Agency Blueprint

How can you create operational excellence in your agency? The truth is, if you don’t have operational efficiency, you’re going nowhere. Creating operational efficiency is possible; it’s partly about recognizing primary problems, letting go and letting your team, and having a way of measuring where success lies and adjusting to it.  

In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, I’m joined by Rob Sayles to discuss what it takes to create the ideal operational efficiency in an agency. Rob has more than 25 years of experience in the digital marketing industry. He’s taken agencies from startup to exit, built operational divisions within corporates, established working units in various countries, and created global centers of excellence, all focused on creativity, productivity, and profitability.  

Don’t miss this episode to learn the importance of leveraging your team's power to find solutions and avoid creating risks to the business's future.    

Key Questions:   

• [01:22] What is ideal operational efficiency in the concept of an agency?  
• [06:33] What do you think is at the core of many agencies' avoiding systemizing their business and implementing processes?  
• [08:40] What are the common places within an agency where you see the most inefficiency?  
• [20:27] What is one of the best ways to leverage the team to create continuous improvement within your systems and processes?  

What You’ll Discover:  

• [01:36] Ideal operational efficiency – having as high a margin as possible and producing high-quality service on time and budget.  
• [03:40] The massive outcomes of the benefits of operational efficiency for the leader, team, and clients.  
• [07:11] How ego and fear become a barrier to putting in an operating system and process of people working together.  
• [08:48] Understanding what causes fundamental inefficiencies of an agency and how to solve them.  
• [12:02] How to be proactive and find solutions to the existing problems and avoid creating risk to the future of the business.   
• [20:36] How to leverage the power of your team to create continuous improvement within your systems and processes.  
• [23:11] The importance of constantly taking steps into the unknown and having a way of measuring where success lies and adjusting to it.  
• [26:19] How to empower your team to make decisions and learn for themselves by removing yourself from every situation.  

Connect with Rob: 

• Website

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Are you in a place where your revenue has declined in the last 12-24 months, and you’re looking to have a recovery? Or maybe you want to recognize potential risk areas and how you can mitigate that risk.  

In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, I share the journey of a particular agency, how they handled a crisis, and how they recovered from their situation. I explain the systems and processes I helped them put together to manage the crisis, avoid going out of business, and get back to agency growth mode.  

Listen in to learn how to build strategies focusing on an agency’s short-term revenue needs and long-term revenue opportunities.   

Key Question:   

• [00:58] Are you going through a crisis and would like to know how you can approach recovery?  

What You’ll Discover: 

• [01:14] An example of an agency that went into full crisis mode, how they found themselves there, how they managed the situation. 
• [02:21] How to create space to avoid going out of business, get to a breakeven or profitable place, and be able to manage the situation.  
• [03:34] Have an audit to review where there’s room for adjustments to eliminate the easily eliminated expenses. 
• [04:45] How to adjust the agency’s focus by getting clear on the objectives and how exactly you’ll get there. 
• [06:35] Ways to market to your existing relationships to increase your chances of bringing in revenue when you have a longer sales cycle.  
• [08:38] The best strategy to build new relationships with brands you want to work with to position yourself and sell campaigns.  
• [12:17] The importance of investing enough into refining processes to eliminate wasting your team’s time. 
• [14:35] The actions to take to be able to manage growth, like recruiting to grow the team back. 
• [16:08] The importance of continuous improvement of processes through constant communication with the team.

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Profitability Accelerator Call - If you're looking to make a change today schedule your profitability accelerator call to define what is possible for your agency in the next 90 days.

How do you approach creating a plan to serve content to your leads in a nurturing way? When marketing, it’s against your prospect’s attention, so you need to understand the value they get by committing to your content.  

In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, I discuss how to strategically structure consumable content in the marketing and sales funnels. I explain the importance of always considering the level of commitment your content will take and where in the funnel each type of content belongs.  

Listen in to learn about questions to ask yourself to understand how your content will turn a prospect into a customer. 

