Stay Hungry. An appetite for New Business

we're gonna get started as a few others trickle

in feel free that's totally fine you

guys are off see here so they didn't

hear it if they are going to be

trickling then but I hopefully you guys

are excited for this we're both excited

about presenting this to you all I know

a lot of these times these camps are

more focused on kind of tech and

integrations and Drupal and this will be

kind of hopefully a refresher for people

that are c-level suites small to medium

sized agencies that are looking to grow

the business startups any way that you

guys can kind of wedge away and to get

new business and prospects and get that

pipeline full that's kind of what we're

gonna be talking about today I do highly

encourage you guys to keep your phones

out if you'd like take as many pictures

as you want and notes and things like

that as you want that's totally fine

with me a second here my feelings one

bit

Thanks thank you alright so with with

that said I'll kind of kick it off to

Harrison to introduce himself yes so I'm

Harrison I head up the new business team

at elevated 3rd yep and I work

underneath Harrison as a BD specialist

and kind of our roles within the

organization is kind of traveling quite

a bit doing conferences like this going

and seeing prospective clients and kind

of trying to get there first our kind of

mantra is speed to lead so him and I

travel quite a bit to different clients

and different organizations to try to

share their thoughts and get their

problems figured out based on our

services and things and this is gonna be

for anyone that wants to do any feedback

I think this is part of kind of what

mid-cap wanted us to put in so that's

why this slide this would be probably

one of the most boring slides I have but

if you guys wanted to provide any

feedback it would be very helpful for

Harrison I had to kind of go back and

make sure that these things are tweaked

and everything's getting hit on that you

guys wanted to talk about today yeah so

I'll just talk a little bit about why

we're here today and why we wanted to

share some this information so you know

what we want to kind of talk about is

you know sales is way the lifeblood of

any organization right if you can't

bring in new opportunities you know you

can't provide any services and

ultimately get paid and keep your lights

on so you know if you're not really

committed to sales it doesn't just kind

of happen for you it's very easy

especially I think in sort

the you know early years within a

company's life where you're juggling a

million things you know you're kind of

figuring out what is our core product

offering or what are our services or

what are we trying to accomplish or who

are we to kind of just push sales aside

and say well we'll figure that out when

we'll figure it out and I'm here to talk

about why I think that's not a good idea

and also you know sales can be really

hard right you have to really convince

someone to put their job on the line

with you

you have people are risking budgets

there's a lot that you know that is

measured in terms of success for

someone's position or for an

organization and when you're committing

you have to work with someone you're

really committed to work with a group of

individuals not just hey I want to work

with Drupal or I want to work with the

team that does this kind of integration

you're saying I want to work with you

guys to help me solve my problems

there's a lot of complexity it's kind of

a risky time when you're in the sales

process and if you don't work at it you

again you won't just close new business

so one of the things to talk about I was

like we've we've been there you know

it was really hard when when we kind of

took a good hard look and we're going to

go to detail details about how we did

that and kind of what our sales process

looked like and what we were investing

in and what we were measuring and kind

of all those things but we are not

immune to challenges by any means still

today as we've grown as a company we've

seen a lot more we've learned a lot more

I think we've we've improved our process

but we're still changing every day and

trying to get better so yeah it's you

know we're gonna go a little more detail

about kind of where we came from so

elevated third is a Drupal specific

agency so as the only CMS platform that

we work with we were founded fifteen

years ago and was basically one guy for

a couple of months in a room and then it

was two people for awhile and so you

know we started in 2004 and each year I

think we've progressed a lot that

doesn't mean it every year was more

successful than the last but it means

that you know there's been a steady

investment both money time and effort as

well and all the things that need to

happen in the sales process in order to

survive in the landscape I mean I'm sure

everyone's seen the the different like

you know slides that people have that

show you just how many digital agencies

there are right now you know

measure them different ways people say

there's 5,000 15,000 the point is just

it's incredibly competitive and if you

don't work at your craft if you don't

hone it it's not going to just happen

for you just a little about us so myself

and Brett are based in our Denver office

which is where our headquarters are but

we also have an office two offices

outside of Denver which we opened last

year one in Raleigh North Carolina and

one in Seattle and these are some of the

clients that we work with you know it's

been again a long journey to get here

this didn't just happen overnight but

just to give you a sense of some of the

people that we partner with and some of

the people who are in our kind of

portfolio

these are just kind of some of our our

key accounts but we did not just wake up

one day and suddenly you know you're

working with Comcast we had to really

fight to get to where we are so I'm

going to talk about how we got to where

we are and kind of what that journey

looked like so a little bit about myself

so I actually joined the company back in

start on the sales side that was not my

background at the time but I kind of saw

an opening and I wanted to I never work

with Dhruva before I just wanted to

learn the business and take some time we

kind of get up to speed and when I saw

the opening kind of on the sales side of

the business I kind of asked our CEO hey

do you mind if I jump in and try to give

that a shot so decided to make that move

about six months into into my time to

elevate the third and so when I started

that the sales process was completely

different so really our CEO was doing a

lot of the work himself you know it was

him juggling you know trying to manage

different teams trying to figure out the

strategy of the business trying to do

all the things that a CEO has to do

while also trying to figure out well how

do we kind of get new business in the

door so we were kind of all over the

place and that's when I kind of stepped

in and sort of started as a support role

to him and then kind of branched out and

he sort of took a step back from a lot

of the new business so what I decided

when I first started was what are we

doing you know why are we doing it and

and what I wanted to do was trying to

focus on trying to change what was in

place and we're gonna take a good hard

look at sort of what was happening so

that's kind of where I started and where

I kind of you know started to dip my toe

water and kind of what happened was we

sort of focused on this process so we

took some this time to just say okay

let's let's look at this as a type of

change but take a good hard look at

everything that we're doing and let's

