#14: Being the BEST is a choice, not a given
While there are thousands of average agencies in the competitive red ocean of professional services, you have the choice to build an exceptional agency. Here are some tips on how I am doing it.
Although only the last two newsletters were primarily dedicated to building great agency cultures, a review of the previous editions reveals that each one subtly touches on aspects of culture building.
Here are the most important ones, in my opinion, that are worth reviewing, whether you've just signed up for my newsletter or are looking to refresh your learnings:
#6: Thanksgiving Special. This edition discusses the differences in culture when scaling from a team of 10 people to 200.
#9: Lessons Learned from $10K to $1M MRR (X100 Growth). It covers how to prepare for your growth and ensure your team is equally ready.
#12: What's More Important: Doing or Leading? This newsletter provides insights on when and how to hire.
#13: Building a Great Agency: It Starts with You. This issue focuses on the type of workplace you are creating and the kind of manager you should aim to be.
In the professional services (agency) realm, swimming in a red ocean alongside other agencies, it's easy to blend in and become just another agency with no differentiator or unique value proposition.
Professional services is one of those industries where being like everyone else is the worst approach you can take. The brighter you shine, the more attention you attract, making it easier to acquire clients or retain your top talent.
The reality is that clients don't want to work with average agencies, and people don't want to join them either. You need to be exceptional.
Now, being exceptional can mean that you are better in client delivery, or you can shout about being better louder than others, which also works great =) It's up to you to decide which path to take.
Both options are a choice. You decide and set your programming to be the best.
Being better in delivery means providing superior service to your clients, having healthier LTV metrics, and retaining great talent longer (no one wants to leave the best agency). However, it also means more work for you as an agency executive and more pressure on your team to maintain high-quality services at all times.
Being louder than others usually involves spending more on marketing, putting in the effort to collect case studies and reviews from clients, and focusing on lead generation.
Belkins definitely falls into this category since we spend 20% of our revenue on marketing (which, in my opinion, is insane, but necessary for our long-term strategy; we choose to be like this).
Reflecting on our early days, we were intentional about both aspects:
How can we deliver the best service to our clients to be far ahead of our competitors, putting everything on the line?
How can we be louder than others in communicating our results, usually by producing more testimonials, case studies, blog articles, or social posts?
Focusing on both allowed us to win in the long run. Now after 7 years, we are known for:
Actually delivering on our promises.
Being one of the loudest voices in our space, with many people hearing about us from various sources.
Again, all of the above is intentional; we intentionally built:
An entire customer journey that is fragmented and studied under a microscope, being intentional at every step of the client journey.
A client management team that can make decisions without any approval from leadership, be it contract extension, chargeback, extra complimentary service, contract rescinding, etc. This empowered the client team to be accountable for client success and gave clients the necessary confidence to build relationships.
More favorable contract terms for our clients than our competition.
A consistent marketing budget allocation across all channels, producing enough volume and coverage to build the brand, and being intentional about how many case studies, video testimonials, or reviews you release each month.
Let’s break these down:
Client Delivery Breakdown
Example: A client team at Belkins comprises five roles: an Account Manager, an SDR, a Copywriter, an Email Deliverability Specialist, and a Lead Generation Specialist.
More about AM → [Watch Here]
More about SDR → [Watch Here]
More about Lead Generation Specialist → [Watch Here]
More about EDS → [Watch Here]
More about Copywriter → [Watch Here]
Each role in client delivery has been deliberately designed:
We manually produce lead lists for clients to ensure agility and high quality of leads, although it's not the most efficient or cost-effective approach.
We use experienced writers for each set of cold email sequences, which is then edited by an editor/strategist to ensure the best email copy.
Our SDRs focus exclusively on the email channel to excel in handling objections, following up, and booking appointments; we don’t spread thin with other channels.
We have email deliverability specialists to ensure smooth email placement.
We assign dedicated account managers (AKA client strategists) to ensure the best strategy is chosen for each new and existing client.
While it’s easier and potentially more efficient for costs to generate leads through automated tools like Apollo, having an SDR build campaigns, using tools like HubSpot for email send-outs, and write email copies with AI, many agencies opt for this approach. However, this method means you cannot claim to be the best in delivery; you are simply average, as others do the same. Belkins wanted to be the best, so we should be different.
The key takeaway here is, whether it's in design, software, content, or any other professional service, being intentional and almost nerdy about maximizing the input of your client delivery will make you more successful than others.
A great example of such an agency that I enjoyed working with lately is Kalyna Marketing. They assist Belkins with article creation and are extremely meticulous about research and writing, producing excellent articles for our blog that rank as top-3 on Google search within 30 days of publishing. As far as I know, the writers at Kalyna are also pleased with the environment, knowing they provide top-notch services that clients appreciate enough to mention in their newsletters.
Questions to ask yourself: “Are you intentional enough with your client delivery to ensure being the best in the space? Do you have the best people, processes, tools, and knowledge to provide your clients with the best service? Are you exceptional or average?”
