In a tight market, sales become a big concern. Relying on repeat business or referrals no longer cuts it, you have to put in more effort. 

Often in agencies, the know-how on how to get this done is missing; few people come from a formal sales background. So a haphazard approach is implemented and we hope for the best. Only that slapdash approach rarely gets the results we want. 

Is it time for the sales engine to be looked at as an ops challenge? We think so. 

In this episode of The Handbook: The Agency Operations Podcast, Harv Nagra speaks with Ryan Hall, founder of Friday Solved and a seasoned expert in building sales systems for agencies. With over 23 years of experience generating revenue and growing agencies—including two successful exits—Ryan shares practical insights on how to operationalize sales for consistent results.

Here’s what Ryan shares in this episode:

• Why agencies struggle with sales: The pitfalls of relying too much on inbound leads and referrals.
• How to build a scalable sales engine: Breaking the funnel into actionable stages (top, middle, and bottom) and tailoring strategies for each.
• The importance of systemization: How the right processes, tools, and technology create predictable results.
• Sales as a blend of art and science: Why finding the balance between relationship-building and data-driven strategies is key.

Ryan also explains how operational leaders can play a pivotal role in creating a culture of sales excellence and offers practical tips for getting started, including low-cost tools and strategies to build momentum.

If you want to take control of your sales process and future-proof your agency’s pipeline, this episode is a must-listen.

Follow Ryan on LinkedIn.

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How do you create a highly efficient agency without losing flexibility or quality?

In this episode, Harv Nagra sits down with Jinny Mitchell-Kent, Joint Managing Director at Great State. With nearly 20 years of experience at agencies big and small—including global powerhouse AKQA—Jinny shares how she’s applying lessons from her big-agency days to a 100-person team.

Here’s what you’ll hear:

• How moving from COO to MD changed her focus from internal projects to building client relationships, while maintaining her focus on performance and excellence.
• The strategies Great State uses to compete with much larger agencies by staying lean and adaptable – from scaling up the team quickly when required, to creating a flexible delivery framework.
• Practical tips on managing costs, tracking profitability, and keeping teams running smoothly.
• How Jinny is championing inclusivity with initiatives like the Great Women’s Network.

If you want to learn how to streamline your operations and scale smarter, this episode is packed with insights you can put to work right away. Give it a listen!

Follow Jinny on LinkedIn. 

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Are you battling with inconsistent processes, bad practice and poor staff training? 

In this episode, Harv Nagra explains the benefits of documenting and embedding best practices – to take your agency one big leap forward in operational maturity.

Harv shares his best tips on:

• Creating an agency handbook – to create a single source of truth for your business, and help your team work consistently
• Choosing the right documentation tools – specific tools that are helpful in documenting and communicating workflows
• Creating a team of best practice champions – by providing learning resources that let them build confidence from day one

Ready to future-proof your agency? Join Harv in this episode as he explains how to take your agency to the next level.

Harv's preferred tools mentioned in the episode:

• coda.io
• scribehow.com
• loom.com

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

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This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Hiring and training new employees is a big commitment - and getting it right will have a lasting impact on your agency.

Kicking off The Big Agency Club series, we chat with Sarah Brougham, VP of Operations at GenFlow. Sarah’s helped multiple agencies go from start-up to established, having a big hand to play in their growth and maturity journies. Sarah has spent the past six years at GenFlow, helping grow revenue there by 5x and headcount 16x.

Sarah gives us her best tips on:

• Hiring the right people for your agency
• Creating onboarding programs that new hires love and gets them off to a running start
• How offboarding goes beyond formalities and systems removals, and includes decisions on retention
• How to decide whether to fight to keep an employee that's thinking of leaving

Follow Sarah on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/sarahbrougham/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Agency8x: https://www.agency8x.com/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Individuals thrive when they’re equipped to handle challenges.

Amy Hopper is a former agency owner and now founder of the business consultancy TOA. In this episode, Amy opens up about her journey through some serious challenges. She shares how those experiences helped her create a system that keeps teams (and individuals) focused, engaged, and productive.

Amy dives into practical tips on:

• Planning your day in a way that energizes you instead of draining you.
• Letting go of perfectionism so you can delegate more and grow faster.
• Overcoming resistance to change, both personally and within your team.

Her insights are packed with real-world lessons for leaders looking to build stronger, more resilient teams.

Follow Amy on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/amyhopper/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Which metrics should you track, to run your agency as efficiently as possible?

In this episode we speak with Richard Brett. Rich is a seasoned FinOps professional with 15+ years of experience, including a decade in the agency world. Rich has played a key role in scaling agencies, setting up financial processes, and supporting sustainable growth.

Rich will take us into a deeper dive of agency finances, starting with revenue recognition – recording revenue when it's earned, not when payment is received – and explain why this is so important.

