Smart Agency Masterclass with Jason Swenk: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies

In this episode, we'll cover the 7 deadly sins that agency owners commit in their own marketing, and how to quit sinning and start winning new business.

This week on the The Smart Agency Master Class I talk with my friend Diane Young, co-founder of The Drum which is Europe's leading marketing news platform, and recently has made it's way to the US. Diane has spent over a decade observing and interviewing agencies. And in that time she's been able to pinpoint 7 things that agencies do to themselves to negatively impact their own growth.

Diane shares the 7 Deadly Sins for Agency Marketing. Find out if you're committing them and what you can do to stop before it's too late!

[clickToTweet tweet="These are the 7 Deadly Sins #Agencies Are Committing. Are You Guilty of Any?" quote="These are the 7 Deadly Sins Agencies Are Committing. Are You Guilty of Any?"]

7 Deadly Sins of Agency Marketing

So what are the 7 deadly sins of agency marketing you need to avoid to elevate your marketing strategy? Let's break them down..

1. Lack of unique selling proposition.

   Agencies often either the lack a USP or lack the expression of it. So many agencies aren't telling the story about why they're different. What does your agency do better than anyone else? That's what you need to communicate. Being a 'me too' agency or trying to service everyone is actually a doing a disservice to your business.

2. Lack of vision.

   Where's your agency going? What's your end-game? Your clients and your team want to be part of the amazing journey your on. However, you've got to identify and communicate where you're going so they can get excited about joining you. If you have destination, it's much easier to get where you're going.

3. Lack of commitment.

   A lot of agency owners don't fully commit to marketing their agency. They can't or won't put themselves out there - this is especially true of digital agency owners who are more technical and usually avoid networking and personal connections. Avoid committing this sin by going out of your comfort zone and putting yourself out there. No one knows how awesome your agency is better than you!

4. Lack of inertia.

   Often agency marketing takes a backseat to clients. And yes, clients do come first. But they can't first, middle and last. Be sure agency marketing is somewhere on the priority list. You can do this by having a dedicated person or setting aside dedicated time to market. Also, adopt the motto: "done is better than perfect." Agonizing over the perfect post, the perfect video, the perfect…. Anything, somehow goes from being an obsession to being an excuse. Don't let it happen. Action leads to transactions.

5. Overselling or over claiming.

   This one's a doozy. An agency that claims to be the best, first, biggest, fastest, most award-winning is full of it and a prospective client's BS meter is going to pick up on it. Don't make claims if you can't state a source. You don't have to the best, fastest, most award-winning if you can simply own a specific skill in a specific niche and use your expertise to establish yourself as an authority. Be true and convincing in your agency marketing.

6. Disinterest or isolation.

   Agency owners, specifically digital agency owners are sometimes so focused on the technical side of their work they forget to spend time in the world around them. Some don't see the value in getting out from behind their computers, meeting people face to face and learning more about others' experiences. Professional networking groups like The Drum Network are great for gaining an understanding of what others are doing. When you let your guard down and start sharing your experiences with other agency owners you'll be able to help each other build and grow, just like this agency that doubled their business in 6 months just by networking!

7. Lack of insight.

   It's hard to detach yourself and see things objectively. The sin some agency owners commit is being too shortsighted to recognize their business' strengths and weakness. You can avoid this by seeking out a third party perspective. Gain valuable insight by researching and understanding what you're aren't doing well. Then you can concentrate on getting better at it.

Bottom line, in a wide sea of agencies you've got to find your way to stand out. Have a unique selling proposition and a vision for where you're headed. Then, commit to taking action and pushing yourself out of your comfort zone to get it done. And remember not to commit the 7 deadly sins.

Agency Tools You Need to Check Out...

There's a couple pretty fantastic tools that all agency owners need to check out with some amazing deals just for Smart Agency Master Class listeners...

Cashflow or bookkeeping issues? FreshBooks is the solution. FreshBooks makes ridiculously easy­ to ­use cloud accounting software for agencies that will help you work smarter, become more organized, and most importantly, get you paid quickly.

Check out FreshBooks.com/SmartAgency and enter SMARTAGENCY in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section for a FREE 30-day, unrestricted trial.

Klipfolio is a tool that is helping agencies continuously monitor and report analytics. It's cloud-based software allows you to define KPI's based on your preferences and filters. With 50+ built-in marketing metrics, you can create a dashboard for yourself and your clients which can be viewed on desktop, mobile or old-fashioned PDF.

For a limited time, Klipfolio has a special deal for my listeners. Get a FREE TRIAL and an amazing offer just for The Smart Agency Master Class listeners at Klipfolio.com/SmartAgency.

What Do You Do When You Have Your Ideal Clients?

