Podcasts about nbat

Do you want to sell your agency at some point? Do you know where you want to take your business before you're ready to search for a partnership? Today's guest started his agency at just twenty-three years old and was ready to sell ten years later, when his business was thriving and had a solid position in a coveted niche. However, the selling process was not as smooth as he hoped and he soon found himself looking for expert advice to understand a complex process that was sure to take a lot of his time for months on end. Tune in to learn how he navigated the M&A process while prioritizing clients and employees, and creating the ideal work environment for his team. Simon Cristal is the founder of SWC Partnership, an international full-service marketing agency that helps clients increase lead generation and brand awareness by developing strategies and creative ideas. Last year, his agency was acquired by a global independent agency, which he says was a natural process and a great experience overall. Learn his insights on building a client-centric agency, the importance of taking care of clients, and the type of help you'll need for a smooth acquisition process. In this episode, we'll discuss: Positioning and prioritizing profitability. From Zero employees to selling an agency. The agency owner's roadmap to M&A. Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio Sponsors and Resources Copper: This episode of Smart Agency Masterclass is sponsored by Copper, a CRM solution built specifically for agencies that use Google Workspace. Its CRM integration works seamlessly with Gmail, Google Calendar, and Drive, so you never have to switch tabs to add leads, track email conversations, find files, or manage tasks in your marketing or sales process. Head over to Copper.com/agencies and get a free trial exclusively for Jason's listeners! Lessons in Pricing, Positioning, and Prioritizing Profitability Simon was born into the advertising world, with his father owning an agency that exposed him to the creative realms of design and copywriting from a young age. As he grew up, Simon navigated his way through several London agencies, honing his skills and gaining valuable experience. Surprisingly, the opportunity to set up his own agency came up earlier than expected. He knew he'd wanted to do it at some point in his career, although he didn't expect to do it at twenty-three. Simon started his agency with zero clients, which looking back was a risky move. He did, however, have a clearer vision of pricing. His first client was a big German dairy company and he knew the most effective approach to earn their respect was to refrain from underbidding. It took around five years for him and his team to start really focusing on B2B and position themselves as specialists in helping brands connect to international audiences. This proved to be a savvy move, as the pandemic forced blue-chip businesses to seek out more affordable, niche agencies like Simon's, with their unique expertise in global brand-building. In the ten years since starting the business, Simon has seen the importance of surrounding yourself with a good team to get through all sorts of situations. They operate under a very lean model since, in his view, it should never be about how many employees you have but about the type of business you build and whether or not it's profitable. This approach to building a passionate team and providing the best possible work environment helped him grow his business, and create great client relationships. It was even a deciding factor when it came to selling the agency. Inspiring Creativity, Delivering Impact: Secrets of a Thriving Agency Mindset Simon used to believe the agency should be focused on making sales. This has changed with time, as he realized they needed to focus on taking care of clients and looking for ways to help them succeed. It's a friendly approach that sets the tone for a good agency-client relationship. For him, if you have great clients, great people, and great processes, the financials will take care of themselves. Furthermore, Simon recommends using the NBAT framework (Need, Budget, Authority, Timing) as a practical way to ensure you're picking the clients you can really help and offer the best results to. At his agency, they also use WIDI (I Wish I Did It) as a way to spark employees' creativity. They organize a monthly meeting where people will take examples of great marketing they wish they had come up with. It's a great way to stay inspired by innovative marketing strategies and continually strive for improvement. Taking a step back from the daily projects and allowing yourself to be inspired by others' work will help you evolve and get better. Working in the creative industry is fun and Simon believes it's important to enjoy that. By being inspired, thinking outside the box, and prioritizing client satisfaction, businesses can differentiate themselves from competitors and create impactful and memorable campaigns. In the end, it's the truly creative ideas that make for ads that people will remember for years to come. Here are Jason's and Simon's picks for some of the most memorable and impactful ads they've seen. What are yours? From Zero Employees to Selling the Agency Simon had always envisioned selling his agency at some point, and as the 10-year milestone approached, he realized that the timing was perfect. The agency had a strong track record of business success, impressive client retention, and a stellar team. A point of pride for the agency was its commitment to creating a work environment where employees felt valued and motivated to stay long-term. Hence, when it came to finding the right agency to be acquired by, Simon prioritized the benefits for his clients and his team. Cultural alignment, opportunities for growth, and a shared vision were all essential considerations in the decision-making process. Taking the advice from past podcast episode guests who spoke on this topic, Simon appointed an M&A advisor and conducted thorough research; This way, he was able to navigate the complexities of selling an agency and find a suitable partner. Even so, he was surprised by how much he underestimated the time the process took. It was a lengthy eight-month journey from the initial conversation to closing the deal. Agency Owner's Roadmap to Mergers & Acquisitions Overall, the selling process was a great experience and an undeniably time-consuming process. Sometimes, M&As may seem purposely dragged on for too long to make the seller feel they're already too compromised and can't back out or they would have lost all their time and effort. The right guidance and support will help you avoid that, although it is ultimately a process that can't be rushed. Simon's best advice for other agency owners is to get the right help if you know you lack the proper knowledge and to leave all M&A activities outside the normal work hours. This way, it won't take over your work day and you can make sure to keep the focus on the agency, as well as not feel you lost valuable time in case it doesn't work out in the end. Another key point was testing out the partnership before fully committing to it. Just like dating before getting married, doing trial projects or meetings can help both parties assess if their cultures and values align. As an agency owner selling your business, Jason recommends making sure you understand the buyer's integration plan. It'll say a lot about their motivations for the purchase. This step can help prevent any potential conflicts or misunderstandings down the line. Other than that, he suggests investing time and resources into post-merger integration activities. Face-to-face meetings, team-building exercises, and collaboration opportunities are essential for fostering a cohesive and united team. These efforts not only enhance communication and trust but also contribute to the long-term success of the merger or acquisition. Do You Want to Transform Your Agency from a Liability to an Asset? Looking to dig deeper into your agency's potential? Check out our Agency Blueprint. Designed for agency owners like you, our Agency Blueprint helps you uncover growth opportunities, tackle obstacles, and craft a customized blueprint for your agency's success.

Every digital agency struggles with some of the most common sales objections. I'm here to tell you how to turn those around and convert more prospects into clients, faster and easier. Have you ever felt your agency's proposal knocked it out of the park only to have the prospect put you off? It happens to all of us. You put your energy and effort into a stellar proposal only to receive a lackluster response like “Let me talk to my partner”, “let me see if we have the money”, or my personal favorite “Send me more information”. Are these responses just to put you off or simply objections that can be flipped into a more favorable response? In this video, I go through some of the most common objections and how you can actually respond and determine if they can be flipped so you can train your team to handle objections effectively and close more business. The best marketing salespeople answer questions before they're asked. How to do this? By being transparent and sharing their exact process to build trust. Of course, questions and objections will still be raised, but if you answer 90% of the unasked questions then your salesperson can come in with that extra 10% and bring it to the finish line. I firmly believe there are no bad agency CLIENTS, only bad PROSPECTS or bad PROCESS. So how do you know if your prospect has a true objection or is just wasting your time? There are some steps you can follow to get to the bottom of this faster and turn more of those NO's into YES!   Subscribe Apple | Spotify | iHeart Radio | Stitcher | Radio FM #1 Agency Sales Objection: Send Me More Information If you give your pitch and the prospect's reaction is that they still want more information, this can mean one of two things, either something's missing or you're just getting a nice put-off. It can be difficult to determine which one it is, which is why I recommend asking these three simple questions: What, When, and Why. ‘What information would you like me to send you?' This will help you determine what's missing from your proposal and what else they need to know before saying yes. ‘When would you like me to send you this information?' You want to follow up with the right information at the right time to increase your chances of working together. ‘Why do you need this additional information?' This way you can understand more about the specific goals the prospect is trying to achieve. Moreover, it may also reveal whether you're speaking to the right decision-maker or not. Perhaps they need more information to pass along to their boss or business partner. In that case, you need to get in front of the right person to answer their questions accurately. If someone is blowing you off, they won't have good answers to these questions. On the other hand, a good prospect who is genuinely interested in working with your agency will have very specific information they're requesting, a timeline, and a reason. Pro Tip: If it turns out it is a good prospect who just needs more information, then yes, commit to sending the information but also make sure to schedule the next meeting right then and there. That's how you're going to close the deal and stop wasting time on the wrong prospects. #2 Agency Sales Objection: Let me Think About It You spend lots of time on the prospect only to hear ‘Let me think about it”. It's frustrating and unfortunately very common. Luckily, there's an easy solution that just needs a couple of upfront questions. If it's a legitimate objection, then you can prevent issues by gathering more information. When I hear ‘Let me think about it' it's usually due to one of three reasons: The prospect remains unclear about the plan. You may be using jargon that makes it confusing to the client when you should actually be talking to them about stuff they know. The prospect is unclear about the results. Remember you're not selling your agency services to your prospect, you're selling them results. Do they understand how your solution will ease their pain and solve their issues? Have you established trust and authority in order to build their confidence in your ability to deliver? Your agency isn't clear on one or more elements of the NBAT criteria. The NBAT criteria (Need, Budget, Authority, and Timeline) is the best way to qualify your prospect so you don't have to waste time with the wrong ones. So as you prepare for your next business pitch, instead of dreading one of these lines, approach the pitch more proactively. Make sure you're clearly defining the plan and results and that prospects have a full understanding of the NBAT. Once you have that covered, you'll dramatically reduce and even eliminate this objection. #3 Agency Sales Objection: We've Had a Bad Agency Experience The first impression can be everlasting, whether it's good, bad, or indifferent. Unfortunately, many times you can be held accountable for negative impressions left by an awful experience with a bad agency. This experience can become an objection because the prospect doesn't fully understand what separates your agency from the rest. There's nothing you can do with regard to that past bad experience. It happened and was probably the result of bad communication when it came to expectations and results, strategy, or just a clash of personalities. What you CAN do is educate the prospect that those types of bad experiences aren't the norm. How can you turn it around? Educate them on the plan. Explain exactly how you're planning to achieve their goals and ease their pain points. There's an inherent uneasiness when people don't know what to expect. However, having a clear plan in place will help your prospect feel more confident and assured. Inform them about the systems and processes. Establish clear communication on what you do and how you do it. You need to know and understand what's the issue they're having, what's the impact that issue is having on their business, and what's the level of importance or consequence if they don't address the issue? When the right prospects are properly educated on the process, they'll choose to work with you. However, it requires work to build that relationship. #4 Agency Sales Objection: Do You Have Any References? What if the prospect isn't asking you for more information and instead they want references? Does it hurt or help to use past clients as references for new ones? The request for references goes back to the presence of doubt in the prospect's mind. There's something they're still uncertain about when it comes to working with you. Bottom line, this means there's a hole in your sales process. It's possible that somewhere in the sales process you failed to gain their trust fully. Frankly, giving them a reference will actually hurt your agency. Here's why, you respect your client's time. If you have a prospect call up a client now they're spending their time helping sell you instead of working on their business. A lot of prospects will have questions about your specific strategies, which are your intellectual property. Not knowing any better, your clients might start giving away your secret sauce for free. So when a prospect asks for a reference, counter by asking more questions: What's missing for them? What are they unsure about? Instead of letting a reference or testimonial talk them into or out of working with you, try to answer all their concerns. Finally, tell them you want to share a case story or two instead of a reference. Case stories can often accomplish the same trust-building as a reference without monopolizing your client's time and putting your IP at risk. If after this, they still want a reference, you can do this as a last resort and make sure you have a trusted client or two that previously agreed to be contacted. #5 Agency Sales Objection: Another Agency Will Do It Cheaper After easing the prospect's mind, answering all their questions, and offering all the information, you may find some clients will want to haggle over price. They'll say something like they got a cheaper quote from a different agency. It may be a case of an uninformed prospect who just needs a little bit more formation or a sign this is a bad prospect who's just not a good fit with your agency. Is it really a price issue or are they undervaluing the solution that you'll be providing? Oftentimes, prospects aren't fully educated on the value. So how to combat common price objections? Cheaper does not mean equal. Go back to Issue, Impact, and Importance. Is the lower-cost option really meeting the prospect's objections? Ask them why the other agency's quote is so cheap and let them think through the cost vs. quality difference. Often the cheaper option will mean more work for the client and, don't forget, time is money. Sometimes prospects only see dollar signs and forget to really scrutinize what they're getting. When you initiate conversations like these it helps them second-guess their gut reaction of going with the cheapest option. Related: https://jasonswenk.com/top-5-agency-sales-objections/ Do You Want to Convert More Prospects Into Agency Clients? FREE COURSE: Discover the 4-system process to CONVERTING more agency clients at https://www.agencymastery360.com/convert In our videos series, we'll break down the steps you need to charge what you're worth, overcome common sales objections, and unlock up to 20X more revenue from existing clients.