Next, we’ll discuss key metrics and the kind of decisions you’ll be able to make using each:

• Utilization: see how effectively your team’s time is allocated to billable work, helping identify resource optimization opportunities.
• Recovery: shows the actual revenue generated from billable hours worked, highlighting areas of over-servicing.
• Billable paid: shows the proportion of billable work that is successfully paid for, helping assess the financial health of client engagements.
• Future month work value: projects the expected revenue from booked hours in upcoming work, allowing for proactive resource and budget management.

Finally, Rich will tell us 5 ways we can influence margins through agency rate cards.

Rich now runs his own consultancy, Rich Brett FinOps, providing bespoke financial services to agencies.

Follow Richard on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/richard-brett-36903590/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Do you ever get to the end of the working day and wonder, ‘What did I actually get done today?'

You’re certainly not alone. 

We’re interrupted about every 8 minutes. And it can take up to 20 minutes to get back to what we’re doing. Imagine the impact of that on an 8 hour day.

In a recent Agency Hackers webinar, Harv spoke about productivity – including the flow state, trends that have had a negative influence on our ability to focus, and strategies that have given him and his colleagues a big productivity boost.

We're resharing that content for you here in case you missed the webinar.

You'll learn Harv's advice including:

• Scheduling your day in advance, so you're not staring at your to-do list in despair.
• Using a combination of 'office hours' to reply to messages and DND to minimize distractions.
• Techniques to make your meetings more efficient, your team more focused, and encourage clear communication. (Including meetings that no one actually shows up to)!

View the presentation with visuals on Youtube.

Learn more about Agency Hackers.

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Curious about how an agency experimented with new approaches and found their recipe for success?

In this episode, we talk with Trenton Moss, a former agency owner who ran his business for 15 years before it was sold. Trenton shares the key decisions that transformed his agency, along with some missteps along the way.

Trenton covers three major changes he implemented and explains exactly how he did it:

• Setting up team pods with a highly effective reward system
• Developing ongoing client services training and putting the learnings into practice
• Creating an advisory board to guide the agency

Trenton shares plenty of inspiring stories and practical tactics you can apply in your own agency.

Now a leadership coach, Trenton has been coaching and training teams for nearly 20 years. You can check out his website, Sterka, his book Human Powered, you can also subscribe to Human Powered: The Podcast via his website.

Follow Trenton on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/trentonmoss/ 

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

As an Ops person, the role of IT expert is often part of the job. So how can you ensure your agency’s IT infrastructure is set up for scaling? 

That's the focus of our discussion with Dan Timmiss, Technical Director at Kaizen IT Solutions. With over two decades of experience, Dan has helped hundreds of creative agencies optimize and manage their IT setups, from audits to complete IT overhauls and supporting scaling teams.

In this episode, Dan shares essential best practices:

• The importance of implementing single sign-on (SSO) and multi-factor authentication (MFA) for security and ease of access
• How cloud storage can complement on-premise servers if you have heavy media files
• Using mobile device management solutions like Jamf to manage your fleet of computers, including ‘zero touch deployment’ and easy on-boarding and off-boarding
• Seeking security accreditations like Cyber Essentials Plus, CIS Benchmarks or ISO 27001 to help secure contracts with global clients
• How newer services like MDR (managed detection and response) and XDR (extended detection and response) go beyond traditional anti-virus solutions to monitor your systems for threats
• Why to educate your team on ‘social engineering’ scams that could cause financial and reputational harm

Follow Dan on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/dan-timmiss-486ab517/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.

Winning pitches is tough. 

Ghosting has become a common challenge, and even when you win, clients may be commissioning smaller pieces of the project rather than the full program.

But that’s only part of the struggle - crafting pitch decks takes a lot of time and energy. Surely there’s a better way than packing slides with your best creative ideas. 

In this episode we tackle these challenges and introduce a strategic approach to pitching. The focus shifts from pitching tactics to showcasing value and ROI.

Joining us is Freia Muehlenbein, an agency growth consultant and owner of Be Reyt Consultancy. With over 15 years of experience in agency operations, Freia is an expert in the sales and pitch process, known for closing large deals. 

Freia shares practical advice on:

• Developing a strong qualification process to truly understand your client's needs
• The concept of a war room and how it helps in crafting effective strategies
• Why prioritizing financials and ROI is more important than focusing on tactics

Follow Freia on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/freiamuehlenbein/

Follow Harv on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/harvnagra/

Sign up for Harv's webinar with Agency Hackers on productivity hacks taking place Thursday 19th September 2024: https://bit.ly/thehandbook24

Stay up to date with regular ops insights. Subscribe to The Handbook: The Operations Newsletter.

This podcast is brought to you by Scoro, where you can manage your projects, resources and finances in a single system.