Being aware of the 7 deadly sins of agency marketing can help you elevate your marketing strategy and bring your digital agency to the next level within the industry but why stop there? Through evaluating other areas of weakness within your agency, you can create a better business and improve as an agency owner. And I can help you get through all of it.

I have provided many successful agency owner with support and advice on many topics from what to do when you want to speed up sales processes, ways to increase your business profit margins or how you can build an authority for your agency.

Growing pains within an agency can be a major struggle and I can show you how to identify the different phases of agency growth, why placing a solid process for performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy and what the three questions you need to ask yourself are for you to sell more!

Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

Find more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

Discover the pros and cons of a merger with an agency that has complimentary services. Determine if you are competitively priced in your market, and is it possible to scale a creative agency?

{1:35} Rikki asked: "We are a digital marketing agency considering merging with a design and development agency. We think this will be a good move because the services are very complimentary. What are the pros and cons?"

{6:03} Imani asked: "How do you know if you are competitively priced? I thought about getting proposals from my competitors for the type businesses that I would like to work with... should I?"

{9:29} Peter asked: "How do you scale a creative agency ? Can it even be scaled? Some say agencies, in general, cannot be scaled."

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What's Next After a Merger?

If you have more questions, I can help. Whether you have been an agency owner for some time or have just taken the leap and started a new agency, I have covered topics including bringing in big clients for your agency to leverage the use of Youtube for your agency marketing strategy.

Check out all my tips, tricks and everything you need to know in my blogs. I have covered a wide variety of topics as well as answering your questions in more from my Ask Swenk series.

Are videos more your thing? You can check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

Building the Best Sales Team to Grow Your Agency

Want to know what you need to do to build the best sales team to grow your agency and bring in new clients? Looking for a new cold call strategy? I've got all you need to know.

In this episode, we'll cover:

• Understanding and overcoming common sales team problems.
• A NO FAIL cold call strategy for agencies.
• Building the best sales team: finding, hiring, managing, and paying them.
• #1 tip for crushing your sales goals.

My guest on today's show is Wes Schaeffer, The Sales Whisperer. Wes spent a decade in the Air Force and another in commissioned sales before starting his business as a sales coach and trainer. He shares some great tips for cold calling, as well as strategies for hiring and managing great sales people. His advice is totally practical and will help you develop a killer sales outbound strategy.

Common Sales Team Problems

Wes says most salespeople don't fully understand the value of the resources and expertise they bring to the table. This causes 2 major issues:

1. Discounting prices - Salespeople undervalue the service they represent and are therefore willing to discount the sale price. Doing this conveys a bargain mentality and undercuts the agency's level of authority, which also destroys the client's confidence.
2. Talking too much - Similarly, salespeople who undervalue their agency also end up overcompensating by talking too much, instead of listening. If you're talking instead of listening you aren't hearing the needs of your prospect. You can't fix problems if you aren't hearing them.

Wes used the example of a heart surgeon: The surgeon is selling heart surgery but he doesn't have all the answers, he is connected to a team and has confidence that together they can solve the problem. He has confidence in his team of MRI techs, anesthesiologists, etc. He knows he is connected to all the right people to solve his patients' problems.

The solution for the best sales team for your agency: Sell on the fact that you are connected to all the best people in the industry. Be confident in the value that you represent and the fact that your team can solve the challenges and problems your clients face. Talk the talk and walk the walk. Be the best sales team out there.

A No-Fail Cold Call Strategy for Agencies

People say the old-school cold call is dead but Wes says in B2B, it's still alive and well. For a successful cold call, you need to find a common connection or mutual relationship - someone or something they know or heard of - then use that as your opening.

Define your dream 100 list and go for it. If you can't find mutual interest to get a foot in the door, you will have to go old school which can be hard in our technology driven society, BUT...

[clickToTweet tweet="Don't let your prospect hide behind voicemail, caller ID and email with this strategy." quote="Don't let your prospect hide behind voicemail, caller ID and email with this strategy."]

You'll get the best response from a multi-media, multi-touch approach and circle them like a shark.

Develop a nurture series of reaching them via email, voicemail and social media, such as LinkedIn or other industry social communities.

Do your homework first.

Know WHO you're talking to, WHAT they're doing and HOW they're doing it. In your multi-media messages cite case studies and specific examples of what you understand their challenges to be and how you are equipped to solve them.

Create a series of messages (voice, social and email) that are on-point and provide specific information. These can be scripted and follow a template, but you must customize them for this specific prospect. No one wants to hear a generic speech or receive a form letter. Say things like: "I'll call you at 10AM on Tuesday" then actually follow-up on at that exact day/time.

Using this strategy you will prove that you are unique, thorough, consistent, creative and professional… a refreshing change from the usual cold calls they get.