Abdullah Kibritçi - Günbatımı Bavullar Hazır by GENÇ

Carl Sagan "bilim insanlarının romantik olmadıkları, bir şeyin nedenini anlama tutkularının hayatın güzelliğini ve gizemini yok ettiği" görüşüne karşı diyor ki; "Günbatımı hakkında ufak birkaç şey bilmek, onun romantikliğini bozmaz!" Göğe bakalım...

In this episode of From Idea to Done, we talk about the acronym "NBAT" and what it means for your business. We take a look at each portion of the acronym coined by Jason Swenk and how it can help you with prospective clients.J/E: I'm Josh and I'm ErickE: Today's Idea is: Another random sales acronym NBAT. Everyone handles sales differently. This is actually an idea I learned from you can you talk about what exactly NBAT isJ: Well, actually I stole this from Jason Swenk. It stands for Need, Budget, Authority, and Timing. It really is the 4 things that you need to be paying attention to when in a sales conversation. Let's break those 4 things down a bit. Need - Do you have a service or product that the person you are talking to would purchase? E: Budget - If they need what you offer can that person actually pay for your service? Or does their need fit financially with what your team brings to the table?J: Authority - Are you talking to the person who signs the checks, or does this person need to talk to the person that signs the checks. If you are not talking to the decision maker, don’t rely on them to translate what you do to them, try and get a meeting with the decision maker.E: Timing Last, what is the actual timeline? You may have something in the budget for this month, this year, in your 5 year plan. Finding when things are going to happen also can help determine if your team is the right fit.J: It also helps with follow up, what is better “hey just checking in”, or “hey you had said that this was important to get it done in August, guess what, it's now August”E: It’s interesting as a salesperson to be so targeted in looking for that. I have coffee meetings all the time, like literally all the time. The main goal of the meeting is to find out the NBAT, or see if the NBAT is out of their power or unknown. If they are missing any piece, a sale is improbable to close. J: Not only you can’t close, but you now have a clear reason for the meeting or discussion. I think a lot of sales people go have a coffee or lunch with someone and say, man that is a great lead when they didn’t get enough information to even consider them that.E: I think it’s important though to discover if the person you are meeting with has any of the NBAT because at the same time you never know when things could change. J: Well it helps understand if it is a lead, a prospect, or just a coffee conversation.E: It’s the job of sales people to be in people’s heads before the go to blasted google. This is why finding out a potential customer’s NBAT, and checking in is so important.J: Yeah its really the difference between two people catching up and an actual sales lead. Getting brand awareness is another subject for another day Erick.E: And there you go, the idea of NBAT is done. The weird Michael Scott way I remember NBat is pairing it with the Batman theme Na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na na NBat. I hope that helps everyone remember it forever.J: Thanks for listening, if you know a startup that could use our advice have them subscribe and leave a review on iTunes.

We've all seen tech companies explode in popularity and valuation. How can your digital agency get a piece a sweet tech venture? Check out how one agency owner is out there successfully building technology and simultaneously running a digital marketing agency -- and crushing it at both. In today's episode, we'll cover: How to build technology at your digital agency. One unique method to create tons of internal content. #1 growth tip for new agency owners. Today, I talked with Bhanuka Harischandra, Founder and CEO of Surge.Global — a digital marketing and tech agency in Sri Lanka. Bhanuka's agency does everything from video to mobile to content and even SEO... but they also build tech. So, while half of Surge Global is helping businesses scale with marketing, the other half is scaling tech projects and creating tech companies. Bhanuka is here to tell us how to build tech at your agency and use it to grow and scale your business. How to Successfully Build Technology at Your Digital Agency Tech revenue is tempting, am I right? We see these tech startups with 5 employees that scale to $500 million in a few years and it's mind-blowing. So, as an entrepreneur, you may be trying to balance your desire to chase tech with your love for agency work. Guess what? You don't have to decide between them. Instead, you can build tech and build your agency at the same time. It's all about keeping a balance. Bhanuka's advice is to hire two separate teams. Your agency team should not develop tech projects. You need a separate R&D team to help build external and internal tech projects. You can even create an incubator. Hire some developers to work on different projects, see which ones take off, and then scale the winners up. Bhanuka transitions R&D teams with great products into their own business and his agency remains a shareholder. It helps keep everyone focused on their unique task. One Unique Method to Create Tons of Internal Content Creating internal content can be a serious pain for agency owners. Here's the thing — it's super necessary to have internal content for your team to rally around. You probably have access to some great content creators; they just need a little motivation. Bhanuka got his team to produce over 700 pieces of content in 30 days by gamifying content creation. He built an app and made a contest out of creating content. The team member who created the most content within a month would win $500. Second and third places were promised monetary prizes, too. And he compared everyone on a leaderboard to the team could view results in real-time. In the end, Surge only paid out $800 for 700 pieces of content. That's what I call a bargain! Here's what's awesome — Surge now has the app they developed out for other clients to use. (You can check out the app at Rallied.io) #1 Growth Tip for New Agency Owners It's been nearly unanimous from my podcast guests. The #1 piece of advice is learning to say no. But, it's about more than just saying no... It's knowing how to prioritize and say no to the wrong things so you can say yes to the right things. Even Bhanuka admits his agency almost went under by saying yes to the wrong things. He says always vet your prospects before they become clients and determine: Are they a good fit for your niche? Can you and your team get along with them? Are they a culture match with your agency? Will payment be received on time? Are they reliable and responsive? And, most of all, do they have realistic expectations (remember NBAT!)? If the answer to any of these is no, then you need to say no to working with this prospect.