try to bring in you know a more holistic

approach at how new business drives the

organization so for basically you know

from that point on we just continue to

do that but this was sort of the first

point I was an inflection point in that

in the history of the organization where

we just said okay let's stop everything

and let's talk about it and let's kind

of figure it out together

so the first thing I realized when I

stepped in was I could not manage all

the things that were happening in terms

of opportunities and and by that I mean

we were just struggling to stay afloat

with with deals that were completely

reactive right and and that was not a

good thing it wasn't staying afloat

because we were inundated with great

opportunities it was that we were

inundated with just opportunities and so

that means like we were using tools do

you know to scrape RFPs and to specific

all this stuff to us and what I realized

was that was not the right way to

approach it all my time basically was

spent responding to RFPs that were kind

of generic right they were blind we

didn't have an inside track sometimes

they mentioned Drupal sometimes they

didn't they took forever they were

painful I'm sure everyone in this room

has touched a really horrible RFP at

least at one time in their life and it

was it was horrible and so we also were

doing a lot of word-of-mouth but we were

chasing everything that someone would

refer to us right we were kind of scared

that like if we didn't do someone a

favor that we would you know be

blacklisted right and it was something

wouldn't be it would be a mark against

us so even if we knew something wasn't a

good fit if it was a referral we still

pursued it and we went after it

and we were just chasing a ton of stuff

you know we were trying to be a million

things to a million people so you know

in the same week I could be touching

your kind of hello here's a quick you

know basic marketing site and here's one

for an enterprise opportunity here's one

for a non-profit here's one for higher

ed we kind of just chased them all

the bottom line is that we didn't spend

real time in the sales process qualified

opportunities if it had one element of a

good opportunity we just said okay great

let's do it and how do we and how do we

do it so one of the things that I did

kind of as we go through this process I

wrote a book that I thought was really

helpful and I highly recommend it's

called let's get real or let's not play

it's kind of about that qualifying

process and there was sort of this one

moment the book where it was a it was a

you know watershed moment for me where

they talk about what they call yellow

lights right so when you're driving and

you see a yellow light most of the time

you hit the gas and you speed right

through it what you're supposed to do is

slow down and you know eventually stop

when you hit the red light and so what

we identified was sort of those yellow

lights in our sales process right what

are the things when we hear it we're

kind of just sweeping it under the rug

and saying yeah you know but there's

this other good part or hey they said

this what we did is we stock them here

so that the yellow license said no this

means stop this means we should not

proceed with it it means that they're

not qualified on budget it means that

they're not really serious about Drupal

it means that they're you know not

looking for something that's sort of in

our core services so rather than just

sort of glossing over those things we

just stopped doing things with what we

deem kind of yellow lights and then we

learned the power of no which again is

isn't really it was a really powerful

moment for us so we kind of learned the

right way to say thanks but no thanks we

were so afraid of the word no before

this you know again whether it was word

of mouth well there was an RFP we just

thought well if we say no to this one

this is going to be the one that changes

the business and if we don't take the

shot you know how can we expect to make

it that kind of thing

but we just started carving stuff away

and the change that they had was

instantaneous and it was dramatic so you

know I'm not gonna sit here and say like

it wasn't really hard there are so many

times where you're just staring a deal

in the face and you know it's a it's a

big budget or you know be really

exciting or it'd be cool to have that

person's logo you know on your logo wall

but you just have to do it and if you

don't commit to it and if you don't say

all right we're actually going to say no

it just never happens it's too easy just

to sort o start let letting stuff sneak

back in so you always want to make that

exception

and when we first started doing this I

kept trying to justify things or kept

trying to make exceptions and when I've

sat down and talked to the team about it

we just sorted making hard and fast

rules so there were stuff that we could

look at you know objectively and say is

it an opportunity of exercise or do they

have these things in common with us or

are they you know really serious about

using Drupal or whatever the case may be

and that was a way that all of us could

kind of just get on the same page versus

constantly trying to justify things and

kind of find that you know that end

around or that sort of loophole to kind

of sneak something back in so we

effected that again was really amazing

and what we started to do is we actually

just started to focus our time was spent

on opportunities where we actually knew

we fit best

and we weren't spreading ourselves thin

chasing a hundred different deals all at

once so we started to get better and and

it was a pretty quick process we're not

perfect by any means we still focus

every day I'm trying to get better but

what we did was we started to get more

focused repetitions on deals that we had

a better chance of closing so our

pipeline if you're measuring it gets

smaller right

but you're close rate goes up

dramatically and our deal size actually

went up our average deal size went up so

again just starting to focus made a

massive difference and then you know

suddenly you know things like our for

example like our development team will

see a pattern right so if they start

doing sites for a particular type of

organization or they're building the

same functionality you know or types of

integrations or in that case maybe you

know they start to say oh we can get a

lot better at this or here's where we

can contribute something back or this

might be a cool project for us to do

when you're working with all different

kinds of organizations with all

different kinds of needs not to say that

you know people aren't each project

isn't slightly different but when you

start to see those patterns developers

when you start to see characteristics in

common with each of your each of your

clients so you know design started to

see it

user experience started to see it you

know development and so that's when we

have things that we could really carry

forth into the next sales process and we

identify something and say we know that

we've done that before we can use this

experience we start to tell a very

different story in the sales process

versus just saying sure yeah we can

do it we have some like actual insight

and knowledge to bring into a sales

process so we got better as a company

and honestly we learned a lot about

ourselves our strengths and more

importantly our weaknesses the second

thing we did which was really important

for us was we started to bring other

people into the sales process so again

when I started it was really again our

CEO really off on Islands you know

trying to figure things out on his own

and juggling a lot that he had to deal

