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Wanna know how a 200-person agency reduced churn by 50% from one year to the next? Even though Hawke Media is one of the most successful marketing agencies in the United States and they’ve scaled to hundreds of millions in annual revenue, their journey hasn’t been without bumps in the road. At the beginning of 2022,  they saw client churn on the rise and their CEO, Erik Huberman, knew he had to adjust their strategy to address a new challenge. In today’s conversation, you’ll hear from Erik: How they created intense focus throughout the agency to reduce client churnThe role of incentive structures & systematic churn analysis in their impressive churn reductionHow they retrained their sales team to head off churn early in the client lifecycleWhat they realized was the Number 1 KPI impacting client churn (based on systematic AI analysis) Want to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.

What’s one mistake you’ve made as an agency leader you’ll never forget? Several guests on this show have shared the same exact answer:  “I wish I’d invested in my own financial literacy sooner!” But, what financial metrics should you focus on the most?  Even if you answer that question—how do you (and your team) impact those financial metrics that matter most for your agency? To answer these questions, in today’s episode, you’ll hear from Ryan Watson from Upsourced Accounting, where he & the team help agencies just like yours avoid financial pitfalls & achieve financial health.  Ryan’s a former agency COO & CFO himself, so he comes with financial know-how but also real agency life experience. In today’s episode you’ll learn: The 5 Financial Metrics successful agencies get right (from Upsourced’s own analysis of agency client data) An introduction to the Hierarchy of Financial Needs (that will help you determine the right financial metric to prioritize right now) The building blocks to a successful Project Profitability Analysis (which Ryan says is the most important thing you can do to getting a handle on your agency’s gross margin) Want to watch this episode on YouTube to see the visuals? Check it out here: Agency Life Podcast on YouTube Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Connect with Ryan on LinkedIn Subscribe to the Upsourced Accounting YouTube Channel The State of Agency Operations Report Teamwork.com Profitability Reporting The 4 P’s of Time-Tracking Your Team Won’t Hate Want to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.

Want to win more clients (and keep them longer) in 2024? Of course you do! Offering a free benchmark consultation as part of your sales process might just be the key to doing both this year. In this episode with Chris Nault, Founder and CEO of Growth, he breaks down the process and results from his agency's 5-week experiment of adding a benchmark consultation into their sales and renewal processes. In this episode, you’ll hear from Chris: When and how to invite clients into a Databox benchmark group How it can impact your close rates (for both new & renewal business)s The role benchmark data can play in on-going client management How to leverage benchmark data to build a tight-knit community for your clients and prospects Resources Mentioned in This Episode: Connect with Chris on LinkedIn 5 Reasons Your Firm Should Offer a Free Benchmark Consultation The State of Agency Operations Report Databox (Free) Benchmark Groups How 200+ Agencies Invest in Their Own Marketing w/ Pete Caputa & Karl SakasWant to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.

38% of agencies struggle with frequently overservicing clients.  Of the 500+ agencies surveyed for the 2023 State of Agency Operations Report, 44% also said that client demands have become tougher to meet.     Are you finding clients more demanding? Is overservicing happening more frequently in your agency? If so, 2024 can be different on both fronts. Ken Yarmosh, Business Coach, Fractional COO and Founder of The Remote Solopreneur, recently joined the Agency Life webinar series and laid out a clear path forward so that agency leaders like you can help your team to stop overservicing clients (for good). In today's episode you'll learn: The root causes of consistently overservicing clients How to stop selling widgets and start selling outcomes The 5 steps to scale up your agency's offers Why you need to flip the "Communication Pyramid" with clients to deliver client work without the typical headaches Resources mentioned in today’s conversation: Connect with Ken on LinkedIn Watch the video replay (complete with slide deck) of this conversation: How to Stop Overservicing Clients for GoodWant to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.

