Building a marketing agency sales process can be a challenging task, but with the right approach, it is the most effective way of growing your business. A strong sales strategy is essential for any agency that wants to be successful in today’s competitive marketplace, and it needs to backed up with a repeatable, measurable process.
Ask Yourself Who You Want to Work With
The first step in building a sales strategy for a marketing agency is to clearly define your target market. This includes identifying your ideal customer, understanding their needs and preferences, and determining what types of services or products will appeal to them the most. Once you have a clear understanding of your target market, you can begin to develop a sales strategy that is tailored to their specific needs.
Key things to consider are the types of business that you have been successful with in the past, and those which are a good fit with your agency. It’s very rare for inexperienced agencies to pick up work from international brands, and likewise, small businesses don’t often have the budget to work with larger network agencies, so choose target businesses that fit into your commercial sweet spot.
Set time aside for regular prospecting of the target market. Identify your potential customers, collate their contact information and build effective profiles before you start approaching them.
Know Clearly Who You Are and What You Do Differently
Ensuring that you have a clear value proposition is vital to the success of your agency’s sales strategy and should form the basis of any conversation. The value proposition is what differentiates you from the rest of the agencies targeting the same prospect pool, and should be a concise way of summing up your offering in a way that is digestible as a clear benefit to potential clients.
Build a Clear Path to Conversion
With a clear understanding of your target market and a strong value proposition, you can begin to develop a sales process that will help you close deals with potential clients. This process should include a series of steps, such as initial contact, qualification, presentation, and closing. Each step should be clearly defined and tailored to the needs of your target market.
Measuring success at each step of the process will help you identify where your strengths and weaknesses in the sales process are and give you the opportunity to work on improving them.
The value of nurturing leads can’t be overstated. Properly done, sales is a seduction that works over multiple touchpoints. As you build rapport with your prospects, you draw them closer to becoming a client. An important point about lead nurturing to remember is that it needs to be goal oriented. You want them to become a client not a friend (although that would help with the longer term relationship).
Don’t Overlook Your Competition
Another important aspect of a sales strategy for a marketing agency is to have a clear understanding of your competition. This includes identifying your competitors, understanding their strengths and weaknesses, and determining how you can differentiate yourself from them. This information can be used to develop a unique selling proposition (USP) that sets your agency apart from the competition.
Remember that Existing Clients are Your Best Leads
It goes without saying that the success of your agency sales strategy needs to include a strong focus on metrics and data. Setting specific goals for your sales efforts, regularly track your progress, and use data to make informed decisions about how to improve your strategy.
An important point to note is that your existing clients should also be part of your sales process. Nurture your relationships with them by regularly introducing new ideas, products and opportunities to them. All too often, in a growth focused agency, business development teams lose their connection to the business they have onboarded, and don’t continue the nurturing process in a sales focused way that client services or account management might miss.
Building a successful sales machine for a marketing agency requires a clear understanding of your target market, a strong value proposition, a well-defined sales process, lead nurturing, relationship building with existing clients, a deep understanding of the competition, and a strong focus on metrics and data. By following these steps, you can develop a sales strategy that will help you grow your agency and achieve your business objectives.
Our growth consultancy services can help you identify the gaps in your current approach to sales, and get you on track. Contact us today to learn more.