with and so it was really critical for

us to start to have conversations with

people outside a sort of a sales role so

we wanted to do is sort of have key

stakeholders from across our agency

brought into those conversations early

and often so the first kind of step for

us was okay like rather than you know

someone pulling actuals from a

comparable you know build that we've

done or a project that we've done we

started to you know have more

conversation around estimates so how do

we bring our technical leadership into

every conversation that includes an

estimate versus only in these cases or

things of a certain scale then it was

kind of okay let's start with doing a

brief and bring it in a creative person

and technical person and getting them in

the room and helping with strategy and

how do we figure out the right way to do

estimate then we started bringing people

into the pitch process you know and so

it just grew over time and sort of had

this snowball effect and after a few

months I mean probably after six months

we realized is absolutely critical to

have both technical and creative

leadership involved in basically every

step of the sales process now that that

varies and I think you know there are

right ways to do that and wrong ways to

do that and it's still our

responsibility to make sure that we are

sort of quarterbacking that process

bringing the right people in not

monopolizing their time that sort of

thing but what we kind of learned

through that is like not you know people

who don't necessarily have their eye on

sales all the time like kind of Brett

and I do those people solve things to

help us qualify that we couldn't

necessarily see and they start to give

us insights and actually come up with

some fantastic ideas that we brought

into the sales process just getting

getting different perspectives and

getting people with different

backgrounds and so that was really

helpful and the other thing that we

realize already

here very directly from some of our

perspective clients was they liked you

know talking to someone face to face in

a pitch process who is actually going to

be you know working on the project or

running the team working on the project

and that kind of thing so it just

created more transparency and an

increased sort of that that level of

communication before someone buys into

your organization so they meet the team

and they get to kind of go down the

rabbit hole with them so you know what

was kind of cool for us is you know

people would ask us really heavy

technical questions and we would try to

sort of do our best to communicate what

we knew or you know would say like let

me find out the right answer for that

but when you have your technical

director and someone CTI want to room

together and they start to go down the

rabbit hole for twenty minutes about a

really specific problem that's you know

maybe a roadblock for their business

when you can prove that you had that

knowledge and start to sort of give them

a slice of what that answer could look

like you know it gets them thinking

about okay well this is what it would be

like to work with them and so those

again were some sort of watershed

moments for us

and a part of what we do is we really

coordinated as a sales team as we've

grown and we've focused a lot on that

piece so rather than a bunch of people

you know off doing different things you

know we talk about everything we have

stand-ups every morning we have a weekly

sales meeting we coordinate weekly with

our marketing team and we talk very

specifically about what are we measuring

and why so what are KPIs

you know who are the right contributors

in each conversation how do people work

together you know if we're going out

pitching a particular opportunity or

we're targeting specific types of

companies how does that influence the

marketing team and that type of thing so

you know we participate together in

conferences so you know here today we

have technical leadership as well as you

know one of our account managers Lily

who's here and you know we have a lot of

people that we try to bring together to

have a more holistic approach to things

so it's not just how do you carve off

this new piece of business but it's

about how do we put forth the face of

the company where everyone's kind of

talking about the same thing or

demonstrating this the right things

so yeah we also started looking at

reporting and holding ourselves

accountable so before we basically had

no reporting in place other than what's

the big number at the end of the year

how much how much revenue did we do and

what was our profit so we started

breaking that into you know monthly

goals quarterly goals yearly goals we

needed to have objective data to look at

all the time and at any single point you

know you can look at Salesforce look at

our pipeline and someone can get a

pretty good sense of the health of our

sales team so we also wanted to measure

success and and and see what was working

right it's sometimes hard when when

everyone's busy and you got a million

things going on to really say like how

are we doing with the projects that we

bring in the door right do we feel like

they're the right opportunities or a

measuring profitability on them that

type of thing and sometimes I think it's

really easy to shy away from actually

looking at data and leaning into the

stuff that may be kind of hard to you

know to talk about so we started forcing

ourselves to have those conversations a

lot more and you know I think what we

learned about ourselves was incredibly

valuable and what we learned was that if

you're if you're not getting better each

time if you're not looking at every

single opportunity that you bring in the

door and figuring out well why did that

work what could we have done better when

we lose opportunities to take a good

hard look at those and say what did we

do wrong here if you're not getting

better each time it's just gonna you

know you're just gonna be stagnant and

so we're related and what happened was

basically it took us several years but

we figured out that kind of enterprise

b2b was our niche right took a lot of

reps took some very very painful moments

took some bad projects you know it but

also some great successes but through

measuring what you know what projects

again hit budget where we were most

profitable you know who rated our

services highly so we do a Net Promoter

Score with each of our clients we ask

for very direct feedback and also

talking to our internal team so asking

our developers asking our designers

asking the people who are the boots on

the ground in the weeds on every project

you know what's working and where are we

landing you know big big projects and

where we feeling that were the most

successful this is kind of what we

figured out it so you know there were a

lot of different pieces to this a lot of

things that we had to sort of figure out

in order to get here but basically what

we figure out is is larger companies

with very large technical problems are

where we can start bring the most value

and so you know we like folks with a

little long b2b sales cycle they're

implementing ABM practices and of course

like they're very committed to Drupal so

those were just some of the things that

we've figured out but this has allowed

us to change dramatically and again has

really influenced our sales pipeline and

what were able to achieve Thanks this is

quite interesting it's very nice so as

we get on to this section of the

approach a little background on me I've

been in kind of the advertising agency

world for about 10 years now recently

joined elevated third a little over

seven months ago so this section of the