Key Questions:   

• [01:40] How do you create content in a structured way that helps your prospects know you better? 
• [11:05] What do you serve content? What is the mechanism that you’re delivering it in? What is the time commitment it takes for someone to consume that type of content? 

What You’ll Discover: 

• [02:30] The importance of understanding the level of commitment it takes to consume the content you produce.  
• [03:58] The importance of delivering consumable content to increase your lead’s level of commitment.  
• [06:06] List the type of content you’re currently producing, think of the time commitment needed to consume, and the time needed to implement.  
• [07:35] Think about the stages of your marketing funnel and the types of content you’ll be serving.  
• [09:04] How to strategically serve different types of content from when a lead learns about your agency to when they sign the contract. 
• [11:05] Questions to ask yourself to understand how your content will turn a prospect into a customer.  
• [12:35] Always consider the level of commitment your content will take and then map that in your marketing and sales funnels.

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Profitability Accelerator Call - If you're looking to make a change today schedule your profitability accelerator call to define what is possible for your agency in the next 90 days.

Do you have a due diligence process in your agency to deal with rebrands and building new brands? As your agency grows, mistakes will happen eventually, and having a due diligence process in place will protect you from legal problems arising from trademark and intellectual property.  

In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, I’m joined by Fernando Dutra to discuss brand trademark considerations for creative agencies. Fernando is a strategic trademark attorney who combines his experience, management skills, and go-getter mentality to help ecstatic entrepreneurs and growing agencies learn what it means to develop and own a piece of intellectual property. 

Don’t miss this episode to learn how to use due diligence as a differentiator, the right time to hire a third party to do your due diligence, and more.  

Key Questions:   

• [01:26] Can you share a story about an agency you worked with where things did not turn out as planned?  
• [09:47] What kind of due diligence things should agencies be thinking about when it comes to rebrands and building new brands? 
• [13:24] Where in the process does an agency have to inject a system that allows them not to redo work? 

What You’ll Discover:  

• [01:36] Fernando shares a story about how things turned out badly for an agency due to lack of a proper process and timing. 
• [09:54] Things you need to do in your due diligence process when dealing with rebrands and building new brands.  
• [13:35] The importance of documenting your process in the conception phase and avoiding common staples in your creation.  
• [17:43] How to use due diligence as a differentiator so the client can incur the cost of the work.  
• [22:24] The reasons why hiring a third party to do due diligence for you is a good thing and part of growth.  
• [24:56] Fernando’s complimentary sample due diligence process for Agency Blueprint podcast listeners.  

Connect with Fernando: 

• Website
• LinkedIn
• Complimentary Gift

Free Copy of The Practical Agency Book.

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Profitability Accelerator Call - If you're looking to make a change today schedule your profitability accelerator call to define what is possible for your agency in the next 90 days.

Is your process easily accessible, and does it cater to everyone’s learning style? When is it too much process, and when have you overprocessed?  

In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, we discuss the qualities of a well-framed process and whether a process can be over-processed. We explain the importance of having a process that focuses on individuals’ preferred way of learning.  

Listen in to learn how to make process augmentation much faster and easier and give your team a reference point.  

Key Questions:   

• [01:19] What does a well-framed process look like?  
• [12:56] When is it too much process, and when have you overprocessed?  

What You’ll Discover: 

• [01:25] The qualities of a well-framed process and the importance of focusing on individuals’ preferred way of learning. 
• [06:40] Things you need to give your team access to a reference point so they don’t have to keep asking.  
• [10:06] How a step-by-step, well-documented SOP makes process augmentation much faster and easier.  
• [12:56] Why it’s difficult to overprocess due to people’s different learning styles and it also being an ever-evolving thing.

Free Copy of The Practical Agency Book.

Real Life Agency Success Stories

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Profitability Accelerator Call - If you're looking to make a change today schedule your profitability accelerator call to define what is possible for your agency in the next 90 days.

Is creating proposals the most time-consuming task in your agency? Do you feel like you need to change things up to make the process smoother and less time-consuming? 