Do's and Don'ts for a great initial call:

• Don't hit them over the head with everything your agency has done and can do. Listen to what they need and determine how you can help meet those needs.
• Do be calm and collected. Speak as though you are talking to your friend or neighbor, not like you're speaking to someone who's about to hang up on you :)
• Don't bombard them with a bunch of stats and facts about you. Initial calls aren't about you - they're about them.
• Do more listening than talking. This is the best way to understand their issues and figure out how your can help solve them. Remember, whoever talks the most loses.
• Don't insult. If you looked at their site and think it's crappy, keep it to yourself. No good can come when your prospect is immediately put on the defensive.
• Do compliment their current digital advertising. Tell them how great their site is and comment on how well it must be performing. Let them tell you what's not working.

Finding, Hiring & Paying Great Salespeople

Always, always be recruiting. Don't just look for great sales people when you have the need but focus on building the best sales team for your agency. Keep your eyes open and notice great skill when you see it. Just like college football recruiters, make room for an all-star even if you aren't in need of one at the time.

To find exactly the right candidate, write an ad with some specific instructions on how to apply. This weeds out the people who can't follow direction. To further screen people, put them through a really rigorous process and see how much they push back, even respond to their interview answers with "that was a terrible response" just to see if they'll take it or defend themselves. Little things like this can give you real insight into their personality type.

When hiring salespeople be clear on duties, expectations and how you'll measure success. In general, a salesperson should prospect, qualify and build relationships but the agency owner is the best closer.

#1 Tips for Crushing Sales Goals

Wes's best advice is to manage activity and pay on results.

He says to start by breaking down the numbers. Know your annual sales goal and back out what that means monthly, weekly and daily. Also, track and measure your pipeline in 5-6 stages and know how many prospects you need in each stage to stay on target.

Manage sales activity by knowing how many prospects are in each stage of the pipeline at all times. Pay your sales team based on actual conversions. For an example Account Manager commission structure, check out my #AskSwenk advice here.

Agency Tools You Need to Check Out...

There's a couple pretty fantastic tools that all agency owners need to check out with some amazing deals just for Smart Agency Master Class listeners...

Klipfolio is a tool that is helping agencies continuously monitor and report analytics. It's cloud-based software allows you to define KPI's based on your preferences and filters. With 50+ built-in marketing metrics, you can create a dashboard for yourself and your clients which can be viewed on desktop, mobile or old-fashioned PDF.

For a limited time, Klipfolio has a special deal for my listeners. Get a FREE TRIAL and an amazing offer just for The Smart Agency Master Class listeners at Klipfolio.com/SmartAgency.

Cashflow or bookkeeping issues? FreshBooks is the solution. FreshBooks makes ridiculously easy­ to ­use cloud accounting software for agencies that will help you work smarter, become more organized, and most importantly, get you paid quickly.

Check out FreshBooks.com/SmartAgency and enter SMARTAGENCY in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section for a FREE 30-day, unrestricted trial.

What Are Your Agency Concerns?

So we've covered how you can build the best sales team for your agency but these might not be the only concerns you have for your business.

It doesn't matter if you have been an agency owner for a while now or have just taken the leap and started a new agency, I have covered topics from the struggles you may face within your agency to leveraging Youtube in your marketing for your agency marketing strategy.

Learn more about me or you can check out all my tips, tricks and everything you need to know in my blogs. I have covered a wide variety of topics as well as answering your questions in more from my Ask Swenk series.

Are videos more your thing? Don't worry! You can check out my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel for advice from myself and other agency experts.

Facing Challenges as a New Agency Owner?

Answers to some great questions from a new agency owner about starting and growing an agency still in it's infancy stage. We'll cover everything from knowing when and how to hire, to generating leads and setting up all the right systems when you are still a very small agency.

Gillian asks...

{1:50} "Right now I'm doing everything (lead generation, sales, project management, design, development, etc). How big should I get before I start hiring, and what are the first steps I need to take to replace myself?"

{6:20} "I'm primarily a developer and I don't have as much experience in sales or lead generation. Do I need to reach some level of competency in these areas before taking the plunge, or should I "fake it 'til I make it"?"

{8:46} "You talk a lot about having set up the right systems in place, and it's fascinating to hear you talk about roles of the CEO, sales people, etc. but what kind of systems do I need to have in place right now as I get started? How far ahead should I be looking?"

Tired of Being Restricted in the Career Path You're On?

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Want to read more about how you can improve your agency and yourself as an agency owner? You can read our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my Youtube channel!

If one of your goals for your agency this year is to have doubled business and client numbers, this is the advice you need.