With your business, clients and the world changing so fast around you, it can be tough to know what your growth goals should be--or how to even approach setting them in the first place. Thankfully, Drew McLellan, CEO of the Agency Management Institute (and agency vet himself), joins the podcast today to break down the numbers in a simple formula you can use to set attainable goals in any market. In today's episode you'll learn: How to determine which of the 5 phases of agency maturity you're in today Why you shouldn't set your goals based on top-line revenue alone (and how to use AGI instead) How to ideally split your AGI (Adjust Gross Income) between Loaded Salaries, Overhead, and Profit Resources mentioned in today’s conversation: Connect with Drew on LinkedIn Watch the video replay (complete with slide deck) of this conversation: Growing Your Agency Too Fast or Not Fast EnoughWant to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.

Whether you're looking at 2024 with aggressive growth goals or simply trying to maintain your existing trajectory, one thing's for sure: It's about more than top-line revenue. No matter what your agency's size, maximizing your profitability is a key part of thriving (or even just surviving in 2024). That's why I'm excited to share my conversation with Megan Bowen, Chief Operating Officer at Refine Labs.  Megan was the very first guest speaker on our Agency Life webinar series and this conversation was too relevant to this time of year not to share. In today's episode you'll learn: How to leverage "time studies" to uncover inefficiencies How to stagger client onboardings to match capacity and client needs How to adjust your pricing model as your services evolve Resources mentioned in today’s conversation: Connect with Megan on LinkedIn Watch the video replay (complete with slide deck) of this conversation: Mastering Agency Profitability: People, Process, and PricingWant to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.

Are you sick of content about AI that just talks about how big of a game-changer it is without giving you practical tips on what to do with this technology? We were too. That's why we hosted Chris Mathieu, Chief Services Officer at New Breed, an Elite HubSpot Solutions Partner onto our Agency Life webinar series to discuss: 5 specific ways they're testing & leveraging AI within their agency, and how to avoid the most. common pitfalls with AI adoption right now. We also broke down data from our recent State of Agency Operations Report that illuminated the divide in the agency community over AI. Plus, Chris answered live questions from the community about the various AI use-cases we discussed. Resources mentioned in today’s conversation: Read the full report The State of HubSpot Report Get your copy of The State of Agency Operations Report (2023) Register for the upcoming webinar Lead to Loyalty: How to Optimize Your Client Lifecycle with HubSpot & Teamwork.com Connect with Chris on LinkedIn Watch the video replay (complete with slide deck) of this conversation: AI for Agencies: Growth Tool or Threat? Want to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.

What got you here won’t get you there.  You’ve probably heard that phrase before.  And it probably couldn’t feel more applicable than it does right now as we round out 2023. So, the question is: Are you going to keep doing more of the same?  Or do something different in 2024? If you’re in that latter camp, then you’re going to get some encouragement (and hopefully some useful ideas to implement) from today’s guests, Pete Caputa and Karl Sakas. You probably already know, but in case you don’t: Pete is the CEO of Databox, a business analytics platform that helps agencies provide transparent performance management to their clients. Karl is an author, speaker, consultant and the founder of Sakas & Company, a consulting firm helping agency owners work less and earn more. Their two organizations recently teamed up to survey over 200 agencies about their own marketing efforts.  The survey continues to collect new responses even up to the time of this recording, and the insights have been published (ungated, I might add) in their new report, How High Performing Agencies Market Themselves. As we unpack this new report with Pete & Karl, you’ll hear: Why most agencies would fire the agency if they had themselves as a client How much agencies are investing in their own marketing today What channels your peers are investing in (and which are yielding the highest ROI) Pete and Karl’s advice for you to change the status quo in 2024 (remember what got you here won’t get you there) Resources mentioned in today’s conversation: Read the full report How High Performing Agencies Market Themselves Get your copy of The State of Agency Operations Report (2023) Register for the upcoming webinar Lead to Loyalty: How to Optimize Your Client Lifecycle with HubSpot & Teamwork.com Connect with Pete on LinkedIn Connect with Karl on LinkedIn Get a copy of Karl's book Work Less, Earn More Join the (free) Databox Benchmark Groups Connect with Tamara Omerovic on LinkedIn  Want to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.

