you want to take notes from. It’s a mercifully brief, to-the-point little book. And it will help you today. Discover what I share with you in there, and you’ll be on the road to making sales of agency services like web design, PPC leadgen, SEO, social media and other services within the hour.

Think about how much time, energy, and grief this little book is going to save you.

Now go get it here. Start applying it today.

>> Jason Kanigan is a strategist who works with agency owners to increase the profitabilty and effectiveness of their organizations. Book a consultation with Jason here <<

1

Sales for NPOs and Advocacy Groups

Sales for NPOs

Sales for NPOs and advocacy groups works the same way as in business. Many non-profit executives want to shrug this truth off; however, I will demonstrate selling is human interaction, and whether it's in a business or non-profit environment the principles are necessary and effective.

I have many years of high level experience with municipal committees of council. For six years I was appointed to the committee that handled all the grant money reviews and disbursement recommendations for my home town. And in that time I created more interaction, more bonding and more results from those NPOs. I was doing things at 30 people in their 50s are just starting to consider.

A Key Takeaway About Sales for NPOs

A major takeaway I have from that time is the NPOs were all fighting each other over what they thought was slices of the one pie. This was a mistake. In college we were given an assignment where the class was split up into two groups. Both groups were told they needed a limited supply of oranges. You may have experienced a similar exercise, or perhaps this will be a big eye-opener for you. At first the two groups debated on why their "organization" should get the oranges and the other group should not. But after DISCUSSION, a key but hitherto hidden pair of facts became visible:

Group One needed the MEAT of the oranges

Group Two needed the PEEL of the oranges.

Both sides could effectively take 100% of the pie.

But they had to *talk* to one another to figure this out. Now in my experience, and note how this is true even in supposedly cooperative mindset organizations like NPOs, the leaders simply do not communicate with each other effectively enough to learn that one NPO needs the meat and the other needs the peel--and that both can share the resources.

I am about to share an example from my history in 2004-5. At that time I had been appointed to the city's nine-member grant review committee and they made me vice-chair the moment I walked in the room. The following year, the current chair was retiring and plans were made for me to be his successor. Note this was not about some knowledge about parliamentary procedure; it was about demonstrating *leadership* and I was ready to lead. Even though I was the youngest member of the committee other than the short-lived youth rep who moved out of the city after a couple months, these 50, 60, and 70-year old, highly experienced executives--some of whom ran their own organizations--were happy to have me lead them. The first thing I did was meet with city social planning/community development staff to hear their ideas on what a good direction would be.

Two Principles of Sales for NPOs and Advocacy Groups

Note this. Having administrative staff on your side is important. Do you think it is easier to have them promote your program when they have a hand in it?

The second thing I did was forward a motion to council to approve a change in the committee's terms of reference. Until then, the committee had been a passive body: council would refer business items to it for opinion and we would answer. I had it changed so we could "wag the dog" and send items for consideration UP the chain to them.

The staff recommended something called a Social Development Strategy, which came out of Australia. The idea was to involve all the local organizations and stakeholders, and get a program of how municipal spending would be allocated on community development going forward. The City was going through huge changes in population, distribution and gateway areas.

Over the next year, starting from just two stakeholders, I and my committee, lead by a former Chamber of Commerce chair I appointed to lead the subcommittee because I didn't want a conflict of interest as I was running in the next election, created this spending plan and an enormous level of involvement. You can see the results in this document:

CNV Social Development Strategy

Sales for NPOs: Another Example

An organization (the Lower Lonsdale Network) was created for ongoing discussion between all those stakeholders and outlasted my term, which I think is pretty awesome. And during those discussions, we found opportunities for NPOs to share 100% of the pie like this:

The Salvation Army was training homeless people to become cooks, so they could have basic skills to get a job. The local college had their chef volunteer to lead the training. But they topped out on capacity as they only had the one kitchen. Well guess what: from the discussions THEY HAD NEVER HAD BEFORE, resulting from the Social Development Strategy meetings, the Kiwanis retirement tower revealed they had a spare kitchen! The Salvation Army and the chef could use the Kiwanis kitchen to double their flow-through of trainees, and it didn't cost anyone a dime!

Affordable Food News Article 2004

[click to enlarge]

This is an example of the orange being divided into meat and peel, and serving two different groups well.

So if you're a non-profit executive, understand that sales for NPOs and advocacy groups works just like it does in B2B and B2C settings...and will get you results like this. Human interaction is How You Get Things Done. Whether it's in a business or non-profit environment, the same principles are at work.

>> If you want to discuss how your NPO can get broader and more effective results through ethical selling principles, book a session with Jason. <<

0

SaaS AdLabs Interview with Jason Kanigan

Interview With Jason Kanigan by Luis Camacho

SaaS AdLabs hosts this interview with Jason Kanigan on the unexpected challenges of scaling tech firms. We cover:

  • the biggest issues Cold Star sees over and over, in both small companies and larger firms, that block them from scaling smoothing and fast
  • Why franchising may be the wrong option for you, and the things you need to think about before considering using it as a growth tool
  • What tech firms can do to dramatically lower their cost of customer acquisition...and why nearly all founders cut themselves off from this possibility
  • Why all SaaS companies should have a dedicated individual which job is to figure out way to reduce churn rates.

Watch the full interview right here:

Process Engineering for Scaling Tech Firms

Business owners whose time is tied up, whose management team is stuck in a complex mire of training employees and outsourcing, who are tired of seeing quality issues that should have been fixed long ago...these folks are in a situation Cold Star Tech can get them out of. Process engineering is the key tool for accomplishing a better outcome, and getting business owners feeling confident that they have clarity.

interview with Jason Kanigan SaaS AdLab

>> Jason Kanigan is the founder of Cold Star Technologies, a professional services firm focused on helping tech and manufacturing companies smooth the bumpy road of scaling fast <<