In this episode we'll cover:

• How one agency doubled business in just six months by giving work to other agencies.
• Building a network and being a trusted client resource.
• Why you should join a mastermind group to help you grow.

My guest today, Ian Garlic is one of very few two-time guests on The Smart Agency Master Class. He's the owner of authenticWEB, which he founded 8 year ago. You might also know him from my "I Will Never Do This" Agency Pledge video as the naked ukulele guy. (Don't worry, he's not actually naked :) ) In this interview, Ian shares how his agency business doubled in 6 months… check it out.

How to Achieve Doubled Business: Not All Competition Is Bad

I don't know about you but when I owned my agency I was always very guarded about who and what we were working on. I would never have even considered working with other agencies, let alone idea sharing with them and especially when I wanted to work towards doubled business for my agency.

Ian says he comes from a place of abundance and believes there's enough work to go around. So share and share alike… Easier said than done though, right? It's our natural instinct to seek and destroy. But….

[clickToTweet tweet="This is how one agency DOUBLED business in just SIX MONTHS!" quote="This is how one agency DOUBLED business in just SIX MONTHS!"]

3 Steps to Growing A Referral Network

If you want replicate the steps that Ian took to double his business here's what you need to do:

1. Change your mindset. Agency ownership can be very lonely. No one really 'gets it' besides other agency owners. If you look at them as part of your agency family instead of the competition it will open you up to a ton more opportunities.
2. Specialize. You can't be awesome at all things, so pick one and rock it. You can build a reputation for being the best in a specific area, and when another agency needs that specialty you'll be the one they call.
3. Do favors without expectation. As you meet other agency owners, build relationships and get to know their areas of expertise. Naturally, you'll be able to refer your clients to other agencies when their services are needed. Over time, these relationships will evolve into a referral network.

I know what you're thinking…

You're skeptical because you think most other agencies will try to steal your clients out from under you. I get it.

Ian said it best, "If someone can steal your clients you're not doing a good enough job servicing them."

Be Your Client's Most Valuable Resource

Your clients trust you. They rely on to bring awesome ideas to the table - even if you aren't the one to execute them. Use your agency network to connect the dots and get things done for them. When you refer your clients to other agencies that specialize in an area you don't, you're proving that you are connected in the industry and they'll view you as a valuable resource.

The Benefit of Masterminds

Ian credits his involvement in mastermind groups for a lot of his agency's success. He's actively involved in 3 different groups right now. He says the idea sharing and accountability are crucial to growing and scaling.

Ian says even if you have the best team ever, you still need a peer group to keep you in check. Mastermind members are great for:

• A different perspective and help you see things differently.
• Giving you crap when you don't follow-through.
• Advice and the benefit of a similar experience.

In fact, Ian and I have been working together for a while. We both have benefitted from mastermind groups for various aspects of our business and have decided to develop one strictly for agency owners.

Digital Agency Elite is a group of agency owners with the common goal of idea sharing to grow and scale their agency. The group meets monthly by phone and in person quarterly, the day before various marketing conferences around the country.

If you think this format of mastermind is right for you, check out Digital Agency Elite to learn more and apply. We are only selecting successful agency owners who are committed to everyone's mutual benefit will be accepted.

Agency Tools You Need to Check Out...

There's a couple of pretty fantastic tools that all agency owners need to check out with some amazing deals just for Smart Agency Master Class listeners...

Cashflow or bookkeeping issues? FreshBooks is the solution. FreshBooks makes ridiculously easy­ to ­use cloud accounting software for agencies that will help you work smarter, become more organized, and most importantly, get you paid quickly.

Check out FreshBooks.com/SmartAgency and enter SMARTAGENCY in the "How Did You Hear About Us?" section for a FREE 30-day, unrestricted trial.

Klipfolio is a tool that is helping agencies continuously monitor and report analytics. It's cloud-based software allows you to define KPI's based on your preferences and filters. With 50+ built-in marketing metrics, you can create a dashboard for yourself and your clients which can be viewed on desktop, mobile or old-fashioned PDF.

For a limited time, Klipfolio has a special deal for my listeners. Get a FREE TRIAL and an amazing offer just for The Smart Agency Master Class listeners at Klipfolio.com/SmartAgency.

Whether you are starting an agency or you're an established agency that has potentially hit a plateau, finding the best team especially your sales team is important. In this episode of Ask Swenk, I discuss everything you need to know about finding, hiring, paying and managing great sales reps to CRUSH IT in your agency new business.

I talk about everything from skill criteria and previous experience to salary and commission.

{1:42} Ramzi asked: "I was wondering if you have any great strategies to get referrals from current clients?"

{4:15} Myles asked: "Should I let my full time staff freelance in their own time? If so, what measures do I need to put in place to protect myself and my business?"

