Build a Better Agency Podcast

Over the last couple of years, many agencies have started reaping the benefits of embedding an account executive in a client's office. By that I mean someone from the agency team literally has a desk or office in a client's business for a set amount of time every week. This trend was growing prior to the pandemic and actually held its own during the work from home period of 2020. Now that more agencies and clients have returned to the office, this becomes a very viable option again. In this episode, I want to talk about what this means, how to do it well, and both the risks and value of doing it. As an agency owner, your brain might jump to several potential problems that make you leery of such an arrangement. Truth be told, there are several benefits for your shop and your client. If done well, this can be a huge win for you. It takes a bit of a learning curve, as well as putting the ideal employee with the right client. But, when done correctly, you create a really great hook that makes it nearly impossible for a client to consider taking their business anywhere else. In the process, as the agency owner, you cultivate a better, stronger, more connected relationship with the client organization. A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: Why clients love embedded employees How embedded employees guarantee that business's growth The dark side of embedding employees How to protect yourself from having the employee poached Ways to help your embedded employee stay loyal to the agency The ideal employee to embed in a client's office The benefits to the agency of having an embedded employee "Without exception, embedded employees are able to grow that book of business." @DrewMcLellanCLICK TO TWEET"You want an embedded employee to remember where they work and where their loyalties lie." @DrewMcLellanCLICK TO TWEET"An embedded employee should be someone who bleeds the agency's colors." @DrewMcLellanCLICK TO TWEET"This is an opportunity for you as the agency owner to cultivate a better, stronger, more connected relationship with the business owner or CEO of the client organization." @DrewMcLellanCLICK TO TWEET"You are setting a really great hook with an embedded employee and it can be a fantastic thing for both the client and the agency." @DrewMcLellanCLICK TO TWEET Ways to contact Drew McLellan: Email: drew@agencymanagementinstitute.com LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/drewmclellan Website: https://agencymanagementinstitute.com/ Tools & Resources: My Future Self Mini-Course Sell with Authority (buy Drew's book) Facebook Group for the Build a Better Agency Podcast About the Author: Drew McLellan For 30+ years, Drew McLellan has been in the advertising industry. He started his career at Y&R, worked in boutique-sized agencies, and then started his own (which he still owns and runs) agency in 1995. Additionally, Drew owns and leads the Agency Management Institute, which advises hundreds of small to mid-sized agencies on how to grow their agency and its profitability through agency owner peer groups, consulting, coaching, workshops, and more. Leading agency owner peer groups Offering workshops for agency 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 over 250+ agencies every year, Drew 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 several books, including Sell With Authority (2020) and been featured in The New York Times, Forbes, Entrepreneur Magazine, and Fortune Small Business. The Wall Street Journal called his blog "One of 10 blogs every entrepreneur should read."

Who is responsible for keeping the agency's work on time and on budget? That is an oft debated topic among agency owners. At AMI we believe that a specific role (Project Manager, Traffic Manager, etc.) to keep everyone and everything on track is a luxury if you have fewer than 10 employees and by the time you're at 15-20 employees, it's usually a necessity if you want to keep your team and clients happy. But who you hire and how they go about implementing a traffic system is a challenge many agency owners struggle with. Ben Aston is a self-taught digital project manager with over 15 years experience in the agency world. Realizing how difficult his own learning path was and how few resources exist for those interested in developing these skills, he turned his focus to training others on how to develop the craft of project management. In this episode of Build a Better Agency, Ben and I talk about what a project manager does and how this role will help grow your bottom line. We get into the nitty gritty of what makes for successful project management, including defining the skills for an ideal project manager, injecting flexibility into planning, reframing time tracking, and solving the problem of the dreaded "scope creep." A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: At what size agency would a project manager make sense What skills creates an ideal project manager Why project management is such a challenge for a majority of agencies How to recognize project management issues The necessity for creative and craft briefs Solving the problem of "scope creep" How to inject flexibility into project planning Defining negative scope How to create effective templates The need to reframe time tracking Best practices for successful project management