presentation I really want to kind of

drill down on all the learnings I've

been able to soak in things that worked

things that didn't work there's no

secret sauce to this by the way

unfortunately I wish I had some recipe

that you can just pop it right in it is

very unique to your company these

tactics can be applied in many different

ways but hopefully throughout this

presentation of this portion you'll be

able to see and feel what it like that

excitement of new business I mean for me

I you know I wanted to tie those things

stay hungry because it's something I

just love you know I mean when you're

hungry you're scratching you're crawling

you're getting wherever you can to get

the business if you're full you're on

the couch you're lazy or content I don't

really like to be content to stay hungry

and go after the goals and so hopefully

that's what you guys will get out of

this and then some sort of like an

actual plan right some steps that say

hey if I apply these we might be able to

see some growth in this area so that's

what I'd like to kind of focus on here

on this section of the approach identify

your differentiators right and everyone

again is unique you are you a b2b

company as Harrison mentioned on the

enterprise level in the niche or you b2c

do you like commerce sites do you like

anything like B to B or B to B to C is

kind of like the health

right it's like we work with them on a

b2b basis but then those providers have

to turn around and get the individuals

going and move in so there's a big

educational gap between what we would

say and what that end consumer says so

you know even though it's b2b and b2c

there's always some sort of an end

consumer and understanding that and

being very targeted with that allows you

to exploit it more than you could right

when everything is important nothing

really is so you have to probably aura

ties what your uniqueness is in order to

get there again some examples are you do

you know do you love banks and financial

services healthcare those types of items

especially in the Drupal world you know

we see a lot of healthcare and financial

institutions due to the privacy and kind

of personal information being held on

Drupal a lot of nonprofits and a lot of

higher education so those are kind of

the core Suites that we have seen from

some of our tools that we do discovery

on looking for certain clients and

things and that's where they really fall

into but then it's also like your

uniqueness I mean as Harrison mentioned

we are a full service digital web

development shop some are just a digital

arm some just a really good at digital

design and so trying to figure out what

really works for you what you guys are

really passionate about is what you need

to be kind of identifying it's just that

marker and then you got to put the stake

in the ground and say no this is us and

if you waver from it then you kind of

yeah you might get some business some

small projects here or there but it's

the core as Harrison was mentioning it's

the core that's gonna really exploit

that those piece of business are gonna

be much more grandiose you know you can

do project based stuff but you start

focusing and narrowing down certain

target lists and it works is it

localization all the outreach I've done

now it's like do you have presents in my

city are you close to me can I get to

you within two hours I mean right now

everyone is looking to humanize this

process they want that face-to-face

interaction I think we've come a pretty

long way with videoconferencing Skype

zoom what have you to get that kind of

interaction but again if you if you have

that that's like this is Louis bearing

fruit right I mean if you're in Denver

Colorado didn't run havoc on everyday

and company in Denver Colorado and to

get sick of it and you grow out to

Boulder you grow out to four columns

then all of a sudden Colorado becomes

and then from there you know I'm with

the Intermountain region now and so you

do have to start small in order to think

big and what's that relevant experience

like I mean where do you come from one

of those passions that you have what

really gets you excited because that's

going to resonate incredibly well with

that audience it's going to resonate

incredibly well with those types of

organizations that you have identified

boom here it is again leverage what you

know so it's an in Harrison did touch on

this is it industry versus solution but

you got to be an expert so if I love

healthcare excuse this thing if I love

healthcare I just want to destroy the

healthcare game you know because I know

that each of these types of

organizations most likely have a very

similar problem they have the same

issues the people that are assigned in

those marketing roles typically are

along the same so as far as meeting

people you're not going to jump me from

industry to industry because they'll be

a go although you know people say it's

funny I've been around a lot of pitches

that people say oh yeah you know I'm an

automotive guy and I know I'm pitching

this you know naked juice over here and

there I go what do you have any business

over here in The Naked Juice pitch and

they're like oh well you know it's just

the fresh thinking and things you know

and it's funny because that's what

everyone says before they get experience

in that vertical right so once you get

experienced you can't exploit it so it's

really important to hone in on this or

is it a tech play on a celebrated

d'oeuvre preferred partners of demand

base and have done amazing things to

help connect that module to Drupal 8 and

so right there a whole new target list

anyone that's a hundred and demand base

we have the ability and we have kind of

a bulletproof plan to go after them

because we know this space we created it

and now we're going to exploit it

because this is a big issue that this

organizations are facing and so to solve

that problem for them and make that

connection is what we really really lean

on speaking of second blow point leaning

heavily on research you have to take

time I mean there's so many brands up

there there's so many other agencies

that are probably going after that as

well that if you don't have anything

different to say if it's just a standard

generic email it's probably not going to

resonate but if I know again because of

what we're doing and

dividing these up that every health care

has this problem of Acts I'm address it

in my outreach you know right away

because it's a pretty good known fact

that these guys are dealing with it

versus trying to completely switch it up

and then provide value and that's just

gonna be something I don't want a heart

bond right now because it's kind of

reiterated throughout but before I go on

I did want to ask the audience like are

you guys how many of us here you know

own our own small business and that's

why we're kind of here okay we got a

couple and then how many are just part

of a sales team and maybe a little bit

of a larger organization right and so it

becomes tough you know I mean especially

those that are starting off wearing too

many hats I see it all the time I

started and in LLC about prob about

eight or got to a two and a half years

ago and ran it for a couple years and

that's what that was my sole purpose was

to join that agency become that new

business arm for them become remote

because they were just stretched too

thin and there's just no way in hell the

CEO can do this incredibly effective and

then scale and that's the issue that a

lot of these agencies come across is hey

I found my differentiator you know I'm

just the tourism guy in the

Intermountain region so I want nothing