{7:02} Blake asked: "I am a big fan of your content. I own a 6 man agency and we're going through that process right now. We're trying to build our following with video marketing but it's just tough getting started! Any advice you could share would be appreciated."

Discover the best Digital Agency Strategies today. Get Online Training to help you setup the right systems and strategies to help you grow faster.

Let Me Help You

I hope you found this episode of Ask Swenk helpful for your business but what are the other challenges you are facing in your agency? How can I help?

I have covered topics from facing failing economies and recessions or how a speaking opportunity can create business for your agency. Or maybe you want to know the four phases of growth within your agency and want extra help in taking your agency to the next level and sell your agency for a larger profit? I have all the information you need to help you through it.

You can learn more about my life and my experience as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

If videos are more your thing, don't worry, i've got you covered! You can check out more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

Many agencies make the mistake in believing they just need to report on their analytics rather than monitoring them consistently. I am going to explain why you need to monitor analytics in order to build your business.

In today's episode, we'll cover:

• What agencies are doing wrong with analytics reporting.
• 4 steps you need to improve client analytics.
• Ways to monitor analytics to grow your agency business.

My guest on today's episode is Mychelle Mollot from Klipfolio. She's got a background in engineering, analytics and marketing… which makes her perfect in her role as CMO for marketing analytics software. Mychelle talks to us about the major differences in reporting vs. monitoring analytics, plus ways you can use analytics to grow your agency.

In our 2016 Future Outlook of Digital Agencies, we reported that brands are hiring 85% of brands are selecting agencies based on their ability to report and react to analytics. Unfortunately most agencies believe they're being hired for their marketing and creativity.

That means there's a major disconnect between what clients want and what agencies deliver. Agencies are not meeting expectation in this area - but there's hope!

Reporting analytics isn't enough

Mychelle says a lot of agencies aren't reporting analytics to their clients. And if they are, it's a pretty generic monthly or quarterly overview that gets rolled up and presented in a neat little Powerpoint. That's the problem, though. It's a recap of what has already happened. If there's a change in numbers you might be able to explain why, but you can't do anything to correct it.

Instead, agencies should be establishing themselves as a valuable asset by bringing business growth ideas and strategies to the client when it's relevant.

1. Change your mindset to use data proactively.
2. Work with your client to identify the most important metric(s) for their business.
3. Monitor key metrics in the moment (daily or every 2-3 days).
4. Use real time data to proactively change strategy and impact the client's business.

Monitor analytics to grow your business Create new opportunities with existing clients.

By monitoring analytics you can leverage your knowledge of real time analytics to pitch new projects to your existing. If you see an area that needs improvement or a different direction the client should be take, present those opportunities to the client with the data.

Analyze your own metrics.

You're a digital agency but sometimes you're more like the shoeless cobbler. You can use real time analytics to monitor your agency's marketing. Just follow the 4 steps above and learn what's working and what's not. Tweak things proactively to impact your agency business.

Charge for analytics monitoring.

Agencies who provide analytics reporting usually do it as a built in service. However, if you are continuously monitoring activity there is potential to charge for this service. It can become cyclical this way… you charge to develop the work, you charge to monitor the progress and you charge for new projects that you discover through monitoring.

The KEY is understanding that monitoring is so much different than just reporting. The opportunities and growth potential is limitless.

Klipfolio is a tool that is helping agencies achieve continuous monitoring. It is cloud-based software that allows you to define KPI's based on your preferences and filters. With 50+ built-in marketing metrics, you can create a dashboard for yourself and your clients which can be viewed on desktop, mobile or old-fashioned PDF.

I've played around with Klipfolio and it's a pretty awesome tool that can give you an edge over your competition.

For a limited time, Klipfolio has a special deal for my listeners. Get a FREE TRIAL and an amazing offer just for The Smart Agency Master Class listeners at Klipfolio.com/SmartAgency.

Growing Your Agency

When you monitor analytics for your agency, it gives you a consistent view of the performance of your business. In order to create the best business possible, you need to look from the foundations up for any other areas you need to monitor. By evaluating other areas of weakness within your agency, you can create a better business and improve as an agency owner. And the best thing about it is, I can help you get through all of it.

I can give you support and advice on many topics from what to do when you want to speed up sales processes, ways to increase your business profit margins or how you can build an authority for your agency.

Growing your agency can be a major struggle for any agency owner and I can show you the different phases of growth you will experience, how placing a process for performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy for your business and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell more!

Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

Find more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.

The post Why Agencies Need to Monitor Analytics, Not Just Report Them appeared first on Smart Agency Masterclass: Podcast for Digital Marketing Agencies.