Should you put pricing on your agency website? I used to think it was NOT a good idea, but I've come to change my mind on it and here's why.... What I used to believe was not putting pricing on the agency website. The reason was because we wanted to scare away the people who can't afford us. It was a way to filter out the bad prospects. So, you put pricing on your website and scare away the lower end prospects that can't afford you. The problem is, this strategy is probably also scaring away the right prospects with the big budgets that can afford you. You don't want them to think maybe you're prices are too low and you aren't equipt to handle their business. Think about it this way.... if someone was only charging $1,000 for a Lamborghini you'd wonder what was wrong it. Right? It must be missing the engine or something!?! :) That's what high budget prospects think when they don't know your pricing scale. Maybe your agency is too small or too inexperienced to service their needs. So, if you know your market really well and you're comfortable where your business is at, then sure - go ahead and put your pricing on your website. It will serve as a qualifier to help eliminate the wrong people (which saves you time!) and help identify the right ones. However, if you're trying to grow to the next level don't do it. You want to keep your pricing adjustable. And if it's published on your site that puts a ceiling on how high you can go. So depending on the scenario, I do see a case for putting your pricing on your website. It just depends on the reasons behind it and what you hope to gain from it. Do you have pricing on your agency website? Are you for it or against it? What have you seen working in regards to pricing? Comment below. Also be sure to check out www.JasonSwenk.com/NBAT for more tips to on qualifying your prospects. (This is not a trick. It's a FREE resource... I'm not even asking for your email address or an opt-in!) ======================================================= SUBSCRIBE NOW to follow my entrepreneurial journey. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDvZHFVeqEMq58q6tMoyMK-ufpp0ysoVP ======================================================= Thanks for watching. I hope you keep up with the daily videos I post on my channel. Make sure you subscribe and share your learnings with others. Your comments are why I do this, so please take a second and say hello.  JASON SWENK IS AN AGENCY ADVISOR THAT GUIDES MARKETING AGENCIES THROUGH A PROVEN FRAMEWORK FOR GROWING THEIR AGENCY FASTER & EASIER. Fresh out of college Jason was off to work for Arthur Anderson, one of the big 5 consulting firms. He quickly realized that he could never work for anyone other than himself. He decided to change direction, launch a digital agency that quickly grew to a multi-million dollar operation working with brands such as AT&T, Hitachi and Lotus Cars. After 12 years of steady growth, the agency caught the attention of bigger agencies and Jason sold it in 2012. Now, Jason leads http://JasonSwenk.com, a unique media company & consultancy helping marketing agencies grow & scale their agencies faster by applying the framework that he used to grow, scale and eventually sell his agency. Jason has helped over 10,000 agencies in 23 countries meet or exceed their business goals. Jason currently hosts two shows that are available for download… The Smart Agency Master Class Podcast, dedicated to providing tactics and strategies to agency owners and decision makers that cut through the BS, focus on exactly what works and what doesn’t; and SwenkToday a daily VLOG that documents the entrepreneur journey of building another multimillion dollar business, where he share the latest strategies, and answers the most burning questions entrepreneurs have.  SCHEDULE MON-THUR VLOG #SwenkToday Q&A from my digital agency audience Ask me A Question http://jasonswenk.com/askswenk Podcast Wednesday: (Digital Agency Interviews) https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/smart-agency-masterclass-marketing/id870206013?mt=2&ls=1 or http://smartagencymasterclass.com Follow me here: Website: http://jasonswenk.com  Podcast: http://smartagencymasterclass.com  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jasonswenk    Twitter: https://twitter.com/jswenk   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jswenk   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonswenk   Medium: https://medium.com/@jswenk/  Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jasonswenk Music by epidemicsound.com

Should you put pricing on your agency website? I used to think it was NOT a good idea, but I've come to change my mind on it and here's why.... What I used to believe was not putting pricing on the agency website. The reason was because we wanted to scare away the people who can't afford us. It was a way to filter out the bad prospects. So, you put pricing on your website and scare away the lower end prospects that can't afford you. The problem is, this strategy is probably also scaring away the right prospects with the big budgets that can afford you. You don't want them to think maybe you're prices are too low and you aren't equipt to handle their business. Think about it this way.... if someone was only charging $1,000 for a Lamborghini you'd wonder what was wrong it. Right? It must be missing the engine or something!?! :) That's what high budget prospects think when they don't know your pricing scale. Maybe your agency is too small or too inexperienced to service their needs. So, if you know your market really well and you're comfortable where your business is at, then sure - go ahead and put your pricing on your website. It will serve as a qualifier to help eliminate the wrong people (which saves you time!) and help identify the right ones. However, if you're trying to grow to the next level don't do it. You want to keep your pricing adjustable. And if it's published on your site that puts a ceiling on how high you can go. So depending on the scenario, I do see a case for putting your pricing on your website. It just depends on the reasons behind it and what you hope to gain from it. Do you have pricing on your agency website? Are you for it or against it? What have you seen working in regards to pricing? Comment below. Also be sure to check out www.JasonSwenk.com/NBAT for more tips to on qualifying your prospects. (This is not a trick. It's a FREE resource... I'm not even asking for your email address or an opt-in!) ======================================================= SUBSCRIBE NOW to follow my entrepreneurial journey. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDvZHFVeqEMq58q6tMoyMK-ufpp0ysoVP ======================================================= Thanks for watching. I hope you keep up with the daily videos I post on my channel. Make sure you subscribe and share your learnings with others. Your comments are why I do this, so please take a second and say hello.  JASON SWENK IS AN AGENCY ADVISOR THAT GUIDES MARKETING AGENCIES THROUGH A PROVEN FRAMEWORK FOR GROWING THEIR AGENCY FASTER & EASIER. Fresh out of college Jason was off to work for Arthur Anderson, one of the big 5 consulting firms. He quickly realized that he could never work for anyone other than himself. He decided to change direction, launch a digital agency that quickly grew to a multi-million dollar operation working with brands such as AT&T, Hitachi and Lotus Cars. After 12 years of steady growth, the agency caught the attention of bigger agencies and Jason sold it in 2012. Now, Jason leads http://JasonSwenk.com, a unique media company & consultancy helping marketing agencies grow & scale their agencies faster by applying the framework that he used to grow, scale and eventually sell his agency. Jason has helped over 10,000 agencies in 23 countries meet or exceed their business goals. Jason currently hosts two shows that are available for download… The Smart Agency Master Class Podcast, dedicated to providing tactics and strategies to agency owners and decision makers that cut through the BS, focus on exactly what works and what doesn’t; and SwenkToday a daily VLOG that documents the entrepreneur journey of building another multimillion dollar business, where he share the latest strategies, and answers the most burning questions entrepreneurs have.  SCHEDULE MON-THUR VLOG #SwenkToday Q&A from my digital agency audience Ask me A Question http://jasonswenk.com/askswenk Podcast Wednesday: (Digital Agency Interviews) https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/smart-agency-masterclass-marketing/id870206013?mt=2&ls=1 or http://smartagencymasterclass.com Follow me here: Website: http://jasonswenk.com  Podcast: http://smartagencymasterclass.com  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jasonswenk    Twitter: https://twitter.com/jswenk   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jswenk   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonswenk   Medium: https://medium.com/@jswenk/  Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jasonswenk Music by epidemicsound.com

What do you need to know in order to pitch the biggest agency client ever? How do you win a $6 million deal? I asked for your questions and I got a great one from Chris... His Virtual Reality Agency has a meeting set up where the prospect's entire team is coming in. He needs help with structuring the deliverables in order to land this huge project that could be worth $6 million in revenue. My advice for Chris is: 1- Slice off part of the service to make an easy decision for them. Pitching a $6 million project is risky for them and makes it a really difficult decision. Try to slice it into smaller chunks that will be easier to decide on. 2- Explain what success will look like. Continue to let the prospect determine the value this project will bring them. Ask questions and provide opportunities for them to assign a monetary worth to your services. 3- Walk them through the plan. They don't know what they don't know. So make sure they understand what the plan is and how your agency is different. They will be talking to other agencies, so spell out what "most agencies" will do and how that might differ from your processes. Most importantly, you need to know NBAT and their 3 I's. Check out: https://youtu.be/gDQJYVBJ9mY and remember NBAT is: N - NEED, what do they need? B - BUDGET, what is their budget? A - AUTHORITY, who has decision-making authority? T - TIMING, when do they want this done? Figure that out, and then transition to the 3 I's - Issue, Impact and Importance. This is especially important with these types of huge projects. Impact and Importance are both relevant. So if you're dealing with a billion dollar company, a few million is just pocket change for them. It's key to understand the 3 I's so you can make sure you're solving the right issue and getting down to what's important and impactful to their business. Last but not least - present the proposal IN PERSON. And, when you're in the pitch meeting, set up the next meeting. Getting the next meeting means you'll be able to handle any questions, doubts or objections. Good luck Chris... let us know how it goes! What kind of challenges are you facing? Comment below or send your questions to JasonSwenk.com/AskSwenk and maybe we'll feature you! ======================================================= SUBSCRIBE NOW to follow my entrepreneurial journey. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDvZHFVeqEMq58q6tMoyMK-ufpp0ysoVP ======================================================= Thanks for watching. I hope you keep up with the daily videos I post on my channel. Make sure you subscribe and share your learnings with others. Your comments are why I do this, so please take a second and say hello.  JASON SWENK IS AN AGENCY ADVISOR THAT GUIDES MARKETING AGENCIES THROUGH A PROVEN FRAMEWORK FOR GROWING THEIR AGENCY FASTER & EASIER. Fresh out of college Jason was off to work for Arthur Anderson, one of the big 5 consulting firms. He quickly realized that he could never work for anyone other than himself. He decided to change direction, launch a digital agency that quickly grew to a multi-million dollar operation working with brands such as AT&T, Hitachi and Lotus Cars. After 12 years of steady growth, the agency caught the attention of bigger agencies and Jason sold it in 2012. Now, Jason leads http://JasonSwenk.com, a unique media company & consultancy helping marketing agencies grow & scale their agencies faster by applying the framework that he used to grow, scale and eventually sell his agency. Jason has helped over 10,000 agencies in 23 countries meet or exceed their business goals. Jason currently hosts two shows that are available for download… The Smart Agency Master Class Podcast, dedicated to providing tactics and strategies to agency owners and decision makers that cut through the BS, focus on exactly what works and what doesn’t; and SwenkToday a daily VLOG that documents the entrepreneur journey of building another multimillion dollar business, where he share the latest strategies, and answers the most burning questions entrepreneurs have.  SCHEDULE MON-THUR VLOG #SwenkToday Q&A from my digital agency audience Ask me A Question http://jasonswenk.com/askswenk Podcast Wednesday: (Digital Agency Interviews) https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/smart-agency-masterclass-marketing/id870206013?mt=2&ls=1 or http://smartagencymasterclass.com Follow me here: Website: http://jasonswenk.com  Podcast: http://smartagencymasterclass.com  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jasonswenk    Twitter: https://twitter.com/jswenk   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jswenk   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonswenk   Medium: https://medium.com/@jswenk/  Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jasonswenk Music by epidemicsound.com

