Attract, Convert, and Scale Your Digital Agency

We all know the accidental owner, but Jason Swenk’s break into the agency space has its own unique flavor: he created a parody website for a Justin-Timberlake look-alike friend, it took off, and the rest is history. 

Jason – a 25-year agency veteran who grew and sold a profitable agency – now runs a mastermind for agency owners trying to do the same. I wanted to sit down and talk with him, now that signs are showing an improvement in the agency world and ask: 

With sales cycles picking back up, how can agencies best position themselves to capitalize on the momentum?

To answer the question, our conversation ranged from Darth Vader to Berkshire Hathaway to raw craw legs on a Las Vegas buffet (catch the whole thing here). 

Here’s what we discussed.

• Fish in the right pond

Most agencies start by doing anything and everything for anyone – and then using those early relationships as a source of referrals. 

But you can’t scale with just referrals. 

Agency growth comes from being “laser specific” about who your clients are, what they need and how you can help. To help agency owners answer that question, Jason has them ask themselves, “Who are the clients, and what would you do for these types of clients, if you were only paid after you performed amazing service?”

Once you know that, it’s like having the perfect spot on the lake and the perfect bait to catch the fish. Then, Jason says, it’s just a question of creating the right channels to reel them in: “To go up a level, I always believe you need three channels: inbound (create a podcast), outbound (invite people on your podcast – and then have a relationship with them), and a strategic partnership with key people. 

• Don’t pitch a $10,000 website to a billion-dollar company 

When you get nibbles from a prospect, your instinct might be to reel them in as quickly as possible. But there’s due diligence that needs to happen on both sides.

In the early 2000s, Jason pitched a $10,000 website to a room full of suits who laughed in his face when he mentioned the budget. Listening to his complaints about the disappointing pitch, his partner opened his eyes to a little detail that turned his failure on its head. The company was Berkshire Hathaway, and they no doubt expected to be quoted 20x the price.

“There are tons of idiots like me that don't research,” says Jason, who now teaches a “budget buster method” to help agency owners avoid this kind of fail.

“If a client says they don’t have a budget, I’ll say to them, ‘I love working with companies that don't have a budget, so we don't have to worry about money. We’ll just test all kinds of amazing things out.’

“When they laugh, I say, ‘Oh, so you do have a budget?’ because they all have a number in mind.”

Here’s the catch: When agencies say, “I just need to know the range,” they often start with the low number: “One hundred dollars, $1,000, $1 million.” Because we're programmed to remember the first thing we hear, if we take this approach, the client anchors at $100. 

Jason does what he calls a “reverse auctioneer.” He starts with the top number, something astronomical, like a billion, and then he works his way down. 

“Then, when they say, ‘1.5 million,’ I’ll say, ‘Cool, we can definitely work with that.’ Just don’t get too excited. You gotta act cool, say, ‘Yeah, I think we can do something with that.’ It works 99% of the time.”

• Be careful at the buffet

Just because a prospect nibbles, doesn’t mean they’re a great catch. There are even times when you’re in a relationship with a client and you need to let them go because they don’t get you the information you need to let you do your work.

“Get rid of those bad clients,” Jason says. “In the short term, it sucks. But as you’re building your business, you’re going to realize that there are some prospects that are just not right. You have to go through that Vegas buffet and get sick because you overate and you tell yourself, ‘I'm not going to eat those raw craw legs anymore.’

One way to avoid a buffet disaster? Take it slow.

“Don’t pitch marriage right off the bat. Any significant other who is nice and would be good for you for the rest of your life is never gonna say ‘yes,’ if you pitch marriage on the first date. Create a simple, paid trial project that leads to something else.”

The first two steps of Jason’s approach – “Attract” and “Convert – are where a lot of agencies spend their time: Jason explains, “We’ll look at a business and ask, ‘Where are you generating leads? How can you amplify your inbound channel, your outbound channel? How can you raise your pricing? How can you maximize your profitability?’” Then comes step 3, scaling – but that’s a story for another day.

Jason’s approach sounds a lot like the advice we give our clients, “The best thing you can do is know yourself, who you are, what you're selling and what you're really good at. That’s what will help you find the right clients that help you grow: you're interviewing them as much as they're interviewing you, because you want to make sure you’ve got the right fit. You always want to disqualify a bad fit as early as possible – and at the same time, if you do get a chance to pitch to a Warren Buffett, don’t offer him a $10k website. 

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