Leading a Stuck Marketing Agency from $25K MRR to $80K+ MRR in 8mos: Advice For CEO's Making First Sales Hires
đ Introduction
First things first, they got super lucky hiring me. From what Iâve seen most agencies get their first sales hires ALL WRONG, and theyâre on a steep curve until they can find someone to do more than âSELLâ.
đ Sales vs. Client Attraction
The problem is they don't know it yet, but they actually don't need someone to sell. Theyâre really looking for someone thatâs going to get them more clients. It seems the same, but itâs not. GEM: getting clients consistently and selling are not the same.
đ Background: My Journey So Far
At the time I was an established high ticket closer for an Ecom Agency from which I was fired, for a couple of things.
đ§ââïž Cult-like Environment and Authenticity
#1 being rogue and causing a mass change in culture from the usual toxic sales leadership to a cult-like hippy environment where I would coach my colleagues about their authentic selves and have them use đ emojis instead of đ„ emojis when they got a deal. (Maybe thatâs why salespeople burn their money up)
Iâd always say we donât wanna burn, we want to flow, like the abundant ocean. (Yeah Iâm kinda a hippy)
đ„ Fired for Success
Oh yeah, the other reason I got fired is because itâs possible to take home more commission than your sales manager. I think it was a combination of this, me changing the culture (reps will follow the habits of your top guy) and exposing the ineffectiveness of toxic âif I put a gun to your head ?â Style coaching that got me canned.
That and the fact I just wouldnât give up. One particular month I made so much I could see my sales manager's eyes green with envy, so much so that he cut off my leads to sabotage my performance.
đŒ Hiring a Philippines-Based Assistant
So I went out and hired a seriously dangerous (in a good way) Philippines-based assistant, did some deep coaching/hypnosis for her to quickly boost her mindset, self-image, and confidence, and then set her loose on the phones.
I set her loose on all the leads the other reps didnât follow up on and told her she could have a generous commission on every deal she brought to the table (this is a super rare deal for Philippines-based VAs).
I set her loose on all the leads the other reps didnât follow up on and told her she could have a generous commission on every deal she brought to the table (this is a super rare deal for Philippines-based VAs).
I also had her handle all the admin tasks that I hated and sucked time like sending contracts, changing lead statuses, following up, collecting payments ETC.
So while everyone was sitting in front of their desk I could be at the Venetian in Vegas negotiating a gondola ride (true story) while sheâs texting me on Slack
âEverythingâs completed, and contracts are signedâ. All I had to do was find a Starbucks, pull out my MacBook Pro, and close. She handled the rest. This was my first exploration into the world of using off-shore talent to augment my own personal effectiveness and would be an invaluable experience to help this other agency grow.
đ Sales Insights and Experience
Kinda went off on a tangent there, but thatâs what I was doing before. So when I met these guys I had already been in the flow of selling services that ranged between $3k-$40k via phone to strangers who could only hear the sound of my voice.
However, the reason I say the agency I grew lucked up is because I had a strong knack for systems and had attempted to open my own marketing agency before. Most of the stuff I learned from starting and failing with my agency is what I had been using for the last few years to lap other salespeople who only knew how to talk. I knew how to persuade, market, copywrite, build ads, and lead.
đ The Need for a Client-Attracting Salesperson
GEM: when youâre making that first sales hire look for someone that is kinda obsessive on client attraction. This person will likely be outside the box of your sensibilities.
Most agency owners here on Indehackers come from technical backgrounds and are super INTP.
From my observations, they often try to hire people like them, when they really need people that are a bit edgier and rogue to their tastes.
You need someone who can take the vanilla and make it into French vanilla if you know what I mean.
đ» Website Challenges / đ€ Confusing Sales Copy
One of the initial challenges I encountered in helping this agency grow was its underwhelming website.
It was confusing, âWe help blah to blah grow blah out of the ass of blahâ, I could read between the lines, but I knew there was legitimately no way that customers had a clue as to what they did. Like seriously that thing might as well had an illustration of a guy on it swatting money away like flies.
đȘ Emphasizing Transformation
I knew from afar that if the website was that off the mark, I was just scratching the surface. I couldnât imagine what their reps were saying on the phoneâŠ
đĄ Video Testimonials and Transformation
The websiteâs only saving grace was that it did have a few testimonials. And not a written one either. Iâm talking about a real video testimonial and it appeared that clients genuinely had Transformational results. (SIDE GEM Sell the transformation not the service)
đœ Video Testimonials as a Sales Tool
SIDE NOTE: Seriously one of the biggest boosts you can make to your sales right now is to record some video testimonials and just start sending them to people. Make them interview style on Zoom, spruce them up with some background music, and DONâT FORGET itâs all about the transformation.
