Sell With Authority

Why does business development feel so much heavier than it did even a year ago?

Biz dev pipelines feel fragile. Opportunities stall unless the founder is in the room. New hires struggle to deliver results. And after a while, agency leaders start to wonder: "Is it just us?"

It's not you. It's distrust.

In this solocast, Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI, breaks down the first brick in The Trust Architecture™ — a 60-minute session called Help Me Understand.

It's a conversation designed to flip the script on new business by building trust at scale, long before you ever talk about solutions.

You'll hear:

• Why distrust — not "pipeline" — is the real barrier holding agencies back.
• The five core questions that form the spine of Help Me Understand (and the follow-ups that unlock candor).
• The five lessons that elevate this from "just discovery" to a trust-building experience.
• A real story of how one agency leader (we'll call her Sally) shared more vulnerability in five minutes than most prospects do in five months.
• The exact playbook: how to prep, open, guide, and close the session — plus the one recap email that cements clarity.
• The outcomes you can expect when you run this session with excellence.

When your prospects experience Help Me Understand, they don't just feel heard — they leave thinking, "If this agency runs their sales process this well, imagine how well they'll run my work."

Now's the time to double down, architect trust, and sell more of what you do.

• Why Distrust is Rising and What Agencies Can Do About It, with Hannah Roth
• Website: www.predictiveroi.com
• Visit our newly expanded Resource Library
• Join us in our free How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline Facebook Group
• Stephen's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Order your free paperback or Kindle copy of our Book: Sell with Authority

So many agency owners struggle with building a steady, profitable biz dev engine that doesn't leak time, energy, money — and most importantly — opportunity.

What if the biggest culprit isn't the volume of your outreach, the size of your list, or even your pitch?

What if the leaks are about something far more fundamental — understanding?

Working alongside agencies, we too often find their ideal client profiles aren't nearly as sharp as they think. Too often, ICPs are built on assumptions — not data. And when that happens, everything downstream starts to wobble.

Targeting documents look good on paper but break down in execution. Messaging is crafted around what sounds clever — instead of what prospects are actually saying. And thought leadership is positioned around belief — not proof.

If right-fit prospects don't hear their own words reflected back, in your voice, they won't lean in. They won't see you as the guide who "gets it."

But — when you do capture their exact language, when you listen deeply and build strategy from their voice instead of your assumptions — the whole biz dev game changes. Suddenly, you're speaking their dialect, and they can't help but lean in.

Agencies that guess at their ICPs — or only check in with clients once a year — are really building pipelines on hope. And as we know — hope is not a strategy.

Listening is.

That's why I'm thrilled to welcome back today's guest expert for an encore conversation. Ana Laskey, President and Founder of Ground Control Research joins to give us a deep dive into how agencies can stop guessing, listen deeply, and use both AI tools and human touch to extract critical client language that sharpens targeting, elevates your content, and builds a biz dev process that's a real engine — not just a random act of marketing.

If you're guessing at who your right-fit clients are, or if you're hoping content sticks when you toss it at the wall — this conversation is for you.

Ana's approach will help you stop shouting in a crowded arena — and instead, speak with such precision that your right-fit prospects say… "Finally. That's exactly what I need!"

• Why most agencies' ICPs are built on assumption — NOT data
• How to build an ICP so sharp that you attract right-fit clients on repeat
• How to use AI to spot the red threads in your client conversations — without losing the human touch
• Why it's vital to understand your buyer's company and the full "deal path" including secondary decision makers
• Ana's tips for open-ended, empathy-driven interviews
• How to turn client insights into marketing strategies that actually move the needle

• Website: www.groundcontrolresearch.com
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastassialaskey/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/groundcontrolresearch/
• Ana's Bio Page: https://ana.bio/
• How to Sharpen Your ICP, with Ana Laskey

Today's episode of Sell With Authority tackles a question that comes up almost every time I sit down with an agency owner:

Why does biz dev feel harder than it used to?

If your sales pipeline feels heavier, slower, or tougher to move than it did even a year ago — you're not imagining things.

Agency optimism has dropped from nearly three-quarters of leaders feeling confident about growth…to less than half. Two-thirds of agencies lost clients last year. And only 7% say they're effective at expanding with current clients.

Biz dev feels like a grind.

But here's the flip side: the agencies that are niching down, planting their flag of authority, and making data-fueled decisions — they're the ones finding traction and weathering the storm.

And that's where we focus our time and attention today.