The reality is, we spend so much time thinking and worrying about business development, and in most cases that exuberance is not really matched with the same level of excitement for our existing clients. Which is crazy because we all know that clients get much more profitable the longer we keep them. Despite knowing that – we keep making the same mistakes and jeopardizing our most important client relationships. What if we could avoid those mistakes? Stacey Singer has a great love of how agencies combine business, creativity, and psychology. She has worked in agencies large and small and now she devotes her expertise to helping agencies build amazing client relationships that really hold up, even when things get rocky. In this episode of Build a Better Agency, Stacey and I discuss why paying attention to existing client relationships is even more important than pursuing new clients. She walks through the need to try to imagine your relationship from the client perspective, as well as specific but seemingly small things she has learned that can sometimes damage that relationship. We also dive into the need for a client satisfaction analysis, as well as why putting the client first doesn't automatically mean blindly agreeing with whatever they ask for. Sometimes telling the client "no" leads to a stronger relationship. A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: Specific ways agencies mess up the client experience The need to see the client experience from the client's perspective Simple ways agencies undermine trust with clients How to get a response from challenging clients The importance of explaining the implications for actions The error in interpreting client questions as an indication of a lack of trust The need for clear service standards How an exchange program with a client can be incredibly insightful for both sides of the relationship The danger in letting your agency needs seep through to the clients Why being invested in the client beyond just what your agency can offer can lead to more business actually How to tell the client 'no' but have it sound like a 'yes'

Leadership can feel like a loaded word. We often think about leadership as defining how you run your business but, to me, that refers to how you manage, not how you lead. Leadership is how you show up, and great leadership isn't just about getting people to do what you want, it's about inspiring them to WANT to do what you are asking because they are invested, emotionally and otherwise, in your goals and the goals of the agency. In this podcast, we're going to explore how we can get to be that kind of leader. As a self-proclaimed "snow globe shaker", Jeff Nischwitz is on a mission to shake up how we lead and the impact of that leadership. A global speaker and coach, Jeff is all about pushing aside our fears and leading from the heart so we can all be better leaders. In this episode of Build a Better Agency, Jeff and I talk about the challenges and revelations of agency leadership over the last year during the pandemic. Beyond that we dive into the untapped power of vulnerability, the need for grace, and the biggest fears in modern leadership. We look at the specific skills and tools that leaders will need as we move into the next normal. A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: The need for vulnerability in better leadership How fear is driving leadership challenges Why what you tolerate defines your agency The importance of creating a "no waiting zone" in your agency Defining the difference between a good manager and a good leader How the concept of grace is missing from business leadership Why leaders need to invest in the physical and emotional safety of their team Understanding why bad leadership is actually a selfish act The need to reframe your definition of "nice"

Think about how you build out journey maps or of journey maps you've seen if that isn't something your agency does. They chart out how a potential customer goes from not being aware of the product or service to the point of purchase. Typically, we're building this journey map to coincide with our work in helping our clients increase their sales. In that way, it makes sense that the map would end at the sale. That's our job is to get them to that point. But the customer's experience has really just begun. The real journey begins once you're in a relationship with the customer and how you nourish and grow the trust and connection with the client moving forward. The opportunity for our agencies is to help our clients beyond the initial sale. What if our agency also engaged in helping clients build stronger, more resilient relationships with their customers? That's some very profitable work for us and a lasting value for our clients. As a certified customer experience professional, Jeannie Walters is an expert on this exact topic. An educator and consultant that comes from the agency world, she has a real passion for improving customer experiences and she's here to share some insights that will help you serve your clients even better. In this episode of Build a Better Agency, Jeannie and I dive into the changes in customer relations that were inspired by the pandemic and how companies were forced to evolve in order to survive. We also talk about how the entire supply chain process has come front and center, as well as the continuing need to be innovative, even though the stakes aren't as high as they were during the pandemic. A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: How to get your clients to think bigger The need for a customer experience mission in your agency Ways to improve journey mapping The difference between the buyer's journey and the customer's journey Why communication is key to the customer experience The way the customer experience differs in a B2B environment versus a B2C environment How to get your whole agency on the same page regarding the expectations of the customer experience How to use a customer experience success statement to measure what is being done right The important of including the billing process in the review of your customer journey How to spot and utilize "micro-moments" to create surprises that delight customers

As we celebrate the most anticipated New Year's Day in any of our lifetimes, we also find ourselves planning, goal settings, and making resolutions for the new year. Whenever I ask an agency owner what goals they've set for their shop, without exception, the first goal (and often the only goal) they can come up with is a revenue goal. I absolutely want you to set revenue goals for this year but you shouldn't limit your thinking to that one metric. There are other growth goals that are as important, if not more so, than what your gross revenue is for the year. One of the fallacies that plagues agencies is that the only way to have a successful year is to get bigger (gross billings) but that's a short-sighted and incorrect notion. There are many ways you can build and expand your agency that have nothing to do with your revenue. And depending on your agency – several of them could be even more fruitful and put more money in your pocket. In this solocast episode of Build A Better Agency, I'm going to walk you through ten metrics worthy of consideration as you think about your agency's growth. I'm not suggesting you try to tackle them all, but two or three might be the right number to consider as you plan your way to a good dose of growth for 2021. A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: Reasonable expectations for AGI (Adjusted Gross Income) growth goals in 2021 The right way to think about growing your team How to think about client growth in a different way How certain employees block growth The power of focused goals The growth potential in specialization How a gorilla client impacts your ability to grow Taking care of the clients who got you this far The powerful satisfaction metric that can impede or fuel growth Why you need to take some time to think about your life goals, and not just your agency goals, and an AMI mini course to get you started