but tourism clients which is great but

then you start getting those clients and

now you know you're still the guy that's

overseeing all the work and then

managing the team and then before you

know it I forgot about the new business

aspect and so being able to focus a

little bit deeper on the division and

that also just comes with a lot of trust

and we'll kind of touch base on those

things a little bit down the line but

once we kind of have those targeted

lists and let's just focus on financial

if I worked for Wells Fargo and I was

having a hell of a time trying to get

another thing to sometimes banks will

say oh well you work with Wells Fargo

we're not Wells Fargo we're too small or

they get intimidated and things like

that so you want to be careful on you

know leveraging some big names but being

able to break it down and then expand

that experience as well so just right

you know it's a software allows

individuals to receive payments and

things like that over the Internet to me

that's a beautiful tangental jump so I

worked with financial institutions I'm

gonna go after FinTech now

because I know that those two are

related they probably work with one

another you can go into their Mahr tech

stack and determine what they are using

and that's another in if I know that

they're on Marketo I might reach out to

them and say hey I know you're on

Marketo and this isn't really it but I

saw that same problem with another

company that uses Marketo so there's

kind of some unique ways here but that's

really what with this light it's time I

was expanding that just beyond because

once you've niched then you can't expand

it out and that's something I think a

lot of times people miss and sorry I got

a little dry mouth you know I woke up a

little sore throat so what a timely day

but nonetheless and then you know doing

the research and tools and integrations

that they're currently using to exploit

that hey you know Marketo I rework with

Wells Fargo they work with you and they

have a great relationship I wanted to

talk to you about you know this piece of

the business into the financial armor

for you and that way you can start the

conversation and you have a little bit

of validity behind it because these are

big names they already use your product

they're sold in and you kind of complete

that triangle sort of speak for them can

the same logic can be applied to the

automotive industry if I work for Audi

and I have that on the roster I want to

change it up maybe I go after nokey and

tires because I know that those are the

tires that are used on ality so now I

have that as a leverage point or I do an

in car stereo system because I know that

that's what's used inside the Audi's and

so you know these are just another just

tactic to get you guys brainstorming and

thinking a little bit differently on how

we can make that jump and still have

that connection without being just way

out of place and now region going after

something that you just have no place in

doing next slide

this target I'd never really like

planned things either guys just as a

heads up I like to just kind of talk so

targeted countless so this is something

now that we know what our what our kind

of verticals are we know that we can

expand out this way

then we got to really prioritize those

what is most important to you I mean I

like to do kind of a catch-all with

parameters so I want everyone under this

under the automotive space that's within

North America I'm not going to touch too

many foreign cars right now I'm not

going to go into the European market or

anything so you can parameter yourself

so you don't get overwhelmed because

what's important is to learn from that

outreach what ticks what didn't how did

those meetings go did business get close

did it not if not why if so why who is

that person that you needed to talk to

and always have the dreamers in the

whales you know I mean I like to call

the narwhals because I think those are

just a little bit more unique than a

whale but for me these also deem a

little bit more of a long-term

engagement this is like you know asking

someone to prom and in sales we always

talk about the courting process so

imagine it's the same exact scenario I'm

gonna ask a nice lady out to dinner

that's step one that's my outbound email

then if dinner goes well I might have a

second meeting bringing multiple people

from the group from both teams we're

gonna discuss this problem a little bit

more before you know it and I you're

meeting the dad now we got a big big

proposal on the table and we're trying

to get that signature with the ring so I

mean I've always kind of viewed it as a

courting process and those dreamers and

whales are really what that what that

means an inbound and bound is just such

a good testament to like you're doing

cool shit you know it's like you're here

people are seeing you they've seen the

work whether your conference is whether

they get a case study on someone's side

and people finally start hitting you up

I mean isn't that just the ultimate goal

is to not have to do all this cold

outreach and buy yourself down with

trading excel sheets full of lists of

companies and contacts within and when

to follow up and when not to follow up

and so the inbound becomes interesting

because that almost breaks all the rules

I mean if you want to be really finite

and niche but if you got someone

knocking at door to check especially as

a small start-up or a small agency it's

really

really tough to deny you know $100,000

check or $75,000 check it says yo let me

live for a couple more months and again

this is gonna be your best advocate

that's gonna be a lot easier to give we

can get that inbound move in and so you

want to be participating in conferences

and you want to be trying to get your

name out there as best you can but

that's that's kind of how I wouldn't you

know use that target account list to

probably order ties certain things cool

and then okay so now we know who the

heck we want to go after we've created

all of the lists we have our prioritized

list and which ones you want which ones

you don't want great now what we do you

know that all seems fine and well but

now the battles just begun so now what

you have to do is this omni-channel

outreach the top three channels right

now to engage with anyone email is used

for with about ninety nine percent of

organizations use email and that's their

number one number two which is always

interesting is the voicemail and call

voicemail comes first it's most the time

when you do cold calls no one picks up

the phone so you better get your little

speech down on what you want to say in

that voice no because most likely you're

going there but about ninety seven

ninety six percent of organizations use

that as the second tactic and then

social LinkedIn I mean with sales

navigator and LinkedIn in general you

have another touch point there to get a

hold of that prospect to rope them in to

tell them who you are and make sure that

those Cadence's come in so if it's an

email hey you know I just wanted to see

if you were available I see you're using

these things again use that knowledge of

research that we've kind of built up so

that's that's the Bream's purpose to why

you're introducing yourself and that's

what's really important to them and then

that voicemail hey I'd left you know I

sent you an email a couple days ago

wanted to follow up to see if you did

get that email if so you know give me a

call back here's my number you know

social hey I've tried hitting you up

make sure that you always kind of have a

reason for what you're doing we've kind

of flipped it on its head sometimes at

elevated third and we actually had it

