Mr B & Friends has welcomed another new member to the team, following a period of growth. Ali Al Amine has joined the team this month as a Junior Designer.
Ali was struck by some of the agency’s work while studying at Bath Spa university. He applied for the Future Friends internship but the role had already been filled. Luckily for all, the panel were so impressed by his work that he was brought into the design team anyway. Within his outstanding portfolio is an award win from the prestigious D&AD Young Blood Award, where Ali redesigned the Grey Poupon dijon mustard brand.
Outside of work Ali enjoys hiking. Having previously lived in the Middle East, he’s enjoying exploring the surrounding green spaces and national parks. While working from home he’s often accompanied by his cat, Cosmo, who has already made himself part of the team too.
Ali says, “Aside from the work I’d seen created by Mr B & Friends, the warm, welcoming culture really appealed to me- and since joining the agency this hasn’t disappointed.”
Creative Director, Kate Gorringe, says, “Even when we’re not actively recruiting, we like to keep our eye out for real talent. When we came across Ali we knew we couldn’t let him go – he has skills, aptitude and smart thinking that are exceptional in someone of his experience. And he’s lovely to have around.”
Since opening in October, Gather Round Brunswick Square is already home to a bustling creative community. For a limited time only, Gather Round are offering a free day pass so you can try out the new space for yourself.
Designed for creatives, by creatives
Bristol-based Gather Round is a growing family of unique, soulful, creative workspaces, purposefully designed for creatives by creatives. Its mission is to build remarkable co-working spaces where creative thinkers and doers can connect, collaborate and thrive.
Founded by Fiasco Design owners, Ben Steers and Jason Smith, Gather Round’s flagship workspace in the Cigar Factory, Southville, opened its doors to Bristol’s curious creative community in 2019. The second space on Brunswick Square, St Pauls, opened last month and supports up to 90 professionals; freelancers, self-employed and micro businesses, from the surrounding areas of St Pauls, Montpelier, Easton, St George, Kingsdown and more.
Split over three floors, the beautiful Grade II listed building provides flexible areas with fixed and casual desks, private studios, meeting rooms, hang-out areas, communal tables and quiet areas for contemplation. It also boasts a dedicated private event space with a 60-person capacity.
A community of creatives
Its members are a truly eclectic and talented bunch; designers, writers, filmmakers, publishers, photographers, brand strategists and more. The supportive, collaborative community is valued as highly by members as the beautifully designed workspaces themselves: “Collaborating with exciting and interesting individuals is what gets me out of bed in the morning. – Gareth Rutter, Founder and Creative Director of Bellow Studio.
Gather Round offers private studio, resident and co-working membership options, with part-time flexible co-working costing £110 per month (plus VAT), and full-time memberships from £195 (plus VAT).
Get Your Free Day Pass Today
Knowing that signing up to a co-working space can feel like a big step, Gather Round are offering a free day pass* for Brunswick Square so you can try out the space for yourself. Get your free day pass here.
*For November only.
Building a great digital agency is no different to building any other kind of successful business — it’s seriously hard work, and if you’re trying to conquer it all by yourself, it’s damn near impossible.
Instead of battling it out all on your own, you’re going to need a team of people you are able to delegate certain functions within your agency toward. And, by delegating, I don’t mean directing or managing — I mean empowering and trusting them to do what they know best and to grow the business on your behalf.
This small team of people (otherwise known as a leadership team) will be brighter, more experienced and more skilled than you are, and they’ll know exactly what they’re doing when it comes to growing your agency, because (ideally) they’ve done it before.
In this article, I’m sharing what a good leadership team actually looks like, why you need to be the most naive person in the room and where to find the right kind of leaders for your team.
A strong leadership team will have a senior representative from each corner of the business and they’ll speak for their department during key business activities and meetings.
In a medium-sized agency, a leadership team might be made up of a Financial Director, Operations Manager, Customer Experience Manager, Head Of Sales, Marketing Director and a senior representative from your IT & HR departments. Then, of course, there’s you too — the founder/director/MD/CEO.
Your leadership team should be cohesive. While they will represent different areas of the business and will have their department’s interest at heart, they will share the same core values and will be well-equipped to make big business decisions that benefit your agency.
Building this empowered leadership team won’t happen overnight and it certainly won’t happen by accident.
