Do You Make These Common Agency Owner Mistakes?

In this episode of Inbound Agency Journey, Gray interviews Ross Lauder from Get Focused on Marketing.

Ross shares how he went from Hubspotter to inbound agency owner and the lessons he learned along the way.

Here are the main takeaways for what he’s found out during his journey that will help agency owners.

Get Quick Wins

You want to show the immediate impact you can have on a client’s business. This also gets the engagement off to a strong start.

One way to do this is to walk through the client’s current funnel.

From there, you can determine if there are issues with traffic targeting, if the offer is the weak point, if their call to action is weak, or an email list that needs to be segmented.

By identifying and repair obvious issues, you’ll build trust and make an impact

Focus on Measurement

The ability to measure is one of the main benefits available with digital marketing. In the past, businesses often relied on that the agency’s results were good enough and if they “felt” it.

However, online you can track results and show the client the impact on their business you’ve had.

This is a key differentiating feature marketer should emphasize in their sales process.

Get a Mentor

Growing any business is difficult. If you’re relying on just yourself, it can be almost impossible to see the big picture and get to where you need to go.

You’re always figuring things out the hard way.

Having like-minded groups to associate with help as well, but it’s not the same as a mentor. Especially a mentor who has already forged the path you want to take your business on.

Mentorship can reduce your learning curve and make growing your business more enjoyable.

Charge for Your Time

It is good to help out a prospect with evaluating their efforts, but you need to charge for your expertise.

Get Focused sells discovery projects, like GuavaBox’s GamePlan, to make sure that marketers are being paid for their time. They’re not undervaluing the expertise they’re giving to a client.

This information is also perceived as worth more by the client when it’s paid for as well.

Have Events

Ross mentions how holding events to teach inbound marketing has grown their business. At an event, you’ll have a lot of individuals who aren’t a good fit for your agency, but you’ll find some great clients as well.

Since an event demonstrates your expertise, the sale is much easier.

You also know that if they’re at an event, they’re well aware of the pain and searching for your solution.

Sell Project Work

You don’t have to make a retainer your end all, be all.

Be able to work and partner on various projects to help a client get their desired goal. However, only do this if you’re able to deliver and you won’t lose focus on the niche. You could even partner with another agency on the project to help with delivery.

By not focusing on just selling retainers, it will be easier to upsell client’s into a retainer later on.

Ross’s experiences from just a few years offer a lot of insights for agency owners who want to get to the next level. You can connect with him on LinkedIn.

Thanks for listening!