How to Build a Team of Marketing Swiss Army Knives
Every inbound agency journey is different. Some owners have a passion for entrepreneurship and stumble into the inbound agency model. Others find success doing inbound for a company and decide to help others with their abilities. Others decide to start at an agency and then grow to lead the movement.
Greg Linnemanstons joined the team at Weidert Group in 2000. He joined as a Business Development employee. He was working for Joe Weidert, the company founder.
“Those of us who are deep in the inbound community are making history.”
Just 10 months into the job, Greg was offered a role as partner. Joe recognized that Greg brought the leadership and vision necessary to continue the agency. Eventually, Greg purchased the business and began the process of evolving the model.
It didn’t take him too long to discover that the old business model they bought into wasn’t going to grow them into the future. There needed to be a better way forward.
Rethinking the Agency Model and Finding HubSpot
It was a day in July of 2010 that things started changing for Greg. He was on a webinar and started hearing the inbound methodology shared by HubSpot.
Greg saw that this inbound movement was the future and that it would have a big impact on their agency. It was a two-toned realization. First, “This is how we’re going to market ourselves moving forward.” Second, “This is how we’re going to grow and scale our agency.”
These two factors combined made the inbound marketing agency model a no-brainer.
“2015 has been an explosion of business.”
Taking the Inbound Agency to the Next Level
It is one thing to notice a shift coming in a market. It is another to act on that shift. What is even harder is to capitalize on a market shift.
Greg and the team have done just that. Over the past five years they’ve embraced inbound and built a successful agency. Committed to always improving, Greg knew that he needed to continue to invest into the agency.
This led to the hire of a Director of Marketing and a Director of Business Development in the past year. These new team members spend 100% of their time working on Weidert Group sales and marketing. Reflecting now, Greg says that this has been the best investments they’ve made.
“We began to execute as if we were a client of ourselves and have seen amazing results.”
We hear this story time and again on Inbound Agency Journey. The breakout moment for inbound agencies comes when they do inbound for themselves.
The key is momentum. When an agency is small, they can keep up with the marketing for themselves. Without any clients, you have plenty of time to blog!
The problem is that they’re often the victim of their own success. When the inbound starts working, they start generating leads. When they generate leads, they close sales. When they close sales, they stop doing inbound on themselves.
This creates a peaks and valley effect and disrupts your ability to scale. You need to find a way to give people ownership over agency sales and marketing.
“We don’t have something that looks good on an org chart. What we do have is fluid collaboration.”
You want to do your own marketing so you have leads, but you also want to be your best case study. This is your ability to test things out on yourselves. You need to be able to point to yourself on everything you advocate to a client.
The Hiring Process and Mindset at Weidert Group
Greg always has his eyes open for new talent. At Weidert, they don’t follow a structured team layout. They have opted to bring together a group of multi-talented individuals. This group is closely knit and committed to the success of the agency. There are senior advisors that work with clients. From their lead, the support team helps out where needed.
“We never stop interviewing”
Greg calls his team “swiss army knives.” These are people who can work in all areas of inbound. This collection has created something special at Weidert. A culture that they’re all proud to be apart of. “How would you describe the Weidert culture?” Greg asks “Modern Family.”
If you enjoyed this conversation with Greg, reach out on Twitter and say thank you!
“We don’t intend to spend in advance of the business. Look for demand meets capacity expansion.”
Links:
- Weidert Group
- Searching for our Bonini blog post
- Leader’s Eat Last by Simon Sinek
To learn how you can build an inbound agency on a solid foundation, check out 4 Pillars of a Successful Inbound Agency. In this eBook, you’ll discover the keys to growing smart. You can build the agency you love! Take the first step today by downloading the eBook below!