Whether you are starting an agency or you're an established agency that has potentially hit a plateau, finding the best team especially your sales team is important. In this episode of Ask Swenk, I discuss everything you need to know about finding, hiring, paying and managing great sales reps to CRUSH IT in your agency new business.

I talk about everything from skill criteria and previous experience to salary and commission.

Finding, Hiring, Paying & Managing Agency Sales Reps

{1:03} Simohammed asked: "I'm thinking of hiring a sales rep for my agency. I know it's good to make the salary based on the representative's performance but from your experiences do you give a small salary as a base if there is no performance or is it always based on performance like project commissions and percentages?"

{3:48} "What are other criteria that you look into a sales rep, besides being good in communication and a good sales person?"

{7:39} "Is it possible to look for people with an existing network or previous experience in the same field etc?"

Grow as a Business

I hope you found this information helpful in finding the best sales reps for your agency to bring in those bigger clients and achieve the business growth you aspire to.

If you are looking for advice on what you need to do as an agency owner or learn how to fast track growth for your agency, I can help.

On my website, I have a bank of tips, tricks and insights that as an agency owner, you might find helpful. Head on over to the blog section of my website where you can find everything you need covering a wide variety of topics. If videos are more your thing and you find the more beneficial, you can check out the videos on my Youtube channel!

Have you ever considered starting a podcast to connect with your customers and create an audience for yourself and your brand?

In this episode, we'll cover:

• 4 big reasons every agency should have a podcast.
• Common fears of podcasting and how to overcome them.
• Starting a podcast and building an audience of new business prospects.

I'm super psyched to have Pat Flynn as my guest on today's show. He's the successful guy behind Smart Passive Income - a major resource for entrepreneurs looking to scale their business. He's also the podcasting guru and is sharing tips with us about the benefits of podcasting, as well as how to get started - including ways to get over your fear of recording your own voice!

Pat got his start as an entrepreneur when he was laid off from the architecture industry in 2008. He started an online study program for architecture's LEED exam, called GreenExamAcademy.com and it took off. He learned a ton about quickly scaling an online business and over time turned that smart, passive income in another business… hence the name, Smart Passive Income :)

Pat says a HUGE way to nurture leads and establish a relationship is through podcasting.

4 BIG Reasons to Podcast

1. The podcasting space is less crowded. Stats vary but there's something like 5 million+ active blogs and only 500,000 active podcasts. Those are great odds! Podcasting is far less cluttered so you can find and reach your target audience.
2. Podcasts are evergreen. There's potential for exponential growth when these shows live out there forever. Pat has episodes from 2010 that are still getting downloaded six years later!
3. People are still discovering podcasts. Listenership is growing and by starting a podcast sooner than later you'll get in on the ground level. Listeners are downloading podcasts to listen to on the go: during their commute, working out, waiting in long lines, etc. When they find something they love, they're even binge-listening!
4. You'll gain credibility. You're trying to establish yourself as an authority with your audience. And when you interview expert guests you are also adding to your own credibility.

Another bonus? Content can be repurposed. You can turn an episode topic into a blog post or ebook, create a Slideshare or live event, even a lead magnet.

Getting Over Your Fears

Maybe you've been thinking of starting a podcast but you've got some hang ups about it. You're not alone. There are several common fears a lot of people face which hold them back from getting started. Here's how you can get over those fears...

"What if people can't find it?"

They will find it as long as you're specific in who you're targeting. People search for podcasts based on their interests, problems and focus. If you're searchable in one of those areas, they will find your podcast. It just takes a little time to build your audience so be patient and let it grow.

"What if I can't come up with show content?"

There's a couple different formats you can try out and see what sticks.

Invite expert guests on your show to be interviewed on a specific topic that interests your audience. People like: authors, prospects, existing customers, and forum owners make great guests. Interviews are a win-win because you get some great show content and the guest gets to promote their business, book, forum or area expertise.

Another popular show format is Q&A. Take common questions and record your answers, solution or advice. This is an awesome way to establish authority and credibility with your target audience.

"What if people don't like it?"

The key is to help your audience. Choose topics that are relevant and helpful to them. Don't guess what people want to know - research it online. Find out where your audience congregates online and see what problems, issues, or questions they are posting. Develop your show topics surrounding those issues and helping solve those problems. Don't sell right away, just help.

"How can I find my 'hosting' voice?"

Everyone feels the same way and you'll get over it in time. Pat says finding your voice is just trial and error. You'll get into a groove but in order for that to happen you have to start somewhere. Go back and listen to yourself, critique yourself and do better next time. Also, read the comments that follow your podcasts and make changes based on that feedback.

The best thing you can do is: be you. It's ok to look at other successful podcasters and model after them, but don't copy their style. Be authentic and your "hosting voice" will develop by itself.