happen to our creative director where I

forget what product was giving him a

call but he just said hey you know is

this Judd just like yeah this is me okay

cool I'm gonna send you an email this

afternoon

thanks for your time boom and that way

it's just like just like oh well that

was how weird he had me on the phone but

then when that email comes up he's gonna

remember it you know gosh that was Mike

from earlier this morning I let me read

it for a second so again just kind of

thinking a little bit differently on how

we want to proactively go after the

clients is important a fourth one on the

on the channels of outreach which I

didn't include here but I want to talk

about it is Direct Mail and that used to

be almost like foreign you know the

right why would I want direct mail and I

had sent out so many portfolio books and

so many little knickknacks and the scary

part there is like you just don't know

if they get it you know it's like

there's nothing tracking so you can't do

this open rate you can't see any of that

type of material so it's just kind of a

shot in the dark but coincident enough

Direct Mail has gone up from 0% usage to

think people are not getting tired of

emails by any stretch but they're

looking for that new unique way to hit

them in a different perspective and

that's what these things are all going

to encompass I mean email is going to be

the steadfast of course but what else is

curious about the number two of

voicemail call is the live call

execution is apparently the number one

challenge in 2019 for sales

organizations they don't know what to

say you know we're so used to hiding

behind a screen and in sales what you

want to do is you got to humanize that

process make it really relatable for

them and so being able to have a

conversation here the in fluctuations of

your voice that's not that's not too

easy I've seen organizations try to use

scripts that that's almost like using a

robot you know I think why people have

seen an increase in the voicemail calls

and an increase in direct mail is

because BOTS just to do all the

automated emails for you you can set a

sequence and no one truly knows if it's

me typing it or not and I'm kind of an

old-school cat so I unfortunately still

do type out those deadly emails and then

I'll get a hit back that says you know

definitely remove me from your list okay

we're not a list you're on the list but

wasn't like an email blast thing but I

think that's just becoming the norm now

for outreach is that people do believe

it's just about and that it's not a

human so applying these other tactics

for outreach gives that person a sense

of

this is relatable I can roll with it and

then test and learn see what works see

what doesn't work and optimize from

there you know I think scripts work

really really well when doing emails if

you find an email subject line that gets

a 40 50 percent open rate don't mess

with that

keep that stet that's gonna be kind of

your Bible moving forward until it

doesn't and if those emails are clicking

and getting the meeting set keep it

that's totally fine where do you want

frameworks it's more of kind of that

call you know hey here's generally what

needs to be covered on this phone call

in order for it to be really successful

but you know if I like talking about my

three-legged dog I'm going to talk about

that because who knows this person

across the room might feel the same you

know they have a three-legged dog and

all of a sudden e5 has common ground and

that's all someone wants there's want to

be talked to you like through your

friend they don't want to be talked to

or sold to I mean they get that stuff

way too often during the day so that's

just anyway okay so there's that slide

okay cool

stand out let's talk about a couple ways

that we can really make this happen so

as I kind of mentioned you know product

differentiation is just simply dead

Harrison said earlier there's countless

different agencies and a number of

agencies are only increasing only making

more clutter only only making more noise

the old way product features we do this

and we do that and you know look at us

some kind of town and chest beaten the

new way is sales conversations and sales

conversations are what you say do and

right in the sales process and so that

has now become the new norm that is now

what you want to be focused on when

doing outreach is humanizing it becoming

relatable and still and the product

features of course is just kind of like

you know what's the advantage of us but

then again we're talking about us and

not really about them so if you get them

on the hook make sure that stays focused

and again business you know conversation

over technology conversations ask

far out we read there but this kind of

plays into this thing called telling the

difference and I like this slide and

picture because it's kind of known as

like the twinning effect right I get

we're very cluttered in the marketplace

who's who who isn't who and this thing

is very simple to us our differentiators

no-brainer very easy to spit out not

hard to them our prospects completely

different story they see us as them they

have no idea why we're different than

the next shot most of time maybe they

just go down to the bottom line of the

budget and say oh they're cheaper

because everything else stayed the same

so how are we going to break through

that tweeting effect how are we gonna be

the agency or the organization that does

separate themselves from looking and

acting just like everybody else and I'll

tell you right now it's not too easy but

it's something that you need to be

focused arms were so internalized on

ourselves and what we can do and you

know touting all of our cool clients and

things but really everyone's doing that

you know who that someone's not

leveraging that then then I'd be fooled

but what I what I think is really

important there after the twinning

effect is decrease the time to show

value I did you got over obvious reasons

but if Chicago as a city just never

existed and there's a huge pot of land

right where Chicago is what we want to

do is decrease the time to show value to

the client do giving them value up front

right now I see a lot of organizations

that will say alright you know the state

of Illinois committee whoever they may

be here's a huge awesome plot of land we

got in Illinois and it's going to be

great and the first step the first step

but the first step is alright let's just

let's get in there you know we're gonna

start with this one Road it's gonna cut

all the way through and then these

little blue buildings that's me some

houses so we're gonna get some people

move into it's now got these roads to

connect to man and then these great ones

these are businesses now got

corporations coming this part of land

that was always blank before and then

we're gonna get to this you know and

efforts and pass that logic seems fine

Brett like what's wrong with that well

it's taken time to show them what that

is so I flip it on its head and say this

empty big ol plot of land that right

image that's what we're gonna put there

didn't they're like oh what well how the

hell are you gonna do that and you get

to peel back the layers of how you're

going to do it but capture their

attention quick give them value up front

and then allow them to see how your

process manifests that's in goal so this

is just kind of a fun little example I

like to show because I think it really

does resonate true you know I mean a lot

of times it's hey I'm paid Tim I'm Brett

from elevated third here's my whole

blurb and this is why I'm reaching out

you have time for a call versus hey Tim

how you doing this Thursday at 3:00 p.m.

