Creating Fast Track Revenue for Your Agency

If you want to know how to be up there with the big name agencies through fast track revenue, then my interview with Brad Martineau has everything you need to know.

In this episode, we’ll cover:

• 2 secrets to building multi-million dollar through fast track revenue.
• 2 things agency owners should quit being afraid of.
• A cool strategy for qualifying and educating new prospects.

My guest on this episode of The Smart Agency Master Class is Brad Martineau, co-founder and Chief Baller (best title EVER!) at SixthDivision. He started his digital agency after leaving a seven year career at Infusionsoft. He shares with us the secret on how he built a $3 million agency in just a few years.

Brad started at Infusionsoft in 2004, as their sixth employee. When he left in 2011 they had 650(ish)! What he discovered over that time is that Infusionsoft is a very powerful tool that very few people can actually use. When he left, he began consulting and eventually founded an agency for helping business owners master automation and technology so they can enjoy greater success and free up more of their time to enjoy life.

Fast Track Revenue: 2 Secrets to Building Multi-Million Dollar Agency

1. Serious focus (to the point of perfection).

Brad says it’s super important to stay focused on building one great, profitable product.

He was first exposed to this idea in book Ready, Fire, Aim: $0 to $100 Million in No Time Flat. His biggest takeaway was that a business owner’s sole responsibility in getting to that first million is to figure out how to sell just one product profitably.

He took this principle very literal and for three years, SixthDivision focused on one single product… The Two Day Makeover. Brad says at first, a “two day” makeover was taking more like two weeks, which obviously wasn’t efficient or profitable.

Working in this way, though, gave the team a chance to get smart about developing a successful process that is profitable, without the distraction of developing and selling other products.

2. Systems and processes that automate the sales process.

Do you have a process for screening your leads? If not, learn how to qualify a prospect quickly here.

Not only does Brad have a screening process, but he also puts his qualified leads through a campaign that establishes the know-like-trust factor before they even jump on the phone together.

Check out this super cool strategy for increasing conversions:

• The prospect requests to chat using the online contact form.
• The prospect answers pre-screening questions before their request is approved.
• If approved, the prospect is put into a “prep and reminder sequence.” They receive emails about how to prepare for the call, as well as videos to watch prior to it. Video include info on what and how SixthDivision works, success stories, etc.
• On the call, the sales person can jump over the informative stuff and dive right into specifics.

Most people are so anxious to jump on the call, they end up doing the rest of the work on the backend. Doing it Brad’s way means spending more time talking about the prospect and their needs, well as more time for objection handling.

This process leads to more efficient sales calls and a higher conversion rate. It also give you the opportunity to elevate the client’s experience on the initial call because they’ve had the opportunity to be educated. (And using software, you’ll know whether they watched the videos or not. So, you’ll know if they’re showing up to your call prepared or not… which gives you the upper hand.)

2 Things Agency Owners Should Quit Being Afraid Of

Here’s a couple things Brad and I find commonly hold back most entrepreneurs from reaching their revenue goals.

1. Raising Prices

My clients often complain about not being profitable but are afraid to raise their prices because they don’t want to lose clients. Brad says he sees and hears the same thing. Most entrepreneurs are stuck on a specific financial model – even if it’s broken. If you’re losing money you need to restructure your pricing. If you lose clients by raising prices, that’s OK because you were losing anyway. Bottom line: take action.

2. Specialization

There’s some sort of weird satisfaction in being able to say you offer everything to everyone… but if as the saying goes, when you are a jack of all trades, you are the master of none. It’s not realistic to say that you’re a full service agency. Let go of your hesitation to specialize. If you need more convincing, check out this interview about one agency owner who increased leads by 30%+ by getting super specific in a niche.

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Challenges Growing Your Agency

I hope this episode has helped you take the first steps towards fast track revenue but do you need to focus and improve other aspects of your digital agency to ensure you continue that growth?

I have provided many successful agency owner with support and advice on many topics from what to do when you want to speed up sales processes, ways to increase your business profit margins or how you can build an authority for your agency.

Growing pains within an agency can be a major struggle and I can show you how to identify the different phases of agency growth, why placing a solid process for performance based pricing can be the best pricing strategy and what the three questions you need to ask yourself are for you to sell more!

Learn about my career and different experiences as well as tips, tricks and insights by checking out my blogs that cover a wide variety of topics.

Find more from my Ask Swenk series and more of my videos on my Youtube channel. There you will find advice from myself and other agency experts.