The Agency Growth Blog - For Owners Who Want Growth

Why Your Prospects Are NOT Picking Your Inbound Marketing Agency

Posted by Mike Lieberman on Sep 13, 2017 11:00:00 AM

How To Identify What’s Going Wrong at Your Inbound Marketing Agency, When It’s Going Wrong And How To Fix It

You’re getting new prospects. Some come from inbound, more still come from referrals but you’re continuing to have trouble closing them. You’re working them all the way to the end, producing proposals, submitting presentations, and creating contracts—but in the end, they pick someone else. What’s going on? What are you doing wrong? How do you fix your agency new business development challenges?

If you can’t take your prospects from click to close, you’re not going to have an agency for very long. If you can’t sustain a steady stream of new clients at the pace of two to three a month minimum, then it’s likely your agency will be treading water at a clip somewhere under $1 Million in annual revenue. Worse yet, if you’re having trouble holding on to clients and not bringing on new clients, you might actually find your agency shrinking.

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Topics: inbound agency new business development, new business development

Why Cold Calling Is The WRONG Advice For An Inbound Marketing Agency

Posted by Mike Lieberman on Aug 30, 2017 1:06:00 PM

AND 6 Better Inbound Marketing Tactics You Can Start Doing Today To Get New Leads Immediately

I just watched an hour webinar from the sales consulting crew at HubSpot. The session was on the virtue and application of cold calling and warm calling for agencies trying to grow their inbound marketing companies.

Having worked with hundreds of agency owners I know where the advice is coming from and I know why it’s being delivered. Over the past few weeks I’ve received many emails and calls from owners who responded to the new Biz Dev CohortI know getting new clients is one of the most strategic pain points for agencies trying to grow. 

However, I don’t think making cold calls to prospective inbound marketing agency clients is the right advice nor do I think it sends the right message to the very people you’re trying to help understand inbound marketing and how it works.

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Topics: inbound agency new business development, new business development

Get A New Inbound Marketing Agency Client In 60 Days

Posted by Mike Lieberman on Aug 16, 2017 7:03:00 AM

New Business Remains The Biggest Obstacle To Growth For Inbound Agency Owners

Anyone even close to the agency life knows that agency new business development, sales and getting new clients is the life blood of the agency. It’s not an inbound marketing agency challenge, it’s a challenge for all agencies everywhere.

I hear it every day.

“We lost a client and we don’t have any new ones coming on.”
“If we could just sign a couple of new retainer clients, we’d be great.”
“I have to cut costs because we can’t sign any new clients.”

What’s going on? We’re the ones who are supposed to be the experts at attracting new eyeballs to our businesses, helping those people get comfortable with our companies and then getting them to sign our agreements. Right? Clearly there appears to be a disconnect. But someone is closing business. At Square 2 Marketing, we close between three and five new clients a month. I’d like to think that qualifies us to know what we’re talking about and if we can do it, you can too.

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Topics: inbound agency new business development, new business development, Sales Process, inbound Agency Sales Process

What's More Important For Inbound Marketing Agency Owners?

Posted by Mike Lieberman on Aug 9, 2017 7:03:00 AM

Getting New Clients Or Keeping Current Clients?

It’s an age-old question, if I just had a couple more new clients I’d be great or if we could just hold onto our current clients we could grow. Truth be told? You better be awesome at both if you want your inbound marketing agency to grow. If you can’t land new clients at a clip of one a month and you can’t keep the clients you have—you’ll be in a hamster wheel that never ends.

Those challenges you have now—not getting paid regularly, not being able to hire, dealing with challenging clients and you having to wear 20 different hats is going to be your future. Until you can bring on new clients and hold onto your current clients—you better get used to it. What you’ve been doing isn’t working. It’s time to do something different.

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Topics: inbound agency new business development, client retention

Your Sales Process Is Killing Your Chances Of Signing New Inbound Marketing Agency Clients

Posted by Mike Lieberman on Jun 13, 2017 10:05:00 AM

Three Out Of Four New Clients Said, “We Chose You Because Of Your Sales Process”

On average Square 2 Marketing closes three to five new clients every single month. Granted sometimes they come in bunches, no new clients for three weeks and then three new clients in a single week, but you get the idea.

With all those data points, I’ve been asking our new clients why they chose use over other agencies and the answers are startling. “You took the time to listen to us.” “You and your team demonstrated expertise during the sales process.” “Your recommendations were exactly what we asked for and were aligned perfectly with our stated challenges.”

I want you to notice that not ONE SINGLE new client stated we were the cheapest. Or that we offered the most value for their budget. We got them to trust us and the other agencies didn’t. Let’s be crystal clear. We don’t win every opportunity and sometimes we fail to get them to trust us, but our process produces the right kind of leads and it helps us close the clients who are the best fit for our agency.

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Topics: inbound agency new business development, new business development, Sales Process, inbound Agency Sales Process

Why Your Inbound Marketing Agency’s Sales Process Is Confusing Prospects

Posted by Mike Lieberman on Sep 29, 2015 10:00:00 AM

Today there are more inbound agencies on the planet than ever before. Regardless of what they look on the inside, from your prospect’s perspective they all look alike. It’s your job as an inbound agency owner and as a marketer to make your agency look different.

This differentiation exercise has to start from the first time a potential client visits your website. The prospect is probably visiting three or four inbound marketing agency websites and if they don’t know what makes you special in the first ten seconds, they might never come back.

But that’s an article for another day, today we’re talking about what happens when they actually reach out to you and ask to speak with you. 

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Topics: inbound agency new business development, new business development, Sales Process, inbound sales

Why Prospects Need To Feel Safe BEFORE Hiring Your Inbound Agency

Posted by Mike Lieberman on Apr 27, 2015 9:00:00 AM

In Part Three of this Blog Series on inbound agency New Business Development we talked about the importance of qualifying your prospects early and often.

Today, we’re going to look at how prospects think, how their brain works and what we have to do to get them to say “yes, let’s get started.”

To really understand how prospects think, we need to understand how the human brain processes certain types of information. In each of our brains, there is a buy button.

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Topics: Business Development, inbound agency new business development, inbound Agency Sales Process

How An Inbound Agency Should Qualify Prospects In AND Out

Posted by Mike Lieberman on Apr 20, 2015 10:30:00 AM

Inbound agencies need to be hyper selective in deciding who to work with and who not to work with. 

In Part One of this Blog Series on inbound agency New Business Development we talked about planning, executing and optimizing your own inbound marketing program and in Part Two we discussed the importance of your own your sales process.

In Part Three, we’re focusing on how critical it is to qualify prospects IN and OUT as early as possible.

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Topics: Business Development, inbound agency new business development, inbound Agency Sales Process

How To Create Your Own Inbound Agency Marketing Machine

Posted by Mike Lieberman on Apr 6, 2015 7:30:00 AM

As I speak to inbound marketing agency owners I hear a lot of the same challenges over and over again.

How do I get a steady stream of opportunities so my new business becomes predictable and repeatable, month in and month out?

The answer to that question is you need your own Inbound Marketing Machine. I actually think most people already know the answer, but perhaps they don’t know how to go about creating a Marketing Machine for their own agencies.

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Topics: inbound agency new business development, marketing machine, new business development

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