The sales and pricing tactics that helped grow my agency.

Business development is one of the toughest parts of running an agency. Now more than ever there is a lot of competition, and clients look at design, development, and marketing as commodities. Correction…. The wrong clients look at these services as commodities. If your leads think your services can be provided exactly the same way, with the same results by a competitor for less money, then you’re not showing them the value. Something has to change, and it’s your responsibility.?

The following tactics are for agencies with 3-20 employees, and some case studies under your did you have a little high battery belt. You may have trouble using this approach for new agencies with no experience, which is another topic we can cover. Larger agencies may also need to adjust the approach.?

Finding the Right Clients

Chances are clients come to your agency and look at you as a commodity because of how you’re presenting your agency to the world. Both on your website and social media. You need to change your mindset and your language to better convey the value you bring to their business.?

Case studies, testimonials, copywriting, and landing pages need to be fully optimized to speak to the value you can bring to them.?

Change how you refer to your services.?

You don’t run Facebook ads.?You create conversion-optimized campaigns that drive revenue and decrease CAC.?

You don’t build websites.?You optimize high-performing storefronts that increase sales and CLV.?

You don’t do branding. You craft identities that make customers fall in love with the brand.?

If you cannot change your language to speak more about ROI, results, conversions, sales, etc… you’re not going to be able to use these sales tactics and you’ll continue to attract the clientele who look at you as a commodity and want you to “make the logo bigger”.?

Use this language everywhere and provide strategic guidance on social media. Speak to the results you’ve driven for past clients and focus on one ideal customer profile.?

The foundation of your approach should be to: Sell one service to a specific customer base, that solves a specific pain point. Create content that speaks to that customer’s pain points and you’ll start attracting the right clients.?

Pitching value?

Here’s a common example of a website build project, and how you can turn it into a win.?

Scenario 1: Pitch what they want.?

The client comes to you with an eCommerce website build project for UX design and development. They’ve started to grow their sales and have been making do with a pre-made Shopify theme. They want to redesign the website to increase conversions.?

You likely scope the build, provide some sort of breakdown and show them all the hours going into the project. Every detail is counted for and you’ve come in at a competitive price.?

That was your first mistake. You are now selling them hours (which feels like a commodity) and not selling them on the value you bring to the project. They weren’t looking at you as a commodity until you made them.?

They’ll likely ask for a reduced rate or say another agency can complete the project for less or charge a lower hourly rate. You’re now negotiating on price, which you never want to do without taking something off the table.?

Scenario two: Pitch what they need and show value.?

During your first call, you need to do a few things:

1. Ask the right questions that will help you extract their pain points?
2. Shut up and let them talk.
3. Provide expert guidance and show them you are the professional who can solve their pain points.?
4. Connect with them on a human level. Find some common talking points. People buy from people.?
5. Only talk about your experience as it relates to their project and how it can bring value. But mostly ask questions and let them talk. See number 2.?
6. Ideally, you want to learn about their revenue, conversions, metrics, and their goals for improving them.?

Your goal with the first call is to gain as much trust as possible, so they know your agency is the right agency for the job. Now you just need to show them the value.?

First off, you shouldn’t need to scope every detail for each project. Most engagements should be roughly the same, with some exceptions that require custom scoping. You should have your baseline estimates for a core engagement already scoped. Why? Because you’re selling one service to a specific customer, right? If you’re selling 12 different services for multiple platforms and various customer types, you’re making it harder on yourself. But that’s a whole other article.?

Now you have your baseline costs and custom scoping factored into the estimate. Instead of wasting time showing them meticulously scoped hours, spend that time showing them HOW you will increase their revenue. What approach will you take for their brand? How much revenue can you drive? Show them the ROI of working with YOU.?

It should feel like they are taking a big risk by not working with you. List the risks for the project and how you will help avoid them.?

If you’re able to gain their trust that you can execute, and produce results, you’ve become far more valuable to them than any other agency and you’re no longer a commodity.?

Pricing value?

Present them with three pricing options that are low medium and very high. They should have your hourly calculations built in but also based primarily on the value you’re driving. What is the client willing to pay because you will help them reach their goals? If you charge hourly, you’re being rewarded for taking longer to deliver and paid less if you deliver efficiently.?

These options will include everything they’re asking for, plus strategic deliverables that will help them achieve their goals.?

Some options are:

1. Flat rate service add-ons?
2. Consulting time?
3. Faster turn around?
4. VIP support?
5. Dedicated resources?
6. Access to you as the founder?

Regardless of what you’ve heard, most clients don’t care about specific line items and how many hours you’re putting into the project. They care about solving their problems and hitting their goals. If they care more about the time you spend working on their project, they aren’t the right client. You need to show them the value you bring to the project and make hours irrelevant.?

You want to lead with your anchoring pricing. This would be your highest cost for the engagement. It will make the mid-range price far more attractive. Usually, this includes intangibles that they likely don’t need. This is the VIP enterprise solution. Of course, you need to deliver on the value and make sure the cost lines up with the deliverables, but it should be out of their budget and more than what they need.?

Your price should be relative to the results you can drive, not the hours you put into the project.?

The specific details of anchor pricing and pitching on value is beyond the scope of this article and something I will provide more resources on as well as write about. There’s a great book on pricing creativity that helped me with this model. Message me and I’m happy to send over details. But I’ve created my own model, based on this approach, which I’ll dive deeper into in another article.?

The key takeaways here should be:

1. Prove you’re the expert.?
2. Pitch three options with big-value ads.?
3. Understand and solve pain points.?
4. Provide a specific solution to a specific client.?
5. Don’t sell hours!?

The above approach works for any type of agency. Marketing can have a list of set deliverables and a specific process for increasing ROAS. Web developers can show how their UX design and dev can help increase online conversions.?

I should note that none of this will work if you cannot deliver on your promise, or if you don’t have good case studies to back up your claims. Of course, you can be a dev shop that just does dev and sells hours. There’s nothing wrong with that. But if you want to grow and sell based on value, you need ti alter your approach.?

As your agency grows, you’ll need to adjust this model. You may also need to adjust for larger brands that require more detailed scoping. At Avex, we take a hybrid approach now, but we always show value in every pitch.?

If you have questions or want to learn more about my experience running an agency, let’s talk. Message me on LinkedIn or email me at [email protected]

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