Client Management Team
During a recent interview with Shane P. Mahi (link), I mentioned that Belkins’ Account Managers (AMs) can make decisions on the spot and that we always support them, regardless of whether their decisions are good or bad. He was astounded. I’d like to pause here and expand on the significance and value of this decision-making autonomy.
Taking responsibility for clients helps retain only mature account managers, which positively impacts LTV, client success, health, upsells, and other areas AMs are responsible for. Those who can't adapt to this responsibility will naturally filter out.
Clients view your AMs not just as assigned managers looking to utilize their budgets, but as roles who have existing relationships, provide expertise, and are reliable in making decisions in the clients' favor.
Expanding the list of responsibilities for AMs facilitates faster growth, develops AMs into generalists, and enhances overall client delivery.
However, there are downsides to consider:
It's a demanding and challenging role, and some people may burn out quickly.
Not all decisions made are the best, and sometimes people drop the ball.
It requires time, effort, attention, patience, and energy to mentor AMs, so be prepared for this investment.
Having said that, a strong client team leads to strong client delivery, which in turn builds a strong agency. I was trying to think of a type of agency where this approach wouldn’t be applicable, and I couldn’t find one. It seems to be a universally beneficial strategy.
Spoiler alert: While working on a podcast dedicated to this newsletter featuring the top 100 agencies by Clutch 2022-2023, I connected with Qubstudio. Their CEO, Nadia spoke in-depth about the role of their Client Success Managers and the significant impact this role has had on their overall client success and business. I’ve been impressed by Nadia’s team and their results and will be happy to share the podcast with everyone very soon.
Questions to ask yourself: “Who are the people handling my clients? Have I invested enough time and attention in designing and supporting this team? Are they exceptional or average?”
Favorable Engagement Terms
This doesn't mean lowering your pricing. I've always been an advocate of the principle "never give a discount in any way; price your services fairly and provide value. Don’t negotiate your price, as then you won’t make your margins, and there’s no point in working with such clients. ROI should go both ways."
Offtopic: Every time I negotiate with a SaaS tools (any), and they offer me a 75% discount if I pay for the year, it frustrates me every time.
What kind of margins do these companies have to afford such discounts? Companies like Apollo or HubSpot raise $100 million in Series D funding for aggressive expansion and marketing, offering discounts to acquire clients.
But not in professional services, dear. We operate with 10%-20% margins and are happy with that. We don’t raise funds; we build businesses.
(This is an angry 😠, frustrated face of the SaaS founder who’s raised $10M+, spending it on marketing and sales, offering discounts, and not agreeing with me while reading this part right at this moment.)
What you can offer instead are higher commitments (for Belkins, this could mean more guaranteed appointments booked), better contract or payment terms, complimentary services, support, audits, basically, more value for clients. This will not only assist your sales team but also provide clients with exceptional service, especially when they least expect it.
Something I learned today from one of the very talented guy, Kevin Greene, with whom I am working on a really exciting project (which I’ll announce soon), is about creating exceptional value for clients who don’t expect it.
Kevin, while being in the content writing line of work to attract the attention of a key potential client, created an excellent piece of content for free and sent it to the potential client, asking for nothing in return but their attention. Spoiler: It worked brilliantly, and he secured the contract.
Questions to ask yourself: “Are my sales and client teams aware of potential service leeways to ensure that our clients receive the best service? Do we effectively communicate, and are our clients aware of the extra value we provide without asking for anything in return?”
Consistent Allocation in Marketing
The most important pieces are:
Client Reviews on Platforms like Clutch, G2, GoodFirms, Glassdoor, Comparably, TrustRadius, CrowdReviews. You can download the extended list of services and SaaS platforms [here].
Case Studies: Aim to have at least 20% of your clients submit cases with details of your work/success. Be creative and don’t be modest with them. If your clients are hesitant to collaborate, here are a few tips:
Include clauses in contracts allowing you to use their names and details for promotional materials (90% are usually okay with this).
Set KPIs for your client team to incentivize the collection of such cases.
Assign your marketing team a target for producing a certain number of cases per month and stick to it.
Offer incentives for clients to collaborate on cases.
Be consistent.
Video Testimonials: These are excellent for providing prospects with references. Having 100 video testimonials will significantly differentiate you from your competitors.
I believe my team has done really well in creating a client success page that combines all three types, available at Belkins Case Studies.
We’ve been very consistent about this, even building a dashboard in Planhat with a list of all clients and the type of testimonial submitted.
Questions to ask yourself: “How many testimonials did we produce last year? Have we updated our case studies, and how are we tracking the percentage of reviews and cases compared to our total number of satisfied clients?”
Finish today’s edition with the same message as I started it. Being exceptional can mean that you are better in client delivery, or you can shout about being better louder than others. It's up to you to decide which path you take. Belkins walks both paths.