

The Digital Agency Growth Podcast
Sales Schema
Rated in the top 3% by ListenNotes and going strong for nearly 300 episodes since 2018, The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is dedicated to helping marketing agency owners and executives build stronger firms so they can grow, get acquired, or enjoy more peace of mind. Hosted by agency veteran and Sales Schema CEO Dan Englander, each episode features interviews with successful agency founders, industry experts, and business strategists who share insights on client acquisition, team building, offering optimization, operational efficiency, and sustainable growth models.
Episodes
Mentioned books

Sep 7, 2022 • 46min
Corey Quinn on Building an Agency from $20-150M
You are probably at a point where you’re thinking about leveraging technology and scaling your agency. Usually, it starts with those small vertical jumps that help you grow with inbound, but we know that there’s going to be a natural progression where inbounds dry up. That’s where outbound marketing is so important. This week, episode 146 of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is about building an agency from $20-150M! Watch our new recorded video training: Relationship-Driven New Business At-ScaleIn this episode of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast, Dan Englander and Corey Quinn shares the importance of having clarity around the market you serve so that you can speak directly to their problems. They also give actionable steps you can take right now to land more outbound deals. Corey Quinn is the ex-CMO of Scorpion, where in 6 years, he helped grow the agency from $20-$150. Today he helps $2M+ SaaS and Agency B2B Founder CEOs identify, grow and scale profitable niches and customer segments.In this episode, Dan and Corey discuss the following:First developing a streaming media business right before the dot com crashThe value of having an MBAStepping into a $20 Million agency that had capped out on inboundThe three key lesson learned in building an agency from $20 to $150 MillionHow you can identify your top three most profitable niches that you can focus on even if your agency might feel all over the place. Remember to look at both the qualitative and quantitative data to make those decisions when scaling you agency. Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!CONNECT WITH COREY QUINN:LinkedInInstagramWebsiteJoin Corey’s NewsletterCONNECT WITH DAN ENGLANDER:LinkedInSales Schema

Aug 31, 2022 • 43min
Linc Kroeger on How to Fill the Tech Labor Gap
On one hand, we hear a lot about technology and the leverage it can give us and the things that it can do for our businesses. Still, as today's guests will talk about, the talent shortage in the technology space is a gap that's been widening and is perhaps wider than it's been in decades. Finding affordable tech talent is really, really hard. To get a seasoned developer, you might very well be going to India, Eastern Europe, the Philippines, et cetera, to find talent. There are a lot of people that would argue that the United States has dropped the ball. We don't have the infrastructure. We don't have the planning, leadership, or forethought to train technological talent. As today's guest will talk about, it's not necessarily just developers. This is the bleeding edge. This is the trenches of the labor shortage. This is where things can potentially get turned around. And today's guest is at the forefront of that, and we really enjoyed our conversation with him. This week, episode 145 of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is about how to fill the tech labor gap! Watch our new recorded video training: Relationship-Driven New Business At-ScaleLinc Kroeger is a social innovator with 35 years of experience in innovation and enterprise technology. He served three years on the Technology Association of Iowa board; was assigned by Governor Kim Reynolds to her Empower Rural Iowa Task Force; identified as “the most innovative leader on bringing tech jobs to rural in the nation” by U.S. Congressmember Ro Khanna representing Silicon Valley; recognized as “Top National Rural Influencer” by The Ruralist.In this episode, Dan and Linc Kroeger discuss the following:Why there’s a drop-off of interest in a career in tech if someone doesn’t start by the time they are about 18.What goes into training the next generation of tech talent.How a national strategy in filling tech infrastructure puts other nations ahead due to the gap in the United States.Why the labor shortage is happening, and how Linc’s organization is working to shift that in the tech space. Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!CONNECT WITH LINC KROEGER:LinkedInKnight MovesCONNECT WITH DAN ENGLANDER:LinkedInSales Schema

