Funnel Vision - For Performance-Driven Agencies & Marketers

Liana Ling - the Lead Gen Queen and CEO of AdSkills -  is an expert of Meta Ads specializing in helping coaches and info product sellers drive down their Cost Per Lead (CPL).Her path to AdSkills was one that many marketers unknowingly take. She was seeing great results with her approach, which led to her getting international recognition for sharing her insights in front of larger communities. Her peers saw her outperform standard methods, which increased her thought leadership in front of broader audiences and ultimately landed her the CEO role at AdSkills.Marketers come from various backgrounds, but a lawyer turned marketer isn’t something you see every day. Liana’s transition from legal to lead gen started during her legal career, as she worked for a boutique firm that required everyone to wear many hats. This led her to the conclusion that she needed to be her own boss, as working for someone else was driving her crazy. Her true entrepreneurial beginning was when she bought a digital marketing franchise,  which ended up being the right move, as with a franchise you inherit their existing systems and structures - things that are highly time consuming to build from scratch.Finding her niche in Meta Ads was quite the journey. She started out doing a lot of work with many platforms, until figuring out a winning advantage in Meta by truly understanding the inner workings of the platform. This became a hot topic soon, as getting ROI from social media is notoriously difficult when selling B2B - especially outside of the LinkedIn ethos. When entering a new market, Liana suggests that you find the top performers within that vertical and make it your mission to talk to them. Whether that means grabbing a coffee, meeting over Zoom or producing a podcast episode together, the network and knowledge you’ll gain will do wonders in making you the easy choice for your potential buyers.Tune in to the full episode to hear more on how Liana Ling became the Lead Gen Queen!HIGHLIGHTS:0:00 Intro1:12 From $30 to $5 CPL4:34 How Liana became CEO8:21 Lawyer to Lead Gen Queen15:23 Up your pricing and find your gimmick19:33 Should your business use Meta?24:59 What works on Facebook in 2024Connect with Liana - https://www.linkedin.com/in/lianaling/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

Mate Prgin (Founder & CEO of Enzuzo) is a data privacy expert, joining Mikael to help marketers transition out of the world of readily available, private customer data. Now that regulations no longer allow you to track everything that your ideal client profile does on the web, the industry specialists need to rapidly adjust or risk becoming completely ineffective almost overnight.With the loss of third-party cookies, you should start prioritizing first-party data strategies, have better privacy measures, and ensure compliance. Europe is getting hit first - with Google Consent Mode driving a loss between 30% - 90% of their funnel visibility. Enzuzo is enabling agencies with a new source of revenue, derived from complying with the new rules.Investing in compliance is a scary thought. No matter how well you do it, you’ll lose a bit of visibility at first. Mate suggests that you really think about the placement and content of your opt-in banner and optimize to drive people to hit “yes”. If they choose to click “no”, that data is still important to help you adjust further. The behavioural model doesn’t serve smaller websites well, as in order for it to kick in, you need at least 100k visitors per month.Tune into the full episode to learn how to thrive in this new world of marketing data!HIGHLIGHTS: 01:10 There’s a problem with data…02:12 Mate’s story03:50 How Google is killing your visibility08:48 Optimize your banner10:36 What happens when they click “no”13:31 The future of marketing data 16:25 Are data scrapers doomed?Connect with Mate - https://www.linkedin.com/in/mate-prgin-680498/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

This episode is a snippet from a podcast with Jason Swenk, who built and sold an 8-figure agency and then moved on to coaching agency owners on how to scale to 7-8+ Figures with life balance in mind. For the full conversation, check out the previous episode of the Funnel Vision Show!

