I’m constantly getting pitched by agencies telling me they’ll get me more leads and sales. If you hire them, you’ve hired an interior decorator for a house that’s on fire.
Here’s why I ignore Agency Spammers, and how I learned how to Scale Without Sales:
The Hard Sell
Agency Spammers have gotten more and more outlandish. Crazy guarantees and unrealistic timelines. I used to run an agency.
I know that 99% of the pitches are BS. I’ll show you why I ignore the noise and grow revenue faster than signing up from some sketchy pitch.
Agency Spammers try to get your greed glands going – think of all the $$ you’ll generate. BUT at the end of the day what we want is profit: CASH WE KEEP.
More sales is nice, but if we don’t have a cash-flowing business then it’s all for nothing.
What’s The Reality?
The reality is different: Let’s say for the sake of argument the Agency Spammer can deliver a huge pile of leads/sales. (most can’t, they’re just churning through clients hoping a few will stick, but let’s pretend you got the 1 in 93 who can deliver)
If they do deliver, how fast will your company break?
What happens as you’re reeling from more leads, sales calls, and complexity?
What will happen when your current, loyal customers have their experience impacted because you can’t keep up? Stuff’s going to break.
What To Do Before Scaling
That’s why to scale, you DON’T look to sales first. Before we pile on more customer acquisition I make sure:
1) I have margins that can staff for A++ customer delivery
2) I install systems to onboard new clients smoothly
3) My existing customers don’t lose when new customers come on board.
Here’s how to do it:
MARGINS
Piling on customers if you have bad margins will a deep hole you can’t afford to get out of. Fix your margins first. Examine: a) What you’re charging. Can you charge more to enhance the experience?
COGS
Can you deliver for less? Yardstick: gross margins > 80%
SYSTEMS
Before taking on new customers make sure you’ve mapped out their first 100 days of experiencing your company. You get to choose between: a) refunds, bad reviews, no referrals, no repeat customers, OR b) amazing testimonials, spontaneous referrals, and huge LTV.
CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
Make sure you can take the pulse of all customers, regularly. This will make sure you catch problems of existing, loyal customers getting shafted when new ones come on board. It turns customers with problems into promoters who refer business.
So how do I scale by NOT focusing on sales first?
1) make more by fixing margins
2) get more testimonials and 5-star reviews (we average 4.9/5), which makes selling easy
3) get more referrals ALL of these before pushing more sales into the pipe.
Here’s the thing: if you’ve fixed these, then when you DO go sell you’ll scale with far less effort.
Get a weekly list of short, actionable steps to scale your company with simplicity in the Boardroom Bulletin™.