Digital agencies, like any other business, go through life cycles as they grow. And with each new phase of business, there usually comes a need to recruit, restructure and promote your internal team. Agency leaders tend to offer promotions to high performing team members who are loyal to the cause and great at what they do (which is understandable).
But this is where the trouble lies.
As the business builds and time goes on, this process can repeat itself over and over until your senior management team is a loyal collection of overly-promoted technicians, rather than commercially skilled and strategic business people. And while this might have been great for the most recent growth cycle, it doesn’t necessarily mean this group of leaders will be equipped for the next stage of growth. Horses for courses so to speak.
A digital agency owner should surround themselves with a group of leaders, strategists and experts from each function within their agency who are more experienced and better qualified than they are.
The agency leader should be the most naive member of the leadership team.
If you’re in the market for new leaders, make sure you’re looking for talent from aspirational agencies, rather than your current competitors. You want people on your team who know how to grow, manage and lead agencies at the scale you’re hoping to achieve.
Growth is often measured differently from one agency to another — however, there are generally two metrics that matter to almost all agency leaders, revenue and headcount.
As an agency leader, the fastest and most sure-fire way to grow your agency, be it headcount or revenue is to surround yourself with a strong, experienced and brilliant leadership team from the outset.
When a digital agency is pushing a headcount of around 25–30 people, it’s time to implement a leadership team.
Surrounding yourself with a team of leaders (who are all much more brilliant than you are) when your agency is in its infancy, means you have a strong support network of experts from each function within your agency. This then allows you to tackle the next stage of growth with confidence, knowing that every corner of your agency will be considered and looked after as you gear your agency up for another round of growth and your headcount pushes toward 80.
By now, I’ve hopefully established that you need to have a leadership team in place in order to grow your agency and that everyone in your team should be more experienced and qualified than you are. So how can you go about finding these brilliant people and how do you build yourself a leadership team?
First, take a look at your existing senior management and ask yourself — are they over-promoted technicians or are they genuine managers and leaders?
If the answer is over-promoted technicians, you have two options:
1 — You can invest time (3–4 years) and money to train them and build them into the leaders you need in order to grow your agency. Or,
2 — You can go out and buy your leadership team from an aspirational agency (this is my recommendation)
When you’re recruiting for new senior leaders to join your agency, don’t look for managers from agencies on the same rung as you — make sure you’re recruiting from an agency that is the size and shape you’re aspiring to grow into.
These individuals will know what’s required to grow your agency because they’ve evidently already done it.
Make sure they’re loaded with management experience, experts within their function and who are downright better than you are. If you’re not completely floored by the excellence and the performance of your potential leaders, then don’t hire them.
Remember, the agency owner should always be the most naive person in the leadership team.
Just like growing your agency, building a great leadership team won’t happen overnight — so it’s never too early to start your search. Start connecting with leaders and managers who inspire and impress you now and keep them within your network.
That way when you’re ready to recruit or change things up, you already have a starting ground. Then, once you’re actively recruiting and gearing up for a new phase of growth within your business, call on Digital Agency Coach for expert advice on how to tackle (and succeed with) your plan.
What does the future of PR and marketing look like? Business leaders are planning ahead for 2022 in one of the most unique situations that people have faced. How do you prepare your business for life when dealing with a pandemic?
AMBITIOUS and Insider Media spoke to business leaders in the South West to find out what their approaches to PR and marketing will be in 2022. Which areas will be their focus? Where are they increasing their investment? And, where they’ll be choosing not to spend.
The answers show that business leaders in the South West are planning to invest: engaging with their core customers and visitors more than ever before. And not just their customers. Thanks to a skills shortage across many sectors, using online to source new recruits is alo where businesses will be investing. As a result, online activity is becoming more important than ever for PR and marketing activities.
Life really did move online during the last 12 months and while in-person events are starting to come back, digital has taken the lead on many aspects of businesses. As well as B2C companies, B2B businesses are seeing the value of social media and how to use it for success.
Mike Ribbeck, Insider Media Editor said: “As the purse strings tighten, business leaders look at expenditure and decide which are the most important functions to protect and which areas of the business are expendable.
“The reality is that, rather than bringing the world to a standstill, the pandemic has accelerated many of the trends that were reshaping the world that we all live and work in. The digital revolution has picked up pace and businesses from all sectors and different sizes have made the transition to operating virtually.