How do you make sure you’re talking to the right prospect within the first 20 minutes of a sales meeting? Here’s the 4 questions you need to get answered right away in order to know if you should be working with a prospect. There’s a methodology that I developed for myself and trained by sales team so we could stop wasting time iwht the wrong prospects and only spend time on the right ones. I call it “NBAT” and it stands for Need, Budget, Authority and Timing. Need: Is the project a service your agency offers and does well? Can you be successful with doing this work? Can the client successfully achieve their desired results? Budget: Whats the budget your prospect has available to put toward this project? It is reasonable that you can achieve their desired results within this budget? A lot of people wait until the very end to ask this question. Big mistake. Think about it. If you’re waiting until the end of a meeting to find out the budget, and it’s not a good fit, then you’ve just wasted all that time. Ask upfront and save time for both parties. Have trouble getting prospects to share their budget? Check out: JasonSwenk.com/budgetbuster Authority: Can this person actually make the decision to work with you? Don’t just judge this by job title. Instead, ask them how this project matches up with their company vision. Or, ask them how this aligns with the yearly goal, 5 year plan, etc. - only the decision maker can answer these questions. Timing: What is the time frame they need to work within? You know what it takes to achieve the desired results,. So if the prospect has an unreasonable expectation then you’re being set up for failure. If that’s the case, say goodbye and refer this prospect to your biggest competitor! :) Think about N.B.A.T. for every sales call. This is the system you need to have in place in order to qualify your prospects. And having systems in place is going to help you grow faster and easier so you can run your agency more efficiently and not have to do everything yourself. When I look back at my agency’s success and the successes of the agencies I’ve coached, it all goes back to having the right systems in place. Think, what are the systems you need to create and what are your struggling with that needs improve? My Agency Playbook helps agency owners by guiding them through the 8 systems they need, in the right order, so they can grow and scale. Leave your questions below! ======================================================= SUBSCRIBE NOW to follow my entrepreneurial journey. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDvZHFVeqEMq58q6tMoyMK-ufpp0ysoVP ======================================================= Thanks for watching. I hope you keep up with the daily videos I post on my channel. Make sure you subscribe and share your learnings with others. Your comments are why I do this, so please take a second and say hello.  JASON SWENK IS AN AGENCY ADVISOR THAT GUIDES MARKETING AGENCIES THROUGH A PROVEN FRAMEWORK FOR GROWING THEIR AGENCY FASTER & EASIER. Fresh out of college Jason was off to work for Arthur Anderson, one of the big 5 consulting firms. He quickly realized that he could never work for anyone other than himself. He decided to change direction, launch a digital agency that quickly grew to a multi-million dollar operation working with brands such as AT&T, Hitachi and Lotus Cars. After 12 years of steady growth, the agency caught the attention of bigger agencies and Jason sold it in 2012. Now, Jason leads http://JasonSwenk.com, a unique media company & consultancy helping marketing agencies grow & scale their agencies faster by applying the framework that he used to grow, scale and eventually sell his agency. Jason has helped over 10,000 agencies in 23 countries meet or exceed their business goals. Jason currently hosts two shows that are available for download… The Smart Agency Master Class Podcast, dedicated to providing tactics and strategies to agency owners and decision makers that cut through the BS, focus on exactly what works and what doesn’t; and SwenkToday a daily VLOG that documents the entrepreneur journey of building another multimillion dollar business, where he share the latest strategies, and answers the most burning questions entrepreneurs have.  SCHEDULE: MON-THUR VLOG #SwenkToday Q&A from my digital agency audience Ask me A Question http://jasonswenk.com/askswenk Podcast Wednesday: (Digital Agency Interviews) https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/smart-agency-masterclass-marketing/id870206013?mt=2&ls=1 or http://smartagencymasterclass.com Follow me here: Website: http://jasonswenk.com  Podcast: http://smartagencymasterclass.com  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jasonswenk    Twitter: https://twitter.com/jswenk   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jswenk   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonswenk   Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jasonswenk Music by epidemicsound.com

#3 in a series on Sales Objections: How frustrating is it to spend a ton of time with a new agency prospect only to hear them say "let me think about it"? It happens A LOT, right? Is it actually a sales objection or is it a put off? I get it and it used to happen to me all the time. You work so hard on getting the meeting, creating the proposal, walking them through the plan and then their response.... "let me think about it" - it's so lame! By asking a couple questions you can determine whether it's a put off or a true objection. A lot of times it's an objection that you can work through and convert into a "yes". Ask them if you didn't explain the plan clearly enough. Ask them if you weren't clear on the results your agency can deliver, or if they don't believe your agency is qualified enough in order to be successful. If it's a legitimate obligation then you can address these issues and move past them. Another thing to consider is whether you've got the right prospect in front of you. Have you covered NBAT as part of your qualification process? That is: Need, Budget, Authority, Timing. Related: https://youtu.be/il2EtNpBLl8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucCqnuFXEiI Comment below and tell me what sales objections you're hearing out there. I'm doing a series of videos on handling objections and maybe I'll feature your question or complaint. ======================================================= SUBSCRIBE NOW to follow my entrepreneurial journey. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDvZHFVeqEMq58q6tMoyMK-ufpp0ysoVP ======================================================= Thanks for watching. I hope you keep up with the daily videos I post on my channel. Make sure you subscribe and share your learnings with others. Your comments are why I do this, so please take a second and say hello.  JASON SWENK IS AN AGENCY ADVISOR THAT GUIDES MARKETING AGENCIES THROUGH A PROVEN FRAMEWORK FOR GROWING THEIR AGENCY FASTER & EASIER. Fresh out of college Jason was off to work for Arthur Anderson, one of the big 5 consulting firms. He quickly realized that he could never work for anyone other than himself. He decided to change direction, launch a digital agency that quickly grew to a multi-million dollar operation working with brands such as AT&T, Hitachi and Lotus Cars. After 12 years of steady growth, the agency caught the attention of bigger agencies and Jason sold it in 2012. Now, Jason leads http://JasonSwenk.com, a unique media company & consultancy helping marketing agencies grow & scale their agencies faster by applying the framework that he used to grow, scale and eventually sell his agency. Jason has helped over 10,000 agencies in 23 countries meet or exceed their business goals. Jason currently hosts two shows that are available for download… The Smart Agency Master Class Podcast, dedicated to providing tactics and strategies to agency owners and decision makers that cut through the BS, focus on exactly what works and what doesn’t; and SwenkToday a daily VLOG that documents the entrepreneur journey of building another multimillion dollar business, where he share the latest strategies, and answers the most burning questions entrepreneurs have.  SCHEDULE MON-THUR VLOG #SwenkToday Q&A from my digital agency audience Ask me A Question http://jasonswenk.com/askswenk Podcast Wednesday: (Digital Agency Interviews) https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/smart-agency-masterclass-marketing/id870206013?mt=2&ls=1 or http://smartagencymasterclass.com Follow me here: Website: http://jasonswenk.com  Podcast: http://smartagencymasterclass.com  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jasonswenk    Twitter: https://twitter.com/jswenk   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jswenk   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonswenk   Medium: https://medium.com/@jswenk/  Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jasonswenk Music by epidemicsound.com

Let's talk for a minute about sales and why most digital agencies need a better sales strategy to close more new business. It's all about relating to the prospect and asking the right questions in order to get a favorable outcome. If you can actually help out your prospects then I want you to win those deal. It starts with asking questions to help determine if you can achieve the desired results. Some of the most important things you can do to position your agency as "the choice" rather than "a choice" begins with the questions you're asking up front. Your prospects have a pain point and they're coming to you as a trusted advisor to help guide them to a solution. So the best thing you can do is show them a plan to ease their pain and achieve success. The easiest way to determine the right plan to win sales is by asking them questions like these: "A year from now, where do you want to be?" "What's the biggest ISSUE holding you back from getting there?" "What's the IMPACT this is causing on your business?" "If we could get a million customers to you in a day, what would that do for your business?" "How IMPORTANT is it for you to solve this issue?" Once you understand the 3I's (ISSUE, IMPACT and IMPORTANCE) of their problem, then start building a plan during the conversation. Get their buy-in on the plan all along the way to make it an easier "yes" for them in the end. In this video I give a sample of how to address these questions and how to talk a prospect about your digital marketing plan for their business. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter what you're charging. What matters is the urgency of the situation (those 3 I's) and the value you can deliver. If they balk at the cost, you might not be talking to the right person ~or~ you haven't fully explained the value of the service you'll deliver. (It goes back to pre-qualifying them using NBAT -- https://youtu.be/azIe8vtFV8E) When you apply this sales strategy you will convert more prospects into clients. And that's awesome, because who doesn't love new agency business? :) Let me know what you think about this sales video by commenting below. Your feedback and comments are my why. SUBSCRIBE NOW to follow my entrepreneurial journey. https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLDvZHFVeqEMq58q6tMoyMK-ufpp0ysoVP ======================================================= Thanks for watching. I hope you keep up with the daily videos I post on my channel. Make sure you subscribe and share your learnings with others. Your comments are why I do this, so please take a second and say hello.  JASON SWENK IS AN AGENCY ADVISOR THAT GUIDES MARKETING AGENCIES THROUGH A PROVEN FRAMEWORK FOR GROWING THEIR AGENCY FASTER & EASIER. Fresh out of college Jason was off to work for Arthur Anderson, one of the big 5 consulting firms. He quickly realized that he could never work for anyone other than himself. He decided to change direction, launch a digital agency that quickly grew to a multi-million dollar operation working with brands such as AT&T, Hitachi and Lotus Cars. After 12 years of steady growth, the agency caught the attention of bigger agencies and Jason sold it in 2012. Now, Jason leads http://JasonSwenk.com, a unique media company & consultancy helping marketing agencies grow & scale their agencies faster by applying the framework that he used to grow, scale and eventually sell his agency. Jason has helped over 10,000 agencies in 23 countries meet or exceed their business goals. Jason currently hosts two shows that are available for download… The Smart Agency Master Class Podcast, dedicated to providing tactics and strategies to agency owners and decision makers that cut through the BS, focus on exactly what works and what doesn’t; and SwenkToday a daily VLOG that documents the entrepreneur journey of building another multimillion dollar business, where he share the latest strategies, and answers the most burning questions entrepreneurs have.  DONATE to help us continue to provide you amazing content. https://jasonswenk.com/donate/ SCHEDULE MON-THUR VLOG #SwenkToday Q&A from my digital agency audience Ask me A Question http://jasonswenk.com/askswenk Podcast Wednesday: (Digital Agency Interviews) https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/smart-agency-masterclass-marketing/id870206013?mt=2&ls=1 or http://smartagencymasterclass.com Follow me here: Website: http://jasonswenk.com  Podcast: http://smartagencymasterclass.com  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/jasonswenk    Twitter: https://twitter.com/jswenk   Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/jswenk   Linkedin: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonswenk   Medium: https://medium.com/@jswenk/  Soundcloud: https://soundcloud.com/jasonswenk Related Videos: https://youtu.be/xADZUeqbXAI https://youtu.be/g0DM8F-DCfM https://youtu.be/g0DM8F-DCfM