Aug 24, 2022 • 39min
Donna Peterson on 30+ Years of B2B Marketing Insights
Even within the B2B space, it can feel like we are all driving around blind. Relationships are extremely important in the B2B industry, so when you focus on providing value for your ideal customers. The barrier to creating those meaningful relationships is trust. So how do we break through and create that trust with our B2B customers?Relationships are about offering true educational value to your audience, not just plummeting them with sales messages. There are tons of marketing sources out there right now, but they’re not all good. You have to be able to navigate through that. This week, episode 144 of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is about over 30 years of B2B marketing insights! Watch our new recorded video training: Relationship-Driven New Business At-ScaleIn this episode of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast, Dan Englander and Donna Peterson share the importance of using commonalities as leverage when connecting with others and the most timeless strategy that has worked in building relationships. As a CEO, Marketing Consultant, and Leadership Strategist, Donna Anne Peterson has a personalized approach to helping individuals and businesses reach the next level. Each individual and company is unique and must be treated uniquely. Donna dives deep into understanding the mission, why, and goals to ensure everything goes down the right path. Bombarding people with promotions or asking employees to do more is not a sustainable way to grow a business. Instead, show people that you understand their situation and honestly care to increase productivity and sales. In this episode, Donna Peterson discusses the following:What are quality client relationships and how to effectively build them.The first lesson Donna had to learn when it came to working in a diverse industry. Hidden tips for learning the language of your ideal customers.How to stand out and show people that you truly know what you’re doing.Using relationships and commonalities as leverage when creating campaigns.Industry changes in the B2B marketing space over the last 30+ years.Tools that are actually helpful in B2B marketing.Don't forget that when searching for the right marketing tools, it’s important that you consider your business needs and the tool as a whole in your decision. Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!CONNECT WITH DONNA PETERSON:LinkedInInstagramWorld InnovatorsB2B Excellency PodcastYouTubeCONNECT WITH DAN ENGLANDER:LinkedInSales SchemaLINKS MENTIONED:Dan’s episode on B2B Marketing Excellency

Aug 17, 2022 • 33min
Joe Troyer on Three Agency Exits, Three Software Products, and the Big Lessons Learned
Have you ever wondered what it would look like to exit your agency and start a SAS product? That’s exactly what Joe Toyer did…three times! And if you’re considering building, scaling, or exiting an agency in 2022, this episode is going to give you clear ideas on how to do all of that and more. This week, episode 143 of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is about three agency exits, three software products, and the big lessons that were learned throughout that process! Watch our new recorded video training: Relationship-Driven New Business At-ScaleIn this episode of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast, Dan Englander and Joe Troyer share the importance of planning in your business and how that has made a difference in long-term agency growth. They also chat about actionable steps you can take right now to hire the right people in your agency and what those first hires should look like. Joe Troyer is an internet entrepreneur who's been helping businesses grow their online presence and succeed in the digital world since 2005. He is a leading expert in all things digital marketing, having founded successful businesses in the SaaS, marketing services, and agency spaces.Joe is the co-founder of PPC Adlab, a tool that provides Google advertisers with unprecedented market visibility. Review Grower, his most recent venture, is a SaaS company that helps businesses obtain reviews and grow their online reputation. As the former owner of a 7-figure agency, Joe also does some coaching to help others start and grow their agencies and achieve the same level of success.In this episode, Dan and Joe Troyer discuss the following:What inspired the creation, build, and market of a call-tracking platform.The payoff in building, scaling and exiting three agencies. How to determine if a business is no longer a good fit for you as a person.Unique stages of scaling an agency and how Joe decided where it made the most sense for him to exit.What it looks to build and scale an agency in 2022 when the market is more competitive.The power in transitioning from agency to SASAs we’ve seen from this conversation, there are many different ways to build, scale and exit an agency. You are the one who ultimately gets to decide what is going to work best for you. Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!CONNECT WITH JOE TROYER:Show Me the Nuggets PodcastLinkedInInstagramDigital TriggersPPC Ad LabPPC PredictReview GrowerCONNECT WITH DAN ENGLANDER:LinkedInSales SchemaLINKS MENTIONED:Dan’s Episode on Show Met the Nuggets PodcastThe Road Less Stupid by Keith J. Cunningham

Aug 10, 2022 • 46min
Chris O'Riordan on Building Sales Teams Over Decades
Hiring sales team members can be overwhelming, especially when you’re new to hiring. However, as we will learn in this episode from Chris O’Riordan, even if you’re the chief expert on the floor or the industry expert on anything, you may not be the perfect candidate or sales member. This week, episode 142 of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is about building sales teams over decades! Watch our new recorded video training: Relationship-Driven New Business At-ScaleIn this episode of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast, Dan Englander and Chris O’Riordan share the importance of knowing your customer’s pain points and actionable steps you can take right now to create a course of action that works for your customers. Chris O’Riordan is the managing director of sales strategy, training and implementation company, Firestarter Business Solutions.In this episode, Dan and Chris O’Riordan discuss the following:The concept of the phrase, “I’m not young enough to know everything yet,” and how to circumnavigate the idea that we’ll never know it all, and yet there’s a limit at the same time.Why your business cannot survive solely on the passion and energy you bring to it if you plan to scale.Why the foundations of clarity around why your product sells and why your customers buy is the first and most important question to solve before growth can happen.Easy exercises you can do to better understand your ideal client and help you stick to a plan of action for your customers.The hiring process; the questions you should be asking your new potential hires, what to do with references, and more.Creating sustainable success is about more than just having a good service, but rather it’s knowing your customers so well that you know that your product or service is sustainably needed. Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!CONNECT WITH Chris O’Riordan:LinkedInCONNECT WITH DAN ENGLANDER:LinkedInSales Schema