“All of that means that the need to get the message out about your business and the services it can offer has never been more important.
“And the channels of communication to potential clients and business partners have continued to multiply with social media playing an even more important role when it comes to marketing and PR.
“According to our survey, the majority of businesses have maintained the level of spending or even increased.
“One of the most interesting findings was where businesses will be concentrating theory efforts. The two main areas that stood out were content creation and social media.”
Our survey has found that there are six core areas where business leaders will be focusing their PR and marketing efforts, including content, PR and SEO. Results from our survey include:
Phil Smith, Managing Director, Business West, said: “In the past 18 months, South West businesses have wrestled with a unique and complex set of challenges as a result of Brexit and the pandemic.
“Whilst business impacts such as social distancing measures are temporary, labour shortages and inflationary pressures look set to continue (at least in the medium term) and could have a stymieing effect on our economic recovery.
“As the government looks to recoup some of the £300bn+ that it spent during the pandemic, SW businesses will no doubt be anxious about potential tax hikes and rate increases.”
It is encouraging that businesses recognise the huge part that PR and marketing play not only in boosting their brand and growing sales but generating awareness of new products and services too.
It is also evident that marketing has a vital role in attracting, engaging, and recruiting talent into the business (as well as helping to retain talent). Indeed, today’s job candidates discover and weigh up potential employers in the same way they find consumer goods, restaurants, and hotels. It is mission critical that marketing budgets reflect this digital shift.
The amount of online content consumed by the average person doubled to seven hours a day. Social media activity increased by 12.3 per cent with the average person spending nearly two and a half hours on social sites.
A clear, resounding message from the businesses we spoke to is that we are going through an accelerated pace of significant change.
The pandemic hit the fast forward button, transforming consumer perceptions, expectations, and behaviours almost overnight. There are no pause or rewind buttons – consumers and the world have moved on. This has profound implications for how we market ourselves. Failure to keep up with the pace of change could mean being left behind forever.
Download your copy of the white paper now.
cxpartners sees two new hires join the business to boost how we support clients as our portfolio grows.
We are thrilled to welcome two new team members – Gabriella Lambert and Chris Edge.
Gabriella joins us as Client Engagement Director, bolstering our account management and business development within our Financial Services team. She joins with a wealth of experience in creating sustainable customer experience strategies for multinational organisations, startups and the nonprofit sector. She previously worked at the Royal National Institute of Blind People (RNIB) as the Head of Customer Experience.
She has spent her career building customer experience departments and overarching design strategies that move from being sales and product driven to being customer-focused.
Feel free to reach out to Gaby at [email protected] to have an informal chat to learn more about ways cxpartners and the Financial Services team can help your business.
Chris joins cxpartners as Account Director, strengthening the client services team following a number of recent major client wins.
He is highly experienced, with over 15 years working in client services and marketing at digital, creative, employee engagement and film production agencies. He has added value to clients and delivered solutions in many sectors including IT, healthcare, manufacturing, professional services and education.
Chris is also a qualified PRINCE2 Agile Project Manager. If you’d like to get in touch, please contact him at [email protected].
Gaby and Chris are brilliant new hires for cxpartners as we continue our growth as a team and support our growing client base. We have recently welcomed new clients such as WaterAid, UK Export Finance and UCAS.
Welcome to the team!
We are hiring for several roles at the moment, in both our Bristol and London offices, including:
Most people don’t go into business because of their love of finance (except us, of course). Whatever your ‘why’ is, it’s unlikely that involves organising invoices, chasing debts, and delving into your reports. But even as a team of one, having a financial forecasting model in place can actually take the pressure off and give you the confidence in your numbers you need to get on with the parts of your business you really love.
Once you understand the benefits of having an accurate and realistic forecast that can support your day to day, it’s much less intimidating and far more empowering. So, let’s get into some of the reasons you should make a financial forecast a priority in your business.
The money coming in and out of your business doesn’t always line up with your plans. An accurate forecast will give you a good view on your cash flow over the coming months so you can be prepared when things don’t always go to plan. For example, before you go and spend big on a new piece of equipment, you’ll be able to see what will happen if invoices get paid late next month and make sure you don’t end up in the red. Mismanaging cash flow is the biggest reason that small businesses fail, so this is an important one.