My guest is Hannah Roth, our Director of Strategy here at Predictive ROI — and my soon-to-be business partner as she officially joins our ownership team this February. We call Hannah our "Mad Scientist" — because she spends days deep in tens of thousands of data points, analyzing sales pipelines, uncovering leaks, and spotting where the highest-probability opportunities are hiding.

Hannah is a data scientist — which means her insights aren't theory. They're backed by research, data, and real-world client work.

In this episode, she walks us through what she calls The State of Agency Biz Dev.

We cover:

-Why optimism has cratered and pipelines feel stalled – The unseen mistakes draining money from agency biz dev – Patterns that separate struggling generalists from thriving niche leaders – Shifting from chasing leads to attracting right-fit clients

If you apply what Hannah shares, you'll see where the market really is — and where your next opportunities are waiting.

• Why agency optimism about growth has cratered — and what the data actually says about why
• Money-draining mistakes to root out now before they cost you next quarter's revenue
• How "trust" has become as valuable as your service — and 66% of you don't have a strategy for it — yikes!
• Habits that separate agencies thriving in a storm from those that get "stuck"
• How leveraging first-party data creates your very own lab
• Why "failed" experiments can build trust and authority
• How your sales process might be secretly sabotaging your biz dev efforts

Resources:

• THE STRATEGIC ENGAGEMENT INDEX: https://theexpressory.com/engagementindex
• The 2025 State of Marketing Report: https://www.hubspot.com/state-of-marketing
• Agency Core: https://audienceaudit.com/agency-core/
• Website: www.predictiveroi.com
• Visit our newly expanded Resource Library
• Join us in our free How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline Facebook Group
• Hannah's LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-roth-387a6b223/

What if business development for your agency didn't feel like chasing?

Or pitching?

Or trying to convince someone to say yes?

What if instead — you had a process of building trust so strong that your prospects convinced themselves?

That's what this solocast is all about.

In this episode, Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI, unpacks our three-part "Trust Architecture" that our team uses to help prospective clients move from curiosity to YES — without pitching, pressuring, or posturing.

What you will learn in this episode:

• Why most sales processes fall flat (hint: it's not the pitch — it's the posture)
• How to structure a "Help Me Understand" session that builds immediate trust
• What diagnostic tools, like "The Focus Finder," do to create clarity and urgency
• How to turn your Meet & Greet into a confidence catalyst — not just a formality
• What you can install today to build your own trust-driven biz dev process

• Website: www.predictiveroi.com
• Visit our newly expanded Resource Library
• Join us in our free How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline Facebook Group
• Stephen's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Order your free paperback or Kindle copy of our Book: Sell with Authority

Is your team producing solid content… nurturing leads… showing up consistently in all the right ways — but your sales pipeline still feels like a big pile of question marks?

If selling feels harder than it should, the problem might not be your effort — it could be your leverage.

You don't need another tool. Or another platform.

Or another shiny object promising quick wins.

What you need is a multiplier.

Something that helps you multiply the reach of your smarts without burning out your team, attracts higher-quality leads without blowing your budget — and packages your expertise in a way that makes your right-fit prospects say YES!

That's exactly what today's episode is all about.

We pull back the curtain on how real agencies are using AI to sell more of what they do.

Our guest, Lucas Petty, isn't just another AI guy.

Yes, he knows the tech. But more importantly — he knows how to make it pay off inside an agency.

Lucas is the Founder of AI Daddy — a firm helping agency owners streamline ops, eliminate bottlenecks, and grow more profitably using AI.

Also joining today is our very own Director of Strategy, Hannah Roth. Hannah is in the trenches every day with our clients — helping them sell more of what they do and future-proof their pipelines. She also leads our AI strategy inside the Predictive Lab.

If you've ever wondered how AI fits into your agency's biz dev engine — you're in the right spot.

• Why tool overload keeps agencies stuck — and how to break the cycle
• A framework for identifying true agency bottlenecks
• A candid, step-by-step approach to getting your team to ACTUALLY adopt AI — without the fear and resistance
• How to map agency processes to spot where every single friction point — and missed opportunity — actually lives
• Steps to move from overwhelmed to PRODUCTIVE if you feel behind on AI

• Website: https://www.aidaddy.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/lucapetty/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/aidaddy/
• TikTok: https://www.tiktok.com/@aidaddy.com

Before I introduce you to our very special guest expert today, I want to ask you a question. I encourage you to give it some real, thoughtful consideration.