"I don't understand the technology and equipment."

Pat says the technology has come a long way since he started in 2010. You just have to research and education yourself.

The thing about fear of something like this is that is a sign that you're about to do something that could be a really awesome game changer. So embrace the fear and psych yourself up for extreme awesomeness.

In fact, Pat offers a Podcasting Course which break down everything you need to know about getting started.

Starting a Podcast

To be successful in podcasting you've got to fully commit.

Tell yourself this is something you're doing and going to continue to do. Then stick to it.

It was December 2008 when Pat first decided he was going to start a podcast. It wasn't until July 2010 that he actually published his first episode. It took him a year and a half to get started?!?

Pat's best advice…. COMMIT. Just take action.

Building Your Audience

You absolutely have to specialize. Pick a niche and be super specific on who you're helping. When you try to serve everyone, you end up serving no one.

The more specific the better. In fact, when you upload your podcast to iTunes, Stitcher etc. you need to select a specific category in order to be searchable.

Specializing doesn't mean that you have to turn away other prospects. Pat used the example of a video agency that specializes in streaming video classes. The agency owner knew a lot about yoga, challenges, lingo, phrases, etc. and targeted just yoga instructors and studios. She focused her advertising on this niche and was wildly successful. With that success she was able to expand to cross fit gyms, pilates studios etc.

Also, be prepared to be super patient. In Pat's experience he says it takes a year or two to build a following and see real results. He stresses patience when you are trying to build a community of followers when starting a podcast. If you're putting yourself out there, word will spread but it doesn't happen overnight.

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Curious about selling your agency? In this episode of Ask Swenk, I cover how to determine your agency's current value and what you can do to increase it. I also take a real look at the process to eventually sell your agency and gain profit.

{0:48} Tim asked: "What is my digital agency worth if I sold it today?"

{4:10} Bree asked: "What does the process look like when you sell your agency?"

{7:32} Tony asked: "How can you increase your agency valuation?"

Tim asked: "What is my digital agency worth if I sold it today?"

The short answer is it's worth whatever someone will give you money for it, and whatever you're willing to take. The thing I want to debunk right now is if you can get over $5 million, that you'll get tons and tons of money, or get over a million. It doesn't matter on your gross. I know agencies that are over $10 million in revenue, and they're like at 4% profit, which is horrible. Your goal for a profit margin should be 40% and more than that. If it's not, you're doing something wrong. There's a lot of people doing something wrong, but the cool thing is, know there's something wrong, and you can make it darn change. Through doing this and making that change, you can focus on how your agency can gain profit. Right? I don't want to cuss.

To answer your question, to give you kind of a baseline, it's all about looking at the past three-year track record. As a possible acquirer wants to know is, they want to make sure you're going up. If you're going down, it's going to be like a fire sale. They're going to be like, "Well, we'll just acquire your assets, and we'll give you this amount of money, and that kind of stuff." You really want to look at has my revenue grown, and by what percentage year over year in order to figure that out. On a low end, it would be 15% gross every year. On a high end, it might be 50%. Then you also need to look at the profit. That's really where it is. Who cares if you're a $10 million agency. You should be making mad bank on the profit. Then you can base your margins ...

On a small side, I'll give you a low, and a small, just to give you some kind of range. If you were 15% gross, or growing every year for the past three years, at 15%, and then 15% profit, you'd probably have a 5x multiple on profit. If you were at $1 million profit, you would get 5 million valuation for your agency. That's not saying you're getting $5 million cash, that's just what they evaluate it at, and then you can go through all the other stuff that I'll cover in the next question.

On a high end, let's say you're at 40% on both ends, 40% growth, 40% margins, then it could be 11x. Let's say you were $1 million profit, then you would get $11 million valuation.

That's just a rule of thumb to give you kind of low, and the high, and then you can calculate if you really want to sell it or not. A lot of times, I tell people not to sell their agency, because a lot of agency owners, and tell me if I'm wrong, they go, "Well, the grass is greener on the other side. I want to go build this product." This was me. "I want to go build this product, because it's so much easier, and I don't have to do all the hard work, and deliver, and all that kind of stuff. What they find is that the grass is greener on the side you actually water. If you did actually want to do a product, you can actually use the agency as an incubator, or this kind of system that just keeps producing these amazing products and technologies. Keep the agency, since you're not getting the huge multiples that you would on a Saas company. Build up these amazing Saas companies, and then you're off to the races, right? You get the money that you want, if that's what you want. If you're doing it just for the money and to gain profit, you shouldn't be doing it.

Bree asked, "What does the process look like when you sell your agency?"