Have you ever been caught out by a surprise tax bill? Or maybe your invoices go out and before you know it, they’re a week late and you’ve not chased up? Setting up a forecasting model will give you a chance to make sure everything is accounted for. You can siphon off small amounts across the year to make sure big bills don’t hit quite as hard and implement revenue recognition strategies to make sure that money coming in is acknowledged in the right period. If you do project work and get paid in large lump sums, it’s advisable to spread that income across the time it takes you to do the work so that your finances tell the story of the reality of your business.
Having an up to date and realistic forecast will impress any stakeholders that you need, from the board to potential investors. It can act as a communication tool to express your plans, concerns, and ideas as well as help answer any questions they have, no matter how detailed.
Once you have a forecast in place, as long as you update and engage with it regularly, you can use it as a tool to support your decision making. Having all the elements of your business in one place will give you an overview of how one decision will affect another. It will be easy to see how each decision, big or small, will impact your finances and future.
While a forecast needs to be realistic, you can use it to do more than tell the story of your business – utilise it to take control and make your goals happen! Once you have a clear picture of your numbers you’ll be in a much better position to see the path you’re heading down and change course to get where you want to go.
Getting started is usually the hardest part, but having the right expert to help can make it an empowering experience. They’ll be able to support you in finding the right model and make sure it’s set up in a way that makes sense for you. Having a bespoke model will make your experience with forecasting far more efficient and effective.
FD Works know what’s involved in running a small business, from startup to success. We’ve used our experience to create a customisable forecasting model to specifically support complex, small businesses.
If you want to know more about how to get started with forecasting and how it can support your business, read our research report on SMEs and their relationship with forecasts.
If you’re looking for a forecasting model, or some guidance around financial forecasting then get in touch on 01454 300 999 or [email protected], or head over to www.fd-works.co.uk to find out more.
Most agency owners are familiar with Key Performance Indicators (KPIs) — these are values that measure the success of your ongoing progress against a defined metric. In essence, a KPI will measure, or indicate, how an agency is likely to grow.
For most of us, KPIs have been a mainstay of working life since our internship days. However, what often comes as a surprise to many of my clients is that KPIs can come in two forms, Leading & Lagging.
In this article, I discuss leading & lagging KPIs, how and why you should measure both types and why the high performing agencies do just that.
As we all know, a KPI is a pre-defined metric or milestone which is used to gauge progress across all functions and departments. KPIs are tangible, valuable insights that help inform decisions about how an agency is run.
A Leading KPI is input related. Leading KPIs measure the current activity in your agency, whereas a lagging KPI only demonstrates what you’ve already achieved.
Lagging KPIs are important to monitor, as they give a good snapshot of the topline performance of your agency. However, if the numbers are a little off, and this is the only metric you have, it can be tricky to pinpoint and fix where things went wrong.
The idea behind Leading KPIs is that they create targets, focus and accountability within your agency on a daily basis. This helps to keep you (and your team) on track toward successfully meeting your lagging KPIs.
To get a good handle on your agency’s growth trajectory, me and my fellow Coaches always recommend tracking more leading KPIs than lagging ones — with a ratio in and around 4:1.
This is often the secret sauce to success — monitoring, reporting and acting upon leading and lagging KPIs is what sets the high-performing agencies apart from the pack.
Because I love an analogy, let’s imagine your digital agency is trying to shed some pounds. In this instance, you would have a Lagging KPI of ‘Total Weight Lost’.
Jumping on the scales once a month just to measure the outcome and see how much weight has been lost is going to make for slow, blinded progress.
Instead, you could measure your daily exercise, track your diet and weigh yourself on a weekly basis. These metrics would be your Leading KPIs and will give a more accurate reading of how you are tracking toward your weight-loss goal.
If you reach the end of your third month and you still haven’t lost any weight, then you can review all your KPIs and see where the shortfalls or issues might be. The more Leading KPIs you track, the easier it is to identify areas of improvement.
A key differentiator between high and underperforming agencies is how many, and what kind of KPIs they are measuring and learning from.
Successful digital agencies have more Leading KPIs than lagging. This helps them predict and prepare for their growth — they’ll know where their agency is heading before it actually gets there.
By monitoring both types of KPIs, you are able to see the relationship your leading efforts will have on your overarching goal. By keeping an eye on both figures, you’ll be able to attribute any issues with your Sales to any increases or decreases to your Call Tally or Event Attendance.