Seriously, I canât stress this enough. Iâve sold and won dozens of upfront $3k build fees B2B (marketing service price point but it would work for any industry) to a completely cold market in the wellness space of which we had no brand presence, no track record, and no connections using only ONE very well positioned testimonial (You could see the guys face, you could see him using our stuff, and we had a video testimonial that could not be FAKED !)
đŒ Overhauling the Sales Process
I digress, all that to say the website looked like it was forced to go 12 rounds with Tyson, but it did have a few testimonials.
I knew that I wouldnât be able to rely on the website as my primary sales tool, but I could use those testimonials. So in every communication moving forward (GEM: I went to our client's IG and FB and pulled photos of their day-to-day to begin crafting stories for emails, texts, and the eventual DEMO. )
I knew revamping the entire website would be a colossal task upfront and I wasnât going to sit on my hands and tackle that until I could get messaging from boots-on-the-ground conversations. I also was hired to start generating cash quickly.
I had to move quick.
đ Revamping the Sales Process
These guys didnât even have a demo BTW. Their sales process went like this:
-Step #1 Filipino VA calls someone or sends them a random text with convoluted and often exaggerated claims of results and how they can get them for FREE
-Step #2 Discovery call
-Step #3 DEMO- Well not a sales demo, more like a âMaybe theyâll like me ZOOM call showing spreadsheets and a dashboard and inviting them to start with only $ 1 to prove that it works.
đ Trial Offers and Pricing
This leads me to my next GEM: With agencies stay away from getting too generous with the trial offers in hopes that they will see the value.
The client just thinks youâre a special type of $1 doormat. This sets the precedent of them having you by the balls because theyâve already made you bow down to them economically.
This is actually whatâs going on in the client's head:
-âSo for $1 this is going to TRANSFORM my business ?â
-âOk Iâll start, but I donât expect this to workâ
RAS ACTIVATED (Reticular Activating System)
-â Yeah that guy sent me a text at 5:03 pm and thatâs after the time I work this is
not workingâ
-â I got some results, but I donât think this is gonna work, let me text him nowâ
You on the sideline: âBut, but, butâŠâŠ. Ahhhhh theyâre idiots.â
I decided I wasnât comfortable charging anyone $1 for a service that required a team of 5 people to maintain.
⥠Customizing the Demo
Also as far as the DEMO goes
There is no 1 size fits all DEMO. Itâs about trial and error and getting to understand the individual conversations that are happening in your prospect's head based on their specific needs.
Let me put it this way in lame terms if youâre making your first âSales'' hire then your current sales materials probably BLOW a lot.
Unless youâre me then thatâs not your problem, but this isnât about me itâs about you.
So back to the story about me âeh emâ.
So needless to say at this point I was up against a lot. I had a few things that I had to get done:
#1 Figure out what people wanted to buy and not just what we wanted to sell
#2 Meet with my appointment setters to make sure our messaging was in SYNC
#3 Get that demo champagne poppin'
#4 Get Clients to pay a significant investment upfront
Got it popping I did.
đŒ Firing and Rebuilding
Hereâs how.... I fired a guy on my 3rd day. lol
I made the COO do it, although he didnât want to. Honestly, he always had a soft heart for the VAs.
It was pretty easy to justify for me, this guy had no skills on the phone, was doing less than 30 calls a day, sending 20 emails and a few texts, He was getting paid for the appointments he booked, NOT THE ONES THAT SHOWED. Most appointments were unqualified of course. All the while he was collecting $1,500-$2,000 USD in the Philippines.
I was shocked when I discovered this. All I could think was, âWhat in the white savior is going on here ?â
GEM: I want YOU to go to Google and type in âfirst Good to Great principleâ. Thatâs why
đ Transformation Language
Now that I was down to one appointment setter I went over all emails, calls, and communications in search of patterns. GEM: There is always a pattern that can be utilized in messaging and I was on the hunt for what was working and what wasnât.
I then used those patterns to inject GAMMA RAYS into our text messages and emails and to match his new script which I overhauled with with the profitable persuasion patterns I had identified from doing boiler room one call closes performing 300 calls a day selling leads B2B years prior.
