Covering up problems with sales

Agency owners think they have a sales problem that is actually an operational problem.

I see this 90% of the time

This is why profits are lower than 30%, clients are being undercharged, upsells aren't happening, and simple mistakes are costing the agency clients.

I’m Nick Avaria, agency owner, and founder of Agency Acquisitions. Every week I share case studies and insights of growing businesses while making more profits.

Sales and operations seem like different problems that need different solutions but they have one root cause.

There isn't a clear methodology to run the systems of the business as one cohesive unit. 

People aren't where they are needed when they are needed. This leads to balls getting dropped and makes getting stuff done take more resources than otherwise required. 

Here’s how we fix it:

There are 3 core system groups need to work in lock-step with each other to make the agency work to render profits between 30-50%:

1. Data & dashboards

2. People performance systems

3. Client lifetime value systems

Here how they all go together for your agency: 

#1 The Right Data.

Specifically:

• Client retention: Client Churn & Net Promoter Score

• Client results: Whatever the core metric the client measures you against compared to what we obtained for them.

  → We need to get this data into a dashboard

#2 People Performance:

I use the Objectives → Metrics → KPI system for my agency. 

Example of 1 objective:

• Objective = Maximize Lifetime Value of clients  

• Metric = Client churn

• KPI = Net promoter score

The objective and metric would then go into the job description.

I strongly recommend that client results be objective number 2. 

Most job descriptions should have 3-5 core objectives with a paired metric. 

#3 Client Lifetime Value Systems: 

This is training and systems on how to deliver great client experience and results.

Because people's success with the agency is tied to the client's success people will want help to achieve these goals. 

Training that was seen as a nuisance is now welcome and people follow and improve the system iteratively.

For the full system on the 5 Profit Killers for your agency, watch this free training now.

If you want to get started with an audit on how to implement these steps for your agency, I am onboarding two new agency clients for October. 

Book a time in my calendar now to see if it’s a fit for scaling your agency before the end of Q4. 

Nick