At Digital Agency Coach, we host bi-weekly Mastermind Groups for digital agency owners. These informal workshops are centred around peer learning — you’ll learn from other agencies who are navigating the same challenges as you and will pick up game-changing tactics such as today’s KPI hack, which improve the performance of your agency.
Get In Touch with myself or my team of friendly digital agency experts, we’d be delighted to help answer any questions about this article, our Mastermind Group or our Coaching & Mentoring Programs.
If your understanding of the startup world is based on the series produced by (and starring) mid-noughties nerdy heartthrob, Adam Brody, it might surprise you to learn that most tech ventures aren’t funded by dubious dosh from the criminal underworld. That isn’t to say that StartUp isn’t an entertaining show, by the way, but it’s not exactly an accurate representation of how startup founders might seek investment.
While there are some great examples of companies that have ‘bootstrapped’ their way to billions, most successful tech businesses will raise equity finance at some stage in their scale-up journey — usually over several funding rounds. The right investment not only unlocks the cash you need to accelerate growth but also provides you with a new business partner who is aligned with your goals, brings business acumen and an invaluable network of industry contacts.
Knowing how to turn your venture into an investment magnet is key to getting the attention of the right type of investor while never feeling pressured to settle for a bad fit. So, how do you as a startup founder attract that perfect investor? Here are 6 qualities investors will be looking for in your tech startup.
As a startup founder, being passionate about your project should be a prerequisite. If not, then it’s probably the wrong venture for you. You need to truly believe in the product/service you want to provide and be confident that it’s either an improvement on what’s available on the market or an entirely new take on addressing an old problem.
Beyond your bright idea, you should also be mindful that investors are investing in you as much as they are in your business. Are you able to distil and describe the journey you’ve been on thus far? Can you showcase your passion, skill-set and creativity?
However, while passion per se is great, would you put your money where your mouth is? Most investors are looking for founders who are willing to invest their own capital — hypothetically, at the very least. After all, why should someone part with their hard-earned cash for your project if you’re unwilling to do the same? The same applies to investing your time. If you’re unwilling to work hard on your own project, then it’s unrealistic to expect anyone else to.
To get your business off the ground, you’ll have to — or will have had to — raise the initial capital yourself. This can come from your own savings, borrowings, or even friends and family. Either way, this is a concrete example of demonstrating that you believe in your product/service, so much so that you’re willing to invest money into it.
To be worthy of investment, any new product/service needs to have a proven market and be appealing to that market. Ideally, your venture will have begun operations and demonstrated an ability to sell that product or service — essentially, you need to have a robust ‘proof of concept’ to show investors. Investors will look for the following:
For a tech startup, the proof of concept is often an MVP (Minimum Viable Product) — a product with just enough features to satisfy early customers and provide adequate feedback for future product development. Through our experiences building brilliant launchpad apps for businesses, we’ve come up with a checklist to help you get started with your MVP ASAP.
Most investors are looking for business opportunities that have potential — primarily, for growth. This is all relative, of course, based on the size of your market, but ideally, you need to have a market with significant reach — regionally at least — depending on the nature of your product or service.
Not every product/service is going to have a worldwide market, of course, but a large enough market to increase scale and margins within your operations is typically a requirement for investors.
If your startup is a would-be disruptor in an existing, saturated market then the same rules apply. However, your growth potential is likely to be deeply scrutinised because any market share gained is being taken directly from a competitor, therefore your competitive advantage needs to be demonstrable.
Which leads us on nicely…
No matter what the product — whether it’s clothing, music or a new software platform — the same question always applies: what makes your product unique? To be worthy of investment, there has to be something that sets you apart.
If your product or service is genuinely the first of its kind (something that many founders wrongly convince themselves is the case), then that’s your competitive advantage. What’s more likely, however, is that your startup will be entering an existing market. This is where having a real differentiator is crucial for success.
Take German neobank, N26, for example. Voted ‘Best Bank in the World 2021’, N26 is by no means the only player in the online-only banking market — competitors include the likes of Monzo and Revolut. However, by taking a service that people have to consume and generally dislike (banking), and turning it into an enjoyable process by focusing 100% of its efforts on user experience, N26 has confidently positioned itself as ‘the bank you’ll love’.