In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, I’m joined by Joe Ardeeser to discuss all things agency proposals and how to improve your proposal processes. Joe is the Founder/CEO of Smart Pricing Table, an interactive B2B proposal software that allows you to create, distribute, and e-sign proposals with ease. 

Listen in to learn more about the power of giving customers options and having a proposal review meeting for an opportunity to sell the proposal. 

Key Questions:   

• [01:25] What are the biggest challenges agencies face when writing proposals, historically and in the current economy?  
• [02:48] What mistakes do you see agencies making when it comes to proposals? 
• [09:42] What’s your advice to an agency owner looking to shorten their proposal process? 
• [12:48] What would you suggest to an agency that feels they do everything differently every time to find the patterns and start their proposal process? 
• [20:35] What are your thoughts on the good, better, best model, and have you seen it done or tried it? 

What You’ll Discover:  

• [01:44] Why time is the biggest challenge for agencies when creating proposals.  
• [03:00] Mistakes to avoid overcomplicating your proposals, plus the importance of having a process for building proposals.  
• [05:57] How to avoid being too vague or too detailed in your proposal and instead keep it minimal for the client to decide. 
• [10:05] How to identify your patterns to improve your proposal processes without starting from scratch every time. 
• [13:41] How to look out for potential blind spots preventing you from identifying patterns to improve your proposal processes.  
• [15:56] How giving customers options can unlock agency and fill the future with surprises. 
• [20:47] How to make a simple good, better, best model hybrid with upsells/additional items for consideration.  
• [23:11] The importance of having a proposal review meeting for an opportunity to sell the proposal.  

Connect with Joe: 

• Website
• LinkedIn

Free Copy of The Practical Agency Book.

Real Life Agency Success Stories

Weekly agency tactics YouTube Channel

Profitability Accelerator Call - If you're looking to make a change today schedule your profitability accelerator call to define what is possible for your agency in the next 90 days.

Team Cultural Impacts 

What does culture look like in your agency? Cultural issues can significantly impact your growth because they touch on everyone, from leadership to team members.  

In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, we discuss the meaning of culture, why it’s important, and how to combat the negative things that exist in culture. We explain how culture can guide you in identifying those who belong, those who get along with others, and driving goals in your agency.  

Listen in to learn how to handle failure, care for your team, foster a communicative culture, and more.  

Key Questions:   

• [01:09] What is culture, and why is it important? 
• [04:50] What are some of the negative situations that exist in culture and how do you combat them?  
• [21:10] What is the best way to go about fostering an environment where failure is okay, yet you’re trying to have a successful agency?  

What You’ll Discover: 

• [01:22] We describe culture as the overall landscape and feeling embedded in the personality of the business. 
• [02:49] The importance of culture in guiding those who belong, those who get along with others, and driving goals.  
• [04:50] The lack of open-minded communication and how to foster the culture to be communicative.  
• [09:00] The importance of allowing every team member to highlight the problem they’re facing and include them in the solution.  
• [10:49] Team members wanting to avoid leadership and how to make information flow back and forth.  
• [14:35] The importance of understanding the level of decision-making the leadership have, plus how to care for your team.  
• [17:23] Why the company culture should be top-down, where you have everyone’s interest at heart.  
• [18:59] Understand that failure is an opportunity to grow to avoid creating a culture of fear in your business. 
• [21:22] The importance of understanding the rationale behind the decision that leads to failure to ensure it never happens again.

Free Copy of The Practical Agency Book.

Real Life Agency Success Stories

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Profitability Accelerator Call - If you're looking to make a change today schedule your profitability accelerator call to define what is possible for your agency in the next 90 days.

Did you know there are some automation things you can do to reduce menial work in your agency?  

In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, I explain how to leverage automation so you and your team can focus on adding value to your agency. I also explain how automation allows your team to focus more on where they should be providing value to the client and agency.  

Don’t miss the episode to learn how to use Zapier software integrations to remove administrative work, make your agency more accurate, and save yourself from tedious work.  

Key Questions:   

• [01:16] What menial work doesn’t feel valuable for you or your agency, and how can automation help you? 

