Should Your Agency Use Discovery Projects?

When we transitioned GuavaBox from a website design agency to an inbound marketing agency, our goal was to build a steady stream of monthly recurring revenue as quickly as possible.

Given that was the goal, it made sense to try and sell inbound retainers right off the bat to our clients.

Why Not 12-Month Commitments Right Away?

From a logical standpoint, it made total sense.

Build a base of 12-month retainers and ride the gravy train as far as it goes.

Well, we quickly learned why jumping straight into a 12-month commitment with a new client was not good for us or for the client. 

What We Learned

With any retainer engagement, there are two perspectives to consider. The perspective your agency has on the engagement, and the perspective of the client. 

Agency Perspective

How many clients have you brought on as a retainer client and one month into the engagement immediately regretted it? We certainly had our share. 

The client wasn’t as responsive as we wanted, didn’t get us what we needed from them as quickly as we wanted, didn’t have the entire team bought into the inbound methodology. Sound familiar? 

You have three options at that point.

Bang your head against the wall for the next 11 months, have a direct conversation with them about their lack of commitment, and pray things to change, fire them as a client, and leave a bad taste in their mouth.

None of those sound very promising… 

Client Perspective

Every client is excited to get started when they first sign a contract and begin.

They may not quite understand what they are getting into and are unsure how the process will work but they believe that inbound will be a good fit for them.

A month goes by and they have given you tons of time in interviews and effort and are starting to get burned out and question whether they made the right decision.

After all, inbound takes time and they haven’t seen any return on their investment yet. 

The CEO starts asking what they have gotten for that $10,000 they spent last month, and the marketing manager struggles to deliver a satisfying answer. 

Tensions rise and now they are worried they made the wrong decision. 

The Beauty of Discovery Projects

Discovery projects are designed to mitigate risks for both parties.

For your agency, it helps you understand the commitment and team structure of your new client.

For your client, committing to a smaller project, both in length and cost, helps them make a decision to move forward.

Twelve months is a long time to commit to one another right away.

Mutual trust is the most important factor that will help both sides feel comfortable moving forward.

A discovery project is a perfect way to grow that trust. 

At GuavaBox we developed the Inbound Marketing GamePlan as a way to create a one-month discovery project to do with the client.

This became the first step in our sales process and allowed us to screen clients before committing to bringing them in for a 12-month commitment. 

It also allowed us to get paid for the initial strategy development we needed to do to onboard a client.

New Discovery Project Ideas

This was a unique episode for us because it was meant to get your creative juices flowing with new ideas.

Many agencies out there are trying to figure out how to productize some of their processes and sell those to clients. 

What an awesome way to create a discovery project and build a relationship with the client.

If you have any ideas or have implemented a similar strategy at your agency let us know! Hopefully, this episode helped you to think of new ideas you can implement to help more prospects move forward.

Keep in mind, the goal is still retainer-based relationships.

There is nothing better than a great relationship with a retainer-based client and the dependability of that income.

These discovery projects are meant to be the first (and easier) step for a prospect to take to foster that relationship.