To save on cost, most startups will have very limited staffing (at the start of their journey, at least), usually consisting of one or two founders. Whether it’s a team of two or ten, the number of staff isn’t an issue so long as the key areas of the business are covered. For example, if your business is centred around AI technology, do you have someone in the team who is a specialist in this area? It’s extremely important that you have an expert in the tech or market you’re entering.
Operating control is another area investors will be looking at before taking a punt on your startup. They’ll expect you as the founder to have developed (or be in the process of developing) policies and procedures to control the business and ensure their investment doesn’t go to waste.
It’s also important that as a founder, you’re able to ‘let go’ and delegate authority across your team. We get it, your startup is your baby, but over time, you need to trust someone else to take care of the proverbial nappies. Or bedtime story. You get the gist. Investors will take comfort in seeing expertise and autonomy spread across a fully engaged team.
The coldness with which investors approach this topic can be a bit of a shock, but getting into their mindset — ie. looking for a return, can keep you focused on what’s important for your startup. It’s important to know that from a financial perspective, investors will have two primary questions when looking at a project:
These questions can be answered by a thorough financial projection which you can do yourself, but if you’re struggling, there are people you can hire to help out.
Essentially, investors want to know what their ROI (return on investment) will be and when they’ll begin to see it, so including a full ROI analysis in any pitch to an investor is highly advised.
At Gravitywell, we love working with enthusiastic startups and help with prototypes, pitch decks, MVPs and conceptual work. If you’d like to discuss how we can take your idea to the next level, get in touch.
In my experience, growth and success looks different for every digital agency owner – and this usually depends on where they are on their journey in business.
For some, success might be increasing headcount, opening new offices, working less and/or earning more. While for others who might be a little further down the track, their ultimate goal might be to exit the agency.
No matter what the goal is – when it comes to growing your agency one of the best first steps you can take is to understand your agency’s value.
Over the years, I’ve helped hundreds of agency owners analyse the value of their business in preparation for the next step. My Digital Agency Coach team and I use a handful of tactics and strategies to do this, including measuring the agency’s EBIT & profitability.
This segues us nicely into the purpose of this article – how to calculate your profitability & EBIT, why it’s important to do so and 2021 digital agency benchmarks to measure up against.
EBIT simply means Earnings Before Interest & Tax. EBIT is a method that is often used to find the profit generated by a digital agency (or any company for that matter). EBIT is synonymous with Operating Profit as it doesn’t consider things like tax and interest expenses.
For obvious reasons, your EBIT isn’t indicative of exactly how much profit you’re bringing home. However, it is a great indicator of the profitability potential of the business which is why it is such a great metric when it comes to measuring the value of your agency.
EBITDA is almost the same calculation as EBIT however, it also brings Depreciation and Amortization into the equation.
EBITDA is a more complex calculation that takes time and resource to produce, so it’s usually used to prepare your agency for sale. At Digital Agency Coach, we recommend keeping an eye on your EBIT as it is a much more manageable calculation that can be produced for regular reporting.
The short answer? No, EBIT and Net Profit are two different things. Your Net Income is what’s left of your Revenue once you subtract the total costs of doing business. This ‘total cost’ includes taxes, interest, depreciation and all your other expenses and deductions
While your EBIT can be a valuable tool for agency valuation, it’s also an important metric to keep an eye on to measure the success of your ongoing efforts.
In this recent Promo Republic webinar, I share industry secrets about what the high performing agencies are doing and what makes them better than the rest.
One of the key takeaways from the webinar is that high performing, successful and growing digital agencies have their finger on the pulse when it comes to their profitability and their EBIT.
Pre-pandemic, if your EBIT was greater than 20%, you were in a good position and would have been up there with fellow successful agency owners.
However since the pandemic began, (broadly speaking) digital agencies have become more profitable and have nudged the ‘Good EBIT’ score up to around 25%.
It’s important to note that while 25% is a good EBIT score, there’s still plenty of room for improvement – some high-performing agencies are boasting an EBIT between 35-44%!
Now you understand what EBIT is and what the benchmark looks like, how can you calculate the EBIT of your agency?
There are a couple of ways to calculate EBIT, and your accountant or finance team will be able to help you do so. But, in theory, you can just follow the formula below:
EBIT = Net Income – (Interest + Taxes)
Once you have your magic number, measure it against the diagram in this article and see where your agency’s EBIT ranks among the industry benchmarks.