Açık Mimarlık: 20 Nisan 2017

Açık Mimarlık: 20 Nisan 2017

In this fascinating episode we chat with Jason Swenk, who built up a service agency and sold it for 7-figures just a few short years ago. I DRILL him with question after question on exactly how he scaled it, why most service-providers have such a hard time getting past the "solopreneur" stage, and a million other questions that any service provider will LOVE to hear. As usual, I bring back his major points so they're applicable to ANY business, not just service businesses, so listen in and enjoy! Make sure to SHARE this podcast/episode with your friends, then leave us a REVIEW and get my "101 Conversion Tips" Cheat Sheet... free! Send an email to support@jeremyreeves.com with the name on your review.   Resources Mentioned * JasonSwenk.com Can I Help Grow Your Business? Visit http://www.JeremyReeves.com or email me at support@JeremyReeves.com and let's chat. Enjoy! Transcript Jeremy Reeves: Hey everyone, welcome back to another episode of the sales funnel mastery podcast. This is Jeremy Reeves here your host and today I have on the line with me, Jason Swenk, and he is a very, very impressive dude. I think we are gonna have a really, really fun interview and we are going to bring it back and there is gonna be a lot of really good lessons for everybody to learn here. So quick intro on Jason, he basically built up a digital agency, he run it for about 12 years and then he sold it 2011 and for 7 figures and he did that and then he wrote a book, he developed a smartphone nutrition app and now he is basically media company for service-based entrepreneurs and he does a lot of other very fun things which I’m a little bit jealous actually by the way. He is an avid off-roader, a race car driver, which is kind of awesome, an Iron Man competitor and he has been known to crash remote-controlled planes which is funny because right behind my house I actually have about an acre of woods behind my mouse and then back end there, there is actually like a little track that the guys go and they have remote-controlled planes and so we see them flying all around and I can hear them from the house and that kind of thing. So anyway, welcome to the show Jason, tell us how you are. Jason Swenk: Yeah, doing good man. I need to come over your house and crash some planes in your house I guess. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, right. I don’t know how I’ve never gone back there like hang out with them while they’re doing that. Jason Swenk: Yeah, it’s addictive so don’t go do it. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, that’s probably a good point and I have 2 little boys so they probably, you know, I get it and then they get and then they break it like the first 16 seconds it was in here, so it wouldn’t be good. So I kind of gave it a little bit of an overview of what you’ve done, what you’re doing now, you’re kind of superman powers. So tell everybody, going a little bit more detail about who you are. Jason Swenk: Yeah, I mean, I’m a husband, I’m a father first and after that I’m really a media company for -- where I put out useful information where I wish I had this information when I was running my agency, running my business because I struggled for so many years, I mean, I remember my first client asking me to send him an invoice, I don’t even know what an invoice was. So there’s a lot of learning curves and so obviously I have put out a little bit more information than what’s an invoice, but you know, I have the coolest job in the world where I worked with mostly digital agency owners all over the world and I really helped them scale and get off that kind of -- help them go through that glass ceiling which everybody is trying to go through. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, nice. That’s actually kind of the situation that I’m in right now and scaling the business that kind of thing. So I’m actually gonna have a lot of fun on this interview. Jason Swenk: Cool. Jeremy Reeves: So my first question now -- I’ve kind of -- looking through everything that you have been doing, and just learning about you over the past couple days and that kind of thing. I have been stalking you a little bit for the interview, nothing weird going on. Jason Swenk: Right, right. Jeremy Reeves: So I remember reading that you had -- when you had your digital agency, you got a whole bunch of really big clients, there is Aflac, Lotus like the cars, AT&T and Coke some really big companies, is there anything like -- how do you land those types of clients? Jason Swenk: Well, you have to kind of build up to it right and it also takes having a specialization. Since so many people think -- they look at somewhere or a company that they want to be like so let’s say you wanna build the next Facebook right. So you are literally gonna go out and you’re gonna model what Facebook did and you’re gonna fail because you are looking at where they at now versus how they actually got there and they started out with a specialization versus serve everybody. I mean literally Facebook serves everybody. So that’s one of the biggest mistakes that people make is they go well I’m just gonna be a generalist because I don’t want to scare people away, but if you’re a generalist, you are going to scare a lot more people away I mean that’s how we got Lotus cars and Hitachi and AT&T and all those guys coming to us because we have a specialization that we could do better than anybody else. Like for example, when we were just doing web design way back a long time ago, we would only win business that was local because that was our competitive advantage, right, but then when we started getting a specialization, then we started winning business all over the place and it really started eliminating our competition and it’s kind of like what my buddy Frank says is, your only competition is procrastination and porn. Jeremy Reeves: I like that, that’s funny. It make sense and it’s applicable really to anybody, I mean it doesn’t even matter if you’re service business, if you -- whatever you sell it’s just, the more you specialize, the more you attract people and it’s kind of like, the whole thing even if you have personality in your business, it’s you’re gonna repel some people but buy repelling people, you also attracting the like your perfect ideal audience even more it’s kind of -- like a magnet. You attract one thing, you repel the other thing on the other side. That’s really a good point. Is there anything with -- when you are going out and you’re kind of in the process of scaling, do you think with the whole specialization thing, is there anything -- what other benefits are there to you know just doing like one -- either one marketer, one thing or whatever it is. Besides attracting people and saying like, “Hey, we do this for this type of person” In terms of your kind of like the organization how you run the business, are there any benefits in there? Jason Swenk: Yeah, well I mean, what you have to do is you have to really start off with one specialization and then as you model that you build systems around that, you can create other ones but you add on to the team, right, because you can’t be an expert on everything, and the most important thing about picking a specialty is -- now that you understand the biggest challenges that your prospects are having. So you can actually, you know, what’s the best way to demonstrate how you can help them, is actually help them, alright? And if you put out stuff like, we were always really good at attracting these big clients or the perfect prospect to us because we put out helpful information, right, and we talked their language. So if you’re a generalist, you’re gonna talk very broad and you’re not gonna appeal to someone like whenever we would write headlines of if you look at my site now it’s very specific on the result and it’s specific on who it’s for. So now people start looking at you in authority and you start kind of eliminating a lot of your competition. Jeremy Reeves: That makes sense. Jason Swenk: Over time, you start adding on, so like as our business kept growing, we just kept adding on other divisions and other department heads that lit up that particular practice area. Jeremy Reeves: Okay, that makes sense. So let’s just say -- let’s just say that you’re personal trainer, maybe first you start with just women over 40 dealing with hormonal issues and that’s what causing the weight problems and then so you get that and you get -- you kind of get that perfected and then you move on to maybe younger women is that what are you saying? Jason Swenk: Yeah, so you just do things in stages and then what you can do is as you do that then you’re going to have a really good process, and a really good system that makes it easier to deliver, easier to market and streamlines which increases profit over time, right. So, why keep learning new stuff, new stuff, new stuff, new stuff all over? It’s just gonna eat in to your profit. That’s why there are so many business centers out there that say, “Man, we have a terrific year but I’m still busy and oh, yeah my profit wasn’t that good” I was like, “Well, that’s awful” right? Jeremy Reeves: You worked more and made less. That’s always a big accomplishment. With that, do you there are any other besides like not specializing, are there are any other like kind of big huge things that most people do that they really shouldn’t do like giant mistakes like that? Jason Swenk: Well, the other one is they don’t have clarity, right. They don’t know where they wanna go. It’s kind of like, you know, I got into the agency business on accident, right. I designed a website making fun of the band ‘NSYNC, created this website called ‘NSHIT and it got wildly popular and then people started pay me the design websites like that, and so for a couple of years I had no direction of where we are going. So I didn’t know what to say no to, I didn’t know what to say yes to and I was just kind of floating around, right, but then when I got that clarity of going, alright, this is what we wanna build, this is how we wanna do it and then when you actually started hiring people, you can communicate that. And so now they can start making decisions based on where the company needs to go rather than just coming to you to ask you questions over and over again. Jeremy Reeves: Okay, that makes sense. So how do you -- when you are in that kind of stage where you’re growing, you have that one specialty and then you move out of that to kind of expand, how do you -- is there a certain point that you make up decision or is it kind of just, you know, does it just hit you one day and it’s like, “Hey, you know, we’ve got to tapped out this, you know, this section of the market” or is it more of like this boredom, you need something -- you need like another challenge or you know, what are your thoughts on that? Jason Swenk: It could be a number different things, but I always tell people it’s all about focus. Finish 1 commitment until success. So until you have success on it and you basically have modeled that so you can systemize it like, I have a model that I always tell people that systems outperform talent or systems outperform talent all day long, right? Jeremy Reeves: Yep, I agree. Jason Swenk: You could be the smartest person, you could be the most talented person, you have the best team, but you have a crappy system, you’re not gonna go anywhere. Jeremy Reeves: Yep. You know, I actually have a personal experience with what you just said, and I absolutely agree and now like I’m starting to build the team now and it’s -- the reason that I was afraid to start scaling because what I do is so -- it’s kind of like designing, it’s like so -- you just have to have the skill, like you know if you’re a bad copywriter or a good one. Same thing with designing or whatever it is that you do. If it’s a service-based business, it’s not -- you’re not just like packing boxes and that’s why I was so kind of hesitant to start growing but then I realized that when I was able to take my skill and systematized it and give it to other people that’s like -- their talent instantly like quadruples. Yeah, so I completely agree with you on that point. Jason Swenk: Yeah, when you hire -- because, look -- for number of different years I was the lead designer, right. You should never have the owner as the designer and I was like, well no one can design better than me, but when I started hiring people they actually blew me out of the water. I mean that’s kind of why I just launched the new site for the Jasonswenk.com literally yesterday, right, I hired a company that go do it. They did an amazing job. Jeremy Reeves: Nice. Okay, so in your -- when you’re looking at hiring new people you’re in that mode where you’re going from -- just kind of like solopreneurs who, you know, agency or you just expanding whether you wanna go to 10, 20, 30, 50 people or whether you’re just trying to go from just you to maybe 5 or maybe 10, smaller team. Is there any -- I’m trying to think of how to word this -- is there any kind of -- like organizational structure to look at, like you know, there is you and then -- what do you think is the best way, in general, because I know it’s probably a little bit different for everybody but do you hire a clone of you first or do you hire a project manager or a person basically to take over the initial like kind of doing up the business or sales man, you know, do you have any thoughts on like, kind of when to hire who? Jason Swenk: Yeah, definitely, you don’t hire your clone. That would be a complete nightmare, right? Jeremy Reeves: Okay. Jason Swenk: So, you really -- and it’s different like there is no set formula because everybody is different. Everybody has unique skill sets. Most entrepreneurs they are visionaries, right. So they love coming up with ideas like we could chat for years and years and have all these amazing ideas but ideas aren’t worth the crap, right. You have to have executions so you have to hire someone who executes or sometimes the visionaries’ traits, they’re very bad at project management and attention to detail. So like one of my first hires was a project manager just because I do not like doing stuff. I just like coming up with ideas telling people go do it. And so it really depends on your strengths and where you wanna go, so like if you have this clarity of going, alright, I wanna be a 10-million dollar company and we wanna be doing this and you have kind of like -- before you hire people to, you really go and come up with your company core values, right. If you look at kind of like Tony at Zappos and some other companies that have an amazing culture. They really start there and they -- and a lot of times as a business it really kind of stems down to the entrepreneur, the core values of the entrepreneur so like or is it solar velocity was, you know, people are number one asset. Do more with less, right. Have fun, be energetic, right? So we made sure that -- as we determine if that person could do that job they had to match all those core beliefs because it’s kind of like -- we want to be around people that believe certain things that we do, not that identical to us but just common beliefs and when you can align that, then you can have a really amazing team. Jeremy Reeves: Okay, let me ask you this. If you had to pick and this might be a hard question, I don’t know. If you had to pick and you’re looking at someone new to add in your team and on your right hand you have somebody who had amazing talent but they didn’t really fall into the, you know, the core values of the company and then on the left hand, you have someone who was, you know, they love you, they were exactly on par with you in terms of like the values of the company but the talent wasn’t really there. Which one would you pick? Jason Swenk: Neither. Jeremy Reeves: That’s a good answer. Jason Swenk: It’s easy, easy question. You know, there is the perfect people out there for you, and either one of those could be a perfect fit for someone else, but if they didn’t match up both we don’t hire them. We are not gonna put someone in the role that can do the job that just gonna look bad on us. We are not gonna put someone on the role that doesn’t match up with our core values because that’s gonna be the person that’s the pain in the ass that is kind of get screw up everything within the company. