Episode Details

A Full Pipeline Isn't All You Need to Grow Your Agency

Scaling and growth is not just about filling your pipeline. New business won't mean a thing if you don't have the right systems in place to support it. Check out the advice from a white label agency that literally exists to help other agencies scale.

In this episode, we'll cover:

• Why you need more than a full pipeline to grow.
• 2 crucial systems necessary for scaling.
• One mistake agencies make trying to scale.
• How to make decisions for agency longevity.

My guest today is here to share with us a few big secrets about scaling. Ryan Meo founded his agency, Scale Squad, nine years ago. His agency white labels in order to help digital agencies scale. So that pretty much makes him the authority on scaling. He tells us what processes and systems are absolutely crucial for growing and how they are more than just having a full pipeline when looking to scale your agency.

2 Crucial Systems Necessary for Agency Scaling

If Ryan could travel back in time, he says the one piece of advice he'd give his former self is to have the right systems before trying to scale.

1. A solid foundation for the Operational System. Meaning, you have to have a good grasp on your service offering as well as boundaries for them. What do you do? What don't you do? It's also important to know how to guide your clients into your offering without overcomplicating it.
2. A methodic Sales System. It's imperative to have a process for finding, winning and keeping the right clients. Without a repetitive system for prospecting, it's feast or famine with new agency business. Agencies find themselves on a roller coaster instead of a steady stream of work and cash flow.

One Mistake Agencies Make Trying to Scale

A lot of agency websites are too vague, leaving it unclear what they do and who they help. Why is that?

For one thing, they painting broad strokes in the hopes of capturing the attention of more clients. They're afraid to turn off potential clients by being too descriptive when in fact, the opposite is true. Being too general is the turn off!

The solution is selecting a niche. It's critical to know who your best customers are and gear your marketing toward them. The misconception about declaring a niche is that it means turning away anyone outside your niche. But you're not… Declaring a niche is really just a marketing strategy. You are just concentrating your market on a particular niche but you can still work with anyone. And don't worry - there's plenty of business for everyone!

Another common reason for vague websites in the scarcity mentality. Agencies are worried that if they get too specific about a specialty they'll run out of potential clients. There's so much more business out there than we realize. We aren't confined to the local geographic area anymore. So whatever your niche - there's tons of potential out there.

How to Make Decisions for Agency Longevity

Forecasting is everything. It's important for keeping tabs on agency resources as well as goal tracking.

Without forecasting, we end up making dumb decisions (working with the wrong clients, taking on the wrong projects, letting go of the wrong people) in order to save cash flow. Don't let a cash crunch force you into making the wrong decisions.

When you forecast sales and monitoring agency's KPI's you can get a better understanding of agency revenue and profitability. (And you want to know profitability because top line revenue doesn't mean sh*t if you're not profitable:) ) If you're using a CRM i