work for you for a call and then you

know finish the email and people say you

know try to avoid also a go tactic try

to avoid saying can I get 15 minutes of

your time

I know it sounds right it just comes off

really salesy again so it's more of just

kind of saying hey you know are you

available at this time or I think

Dylan's in the room and he works on our

team as well and he had great success

but you're saying hey I see you're on

Drupal we work in these verticals let me

know if you need any help you know

that's it and it's led to some great

meetings and I've done the same tactic

as well and so just kind of thinking

about what we think and flipping it's on

its head and showing that value first is

gonna be paramount and then the other

thing too to speak about automotives I

have a couple of them circled there and

I didn't really know how to animate the

slide so I'll have to just kind of talk

about it

but currently as we like go through our

pitch decks will help oh you know we

worked in we're just focusing on

automotive well we work with Comcast

we've worked with Home Depot we've

worked with these

and then all of a sudden unless you say

we have one its Home Depot and Comcast

and Miss addiction motors then they're

like well okay two of the two of the

three don't matter to me cuz I'm an

automotive company and who gives a crap

about the other ones or they just have

hey here's all the here's the three cars

that we work with three car

manufacturers that we work with in your

space and then you know that might get a

little bit more but this tactic right

here of showing them a 10 we I don't

know them as my dad's name's Tim's house

probably why I'm using it as an example

but say hey Tim these are all your

competitors we work with the ones that

are circled and within that we have

grown our presence of two car

manufacturers to five in the last 18

months would you like to talk because

then it shows validity hey I'm in this

space I'm constantly innovating within

eighteen months I grabbed more clients

I'm growing this vertical I'm exploiting

this vertical beyond it means but giving

them a glimpse of oh man yeah those are

my competitors you know I want to be

like them or you know there I am on the

list why aren't I circled you know so

there's just different ways of

approaching how we've always kind of

pitched ourselves in a unique way like

this and just kind of really just laying

it out there and showing that growth

again and showing that uniqueness for

people oh yeah I'm looking at my notes

here now and yeah it really does it just

grabs their attention quick and

establishes the agency as that

innovative leader and I think that's

that's really what we're looking for

because if there is one slide I do want

you guys to take a picture of it would

be this one understand them and create

purpose if your story describes their

problem better than they can describe it

themselves they will automatically

assume you have the best solution

yeah but that is super powerful if you

can bring to the table through all these

targeted lists that we talked about

through narrowing down you know the

niches to building out everything and we

got to take time to research and this

time that's not an easy portion a lot of

times like I'll cool I got the marketing

directors email a member boom that's

fired off but if you can take an hour

and a half per client per account and

actually do some research figure them

out figure out what could be alien them

and sure sometimes people have asked

people what happens if it doesn't work

is that scalable to be having resources

spend an hour and a half per account to

do this and I would say damn right it is

because it will take you twice as long

to lose a deal than it does to win one

the ones that click they click because

you've done this the ones that seem to

be dragging on I mean I always will have

ones that just drag on for months and

months and at a certain point just send

in the dang breakup email hey I've been

chasing around for a while it seems like

this isn't gonna be a high enough

priority on your list I really thought

this would be a great working

relationship but timing just says in the

line so you know thank you so much for

your time and let me know and I've had

friends at other agencies say that

they've gone three months blank from a

client and they sent them that breakup

email within an hour that gets oh I'm

sorry we were just really busy because

the ball is always in their court and

now you're like you know what I'm so

done chasing you like this is just

ridiculous

so I'm gonna see the break-up you know

and then they're like oh well no no we

are serious now and it's it's funny how

they'll just kind of think a little bit

differently if you hit them with a

little different tactic but you know

research is just the paramount way to

cut through the clutter and on average

oh yeah I did say that sweet sometimes I

take notes and I just kind of roll with

it you know and they just like Oh nailed

it this is something to you that will be

applied to the organization of you know

building your team a lot we just

mentioned that there's a lot of business

owners and things like this in the room

that are wearing all the hats and it's

going to be kind of like

who do I hire then you know if I'm gonna

try to carve out this department or

dedicate resources in time to this who's

against me so I say make the right hires

they are the front line of the agency

right

we are the first interaction that client

can possibly have with our process with

our agency if I'm two three hours late

on a simple email back that says the

president of what that organization will

assume happens if in the door of our

agency because I'm the first interaction

Harrison is the first interaction so

it's feed to me it's getting to them

quick because we are the frontline we

want to be personable we want to get out

there quick we want to say hello if you

got to fly and jump on a plane to go

somewhere which we often do which

honestly is tiring as hell but clients

remember that man what was that one

group that flew out here for us and even

though the project is now you know three

months down the line who was that again

I'm gonna give them a call they took the

time they went out and saw me first and

so think about when you make these hires

who do you want that handshake to be who

do you want that first interaction to be

with and make sure that person is really

well equipped to do it to be well

equipped you got to have a good baseline

knowledge they came from the advertisers

of the world to a Drupal specific shop

those could not be any different we're

using Tim again and if I hit up Tim

prior in my career I'd say to him what's

going on what do you want us to do like

what would you do for us and I'm like

well shoot I could do a web site I could

do a TV commercial I could do print I

could do logo I could do packaging I

could do all this stuff so it was a lot

harder a lot harder for me to kind of

focus on what I could now I know for a

fact I'm only building websites and I'm

only using the Drupal CMS

so therefore having that intimate

product knowledge it's just a way

quicker process hey you're you're on

psych ward cool man

if you want to switch let me know later

otherwise I'm not worried about you I

think it'd be fun to build cases to say

Drupal dominates psych or Drupal

dominates WordPress and be able to go

after those it's a little far off for

right now I think we still got a great

pool of Drupal clients that we want to

be

this time but you want that person to be

competent enough describes the service

across all departments and the service

offerings of the agency to get that done

you know if you can't send someone out

they'll read through the bullshit if you

try to ask me a tech question and it's

too deep of knowledge for me I will tell

you I do not know but I know our

technical director does I know our

development treasurer so let me get him

on the next call we're gonna keep that

momentum going and then make sure it's a

culture fit you know that the

salespeople they're usually kind of out

there and a little bit loud but you know

we want to be part of the team too you

know and I think sometimes we fall flat

because we don't get a work on the

project we just work on the core team

and we get it in and then all of a

sudden you know we kind of lose out on

the fun stuff but being able to get that

culture fit at the agency that's like oh

you know what I'm gonna jump on that

grenade for Brett because in sales you

don't know when that RFP is gonna come

down the line we don't know if we're

gonna have to hop on a plane so they

have a team around us and a good culture

fit to say hey Tim you know do you mind

jumping in on this call real quick I

know it just happened but like I need

you here for this and every time our

teams like absolutely that's not gonna

be a problem because we know that our

our abilities only so far you know where

we are our own Department if we weren't

we could do everything you probably run

our own business right it wouldn't have

to work for an agency but because we

don't and that we've specialized into

these crafts is where that culture fit

comes in so this kind of plays into it

too and no Harrison touched on it as

well

I'm but treat it the same as your

account team treat it the same as your

creative team or your ops team mix it up

I think as a sales person you have to

have a very good baseline knowledge of

how every single department in your

organization works and how they interact

together and how that process falls in

when a project does come in from the

client cuz oh that's okay well how's

this work oh I know for sure that we use

these project management tools and

you'll be assigned an account manager

with the coordinator underneath and

we'll always have a lead developer so

getting that understanding of kind of

how the agency works is just going to

allow your client to get the answers or

their questions answered a lot quicker

so you can get to the next phase of the

sales process and again and I think also

engagement during the entire process

once this the deal is signed it's like

almost just begun because for me they

usually just wanted a little taste of

the lemonade you know no one's just

gonna give you their whole piece of