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, okay. That makes sense. When you were -- actually, here’s a question, in the company that you have, what was your main role like when you went to work every day, how did you structure your days and like, were you the one that -- that came up with, you know, the overall vision and let’s just say that you are going into a new market. Were you the one that basically said, “Okay, here is what I’m thinking, here’s why we gonna do it, here’s how it’s gonna help the company” and then kind of give it to your team to figure out the details? Jason Swenk: Yeah, so when we were really humming and we were really growing at a fast pace, we only did before the 5 things, and so here they are: I set the vision and direction of the company. I was the figure head of the company or the front man. I supported sales, I didn’t do all of sales, I supported sales. I looked at the financials and I coach and mentor the people directly under my VPs and then the VPs coach the mentor and the people under them. Like so many entrepreneurs and business owners they have everybody report to them especially when there are like 10 people, I’m like wow, that’s not scalable, like change that. And when you start doing that and say no to everything else things started getting really clear and when you start working yourself into that role that’s what makes you very marketable to be sold, because the business only needs a leader rather than you doing the actual work. Like you should not be doing the day-to-day work. Like if you’re doing copywriting or sales funnels or design or whatever it is. Dude, you got to hire people to do that depending on where you wanna go. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, okay, nice. I like what you said, I actually remember this was probably 6 or 7 years ago, something like that. I was actually at a quarterly meeting with a client and since then I think client’s either doubled or tripled but they were at a roughly like 7 or 8 million and I remember he actually hired a business coach and we were in the room, we were talking about that and I remember he drew out kind of like the organizational structure of the company and he drew all the different place, I think there was like 12 or 15 employees and that include people that he outsource. They weren’t full-time employees but they were like at least part-time. And he drew them in a circle and then he put the clients name in the middle and then he drew lines all going to the client who is the CEO and he said, “Does this look right to you?” And instantly got the plan across and then he said, “It should look something like this” and he had -- I think it was like he did it in a groups of 4 I think it was, so there was like 4 employees and then the project manager, 4 employees, project manager and then -- I think there was 4 project managers, they reported to somebody and then that 1 person reported to the CEO. Was that -- I don’t know if you could visualize that as I kind of lay that up, is that more of what you’re talking about? Jason Swenk: Yeah, exactly. I mean, so we have a number of different divisions so we had practice directors, so we literally had like, me at the top or at the bottom whatever you want to call it and I’m cleaning the toilet and then we had the VPs, right. So we had VP of sales, marketing, you know, VP of operations and then under them, we had practice directors and those were kind of the figure heads that understood that one specialty or that specialization and then under there, they were kind of associated to another different clients kind of like your circle example and then they had project managers, designers, developers, marketers, copywriters, all that kind of stuff to support their clients in those little pods. Jeremy Reeves: Okay, nice I like that, I like that. Just had a question, I was just gonna ask something that it kind of fell on my head I’m gonna come back to hopefully it comes up before --. How did you -- a lot of people when they’re thinking about scaling, they kind of, they kind of get nervous because most entrepreneurs when you talk to them, they like, “Oh, I don’t want employees, you know, they are just a giant pain in the ass and they’re gonna cause nothing but problems”. Why do you think that is, is it because they are not -- either they’re hiring the wrong people or they’re not structuring it properly or they’re just not a good leader or -- What do you think, and I’m sure you agree with that, probably 8 out of 10 entrepreneurs that I know, at least like in the smaller stages, not guys that are in like 7 figure or 8 range because they pretty much figured it out. People under 7 figures typically say that they don’t want to scale and this part of my problem honestly before I made the decision to switch. They do it because they kind of like -- everybody else in that kind of circle says that all employees do is cause problems and that kind of thing. So what are your thoughts on that? Jason Swenk: Yeah, so I have motto that, there’s no such thing as a bad employee. And so let me explain, you’re like what! There is -- Jeremy Reeves: I know that because I’ve learned this, I know pretty much exactly what you’re gonna say because I’ve learned this lesson, actually fairly recently. Jason Swenk: Yeah, I mean, there is only a bad kind of interviewee that you let in or bad process. You don’t have the right system. So if you start -- there is a model out there I can’t remember what it’s called, like life cycle of business, but I really like how they outlined it and basically it went this. It said, if you look at like a curve or like a half a circle, right and on the very beginning as you’re going up that half a circle on the left -- this is the fun stage right, you’re like getting cool clients, you’re making some money, you’re having a good time and it’s just fun, but the whole business depends on you. And then after you start saying, “Well, I wanna take it up a little notch” You’re gonna go through what they call white water and you have to go through it. Everybody has to go through it and people make a decision whether they wanna move forward through white water and get to kind of predictable success, I think it’s called the Predictable Success Model. When they hit white water what they’ll say to themselves, “Man, I would just wish I could back to the way it was when it was fun” which is perfectly fine, but the businesses totally dependent on you, so you need to kind of figure out if that matches up with your clarity of where you wanna go. And the way to get through white water depends on how quickly you get through it is having the right systems. So then you get to -- on the top of the circle or the curve to predictable success where as fast as you put your foot on the throttle, you’re gonna accelerate really, really fast and it’s fun, it’s predictable all that, but then what happens is you start going down the curve and people stop innovating and so you go to kind of like, I wonder what they called it, like a ditch on the road or something, kind of like Netflix went through that. Blockbuster went through the death throttle which is after that. They just want it completely under rank, they didn’t predict. When you think of that you gonna figure out where you’re at and then you can make really good decisions. Does that help? Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, yeah, that makes a lot of sense. I like that. So how about in terms of doing actual marketing in the company, was there anything that you figured it out to market yourself whether it was a certain channel or a certain maybe type of copy or like basically lay out what you were doing that helped you, because you can -- you can want to grow when you can want to scale everything and get all the systems in place, but if you don’t have the clients to support that, you’re not gonna go anywhere. What did you figure out about marketing and maybe even sales funnels in general and that kind of thing? Jason Swenk: Yeah, so everybody they love to focus on themselves. You go to a website, this is what I did, this is who I am, all that kind of BS. Even if you go to about page, like if you guys went to my about page you wouldn’t see anything about me until you scroll maybe 50% down the page, alright. And so my tactic has always been is to focus on the visitor, focus on the prospect and the easiest way to do that and change the conversation is ask questions. Ask questions to them where it focuses on them and makes them the star and then provide them information that actually helps them. You got to demonstrate by helping them before you ask them for any month like if you went to my site, you’re not gonna see anything for sale other than like this $199 or this $99 proposal template. All my other programs are kind of behind the line and you have to go through the campaigns and engage with them in order to be set up for that and that’s what really separates kind of the -- a really good business and what we did versus like an average kind of just getting by. Jeremy Reeves: Okay, so basically, if you break that down it’s really -- if you kind of take that to its core essence it’s really leading with value, would that be right? Jason Swenk: Yeah, helping them. I mean, your helping you’re not selling. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, yeah, yeah and I agree, I agree. If anybody ever goes through any of my stuff it’s always -- even if I have stories or talking about a case study I always bring it back to okay -- here is what I did for somebody but here’s how you can apply that and it’s really all -- it’s all value-based, really. I’m a huge believer on that. So how about -- what kinds of different channels did you use, was it all referrals, was it like -- referrals word-of-mouth, was it direct mail, was it things like paid advertising like Adwords and things like that or what did you find that worked well for you? Jason Swenk: You have to have a multi kind of development approach to it. Too many people just rely on 1 channel, so like let’s say you just relied on Facebook and then Facebook blocked you. Wow, your business goes bye, bye. Goodbye, right? So we had an outbound strategy. We had an inbound strategy. We had a strategic partnerships strategy. We never wanted to rely on referrals because referrals aren’t scalable and the funny thing is especially in the service-based business, the number one thing that people tell me how they get their businesses is through word-of-mouth, I’m like, “Oh my God” I was like, “How do you -- do you put all of the responsibility on other people to do your job?” I mean that’s basically what it is. And so you need to create other channels so -- yeah we use the Adwords but you know what I found with Adwords. It was going after a small part of the market, right? So if you look at 100% of the pie there is only about 3% to maybe 10% of people actually looking for what to do right now and that’s very busy, that’s very crowded and then there is another like I think like 30% that will never ever do work with you so that’s 40% and that’s the most of time -- that’s the 40% of the people that you are going after, right, you’re marketing too, where I like to go after kind of the 60% where not many people were -- now more and more people are starting to do that with like disrupting people’s, you know, going where your prospects are and putting out useful information or asking the right questions like Facebook market. Facebook advertising is brilliant roughly right now but to us marketers, screw it up, may not be in a couple years. We had people calling on the phones to strategic accounts. We established partnerships with people that were going after our prospects that we’re going after. So we had all kinds of things going on. Jeremy Reeves: Nice, okay. So you guys get a whole bunch fishing poles in the water. Jason Swenk: Yes, and we knew the fish we are going after. We were going after a blue marlin versus fishing in a pond, that’s right [inaudible 00:28:10] trout.Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, you know what, let’s kind of pivot into that point because that is something that -- that a lot of people just don’t -- it just doesn’t click for them until it does and then once it clicks and I’ll clarify this, but once it clicks, the whole game changes. So tell us about the blue marlin versus the trout because everybody in just the way that they positioned themselves and the way that they write their copy to attract new clients and the customers. If they’re going after everybody versus the hyper responsive customer or clients in there market. It’s a lesson I learned probably a solid 2 years ago, actually more than that probably. That is something that I learned that -- it does not matter how many clients that you have, it matters essentially which ones are your -- the big fish, the ones that are the easiest to deal with, the ones that gave you the least problems, the ones that help you become the most profitable in the shortest amount of time, the ones that you get the most -- the most results for the shortest amount of time and usually those two kind of correlate with each other. So talk to us about that -- about how you found out exactly who your perfect client was and then kind of what you did to really hone in on that particular client? Jason Swenk: You just gonna think about what different kind of group do you know more information than most, so that’s why I targeted digital agency [inaudible 00:29:25] I lived and breathed it for 12 years and sold it, so I understood all the challenges that they’re going through and I knew I could put out the helpful information for that, so that’s kind of how I picked that audience and I mean, I kind of fell into this, I had people kind of reach back out to me and pulled me into this market so it was a little different, like I didn’t have to find it but at the agency and what I see with a lot of clients is it’s the perfect fishing analogy right. You can know you’re going after a blue marlin but if you don’t know where the blue marlin is and you go to the pond you’re never gonna catch one because they don’t live in the ponds or if you wanna catch a blue marlin and you go to the place with that little bamboo pole, it’s gonna break the bamboo pole, right? Or if you have the wrong bait, so there is so many different things that have to line up, but the first thing is knowing who you’re going after that goes back to that specialization, knowing what their biggest challenges are, that’s the bait and then having the right systems of the processes is really about the right tackle or the fishing pole in order to pull them in. And when you start having that and all of those, all 3 of those things align that’s when you start having success. Jeremy Reeves: Okay, yeah, nice. I can’t even begin to describe how powerful what you just said is -- it’s one of those things that you listen to and you’re like, “Oh yeah, that’s a good idea” but then when you actually implement it in your business and you see that -- your average client value triples within 2 months that’s like how powerful that can be when you find that. A lot of times like when you said, that you kind of fell into it. I actually think that happens more often than not. I think a lot of times the more you search for it -- it’s kind of one of those things that if you search for it, you never gonna find it but then if you just stay open to the possibility and just kind of let it come to you it eventually does. I know that has happened in my life and most of the people that I’ve talked to about this -- it’s kind of the same thing that happened for them. Someone reached out to them and said, “Hey, why aren’t you doing this” and when they said it, then the light bulb clicks So a lot of it really is about just listening to what other