If there’s some work to do (and remember, there’s always room for improvement) – start by reading this quick guide to profitability on purpose and address the six key steps to maximising your profitability.
Watch: Profit On Purpose (7min)
Of course, if you think you might benefit from a deeper level of support, Get In Touch with our team and chat about joining our Mastermind Groups or Coaching Programs to help you grow your digital agency and become a high performer.
When it comes to digital agencies, a high percentage of inbound leads come from prospects who are seeking a new partner after their current agency has let them down. As such, most of these ‘new’ clients are frustrated, let down and/or have had a poor experience with another agency that has underperformed and underdelivered.
The trouble with this is that as an agency owner, it can be easy to forget that your competitors do retain a ton of clients who are happy and content with their service, and as the competition, you only see and hear of the negative experiences.
And if you (and every other agency out there) only witness the bad experiences and negative sentiment, and you base your sales pitch off this, then you’re saying the exact same thing as everyone else…
So, in order to be successful in the pitch room, you need to be realistic about what clients *actually* want to be hearing from your sales pitch.
As a digital agency coach, I’ve worked with hundreds of digital marketing agencies and have witnessed thousands of pitches over the years, and when it comes to the pitch room, it seems most agencies seem to be saying the same thing.
Thanks to comments made by their competitions’ former clients, agency owners can have a warped and distorted view of what the market needs, wants and cares about when it comes to choosing a new agency partner.
If the only inbound leads we receive are from the 1% of our competitor’s clients who are dissatisfied, disgruntled and traumatised by their past agency experience — our view on the world might be a little warped and we can be tempted to think that we should differentiate our agency based on this anecdotal insight.
In reality, it’s likely the other 99% of our competitors’ clients, and any prospective clients for that matter, aren’t tainted by a negative agency experience and couldn’t care less whether you’re a “trusted advisor” or “an award-winning agency” — they just want someone who knows their product and their industry and can help them grow their business.
With this in mind, you can appreciate that building your pitch around the negativity you hear about other agencies, isn’t going to appeal to the masses, and certainly won’t make you stand out from the crowd — despite your best intentions.
Bombarding your prospects with all the same ‘differentiators’ as your competitors like “we believe in partners, not clients” or “we’re platform agnostic” will get you lost in the wash, and any clients you do land, are more likely to be the notorious red-flag, difficult-to-please ones.
So, how can you beat this?
In order to be more successful in the pitch room and win more clients, start by changing your perception of what a prospective client actually wants from an agency. By doing this, you’ll be able to offer up genuine, impactful reasons for a client to work with you, rather than the same old reasons they hear from every other agency in the pitch.
To do this, start by concentrating on specialising. Niche down your offering and tightly define your market positioning and target audience. By doing this first, you’ll understand who you are really talking to, what their broader pain points are, and how you can connect with them by detailing genuine, meaningful differences between you and your competitor.
Then, build on this foundation and follow Doug Hall’s advice to redesign your sales pitch.
Hall advises agencies to ensure their pitch does three things: 1) Demonstrates an overt business benefit to the client, 2) Includes dramatic differentiators between the competition and 3) Includes proof that they’re qualified and experienced enough to deliver on the promise. Hall’s research of over 8000 propositions discovered that the high performing agencies who pitched with this approach had an average win rate of around 53%.
*I recently put together an article detailing Doug Hall’s three-step method to improving your sales pitch and winning more clients. READ: Increase Your Win Rate By Up To 40% With Doug Hall’s Advice
At Digital Agency Coach, my team and I have helped hundreds of digital agencies achieve stratospheric growth within their business by changing the manner in which they source and convert their inbound leads.
As agency owners, anecdotal feedback from your competitors’ disgruntled clients will distort your view on what your clients actually want and need from you. Instead of pitching the genuine uniquity and benefit of what you have to offer, you align yourself with everyone else in the pitch room and try to sell exactly the same thing as all the others.
Now I’ve shared the secret, it’s time for you to avoid this common pitfall, change your view on your client’s pain points and start to grow your agency — one successful pitch at a time.
If you need support or guidance growing your agency and would like personalised, 1:1 help achieving your goals, please Get In Touch — my team of dedicated coaches and consultants would be delighted to help.
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