B2B Marketing Mindset

Have you recently started a marketing services business, agency or consultancy? Or maybe you’ve been in business a few years and have hit a ceiling in terms of growth. If so, you’ll want to pay close attention to today’s episode because I’m going to share how we went from a cramped office above an auto parts store to one of the hottest agencies in Milwaukee, billing over six million in fees.  Full disclosure – when we started our business, we were very good technicians but we had no idea how to drive growth, set pricing, get profitable clients or manage the work. We didn’t understand the financial aspects of our business – and I could write a book about what we didn’t know when we started.  My wife (then girlfriend) was working at a design firm and was miserable due to a terrible work environment. I was 32 years old and fresh out of the University of Wisconsin. We decided that we could do it better. But we soon found out there was more to running a business than being good at our craft.  We started out as a pretty humble design studio, taking over a rehearsal room in my apartment above an auto parts store in Glendale, Wisconsin. The floor had a huge hole that went all the way through to the business below – we covered it with a sheet of plywood – threw some carpet over it and started looking for clients.  It didn’t go well. We quickly found that doing postcards for the local hospital wasn’t going to pay the bills – we had to change our business model. This would end up being a pattern throughout the life cycle of the business – continual change and adaptation.  At first we read books and talked to clients to understand what they really needed. We learned that, even in 1991, graphic design service didn’t offer enough value to have a viable business. Clients needed help solving tough marketing problems – they needed more than brochures – they wanted help improving their strategies. They wanted to see hard, measurable results.  It took a lot of hubris to start a company without any experience. We kept trying things, failing, and trying again.The truth is, we didn’t figure it out ourselves. Our secret to success was to lose our ego’s and seek help from people with more experience.   That meant surrounding ourselves with more experienced people, mentors and coaches. Soon we found ourselves winning clients like NML, Harley Davidson, Eaton, Rockwell, Abbott Laboratories, ABB Industrial Systems – and so many more. We had a beautiful office in downtown Milwaukee and we owe it all to our team of experts.  People like Anthony Mikes from Second Wind Network, Dave Woods from Agency Management Roundtable, Bill Lowell, Jim Locatelli, Matt Shultz and so many other agency owners (I’m sorry I don’t remember names!) who shared what they knew, including financials and everything they learned the hard way. We had coaches before it was cool. To this day I still seek out great coaches to help me better understand how to overcome problems in my business. – and that’s after having 34 years of experience under my belt.  Here’s the top five problems new agencies face where seeking out a mentor or coach can help:  Not understanding costs Self limiting beliefs Attracting the wrong clients Not having formal SOP’s Not seeking help  We spent years in trial and error. If we had sought out mentors and coaches sooner we would have grown faster and would have been more profitable. We also listened to our clients and hired more experienced people. But mostly, we didn’t assume we knew it all.  Final Thoughts:  If you are hitting a wall with your company, consider a mentor, advisor or coach. You’ll save years of trial and error (mostly errors) and what you pay in fees to these experienced folks is returned ten-fold. Our company has lasted three decades – it’s smaller now, our clients are different – almost everything is different. And now I get to return the privilege by helping small marketing services businesses become bigger and more profitable. That’s a pretty good deal if you ask me.  The post How We Built a Multi-Million Dollar Agency in Just a Few Years appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

I can really relate to today’s program because I’ve faced these common company killing problems in my own business, and I’ve helped other consultants and marketing services firms overcome them. What is interesting to me is that these problems are universal with companies as they go from scrappy start up to successful enterprise – unless they can’t solve them. Then they end up on the crap pile of broken dreams. This week we will share some very personal challenges we’ve faced in our 30+ years in business and how to overcome them. (HINT: we didn’t do it alone). CLIENTS FROM HELL UNRELENTING PRICE PRESSURE LACK OF SALES EXPERTISE BOOM/BUST CYCLE WORK LIFE BALANCE The post CLIENTS FROM HELL AND 4 MORE COMPANY KILLERS appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Organizational and leadership coach Kenny Lange discusses a better way to sell by building rapport, discovering challenges, aligning services, and starting with a 'No'. Emphasizing genuine sales approaches, transparency, and the value of helping others succeed.