I deployed him to scout and see if he could capture some more appointments using our new weapons.
The RESULT? Clients came to the discovery call with curiosity which is much different than skepticism. They were more open to listening and sharing. This leads me to another
GEM: YOU SHOULD be looking for a way to differentiate the language you use surrounding your service. Come up with wacky metaphors, double entendres something!
Most of your websites are boring as hell like.. âdynamically orchestrated microservices within a containerized infrastructure, our comprehensive monolithic integration framework .......
The people who pay you donât want to hear that shit. They want to hear how they will be transformed.
Example:
A.) Letâs do it.
b.) Iâm going to caress your clouds so good youâre going to remember why you were made for the sky.
Abstract, but you get it.
đ Revolutionizing the Demo
Now that I had a curious prospect it was time to get them on the demo.
Whatâs the perfect demo template?
Simple, the one you hire me to help you with.
This is how I came up with mineâŠ..
So for the DEMO, I went through 30+ sales books, and resources I had accumulated over the years. I watched others' demos, looked at VSLs, reviewed Russel Brunsonâs Perfect Webinar, Looked into Challenger Sales training, re-read Pitch Anything by Oren Klaf, and Spin Selling by Neil Rackman. Watched 15 hours of YouTube.
Not to mention the fact that I have a huge 1GB Swipe File of pitches from all kinds of industries, sales letters, email templates, the worksâŠ.
I probably did too much research. lol
Honestly, it hit a certain point where I donât think I was even looking for information anymore. I was looking for MAGIC. Like, whatâs some shit I can show on this screen, and people get hypnotized and let me swipe their card for a $3k build fee. Lol
I found a framework that I found to work well with the niche and just kept building on top of that.
GEM: The most important part of the demos is the MONEY part. When you build enough value it will only come down to the money you charge and if they donât understand how your pricing works or what their investment is theyâll always tell you, âWeâll have to think about it. Our pricing slide was the hardest part to get 100%
đ° Changing the Pricing Model
While on the topic, that was the elephant in the room MONEY.
Up until that point they had been signing up people for their services for FREE. I knew we needed to show that we could deliver value instead of giving the desperate âjust give me 1 shotâ pitch.
I decided Iâd let our PRICE do the talking and set an upfront build fee of $3k with the option to split this initial payment over their first 3 months with us.
This means at minimum weâd NOW require $1,500 bucks just to get the ball rolling.
RESULT: No one scoffed at the price they either could afford it or not. No side deals.
So this was the beginning....
đ Success and Departure
Most of what I explained took me about 10 days to put together and then SPLASH we got 2 guys to sign up both with deposits totaling $4k one guy even doubled back and paid the rest of his build fee within a week so the total is more around $5k. (Both clients ended up paying us $25k+ over the coming months)
đ Donât Penny Pinch The People That Are Helping You
So why stop at $80k+ months? Well, I decided to leave, I had to listen to my own advice, MAKE THEM PAY YOU MORE, they didnât want to increase my comp and the conversation on me receiving equity got blurry.
They thought that I wouldnât quit. So I did. And I heard theyâre not doing so well since I left. The worst part is I was so ready to get those guys to $10M and had a solid strategy to do so.
I even got screwed out of the comp that was owed to me for my last check. SadâŠ..
đ What Changed For Me (ContinuedâŠ)
Now I help other service based agencies who feel stuck with Sales Enablement and Client Attraction as a Fractional CMO and CSO (Sales)
I also started my own marketing agency too !
đ Final Words of Wisdom
1 Donât go out and hire a salesperson, hire an entrepreneur whoâs good at marketing and sales
2 Get your messaging right
3 Respect the phone if you have to hire appointment setters then so be it. Unless youâre ready to shell out $$$ on ads, sitting and cold emailing hoping for some action isnât enough.
4 Phone-first culture thereâs so much money on the phone and as long as human beings still have voices theyâll still want to talk.
5 Be bold in your messaging to the point that some people email you and say I donât want to do business with you. Fuck em. The people that DO resonate will rock with you ALL NIGHT LONG!
6 Be more interested in what the customer is buying than what youâre selling
7 Charge money up front and as much as you can. It is more to get 1 person who pays you $50k up front, than 5 people that pay you $10k.
8 Reach out to the guy who wrote this if you need help, yes he costs, but heâs cool.
I hope this was a valuable feeling this morning coming back from a walk and decided to post this here.