As marketers we understand the power and influence of a brand. We know that every buying decision we make is based on emotion. This helps explain why some brands garner a cult-like fan base. They understand the power of their emotional triggers. As agencies, we should be brilliant at discerning and leveraging a brand's specific emotional triggers. But sometimes it's difficult to help a client see the value in what can appear a bit ethereal. But what if there was a tool to help you validate what you know about your clients' (or your) brand? Today's guest has turned the science of emotion into a tangible tool. Brian Gregory comes from a long publishing and advertising background. He has studied the core emotional triggers that lead to a specific brand's buying decisions and is using this insight to help agencies and their clients build a better business and ROI. In this episode of Build a Better Agency, Brian and I discuss the principles of emotion-based buying, including examples of how it has been used successfully by well-known brands. We also talk about the formula that all good marketing follows, what the big brands fear small businesses will figure out, and why it's important to have an emotional emphasis in all your marketing communication. A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: The science of emotion buying marketing An introduction to Admanity, an online tool that defines which of the primal emotions can be best utilized by your clients and your agency How to use the knowledge of emotion buying triggers to increase sales How advertising follows a formula The importance of understanding how emotions are related when it comes to marketing communication How businesses and agencies get advertising wrong What the big brands fear small businesses will figure out Why this is the perfect time for small-to-midsize agencies and brands to embrace the power of emotion buying How an agency can use emotion buying concepts to sell a client on a new campaign

For many agency owners systems is the S Word. We bristle at the idea of being confined. It feels like an attempt to stifle our creativity and ability to think out of the box. But if we're honest with ourselves, there's a lot of wash-rinse-repeat in our work every day. And without systems (which I translate to "the agency's way of doing something) everyone develops their own way of accomplishing each and every task. Not only does that mean we are inconsistent at best but it also means that if that employees leaves, so does their tribal knowledge. This is a problem we can and should solve. My guest for this episode is Josh Fonger, a Business Performance Architect and co-founder of the company, Work The System. The company is based on a book by the same name by Sam Carpenter and exists to help people implement the concepts. If you loved Michael Gerber's book The E-Myth, but wished he'd told you HOW to follow his recommendations, you'll love hearing from Josh. In our conversation, Josh outlines not only why systems are important but the specific steps you can take to build them into your agency, no matter how long your agency has been around or how you're functioning today. While the work may not seem sexy, once the processes are in place, you'll love the reduction of mistakes, the ability to scale and the increase in profitability. A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: Practical tips for how to create systems for your agency Why processes actually create more space for creativity How the tribal knowledge method can fail you Examples of how documenting systems allow you to productize your service How to get started when it all feels so overwhelming The agency owner's role in building systems How to document processes in a way that your team will actually reference them How to get everyone (including the company owner) to follow the process once it's in place Productivity tips for how agency owners can extract themselves from the day-to-day in order to concentrate on business development.