people are telling you because it’s so hard to see into yourself versus -- that’s even like I’m in a program called strategic culture right now and one of the things that were focusing on is unique ability basically that kind of like super human ability that you have. They said that you’re probably not gonna know what it is. You might have like an idea but one of the ways to really pull it out is to ask people, our homework for the quarter is to basically ask 10 people what’s unique about us, when they have to rely on us to do X like what is it, what’s that kind of x-factor. Jason Swenk: So that’s why my friends have been emailing me, asking me what their superpowers are. I was trying to figure out, I was like, man there is 2 or 3 people that did that. I guess they’re in [inaudible 00:33:07] programs. Jeremy Reeves: Ask them if they are in strategic coach I guarantee you they are -- or they’ve at least heard the strategy of doing that that’s funny though. So tell us about when -- in terms of like -- so you did all that to reach out to the people. You had your inbound marketing, outbound marketing, referrals all that kind of stuff, joint venture partners, another big tip, by the way. When people got in touch with you -- essentially, from the moment that they found out you where alive. To the moment that they became a client and then throughout the process of the on boarding and then after the first project is over. Tell us kind of what happens and I know that’s kind of a loaded question there, but kind of break it down and what was your sales process like and well, not just sales process, but like what was your whole process of when they first get in touch with you, how did you sell them, how did you onboard them, was there anything kind of special that you did to like enhancer relationship, give them a cool experience through working with them and then after. Jason Swenk: So it’s very different from what I used to do to what I do now. So let me tell you what we used to do and either of them are good of an approach. So of course because I came up with it, no, I’m just kidding. I’m laughing, making fun at myself so don’t think I’m cocky. When people would call us, the first thing that I’m trying to do is qualify them, too many people when they wanna work with you or they start talking to you they may not be the perfect prospect it’s kind of the same thing like I said there is no such thing as a bad employee. There is no such thing as a bad client. There is only a bad prospect or a bad system. So you gotta kind of qualify them and so I came up with this -- an acronym I don’t know how you say but it’s called NBAT, and it’s called Need, Budget, Authority, and Timing. So if it was me or my sales guys we would say, alright, what’s their need, does it match up with what we deliver in our core service. If not, punt because you don’t wanna take on the wrong project or client and yes you’re laughing because you’ve done this right, all agencies do. Jeremy Reeves: I like the word ‘punt’. Jason Swenk: Yeah, okay. And then the next one is budget, what’s their budget? You know, it’s about 50% of service-based businesses ask what the budget is and then the 50% that do ask they don’t get it because the client says well you tell me and then they give up. I’m like no you just -- literally just go, I just needed to know some kind of range that you try to stay around and then you’re at the reverse auctioneer saying you try to stay around $1,000,000, $800,000, $500,000, $10,000, $5,000 what is it, just give me a range and you get the budget 100% of time. I call that my budget buster. And then you go into timing. Is there timing that they want the stuff? Unrealistic? If it is, punt. Get rid of it and then hopefully they don’t return that night like bad Florida state game, but it’s all another story. So that’s what we were doing and then after we qualify them it’s all about asking the right questions and figuring it out what’s their challenge, what are they want with the impact on their business because that’s gonna be your kind of your follow-up strategy and your leverage. What I do now is I use technology to really kind of make it hard and kind of weed out a lot of people that are trying to work with me. So, I’ll do something like, if someone goes into my website, I’ll say hey I’ll design this, free blueprint for you that shows you how to do X, Y and Z, and they’ll be like, “Yeah, hell yeah that’s awesome” and then I say, “Alright, here’s the catch” you have to meet this criteria and this is what we’re gonna do and I even threw an added level to it. I actually charge $100 real person refundable deposit and I was like -- I was wondering how that would work. I actually get more request now and I tell them I care less about the $100. I just do it to weed people out. And so then when someone talks to you they’re just more likely you’ve already converted them from a prospect to a pain customer. They’re not a client but they’re pain customer. And then you just go down the road of like, alright what’s your biggest challenge, help them out what’s the impact on their business and then at the very end I basically say, “Do you think this is a good plan?” and they’ll go, “yeah, it’s cool” I’m like, “You want my help?” and I’m like, “okay” and I’m like, sign here. That’s really it. Pretty easy. Jeremy Reeves: Nice, okay. How do you -- when you’re looking at even like things like pricing and when you’re talking to a client making -- I’m a big believer and I just had a conversation about -- actually one of my clients that I’m working with now -- just a quick story to kind of explain the point. One of the clients that I’m working with now -- we are at a stage where -- it’s really, really big funnel. She is a real estate coach and we’re at the end of the project. We’re at like kind of the 5-yard line and it’s gotten held up for like the last 3 or 4 weeks. So I’ve been like kind of pushing her, like “Hey, you know I need this” because it’s mostly like stuff that I need from her like I have to have her do the webinar that kind of thing. So we kind of have like a frank discussion about it this morning, she’s like honestly if I’m being truthful, she’s like, I’m scared. She just like I’m very scared of putting this forward like what’s gonna happen and like I’m nervous about it and that kind of thing and she said last night I was talking to a friend and they just -- they basically just kicked the hell out of me and I said, “Listen, you’re completely changing this industry, there’s so many scammers in the industry and you’re coming into this with full authenticity and genuineness and you’re really trying to help people and they’re not gonna get that if you’re not there, they’re not finding you and they go find someone else, they’re gonna get scammed. And every single day that you are delaying this your basically -- you have disservice to the people that you’re supposedly trying to help and I think that is so true. A lot of people are so afraid of charging high prices and being kind of like authoritative in getting clients to move forward and from my perspective, I mean they’re doing themselves a disservice if they don’t go for something that’s gonna help them. So when you’re talking to people, is there anything -- and I guess this is kind of like in your “closing script” are there any like questions you ask people or anything to really make people see the value that you’re gonna bring them so you could therefore charge higher prices and deliver better service that kind of thing? Jason? Jason Swenk: Oh, I hit my mute button, sorry about that. I was talking. Jeremy Reeves: Sorry about that. Jason Swenk: That’s alright. Jeremy Reeves: I’ll let it out. Jason Swenk: Or you can leave it in, that’s even better right? Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, we will leave it in. [inaudible 00:40:26] transparency. Jason Swenk: I have this microphone that if you briefly touch the mute button and it doesn’t like -- it just like I happened to touch it and it literally goes mute. So what I do is basically ask a lot of questions were like, alright if we do this what’s the result going to be, what’s the impact on your business. You have to ask questions to have them come up with the impact and you kind of leading the witness, like you know the impact. And you should really do your pricing on like 10x pricing model going like, you know, if you know you deliver $100,000 worth of value for doing this funnel then you should charge $10,000 for it. It’s kind of like 10x pricing model or depending on their expectations. So like one time I went into a [inaudible 00:41:20] I didn’t know who they were when I first started selling and pitch them like a $5,000 website or $10,000 I can’t remember but they were anticipating like $200,000 of the website, it left me out of the building. You just got to ask questions to have them come up with the results that they’re going to get not have you tell them. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, exactly. And that’s something that I do and I’ve had people like when you ask about budget and stuff, they kind of like, “Oh well, you’re just gonna charge me more” and that kind of thing and it’s like no, I need to know information about your business and even like getting them to kind of tell me like sensitive information, how many leads they’re getting, how many -- what their conversion rates, how many of those leads converting the sales, that kind of thing. And it really is because if I have 2 businesses, one is doing $200,000 a year and one is doing $15,000,000 a year, the funnel, the service that you’re gonna give them is completely different anyway because -- I’m not gonna go out and build a really, really basic funnel for a $15,000,000 company because that’s probably already in place and they need something to take it to the next level versus someone who is doing $200,000 they just need like kind of something to get up and running, get the results, improve -- get some more cash flow coming in and then they go to level 2. That’s kind of how -- how I do and I completely agree that it’s just -- I was actually gonna ask you about the -- what you try to do like in terms of 10x or 5x or 50x or whatever and I usually try to do 10x too I think that’s just -- it’s a nice kind of even number it’s easy to handle and it also allows a little bit of room for like fluctuations like a little buffer zone essentially. Jason Swenk: Exactly. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, I mean, have you ever -- so let’s just say that you had 1 person and they had a just say $5,000,000 business and they wanted to redo their website. And then the next person comes in and they have a $100,000,000 business they wanna do to redo their website. Do you -- would you change the service or change the price based on what they need? Jason Swenk: Change the price. I mean, you’re just moving up a level and then you start to say no to the people at $10,000. I learned this lesson -- I had this one kind of pain in the ass person come to me, I knew I didn’t want to work with. At that time, I had a hard time saying no and so literally like at that time we are charging like $10,000 websites and I was like I just wanna make him go away and literally I said it’s gonna be $80,000 and he said yes. I’m like, crap, but then I was like, “Oh wow I could sell an $80,000 website not doing anything else” and so then I started getting more and more $80,000 websites and we stop doing the lower ones and then we started doing that with $100,000 and so on. Jeremy Reeves: Okay, so kind of had like break through that glass ceiling to be able to go up to the next level? Jason Swenk: Yeah, it’s the crap between your ears that gets in the way of everything. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, I completely agree. If someone is listening to this and they only have --they’re like at the very beginning stages of business it really is -- it seems almost like scary, but once it actually happens to you, I mean I remember way, way back in the day charging $2000 or $3000 for like a full sales funnel, that kind of thing and it’s just like, compared to now and it’s just -- I’m coming out with a program for a $120,000 a year and it’s just completely different and -- that kind of level of business that I’m working with has gone dramatically up since then, but it’s -- it always happened once you do it at first time and I always tell people like, look whatever you have, I called it a freedom offer. Whatever you have, think of something that’s 5 or 10 times the price, whether it’s the exact same thing but for a client in a much better position like somebody a $50,000,000 company versus a 5 or delivering 10 times the value but like just do it and once that first person takes you up in that offer it’s a complete game changer and then you do it once and all of a sudden you’re doing one a month and then your whole business shifts and you’re just doing that like you said. Jason Swenk: Yep, exactly. Jeremy Reeves: Okay. So is there -- I know were coming up on time I think you had a hard deadline today, so let’s just say -- is there -- we’ve covered all kinds of different things and there is so many actionable takeaways from this that’s kind of ridiculous almost. I think I’m gonna actually listen to it again and go back for it. Is there anything that I didn’t ask that you think people should know, if they’re in a position and regardless if they own an agency or not, because probably 90% of this stuff is directly applicable to really any business doesn’t matter. Is there anything that I should have ask or anything that, that people should definitely know before you get off the phone that would like change the way that they look at their business? Jason Swenk: I mean the biggest thing is, 2 ways. You have to have focus so it really comes back to finishing that one commitment until success. Everybody has that shiny red object syndrome. You see this someone doing this, you were like, “Oh I gonna go do this” and then the other thing is just be yourself, just be unique. So many people copy other people and it’s a form of flattery great, but you never gonna breakthrough it to the next level until you’re truly unique and just don’t come up with -- I mean at the end of the day it all is about action. That’s what separates the most successful people to the people that are just struggling. So action really leads to transaction if you think about it. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, I love it, I love it. Well, we had a lot of wisdom on the line today, there is a lot of stuff that everybody should be taking action on and if you don’t, I’m gonna personally come and smack you in the face. Jason Swenk: Me too, me too. I’m gonna fly an airplane into your face. Jeremy Reeves: Yeah, there you go. If we ever meet in person I definitely wanna fly some airplanes and get a beer together because I think that we have a lot to talk about and have in common but before we get off the line today, if there is anybody that has a service-based business and they’re looking to kind of get out of that, you know, the little tiny box that you’re in and go out to the bigger box essentially. If you’re looking to scale. Where can they find out about you to have you help them with that? Jason Swenk: Yeah, definitely. Just go to my website, jasonswenk.com it’s spelled S-W-E-N-K so just jasonswenk.com. I put out probably about 60% of my knowledge for absolutely nothing and then you’ll see a couple goofy videos, cat videos and stuff like that which everybody loves. Jeremy Reeves: That’s funny. Again, as always those -- that website will be in the show notes whether you’re on your phone or listening to this on your computer whatever it is and yeah, go to jasonswenk.com I’ve been through the site. He does, he gives away a lot of really, really solid information and then if you are taking the value first approach which I completely love. I really enjoyed the call and thanks again for coming on showing us how to increase our -- I guess scalability. Jason Swenk: No problem, thanks for having me on. Jeremy Reeves: Sure, thanks.