What if the real reason your agency's sales pipeline feels stalled has nothing to do with lead flow, your niche, or your team?

What if you're not actually missing content?

You're not missing knocks on the door.

You're not missing invitations to the right room at the right time — or any of the other usual suspects we tend to blame.

What if you're really missing momentum?

When momentum is on your side, effort feels effortless. Right-fit prospects seem to appear out of nowhere. Your proposals move forward. Your team operates like a single unit. You speak — and your audience leans in.

But — when momentum is gone — everything feels heavy. Wins don't stack on each other. Confidence fades. Right-fit prospects ghost you after receiving a proposal. The pressure to fix it fast makes you want to chase prospects — which feels like a whole lot of not awesome.

Here's the good news — momentum isn't magic.

It's measurable. It's repeatable.

That's exactly what we unpack in today's episode.

There's no better person to guide us through this conversation than our guest today, Don Yaeger. Don is one of the world's leading authorities on greatness, leadership, and momentum. He's the author of 35 books, including 12 New York Times bestsellers.

Most recently — alongside retired U.S. Army General Bernie Banks — Don has co-authored The New Science of Momentum — a book that answers one of the most pressing questions agency owners and their teams are facing right now:

How do you create momentum when it's missing?

That's where we focus our time and energy for this episode — how to find the spark.

And — how to turn that spark into sustained, unstoppable momentum that can change everything for you and your team.

• Why momentum — not leads, content, or invitations — could be the missing link in your agency's growth engine
• How to create the "spark" that shifts your team from stalled to unstoppable
• Why strong leadership must shape your agency's culture
• How to train your team to recognize and respond to opportunity
• Steps to reverse lost momentum when confidence dips — and how feedback loops set winning teams apart

• Website: https://donyaeger.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/donyaeger/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/greatness-inc/
• The New Science of Momentum

Before we dive into today's episode of Sell With Authority, I want to make sure you know about our July Intensive.

Every March, July, and November we gather our Predictive ROI clients together for a 2-day event we call the Intensive. It's a private, client-only event — but we always hold a few guest seats open.

Our July Intensive is happening Wednesday and Thursday, July 30th and 31st, from 8:30 a.m. to 12 noon Central — and it's 100% virtual over Zoom.

The focus?

Helping you fill your sales pipeline so you can sell more of what you do.

Turning our attention to this episode — my guest expert and I mapped out what we wanted to cover. We thought about how to structure this episode as a strategic prelude to the Intensive.

We're unpacking core pillars we'll be teaching — including what it means to build your right-fit prospect map and how to run sales calls that create real momentum.

That guest expert is our very own Director of Strategy Hannah Roth. Hannah is a data scientist by trade, and she runs point on helping our clients sell more of what they do.

Now's the time to double down on a strategy that isn't just about new leads — but about future-proofing your agency through relationships you've already built.

• The biggest missed sales opportunities most agencies overlook
• How a right-fit prospect map changes the game
• The cause-and-effect of focusing biz dev on new prospects vs. current or past clients
• Simple but powerful tactics to turn lost deals and past clients into new revenue streams
• Why "by name" — not guesswork — matters
• How to fix common money-draining mistakes that kill your sales pipeline
• The role of trust and distrust in today's market — and why nurturing your orbit matters more than ever
• How to confidently open doors with tactics that don't feel "salesy"
• How you can join the July Intensive as our FREE guest

Resources:

• Website: www.predictiveroi.com
• Visit our newly expanded Resource Library
• Join us in our free How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline Facebook Group
• Hannah's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/hannah-roth-387a6b223/
• Order your free paperback or Kindle copy of our Book: Sell with Authority

For this episode of Sell With Authority, we're doing something a little different — and I'm excited to share it with you.

In a recent conversation I had with Jason Swenk on his podcast Smart Agency Masterclass we got laser-focused on some things that are critical if you want to sell more of what you do — at a premium price — to right-fit clients.

We dig into why being ridiculously specific about who you serve is the not-so-secret weapon behind a scalable agency.

Also, we unpack the power of developing a true methodology — something that doesn't just sound good on a pitch deck, but actually showcases your smarts, removes friction in the sales process, and positions your team in the blue ocean, not the red.

We talk through how to sell without selling — how a softer approach to biz dev can actually lead to big wins, without the yucky "hard close" tactics.

We get real about what's actually working for agencies right now. It's not AI shortcuts, or shouting into the void.