business right off the bat they might

say I need some maintenance work at

twenty to forty hours a month great you

take that all day and you work it and

you grow it organically or hey I just

have this small project on this one part

of my site and then you grow that into

trying to take off over like the main

comm maybe it's the help site maybe it's

another section of the site that you can

bite into and then try to grow that

organically so it's important to keep

the salespeople in that cycle as well so

during the the process and duration of a

project you know we work with the

account team to jump into those check-in

meetings to say and ask the client hey

how you guys doing you know and in here

soon I will hit them up say hey let's go

grab some lunch we just want to like

take you advice the outside of like the

agency world now and let's go grab a

bite and see how it's going you know are

the things that you want to be working

on or things that you think that could

improve so we always want to be the

Advocate because we've established that

trust with the client and that's the

main thing is that they trust us and

they don't really like to you know have

the whole bait and switch so there's

that I'll kind of do this happy workers

work harder implement incentives we're

salespeople you know you want us doing

research at 8:00 p.m. at night give me a

reason why you want me to slave and fly

across the country for certain things

give me a reason why otherwise it's not

going to be that insightful for me and

the incentives are great whether it's

hey you closed the client within this

range here's X spot bonus or this range

here's a bigger spot bonus or you do a

commission structure or you do whatever

you can to keep these guys hungry right

keep them motivated keep them moving

keep them learning and trying to go

after it because sometimes if they just

get a deal and the company just grab I

mean I came across this all the time I

grabbed an agency like 3.2 million

dollars in three years I didn't see a

dime of it they just gave me like a

little extra raise on the salary bonuses

I was too young to really kind of stand

up for myself sort of speak but then

afterwards I was like and I CEOs

Maserati looks pretty sweet why am I

still written in a studio you know like

how does how did this flip-flop back and

forth so and

so I ultimately left because I didn't

feel like the road map was sufficient

enough for me to keep working and

turning as hard as I did so you want to

be able to identify that road map it is

a team effort and make sure that you get

to implement some incentives to keep

these guys and gals just move in and

always wanting to stay hungry and then I

mean I'll be quick on this one this one

isn't really that that friggin cool but

you got to kind of make the investment -

whether it's a hire and that's a salary

cost again sales people we are an

internal cost to organizations

unfortunately we're not we're not

pitiful so I mean the pressures are on

quick when you do make that hire but

make sure that again you make the right

hire with the right product knowledge

that there isn't six months down the

road and Brett failed and now I'm out X

number of dollars and got to go through

this whole rehiring again so that's a

really critical part is getting people

with some experience and understand it's

gonna cost some these are a couple of

the tools we're actually talking with

outreach it's really kinda like an email

automated sequence system and things but

these are some of the tools that we use

that elevated third which is just really

made our lives tremendously easier you

know we'll look at discover organ

getting the right contacts information

email address those sort of thing and

there's many services out there like

that Salesforce to keep the pipeline

moving and everything else and then of

course you know make these investments

in the conference's taking everything

you guys having these conversations I

mean this is what makes that networking

there's a lot of areas of ways to get

business and things so I think with that

said we can open it up we got what about

seven minutes left

sweet if you guys have any questions and

things yeah so

you that user your local area of these

regions in your publicize where in that

formula can you factor in sort of your

internal teams capacity so can i males

process so do you pull back if you feel

like oh yeah we know these are clients

we want to work with or is it all this

whole scheme ahead and we'll figure out

the staffing this week a little bit yeah

so we have repeat it we're like

summarize oh yeah yeah so essentially

the question is like if we're getting

red lined with capacity what do we do

and how do we decide if we're going to

pull back from something is that fair

absolutely so the way that our team is

structured is we have key leadership

that are all identified with a

particular team and one of our teams is

focus on delivery so our development

director and our count director are

tasked with moving every single week and

planning out our resources and figuring

out who's dedicated to what and what can

we take on and also what then deems you

know a new hire like what what what

threshold for us means we need to go out

and hire more folks so we never want to

pull back for an opportunity if we see

think something is well qualified I

think that we have an opportunity when

we never say we're not gonna pursue

something because we don't have the

bodies today what we do is we bring that

to our team and say hey just so you know

we're involved in a process right now

this is how we scoped it out it would be

this many people for for this long how

do we either move things around

internally and shift resources to make

that happen or how do we get to a place

where we can hire fast enough to get the

right people in the door III as a sales

person you know getting incredibly

nervous when you don't pursue something

and I think that it's a very delicate

balance and it requires a lot of

planning and it requires a lot of work

on our end but everything is mapped out

in a tool that we use that shows every

single billable resource we have and it

shows them in both the short term and a

long term perspective how big is your

age

or what you are referring to as if you

go after a big whale right and you don't

have possibly the resources currently he

still wanted pitch his that kind of yeah

it's just that that idea of your being

selective as you grow type of money to

pursue but if you still see like okay

these are all cuts I want to pursue I

mean there's a couple things a fake it

till you make it to a certain degree

I mean pitch it like you have that

already staffed and then figure out the

pieces later whether you have to grab a

contractor for a couple of months or

whatever or make sure you have that HR

department or whoever it's gonna be the

hiring manager if we know we're going

after these types of clients that we're

revving up for q2 maybe we're doing

interviews right now right so that if

this thing drops we know I got this team

and then it's kind of that bulletproof

for you to tell the client hey you know

this is gonna be a great you're gonna be

our baby client and if you guys are able

to jump on board you know this is gonna

be the dedicated team but I think

organizations also understand that some

people just aren't going to be able to

have these resources sitting around

waiting for them to come along yeah

right and we have a stand-up every

single morning with all of our different

teams leadership so that I can say hey

we're in this opportunity right now this

is gonna happen or may not happen but I

get it on the radar right away so hey

we're having a conversation with

so-and-so company it may take six months

but we're having this conversation now

so you guys know versus just like oh by

the way we've closed this piece of

business yesterday now I gotta figure it

out I think doing it early and often

helps yep I'm ignoring my own advice

trying to incentivize your clients in

some way to work with you on this but

like the lady I'll start the project

you don't say we're gonna secure your

place in the queue and if we can start

this we'll have air I'll tell all our

ducks in a row in two months or whatever

it may be

we've had some success yeah no

absolutely any other questions

okay estimates for clients you know

common wisdom so to speak is like small

medium large that way they've got one to

kind of like react to like no it has

been that but that's too little whatever

doing those kinds of you know like you

know the three little bears estimate

when you estimate is it just

progressively more stuff whatever u.s.

tomato or is it actually three distinct

approaches that each have their own

value set the approach yeah it would be

the latter now to also encourage you to

not give them multiple options okay what

that sometimes does come off to them is

I don't know what I'm doing so therefore

here's everything to look at what we've

done at times is this is what we know is

either going to be mission critical so

to do the latter point of your of your

statement there this is what's mission

critical to get things up and running

and this is that base price and then

think about it not necessarily in one

two three up front

here's phase two of the project after

twelve months this is what we want to do

on phase to keep them around because

that's going to be the lowest period

fruit so kind of phase it out as here

space one here's phase two here's some

optional you know the cherries on top

sort of the thing I mean it would you

agree yeah I mean I think what we're

trying to bring is show that we've done

the thinking that we have value so if

they say just throw me a wild number I

want to come back with okay well here's

what we think and why I think it's a

different price point is to add to it

sometimes it can just sort of all blend

into one and why would I not just go

with the cheapest one but when we can

say okay here's how we scope this out

here's what you get here's what you

don't get that kind of stuff it shows

that we're opinionated and I think it

helps to set us apart

thank you yeah of course any other

questions okay hey guys thank you so

much really appreciate

[Applause]

 

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