The first thing is is an acquirer is going to reach out to you and ask you a number of different questions. They're just trying to get a baseline to figure out, "Am I going to give you a letter of intent," which will basically give you an idea of what they evaluate your agency worth, and kind of a high level structure of a deal. Maybe I evaluate your agency a $5 million. I'll give you $1 million cash up front. The other $4 million will be tied up in equity, and earn out over time. Something like that.

You have to be happy with the letter of intent. If you're not happy with the letter of intent, you don't want to go to the due diligence phase, because it's going to be a waste of time. You want to kind of negotiate back and forth, be like, "How did you come up with that valuation?" That kind of stuff. The other thing I want to tell you is when you actually start going through an acquisition process, whatever the acquirer asks you, ask them back. A lot of people do not know that, and they do not ask the right questions. They're just so excited someone wants to give them a bag of money, they're like, "Cool!" Sometimes they're just prying to figure out what's your strategy, and who are some of your clients, so you've got to be careful.

One of the things that I would recommend you do is set up an escrow account, or have them set up and escrow account saying ... After the letter of intent. Let's say you agree on the million cash up front, and then $4 million over time in equity. What I would do is I would say, "Let's put 25/50,000 in escrow. If everything you've asked me so far is true, when you actually start going through everything, and you back out, we keep the escrow. If it does go through, then you get that money back." It just keeps a lot of the time-wasters at bay. You'll see if they're really serious.

After the letter of intent, and you start going through the due diligence phase, then they'll actually draft up kind of a term sheet. This is the legal document. This is telling you everything. What you're really looking for is cash up front. The one thing I'll tell you, be happy with the guaranteed cash. Expect kind of the earn-out, the equity, all that that it won't ever happen. If it happens, great. But I want you to be happy with the cash. A lot of people, they'll get a $5 million valuation, they'll sell their agency, but they only got like $100,000 in cash. Then they never see the other $4.9 million. It's happened to so many people. Be happy with the cash up front. You have to figure out why you're selling as well.

After the term sheet, then you're sold. Then you've got to figure out am I staying on with the acquirer? What do I need to do? Am I going to have a non-compete? All of that other stuff. Then you can actually celebrate, because congratulations, you just sold your agency. Now what? I struggled for two years trying to figure out what the heck am I going to do next? I was just lucky enough that a lot of you reached out for help, and I truly loved it.

Tony asked, "How can I increase my agency's valuation?"

Well, there's a number of different ways you can actually increase it. The first one is looking at your assets. What assets do you have? Assets could be your client contracts. You want to make sure you have long-term contracts, not clients can cancel at any time. If you're month to month, that's not good. You want it fully extended. Also, too, you want to make sure that you can transfer those agreements with just written notice, that you don't have to get their approval. A lot of acquisitions, agencies will be an asset purchase, meaning if someone wanted to buy you, you actually have to go to your clients, get them to sign off ... You being able to sell that contract to them. You want to put that in your contract now. Just chat with your lawyers on that. It's just a transferable contract with written notice. That's about it.

Then you want to make sure that you don't have too much revenue tied up in one or two accounts, right? If you lose that account, you're going to lose a ton of money, and you don't want that either. You've got to make sure.

The other thing is kind of the profit. You want to make sure you're charging enough, you're not over-delivering, and is actually kept at a minimum, because that increases your profit, so you can keep growing, keep going up and gain profit. They also want to make sure you have multiple channels for your business development, right? I always tell people that I work with, and this is what we had: inbound strategy, outbound strategy, and strategic partnership strategy. I'm not talking about you give me a referral, I'll give you a referral. It's more about who is my strategic partners, how can I align with them, how can I help them out, and move forward?

Other things are, you want to really have a good snapshot of all your KPIs, right? My profit. How much does it take to acquire a client? What's the lifetime value of the client? What's my burn rate? All of these, you want to make sure you have a really good understanding of it. We've all watched Shark Tank. It's one of my favorite shows. I love when an entrepreneur comes in there, and they're not prepared knowing their numbers. That's what you look like if they start asking you questions, and you take a while to get back to them. We had everything ready. When they asked us questions, we're like, "Boom! Boom! Boom, boom, boom, boom, boom." Just giving it to them. They knew we were prepared. We knew our stuff.

The other one is really, a lot of times, getting outside perspective. You want that outside perspective to see through the trees. That helped us increase our valuation, because when you're in it, running it every day, that's hard. If you want to set up an advisory group, or board of directors, work with me, hint, hint. I'm winking, if you can't see me. Gives you that outside perspective in order to really get to the next level.

Want to Know More About How You Can Gain Profit as an Agency and Become a Better Agency Owner!

If you want extra help in taking your agency to the next level and want to gain profit or become a better agency owner? You can find lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading our blogs that cover a wide variety of topics or if videos are more your thing, visit my Youtube channel!