Aug 3, 2022 • 41min
Marquis Murray on Agency Tools, Systems, and the Most Profitable Operational Tweaks
Almost all business owners are drawn to the idea that there are little tweaks, or system changes you can make that will magically make your business so much more profitable or make growth exponential. While it would be nice to have these magical little tweaks, it doesn’t really work that way. What I have found is that if you go through the reps enough, you do kind of land on these little nuggets of changes that will improve our systems, and with that in mind, I am excited to welcome back Marquis Murray. This week, episode 141 of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is about Agency Tools, Systems, and the Most Profitable Operational Tweaks! Watch our new recorded video training: Relationship-Driven New Business At-ScaleIn this episode of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast, Dan Englander and Marquis Murray share the importance of efficiency for team and company growth and actionable steps you can take right now to have the most profitable operational system possible. Marquis Murray is the CEO and Founder of Ditto — a systems and processes consultancy for organizations who need help creating clarity around the work done inside their companies. He found that the need to create order in the chaos was a common trend that he saw with his clients, and this discovery helped him to realize his true passion (operations) and eventually led him into a career creating SOPs, process workflows, and automation to make work easier.In this episode, Dan and Marquis discuss the following:What Marquis believes makes a good operator in terms of skill sets to have or learn in order to establish trust within your team.How he has established a feedback and ideas box in his office, and what that looks like in terms of determining ideas as opportunities for growth.What Marquis’ meeting cadence looks like, and how it has shifted over time to be more efficient and the best use of time for all team members.How they build culture in an efficient business setting, and where that can be found and implemented in your own business.If you’ve been looking for ways to be more efficient, get your production costs lower, or even build culture in a tight ship, this episode is for you. CONNECT WITH Marquis Murray:LinkedInYoutubeWebsiteCONNECT WITH DAN ENGLANDER:LinkedInSales Schema

Jul 27, 2022 • 46min
John Doherty on Brand-to-Agency Matchmaking and What Most Get Wrong
If you’ve spent any amount of time in the agency world, you’ve probably heard of directory-based marketing opportunities and search consultant niche. Today’s guest sits in an interesting space right in the middle of these two. John Doherty has 11 years of SEO and digital experience and lots of experience with lead generation. John’s perspective is very interesting, especially if you’re in that growth stage in your own agency. This week, episode 140 of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is about qualifying leads from the beginning! Watch our new recorded video training: Relationship-Driven New Business At-ScaleIn this episode of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast, Dan Englander and John Doherty are sharing the importance of qualifying your leads and actionable steps you can take right now to stop wasting time with directories that aren’t providing top leads. John Doherty is a Denver, Colorado-based entrepreneur and marketing consultant. He's the founder of Credo, which helps companies find the best digital marketing agency for their needs. He has 11 years of SEO and digital experience across agencies and in-house and has worked with some of the largest websites on the internet to drive growth. Living in Denver, CO, with his wife and dog, John is an entrepreneur, speaker, writer, skier, and mountain biker and plans to visit every continent on Earth.In this episode, Dan and John Doherty discuss the following:Spending too much time on the leads that aren’t a good fit and why that drains your energy and profit margins.Why the most difficult part of the lead generation process is getting a potential client in the door and what you have that’s special after that happens.Why it’s important to qualify your potential clients before starting work with them, and how to qualify leads.How the cost per lead has increased over the last 18 months or so exponentially, and why John believes this is happening.John’s perspective on entrepreneurship and growth as an agency is a unique one that will leave you itching to jump in and take a second look at your current lead generation strategy.Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!CONNECT WITH John Doherty:WebsiteTwitterLinkedInCONNECT WITH DAN ENGLANDER:LinkedInSales Schema