Jason Swenk built and sold an 8-figure agency and moved on to coaching agency owners on how to scale to 7-8+ Figures with life balance in mind. 10 Years ago he started the Smart Agency Masterclass podcast, which is now ranked at the top 1% of marketing podcasts, helping his business reach and help over 20,000 agency owners. 3 years ago his newest venture started buying agencies and now they’ve grown to over $30 million in revenue.As an agency grows, so does your ability to close more lucrative deals. When Jason started, he was selling websites for $500 with no real science behind the pricing. Over the years he went upmarket and secured website deals as large as $1,000,000 for a website for LegalZoom - a single contract value that many agencies don’t even dream of.There’s a good reason why most people don’t actually want to run an agency - the insane amount of stress. In the early days, your job as an agency owner is to do literally everything, which makes running your agency into an insufferable job that you hate 80% of the time. When Jason was going through that phase, he was very very close to quitting. He took a job interview with NASCAR, during which they asked him a simple question - what is it that you truly enjoy doing? This led him to rethink the way he approached his agency's structure and build out a model that works for him, unlocking a business model that could scale to 8 figures.Scaling past the 7 figure mark requires a huge shift in your organizational structure. Jason  looked at two things - who do I need to hire and who do I need to become. Transitioning from the Founder role to the CEO role is a journey that ultimately unlocks scale, but it also is incredibly difficult to let go from controlling every task and deliverable. It’s even normal to feel a bit depressed when you realize that your team is steering the boat by themselves, and your input is no longer needed on every single decision. Once the adjustment period passes though, your life turns around and you’ll finally feel like an agency owner, not an overworked agency employee.Tune into the full episode to learn the Jason Swenk journey!HIGHLIGHTS: 01:21 Jason’s journey from exit to coaching02:48 Selling a million dollar webpage06:31 Stop hating your own agency09:48 How to scale past 7 figures16:50 Making that first big hire21:34 The 8 systems to agency growthConnect with Jason - https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasonswenk/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/Check out Jason's resources & coaching - https://www.agencymastery360.com/

This episode is a snippet from a podcast with Alex Glenn (CEO of Partnerhub®). For the full conversation, check out the previous episode of the Funnel Vision Show!

Alex Glenn (CEO of Partnerhub®) has worn many hats during his career. Started out as an agency owner, moved into SaaS, pivoted to consulting, and then he started a partnerships community where a member of the group expressed their operational pains that ultimately led to the inception of Partnerhub®. Now they’ve scaled to 3000+ companies with no signs of stopping any time soon.The value of partnerships is similar to what a client referral brings - you’re starting sales conversations with people who trust you by proxy. It’s what 80% of users value Partnerhub® for, as the standard handshake partnership is typically not very fruitful due to a misalignment of goals and a lack of an action plan. Alex’s company solves this by vetting their clients, matching the right companies and activating partnerships instead of letting them dwindle.The movement of adding Partnerships to your go-to-market strategy was largely pioneered by the tech industry. In fact, the term “Channel Partner” was coined by hardware providers to help them expand into foreign markets. SaaS adopted this approach, but with the intention of partnering with other software vendors to help solve large problems by building out infrastructures together. Agencies often build their services on top of these infrastructures, which means reselling and extra enablement become worthwhile activities. The purpose of Partnerhub® isn’t just to connect resellers - their goal is to create true partnerships through strategic matchmaking and ongoing guidance that helps their clients turn relationships into outcomes. One of their clients has over 3000 partners in their network (300 active) which is impossible to manage without a sophisticated system in place, and becomes a true pain in case a partner manager leaves their role. Tune into the full episode to learn more on how to build fruitful partnerships!HIGHLIGHTS: 01:13 What led Alex to found Partnerhub®03:27 Do you really need a partner platform?06:16 Different types of partnerships 12:30 The Partnerhub® Journey17:12 Partner Directory & Partner CRM19:21 How to build fruitful partnerships Connect with Alex - https://www.linkedin.com/in/alex-glenn/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

This is a snippet from the Kyle Vamvouris episode of Funnel Vision. For the full scoop, check out the last episode!Meet Shawna Tregunna, CEO and Chief Strategist of Acclivity - a B2B marketing agency specializing in Account-Based Marketing, Content Marketing, Earned Media and Virtual Marketing. Their focus market consists of manufacturers, IoT providers, and innovative technologies.