What are you concerned about as you plan ahead for 2024? How will next year be different than this year? These were among a few of the topics we discussed this week in a rare in-person recording with Peter Coppinger, Co-Founder and CEO of Teamwork.com, during his recent trip to Denver. You see, before Teamwork.com was the growing SaaS company we are today, serving agencies with a platform to run client work, Peter and his Co-Founder, Daniel Mackey, were doing client work–building a web design agency that eventually led them to start building the platform we provide to thousands of customers today. In this conversation, you'll hear: The 3 consistent stages of growth in scaling an agency.  What are they and how do you recognize which stage you’re in. The utilization benchmarks Peter recommends from his own agency experience Peter’s take on the age old question: to niche or not to niche (especially in this economic environment) His take on whether or not you should be embracing AI as an agency Resources mentioned in today’s conversation: Download The Ultimate Guide to Scaling Your Agency Get your copy of The State of Agency Operations Report (2023) Connect with Peter on LinkedIn The 12 biggest mistakes our web agency made — and how we fixed them Want to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.

You probably heard recently on this show, from the dozens of agency owners & leaders we spoke to at INBOUND this year, that the number one place they'd invest extra budget dollars (if they magically had them tomorrow) was in marketing their own agency. This begs 2 questions: 1) Why is this such a common answer? 2) What can you as an agency owner start doing to address this common need? (because an extra $10,000/mo isn't likely showing up in your mailbox tomorrow) In this week's episode, Danielle Fauteaux, with Momentum Marketing, share some tactical advice on how to answer that second question. Danielle has run her own firm, and now specifically helps other agencies implement The Momentum Framework to build a repeatable revenue generation system. In this conversation, Danielle shares: How to free up founder time for more business development & marketing efforts How to involve your entire team in your agency's marketing with what she calls "structured volunteering" How you could use a podcast for your agency as a strategic sales tactic The surprising persona within your team that just might make for your next great salesperson Resources mentioned in today’s conversation: Get your copy of The State of Agency Operations Report (2023) Connect with Danielle on LinkedIn 2023 Ad Agency New Business Report How To Stop Overservicing Clients For Good (Agency Life Webinar) Want to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.

Are you an agency owner who could never imagine handing over your agency's sales process to someone besides yourself? Or have you tried to hand over your agency's new business development to a salesperson you hired only to have it crash and burn? If so,  advice from Lee McKnight Jr, VP of Sales at RSW/US, an outsourced business development firm built specifically for agencies may be able to help. In today’s conversation, he shares: The 4 common mistakes agency owners make when hiring a new salesperson Several compelling stats from their recent 2023 Ad Agency New Business Report A 4-Part framework to make your new business development efforts more manageableResources mentioned in today’s conversation: Get your copy of The State of Agency Operations Report (2023) Connect with Lee on LinkedIn 2023 Ad Agency New Business Report AI for Agencies: Growth Tool or Threat? (Agency Life Webinar) 3 Steps to Owning Your Niche in 90 Days w/ Nick Bennett How To Build A Kick-Ass Advertising Agency Want to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.

Many peers & consultants have said she's crazy for committing to this pricing model as a software development agency, but Amanda Moriuchi, CEO of AppIt Ventures, says the only crazy thing is to think any structure for your agency will be challenge free. Amanda & her team have made a name for themselves in Colorado & beyond, not only for doing great app development work for their clients, but also by committing to a pricing & delivery model of Fixed Bid project pricing when most other agencies of their type are consistently sticking with a Time & Materials approach. As we unpack the learnings from their journey at AppIt, she shares: How their choice of pricing model allows them to better manage team capacity How it impacts both their sales close rates & service delivery How it's allowed them to improve the client communication training the provide to their team members Resources mentioned in today's conversation: Get your copy of The State of Agency Operations Report (2023) Connect with Amanda on LinkedIn $100M Offers: How To Make Offers So Good People Feel Stupid Saying No by Alex Hormozi $100M Leads: How to Get Strangers To Want To Buy Your Stuff by Alex Hormozi Want to get more content to support your agency life? Subscribe to the Agency Life newsletter, check out past episodes & find more content at teamwork.com/agencylife. This podcast is brought to you by Teamwork.com.