Jul 20, 2022 • 31min
Sarah Noel Block on Effective Marketing Systems for Tiny Teams
If you are going after a niched B2B audience and have limited bandwidth, then you probably struggle with trying to figure out where to focus your time. There are so many content and marketing strategies to choose from, and that can feel overwhelming. This week, episode 139 of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is about effective B2B marketing systems for those who have small teams! Watch our new recorded video training: Relationship-Driven New Business At-ScaleIn this episode of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast, Sarah Noel Block shares the importance of batching your content to ensure that you have a plan and strategy going in. She also shares actionable steps you can take right now to get your marketing in front of the right people. Sarah Noel Block is the founder of Tiny Marketing, where she offers content marketing strategies to support tiny teams. During her time as a marketing team of one for five different companies simultaneously, she was able to build a system that allowed her to expand their bandwidth without expanding the budget. Now, she partners with tiny marketing departments to help them get noticed and close more sales without adding to their headcount. In this episode, Dan and Sarah discuss the following:How Sarah learned to make content marketing the core strategy for all marketing to ensure it could be distributed in a way that kept them in front of their audience.Ways to create bigger pieces of content and then break them down further into 10+ pieces of content that can be used across multiple platforms.How to connect with ideal clients–no matter how niche–while creating content that they actually see and can take action on.Using partnerships with other companies to create content that can be marketed effectively to your ideal client.The power in asking for referrals and getting connected with more people who can support your content and marketing.A few different ways that you can create the content without having a weekly podcast.The importance in surveying your audience, so you know the type of content they like to consume.It all comes back to how you can effectively pull your ideal clients into your content and marketing to ensure brand awareness and conversions.Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!CONNECT WITH SARAH NOEL BLOCK:Tiny MarketingTwitterInstagramLinkedInCONNECT WITH DAN ENGLANDER:LinkedInSales SchemaLINKS MENTIONED:SuperPath

Jul 13, 2022 • 32min
Erik Huberman on Focusing on Accessibility to Expand your Agency
Erik Huberman knows what it means to buckle down and work hard for an agency’s growth. Through the many years that he’s worked in the space, Erik has focused on the values of the business and tasks at hand to make huge growth opportunities and put the businesses first in order to become as successful as his is today. This week, episode 138 of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is about client retention and why Erik chose not to niche down in the growth of his business! Watch our new recorded video training: Relationship-Driven New Business At-ScaleIn this episode of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast, Erik Huberman shares the importance of communication with your clients and actionable steps you can take right now to take a step back in your own business to allow it to grow. Erik is the founder and CEO of Hawke Media, the highly successful marketing agency known as Your Outsourced CMO® that’s helped grow over 3,000 brands worldwide, and is valued at more than $150 million. Erik is a lauded recipient of a number of honors and awards, including: Forbes 30 Under 30, CSQ’s 40 Under 40, Inc. Magazine’s Top 25 Marketing Influencers, The International Business Awards’ Entrepreneur of the Year, and a Telly Award for the Hawke Media commercial he co-wrote and starred in. In this episode, Dan and Erik Huberman discuss the following:Why Erik chose to focus on accessibility instead of niching down when it came to expanding and marketing his start-ups.How communication, along with a few other smart techniques, helps Erik keep up retention in a market where one bad week can ruin 2 years of work.Mistakes Erik has made in the early stages of hiring for sales that he learned from quickly, and ways to avoid the same mistakes in your own agency.What drove Erik to step back from being the main closer in his agency, even though it meant losing half his new client revenue, in order to buy back time elsewhere in the business.Stay around to the end of the interview to hear why you shouldn’t worry about the recession looming amongst us and how to be optimistic about it instead of frightened. Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to follow, rate and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!CONNECT WITH ERIK HUBERMAN:LinkedInTwitterInstagramThe Hawke Method: BookCONNECT WITH DAN ENGLANDER:LinkedInSales Schema

Jun 29, 2022 • 38min
Leveraging Strong Personal Similarities in Sales [Replay from the Digital Agency Show]
Dan is returning from vacation, and instead of a guest episode, he was featured on the Digital Agency Show podcast. So today, we are sharing that episode with you. On the Digital Agency Show, Brent Weaver interviews successful agency owners and leaders on the best practices for agency growth and success. This week, episode 137 of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast is an episode Dan was on over on the Digital Agency Show podcast! Watch our new recorded video training: Relationship-Driven New Business At-ScaleIn this episode of The Digital Agency Growth Podcast, Dan Englander chats with Brent to share the importance of breaking down barriers in cold messaging strategies, which are covered in his book. He also shares actionable steps you can take right now to build deeper connections with your audience. In this episode, Dan discusses with Brett the following:The timeless power of de-risking conversations with commonalities instead of boring, publicly available information. Tips for messaging copy that truly converts instead of being left unread or sounding like a bot, even if that copy is created in advance.How to balance personalization and scale without being bogged down with too many tasks or feeling like a robot and impersonal.This fun podcast episode was shared graciously with us by the Digital Agency Show Podcast, and we are very thankful to have been on the show to share about the new book and share some wisdom with their audience.Thank you for listening! If you enjoyed this episode, please take a moment to follow, rate, and review the podcast and tell me your key takeaways!CONNECT WITH The Digital Agency Show podcast:WebsitePodcastOriginal EpisodeCONNECT WITH DAN ENGLANDER:LinkedInSales Schema