It's clarity.

It's generosity.

It's building a system that reflects your smarts — and delivers client value on Day One.

• Why you should be ridiculously specific
• How to finally niche with clarity
• How agencies can teach generously and still win more right-fit clients
• Why developing and documenting your own methodology is non-negotiable for scaling — or selling — your agency
• What "eating your own dog food" really means in today's credibility-driven market
• How to create content that whispers instead of shouts — and actually converts

• Website: www.predictiveroi.com
• Visit our newly expanded Resource Library
• Join us in our free How to Fill Your Sales Pipeline Facebook Group
• Stephen's LinkedIn: www.linkedin.com/in/stephenwoessner/
• Order your free paperback or Kindle copy of our Book: Sell with Authority

For this episode of Sell With Authority we're zeroing in on something every agency needs — trust at scale.

Not vanity metrics. Not louder messaging in an already crowded feed.

Real credibility — earned in public — where your right-fit clients are watching, judging, and deciding whether you're the expert worth hiring.

The noise isn't going away. And if you've been putting in the work — creating content, showing up on the right channels, following all the authority-building advice — but your pipeline still feels sluggish or unpredictable, you might be stuck in what we call "yelling in a crowded arena."

And that's exactly why today's conversation matters.

According to Edelman's 2025 Trust Barometer, nearly 70% of buyers say they've made a purchasing decision based on what they saw in public forums — reviews, comments, even how companies respond.

Your agency's reputation, and your clients' reputations, are being shaped long before any discovery call gets booked. Your authority position isn't just your content — it's how you show up in conversations that are already happening online.

What if you could help your agency — and your right-fit clients — show up more consistently, more authentically, and with more trust, without burning out your team?

That's why I'm excited to introduce today's guest George Swetlitz, co-founder of RightResponse AI.

George isn't just another SaaS founder chasing trends. He knows how to lead teams, implement systems, and grow by solving real problems — repeatably.

His mission now is giving agencies a way to scale review response, build trust across platforms, and mine authentic insight — all without sacrificing the human touch.

If you're looking for a smarter way to earn authority…

If you want to build trust before that first meeting is even on the calendar…

And if you're curious how AI can actually help you do more with less — this conversation with George is one you don't want to miss.

• Why your authority position is decided before you ever get a meeting
• The moment when reviews and responses become the "make or break" for customer conversion
• A behind-the-scenes look at big AI vs. little AI
• How reviews, competitor analysis, and the "recency effect" can future-proof your authority in pitches and client retention
• Quantitative strategies to use reviews as data
• Why your website isn't the center of your reputation universe
• How to step into a sales pitch armed with hard data about a prospective client's competitive landscape

• Website: https://www.rightresponseai.com/
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/george-swetlitz-7b43812/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/rightresponse-inc/

Have you and your team started putting in the work to go narrow — made the commitment to niche down because that's where the gold is?

You've updated your positioning. Your message is feeling more dialed in than ever. And maybe you've even started saying "no" to wrong-fit clients. Awesome!

But — your sales pipeline still feels a little unpredictable. Or, you're doing all the right things but your content isn't converting — and your ICP, or Ideal Client Profile, feels just out of reach.

If that hits too close to home — this episode of Sell With Authority is going to be super helpful.

My guest expert is Ana Laskey, data-driven Founder and President of Ground Control Research. Ana's mission is to help agencies build better, more accurate ICPs by grounding them in real buyer intelligence.

When your ICP is off — even just a little — everything downstream in your biz dev process suffers.

That's what Ana and I slice apart — her smarts on how to fix your ICP so you can raise the bar of excellence.

Whether you're just starting to niche down or you've been in your lane for years — this episode challenges and inspires you to revisit your ICP — and walk away with fresh ideas for how to make it sharper, more grounded — and sell more of what you.

• Why most agencies' ICPs are built on hope instead of data
• The "defined and validated" ICP approach
• The real math to prove why niching down is never too narrow
• A simple framework to validate your agency's ICP through client conversations
• How to use AI tools to analyze client calls, extract real language, and sharpen your targeting
• Why ongoing customer listening can become your most reliable biz dev engine

• Website: www.groundcontrolresearch.com
• LinkedIn Personal: https://www.linkedin.com/in/anastassialaskey/
• LinkedIn Business: https://www.linkedin.com/company/groundcontrolresearch/
• Ana's Bio Page: https://ana.bio/