User experience is a talked about a lot, and today we are getting into the finer points of UX with our special guest Jeannette Juetten. User Experience – what is it? Why is UE important? How does research play a role in UE? Why are personas important? How does the user experience shape perception? The post User Experience is Everything – How UX Drives Growth appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

Let’s talk about driving referrals through business networking feature networking master Artie Berne. Don’t sit around and wait for the phone to ring. Personal interaction is back in vogue and in today’s episode we share the most effective ways to drive more referrals and position yourself and your business as the “go to” for whatever it is that you do. The post Networking Tips – Driving Referrals Through Relationships appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

There is a lot of talk lately about the future of marketing – whether it’s A.I. or the ever changing algorithms of social media or whatever flavor of the week tech platform – we thought we’d go right to the source and talk to a young marketer to get the scoop. On this week’s episode we talk to Julia – a recent college graduate about how her generation sees the industry. The post The Future of Marketing: Inspired or Expired? appeared first on .

Performance marketing is all the rage but why do clients and agencies end up hating it? You hire a marketing agency or firm for results. You feel like you are paying for those results. So it makes sense to only pay if those results are delivered. Right? Wrong, my poor, summer child. That’s not how it works. Today we discuss performance marketing – upsides and downsides. We’ll share how it can work – but most clients who insist on paying for performance end up hating the idea once they understand it. In this episode: 1. What is Performance Marketing? 2. All stick and no carrot for marketers 3. Overly complex agreements and high risk 4. Marketers lack control – measurement is haphazard 5. Scope of work plus flat fee is the way The post Performance Marketing – Here’s How It Works appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

I don’t know about you but when I buy expertise, I don’t want to be appeased – I want that expert focused on results and outcomes. Yet so often marketers, digital agencies, consultants, et. al. are “yes men” – their primary goal is getting your money, not solving your problem. This issue is seldom discussed but it’s huge because it’s very bad for clients who expect outcomes to end up with an agency or consultant that will deliver on any hair brained idea I might have just because they need to meet a sales quota. I want them focused on my objectives. 1. What is Appeasement marketing? 2. What is Results marketing? 3. Many marketers appease clients 4. Clients want results 5. Results marketing puts clients first The post Appeasement Vs. Results Marketing – What Do Clients Want? appeared first on The B2B Marketing Mindset.

RFPs or “Request For Proposals” are project announcements put out by companies outlining the “what” and “how” of a project they are looking to bring outside help on, with the expectation that firms looking to take up the project will “bid” on it, effectively making it a competition for who can get the job done for the lowest possible price.  In this week’s episode, we talk about the good, bad and ugly of the RFP process, share our experienced with this approach and whether or not it’s a fit for buying expertise.  For material goods, RFPs can make sense; “We need X number of trucks, capable of hauling Y pounds of cargo, and get over Z mpg,” If the product is exactly the same no matter where it is purchased, an RFP can work.  For services, particularly those involving consulting and expertise, RFPs create a lose-lose situation.  On the side of the creator of the RFP, the reasoning is that the RFP “levels the playing field” so that they can compare one company’s offering with others. On the surface that might make sense for the buyer – but it is the LAST thing any good sales person wants. If anything, when you are selling you want the playing field tilted far in your favor. So far that your offering can’t be compared to others.  RFP’s make the assumption that all consultancies are identical in all aspects –  ignoring differences in skill and experience. Even worse, if everything the client wants is specified and standardized – what is left to discuss?  Price. And only price.  Also, built into the RFP is what you need done, and how you want it done, why bother hiring a consultancy? It would be cheaper, by far, to hire someone directly to follow your instructions, than to hire a consulting firm.  On the side of the prospective “bidders” on an RFP, many buyers ask for speculative “solutions” while giving very little information upon which to make recommendations. This is bad for everyone involved because the chances your recommendations will be on target are slim  and the chances that the client will latch onto a bad idea are great. Even worse, you might win and have to implement this bad idea that has likely been “stolen” from other firms.  There’s no guarantee that you’ll be hired, leaving that work unpaid, and no guarantee that they won’t take your advice, implement it themselves, or pay someone else to implement it at a lower cost.  In our experience, successful firms don’t respond to RFPs because it’s poor practice and they simply don’t have to do so. They are busy, and spending a week giving away random ideas isn’t a sound business decision. It’s a waste of resources because bidders seldom win these contracts. Most often, there is a firm behind the scenes who wrote the RFP and is the predetermined “winner”.  What do you think? Do you respond to RFPs? Why or why not? Leave your thoughts in the comments.

Some people love trade shows and some hate them. Few people actually leverage the unique opportunity in-person trade events deliver. In the Age Of Hand Sanitizer, we’ll share some ways you can leverage in person and virtual events to get the maximum return on your investment, with special guest Anna Bahr 1. Trade Shows: Still Relevant in Digital Age? 2. Key Elements to Trade & Event Success 3. How are industry events changing 4. Balancing traditional and virtual events 5. The Role of Technology