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Advice for a New Agency Founder

"Any advice for a new agency founder?" This was a real question posted in a large agency group yesterday.

My Answer: Focus on REVENUE GENERATING ACTIVITIES.

Playing around with your website is not a revenue generating activity.

Fiddling with your offer is not a revenue generating activity.

Similarly, writing copy is not a revenue generating activity.

Cleaning the company bathroom is unquestionably not revenue generating activity. Yes, I have seen founders try to hide from their business by doing this.

However, getting conversations with qualified prospective clients is revenue generating activity.

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Image by Photo Mix from Pixabay

Focused Advice for a New Agency Founder

Know and apply the difference between Pay Time and No Pay Time. As a result, do non-revenue generating activities in No Pay Time.

Also, do not believe that "being busy" is "being productive".

Set a specific money target and go for it. "Trying to make as much money as possible" is no target at all and dumb. Your subconscious needs a target. To survive, you need a money target. Those who don't set a specific money target (which you can achieve and then raise) tend to lose a little or a lot of money month after month until they have to go back to a j-o-b.

Therefore, set your money target for at least 2X of what you thought. You are responsible for EVERYTHING now. You can't go down to the company storeroom and pick up a pack of pens and a notebook. You have to pay for all that stuff now. You need more money than you think.

If you're not talking to at least two qualified prospects a day, you're bound for failure.

The Four Systems Every Agency Founder Needs To Be Concentrating On

Every business needs four systems:

  1. Lead Generation
  2. Qualification
  3. Closing
  4. Fulfillment.

Hardly anyone I've known over the past dozen years in the agency game thinks that way. They make things up as they go along. Then they end up with a sloppy set of processes and outcomes, and in fact are not even thinking of processes to make up systems at all. At that point they wonder why the business is slushy.

Be thinking every day about how you are accomplishing these four systems. How are you executing them, written in plain language first and then applying technology last? How can you improve them?

Advice for a New Agency Founder—What They Won't Tell You

Your business needs eyeballs (Traffic) and a way to turn some of those eyeballs into buyers (Conversion). Don't buy anything unless you understand EXACTLY where it fits in, in either generating Traffic or helping you with Conversion. Is there a hole in Traffic or a hole in Conversion that this thing can help you fill?

So many people buy a tech solution or other offer because the sales copy made it sound cool. They get things off Appsumo because "it's a deal". They have no idea where it fits into Traffic or Conversion, and therefore they never use it. I have watched people make this mistake again and again over 10+ years. Markedly, I have watched some specific people stay in the wrong mindset and remain broke for 10+ years. Don't be one of them.

Your job is to get at least two conversations with qualified prospects a day. "Qualified" means they admit they have a problem you can fix and want help fixing it; the size of the problem warrants your involvement; and they have a personality you can get along with. If you do this, you'll get 10 conversations a week. That's over 40 a month. Even if you suck as a salesperson, over a month you should land at least one client by accident. That's called a "laydown", someone who was waiting for someone like you to come along and wants to give you the money.

What New Agency Founders Need To Understand About Sales

A final mindset thing: There are without a doubt people out there who WANT to Give You The Money. They have money and they are desperately seeking Talent. "Please," they are praying, "send me someone COMPETENT who I can give this money to in exchange for them taking this Serious Problem off my hands." Understand, therefore, that they want this problem taken care of more than they want the money. Broke strugglers have an impossible time understanding this. Imprint it on your soul. Someone out there is desperate to give you money right now. You don't have to convince, force, or fool them into hiring you.

Print this out and tape it up in front of you in your work area. In addition, read it at the start of your day, the middle of your day, and the end of your day. Do not expect your mind and your memory to remember a darn thing on its own. For that reason you have to keep the instructions, the vision, the outcome you want right in front of you.

When I have not kept these principles in front of me over the past dozen plus years, I have forgotten them. That has led to trouble.

>> 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 <<

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How Do I Get More Clients?

A very nice and well-meaning web designer just asked in an expert platform I'm a member of...how do I get more clients?

My response:

You have four jobs to do.

1. Attract/identify leads.

2. Qualify those leads.

3. Convert the qualified leads.

and

4. Fulfill the orders.

Do you have a system for each of these?

4. can lead into 1. with referrals.

Prospecting to Answer 'How Do I Get More Clients'

how do I get more clients - landing big fish

You want as pre-qualified a lead as you can get.

Qualifying is filtering. In or Out, doesn't matter which.

Do you know your numbers?

How many qualified leads do you need to know you'll get a project? This is different for every person or business. For me, I need a very small number of qualified leads to make a sale. For you, it might be different.

How many unqualified leads do you need to get one good qualified lead?

Back out into the activities you need to be doing every day. I'll bet (no offense; so are 99.9% of other people) you're sitting there and hoping stuff will come your way. Maybe spending 30 minutes a day looking for new work. Well that is not enough. Needs to be 70% or more of your time spent prospecting! Guaranteed that your prospecting activity, like everyone else's--mine included--is too low.

How Do I Get More Clients By Filling My Funnel?

Fill your funnel.

Unqualified leads >>> Qualified leads >>> Sales.

Work back from the end result.

How much money do you want to make in a month?

How many sales does that mean you need to make?

How many qualified leads does that mean you need?

And how many unqualified leads does that require you to get?

Now you can see how many conversations you need to be having...you can break this down to every week or every day.

In my business, for instance, and remember my numbers will be different--perhaps VERY different--from yours, I need 1 sale a week.

To get that 1 sale, I need 4 qualified leads to ensure I get that sale. Could be 1 in 2 but let's say 1 in 4 to be safe.

Now the funny bit about my business: while conversion for me is easy, finding qualified leads is hard. There are many tire-kickers and broke people who want my help, but are not mentally or financially in the position to afford it. So I need MANY unqualified leads to get one good one!

Again, your business could be different. So let's say I need 20 unqualified leads to get 1 qualified lead.

This means my revenue plan for the month looks like:
20 x 16 = 320 unqualified leads >>> 4 x 4 = 16 qualified leads >>> 4 sales

320 unqualified leads!

If I sit around, hoping passive marketing does the job, will I ever get there?!

No!

I need to plan out my activities based on:

- Video marketing (Youtube)
- Facebook marketing
- Forum marketing
- Prospecting calls

- Referrals (these are great; the way I set it up, 2 referrals virtually guarantee 1 sale; so these 2 referrals take the place of 80(!) unqualified leads, which I can now subtract from my total)
- Talks to audiences
- Webinars

and whatever other efforts of your marketing plan that you decide to run.

Do You Have An Activity Level That Answers How Do I Get More Clients

The point here is: do you have a plan? Until now, I doubt it.

Almost nobody does.

And do you have a high-enough activity level to support your money target?

Most people do not.

Whether they're a corporate salesperson or an independent business owner...they simply don't have a prospecting activity level that supports their money target.

And then they wonder why they didn't succeed. They were beaten before they began, and terrifyingly they had no idea.

>> Jason Kanigan is a business strategist concentrating on sales and conversion. Book a call with Jason to get a personalized prospecting plan. <<