Here are three things I know every agency owner wants. 1) A shortcut to landing new clients. 2) A way to prove ROI for their clients' marketing budgets. 3) A way to automate tasks around data that allow them to guide their clients in the right direction faster and more accurately. The good news is – we can get all of that from marketing automation. If we use it wisely and well. Agencies are constantly working to find ways to help their clients attract right-fit prospects, stay relevant to them during their buyer's journey, and shorten the entire sales cycle. We have many tools at our disposal to accomplish those goals and a sophisticated marketing automation system is certainly one of them. Many agencies have barely scratched the surface of what marketing automation can do for their own agency and for their clients. When we don't delve into the power of marketing automation, we're relying on email marketing circa 2000. But in this era of clients demanding ROI stats for their marketing spend, we are missing out on what can be a very compelling tool that can drive revenue for both our clients and our agency! In fact, my guest, Rick Carlson suggests that marketing automation is an outdated moniker for the tool. He believes we should call them revenue growth systems. Rick is the founder and CEO of SharpSpring and has seen how a marketing automation system can transform the way you connect and communicate with your leads and clients. In this episode of Build a Better Agency, Rick explains how using your marketing automation system to its full extent can enable agency owners to multiply their efforts, expand their communication, and build deep meaningful relationships as they build their agency. A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: A marketing automation system can help agencies shorten the sales cycle and strengthen their client relationships. Learn how to use them in your agency with insights from Rick Carlson about: How to think about the tools in a marketing automation system through a different lens Stand apart by having true one-to-one conversations at scale Best practices for using marketing automation to generate leads How agencies can create effective landing pages that align with their marketing goals How agencies can communicate with their audience without burning them out Different ways agencies can use marketing automation to bridge the gap between their marketing and sales teams How agencies are leaving money on the table by not using their marketing automation system to its full potential "Agencies have been called upon to help their clients fortify relationships with their existing customers, and they have been called upon to shorten the sales cycle. I think marketing automation tools play a role in both of those things." @sharpspringCLICK TO TWEET"As marketers, the opportunities to spend money on leads are endless. But a disproportionate amount of time is spent on lead generation instead of nurturing the leads we've landed." @sharpspringCLICK TO TWEET"The key to nurturing leads with a marketing automation system is truly knowing your customers' business so you can apply the tools properly." @sharpspringCLICK TO TWEET"A marketing automation system is about having a one-on-one conversation with your prospects at scale based on each individual's interests." @sharpspringCLICK TO TWEET"Marketing automation is an antiquated term. These tools are revenue growth platforms, and so many of them are geared towards the sales process as well." @sharpspringCLICK TO TWEET Ways to contact Rick Carlson: Demo: https://sharpspring.com/ami/ Agency Acceleration Series: https://sharpspring.com/agency-acceleration-series/ Website: https://sharpspring.com/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/rickcarlson/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/sharpspring/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/SharpSpringInc/ Twitter: @sharpspring Tools & Resources: Sell with Authority (buy Drew's book) Podcast Giveaway Facebook Group for the Build a Better Agency Podcast Agency Edge Research Series

Project management is a challenge for every agency, regardless of their size or tenure. Many agencies have a physical project board on a wall or are using Excel spreadsheets to try to keep everything in check. Unfortunately, these rudimentary project management systems end up costing agencies time, money, and even clients. But it does not have to be a source of frustration or profit evaporation. If your agency has been resisting a project management system, it's time to recognize that you are choosing to put your agency at risk. A shop without a more sophisticated tool and process for getting the work done on time and on budget will experience missed deadlines, scope create and frustrated clients. It's not ideal from your team's perspective either. No one wants to drop the ball or disappoint a client or teammate. Agency owner Peter Coppinger knew all of this too well. His own shop, located in Dublin, Ireland was struggling to find a tool that would help them keep everyone in alignment and manage all of the details of every job without fail. That frustration led them to decide to design a project management tool of their own, Teamwork, which is one of the more popular options among agencies throughout the world. His software now powers more than 20,000 businesses. During our conversation, Peter walks through the common mistakes agency owners make with project management and some best practices for overcoming them – all with the goal of profitably growing and scaling your agency. A big thank you to our podcast's presenting sponsor, White Label IQ. They're an amazing resource for agencies who want to outsource their design, dev, or PPC work at wholesale prices. Check out their special offer (10 free hours!) for podcast listeners here. What You Will Learn in This Episode: Pitfalls that many agencies face when it comes to getting the work done Why agencies should be tracking and charging for every little piece of work they do Peter's best practices for managing projects effectively in the agency world What characteristics agencies should look for in their search for a qualified project manager Why effective project management is the key to growth and scale "It's easy to be a busy fool. As you scale your agency and add more people, you need to make sure you are scaling your profits as well." @irlTopperCLICK TO TWEET"You're not managing projects effectively if you're constantly whipping people to get work across the finish line. You want your team to be self-reliant, and project management systems play a major role in that." @irlTopperCLICK TO TWEET"Some customers are willing to pay more, and you need to have systems in place that can extract that value." @irlTopperCLICK TO TWEET"People who are managing projects effectively are usually a rare combination of organized and good at dealing with people." @irlTopperCLICK TO TWEET"Every agency has similar kinds of daily projects. If you don't write down and organize the steps it takes to get them done, you will never be able to scale your agency." @irlTopperCLICK TO TWEET Ways to contact Peter Coppinger: Website: https://www.teamwork.com/ Website: https://www.instantagencytools.com LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/peter-coppinger-03284b/ LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/teamwork-com/ Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TeamworkHQ Twitter: @teamwork Twitter: @irlTopper Tools & Resources: Sell with Authority (buy Drew's book) Podcast Giveaway Facebook Group for the Build a Better Agency Podcast