Are you using CRM software the best way to track leads for your business? If you are facing some challenges, I can help. What are the best ways of using CRM Software to track leads and project cashflow? Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is HUGE in any industry where you've got multiple leads at various stages in the sales process. CRM software is a must in keeping organized and optimizing every opportunity. The best way to use CRM is to create levels and use the levels to get a handle on cash projections. [ctt title="Here are 3 steps you can take to manage your relationships and get a snapshot of revenue. " tweet="Here are 3 steps you can take to manage your relationships and get a snapshot of revenue. http://ctt.ec/j_kgW+ via @jswenk #agencycrm" coverup="j_kgW"] Step 1: Create Levels My agency had four levels in our CRM system for prospects who requested to be contacted. Level 1 - This level is people we needed to chat with and qualify. Remember to use my NBAT technique to qualify leads quickly. If you don't know about NBAT, watch this quick video about assessing Need, Budget, Authority and Timing. Level 2 - These people were qualified and needed a meeting to sell our foot in the door offer, such as a discovery or audit. (More on that in this post.) Level 3 - Leads at this level were ones in the proposal stage. We had qualified them and established a relationship in levels 1 and 2. Level 4 - This level was only for the done deal, after we got approvals and sign offs to proceed. Remember when you set up your levels, these are just for potential customers who ASKED to be contacted. People who enter your system through a lead magnet, should stay in the “lead bucket” until they indicate otherwise. Step 2: Assign Percentages to Your Levels For revenue forecasting purposes, we assigned percentages to each level. You can start by using my numbers below and fine tune them once you have a good handle on your own rates. Level 1 - About 10% of the people in this level will turn into sales. Level 2 - Roughly 25% in this level convert to sales. Level 3 - Between 50-75% of these prospects will become clients. Level 4 - Anywhere from 75-100% will close the deal. Step 3: Plug In the Numbers Use the percentages and get a great snapshot of your cash projection. Use this to analyze your accounting systems, accounts receivable, recurring revenue and more. Grow Your Digital Agency Once you know how to optimise your cash projections using CRM software, it's now time to look at the bigger picture of your agency, you can focus on areas you haven't explored yet as well as struggles you need to focus on to improve your business and then check out how I have all you need to get through these obstacles. I have covered everything from increasing website conversions, how to implement Facebook in your marketing strategy as well as why building authority to improve your agency is important. If growth is your focus, I've discussed the different phases of growth within your agency and the three questions you need to ask yourself to sell your services to more customers. You can learn more about my career and experiences as well as lots of tips, tricks and insights by reading my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics. 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.