What You’ll Discover: 

• [02:10] The importance of investing time into automation within your business to reduce workload and save time.  
• [04:28] Take an inventory of the different software you’re currently using and understand how you can integrate them to communicate. 
• [05:43] How to use Zapier automation and integration for client onboarding and sending out the first invoice. 
• [09:14] Other things you can do in Zapier integration to create an entire workflow in your agency.

Free Copy of The Practical Agency Book.

Real Life Agency Success Stories

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Profitability Accelerator Call - If you're looking to make a change today schedule your profitability accelerator call to define what is possible for your agency in the next 90 days.

What is the best lead gen and marketing tactic your agency needs to succeed? You’ll be surprised to find out there’s no silver bullet with marketing; any strategy can be successful with consistency. 

In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, I’m joined by Claire Hutchings to discuss the power of consistency in lead generation and marketing, plus what makes consistency challenging. Claire is an award-winning marketing consultant and founder of Chime Agency with 15 years of experience in agencies and consultancies of all shapes and sizes. She helps agencies and consultancies increase the volume of their marketing strategy and content. 

Listen in to learn more about how to approach budgeting and the importance of being authentic and intentional with your marketing.  

Key Questions:   

• [01:15] Do you agree that the best lead gen strategy for every agency is the one that they implement fully and do consistently?  
• [03:29] In your experience, why do you think consistency is difficult for agencies to establish?  
• [08:06] What’s your advice to someone who hasn’t been consistent on how to achieve consistency?  
• [16:40] What’s your advice around thinking and setting a budget aside? 

What You’ll Discover:  

• [01:43] Why the best marketing and lead gen tactic is being consistent and practicing what you preach. 
• [03:44] The structural and mindset reasons why marketing consistency is difficult for agencies to establish.   
• [08:20] How to gain consistency across your marketing by intentionally resourcing your marketing, setting a clear budget, and having a singular hero moment. 
• [14:01] The importance of being realistic and understanding that you need awareness before jumping to the bottom of the funnel.  
• [16:54] Claire explains how to approach budgeting for marketing, including people costs and investing.  
• [21:05] The importance of being authentic and intentional to make your marketing easier.  
• [23:18] Claire on her agency’s benchmark report and how it can help you with marketing and revenue growth.  

Connect with Claire: 

• LinkedIn

Free Copy of The Practical Agency Book.

Real Life Agency Success Stories

Weekly agency tactics YouTube Channel

Profitability Accelerator Call - If you're looking to make a change today schedule your profitability accelerator call to define what is possible for your agency in the next 90 days.

How do you develop a strategic hiring plan that allows you to stay ahead of the curve? Bringing on people and continually adding more team members when needed can be challenging, but things get a lot easier with the right plan.  

In this episode of The Agency Blueprint, we discuss how to develop a strategic hiring plan throughout your agency’s growth stages. We explain the information you need to utilize to guide your hiring decisions and factors to consider before hiring.  

Don’t miss the episode to learn more about the importance of having an appropriate resource plan and the time you need from hiring someone to them working fully on a project.  

Key Questions:   

• [01:40] What information do you need to guide your hiring decisions? 
• [08:15] Is there a baseline revenue number you need to be at before considering hiring?  
• [12:30] When should you start placing job posters to find qualified candidates?  

What You’ll Discover: 

• [01:53] The information you need to utilize to guide your hiring decisions, plus the importance of giving new hires time to adjust to the company culture.  
• [03:45] The importance of understanding your underutilized and utilized time across projects to plan your hiring. 
• [07:10] The importance of understanding the date of sign and the date of launch to ensure you have the right amount of training time.  
• [08:34] The agency stages you should consider before thinking about hiring and who to hire when you get there.  
• [12:48] Understanding the time you need from hiring someone to them working fully on a project.  
• [14:58] How to plan for an appropriate resource plan around hiring to make your business life easier.

Free Copy of The Practical Agency Book.

Real Life Agency Success Stories

Weekly agency tactics YouTube Channel

Profitability Accelerator Call - If you're looking to make a change today schedule your profitability accelerator call to define what is possible for your agency in the next 90 days.