Today’s episode welcomes Shawna Tregunna, CEO and Chief Strategist of Acclivity - a B2B marketing agency specializing in Account-Based Marketing, Content Marketing, Earned Media and Virtual Marketing. Their focus market consists of manufacturers, IoT providers, and innovative technologies.Acclivity has been active for almost 4 years, but it’s not Shawnas first agency venture. Her first agency came to be due to the explosion of Twitter back in the day. She was an early adopter, making noise on the platform and experimenting with a variety of formats until she was approached by an investor that saw an early opportunity in social media and chose Shawna to pioneer the SMMA movement. She ran that agency for 7 years up until a client decided to buy the agency, giving Shawna her first exit.Her current agency started during COVID, when the world went fully virtual and social media became an even bigger part of how brands get their message to potential clients. Shawna couldn’t idly stand by while businesses that have close to 0 social media expertise were now thrown into a new world, so she started Acclivity to put her years of experience to great use. They’ve now expanded their service offering to include account based marketing, which is one of the hottest marketing strategies in B2B.The first ideal client profile that Shawna pursued was other agencies that were looking to add social to their marketing offering. This helped her grow tremendously, as her clients book of business would also become her book of business, allowing for a huge increase in their overall reach and industry knowledge. She also approached clients as partnerships, helping increase her nearbound circle and organically grow her referral network.Going viral shouldn’t always be the goal, but that’s a tough sell as an SMMA. Shawna’s first challenges arose when clients would expect a huge dose of vanity metrics across the board with every engagement, which led to a lot of misalignment between her agency and clients. Nowadays, most B2B companies understand that virality isn’t the best metric to gauge the success of an SMMA engagement, but there’s still many that expect likes and comments to be the North Star, which simply doesn’t make sense when selling into technical folks that aren’t chronically online.Tune into the full episode to learn more on how Shawna pioneered the SMMA movement and transitioned into ABM!HIGHLIGHTS: 01:16 First Agency to exit03:31 The birth of Acclivity06:04 How Shawna grew her agency09:01 The challenges of growing an SMMA12:31 Thriving in a data-driven world16:40 Tips for selling your agency18:31 Grow through ABMConnect with Shawna - https://www.linkedin.com/in/shawnaactually/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/

This is a snippet from the Kyle Vamvouris episode of Funnel Vision. For the full scoop, check out the last episode!Meet Kyle Vamvouris, CEO of Vouris. They help B2B SaaS and service companies build their SDR and AE teams. Vouris uses a data-first approach to structure teams, optimize performance, and to ultimately develop a repeatable sales process. Kyle has worked with over 70 B2B companies, generated $100m+ in sales, helped raise over $280m in venture capital and written 3 sales books.

Today’s episode welcomes Kyle Vamvouris, CEO of Vouris. They help B2B SaaS and service companies build their SDR and AE teams. Vouris uses a data-first approach to structure teams, optimize performance, and to ultimately develop a repeatable sales process. Kyle has worked with over 70 B2B companies, generated $100m+ in sales, helped raise over $280m in venture capital and written 3 sales books.Improving your sales through tactical means can only get you so far. When consulting startups, Kyle has noticed that many sales organizations fail to become data-driven and end up building unnecessary bottlenecks by focusing on the wrong growth paths. After a career of selling everything from transactional products to B2B software, Kyle went out on his own and started Vouris. At the time he had 2 small kids and he was the sole financial provider for his family. Even when he secured his first 2 clients, he still couldn’t afford to pay himself a salary. As he kept investing back into the business, a year later he was quickly hit with the opposite problem - spending 39 hours/week on client calls alone. Once you’re past the stage where you can sustainably service all your clients alone, the logical next step is to start hiring. Kyle initially wanted his new team to take over client deliverables, but it quickly backfired. When you’re hiring someone to deliver on your behalf, you can’t expect them to take over what you’re doing without proper guidelines, systems and operational procedures. In a service based business, you should focus on hiring those who can fill in the gaps between the business functions that you’re best at. Kyle’s agency journey improved significantly after he finally filled the operational part of his business and got to focus on sales and marketing. Tune into the full episode to learn how to build an agency from 0!HIGHLIGHTS: 01:58 Should sellers be data-driven? 03:42 Kyle’s sales journey 06:39 Building a sales agency08:33 The challenges of building a team09:44 How to make the right hires11:34 The value of experience 17:24 Talk to your customers!Connect with Kyle - https://www.linkedin.com/in/kylevamvouris/Connect with Mikael - www.linkedin.com/in/mikaeldia/