Do you want to skyrocket your business revenue?

Solomon Thimothy, a USA Today & Wall Street Journal best-selling author with over 17 years of experience, can show you how. As the co-founder of two successful agencies, IMS and Clickx, Solomon is an expert in using the 10X Framework to help businesses achieve explosive growth.

In this latest episode of the Conquer Local podcast, Solomon dives deep into the worlds of marketing, sales, and lead generation. You’ll learn from his experience helping startups grow, scale, and discover the secrets to customer acquisition that have made him a sought-after angel investor and startup advisor.

Tune in and get ready to take your business to the next level!

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10x Your Growth: The Marketing Framework to Attract & Convert More Customers

Introduction

Jeff Tomlin: Welcome to the Conquer Local Podcast! Our show features successful sales leaders, marketers, thought leaders and entrepreneurs who will inspire you with their success stories. Each episode is packed with practical strategies, as our guests share their secrets to achieving their dreams. Listen in to learn the highlights of their remarkable accomplishments and get tips to revamp, rework, and reimagine your business. Whether you’re a small business owner, marketer, or aspiring entrepreneur, the Conquer Local Podcast is your ultimate guide to dominating your local market. Tune in now to take your business to the next level.

I’m Jeff Tomlin and on this episode, we’re pleased to welcome Solomon Thimothy

Solomon is a highly accomplished entrepreneur with over 17 years of experience in marketing and sales. And is the co-founder and CEO of IMS, a leading inbound marketing and sales agency, as well as Clickx, and he’s helped businesses increase their revenue using his 10X Framework. He’s also an expert in lead generation and customer acquisition, as well as a USA Today and Wall Street Journal best-selling author.

In addition to his work, Solomon is also an angel investor and startup advisor. He’s helped numerous startups grow and scale, leveraging his expertise in marketing, sales, and business strategy.

Get ready Conquerors for Solomon Thimothy coming up next on this week’s episode of the Conquer Local Podcast.

10X Success Framework helps Businesses Find Efficient Marketing Channels.

Jeff Tomlin: Solomon Thimothy, welcome to the Conquer Local podcast. Hey, thanks so much for coming by and joining us today. How are you doing, man?

Solomon Thimothy: I’m doing great. Thank you so much for having me. It’s such an honour to be here.

Jeff Tomlin: And you are coming to us from sunny Florida, I believe?

Solomon Thimothy: That is correct. That’s correct.

Jeff Tomlin: Up in Northern Canada, I’m going through palm tree withdrawal, right now, so I’m envious of your location. Love the background. Hey, I want to jump right into the conversation, because there’s a bunch of things that you do that I think are super cool. Number one, you’ve got this 10X Success Framework and I want you to describe it a little bit to us, and what are some of the key pieces that drive success for the clients that you’re working with?

Solomon Thimothy: Absolutely. I think we both are in the same field, right? We’re helping small businesses succeed, and the challenge that we see in small businesses is they’re spending their money in so many different buckets. Do you agree? They’re doing some local events, they’re doing sponsorship, they could be doing radio, they could be doing all these different things. Yet 80% of what they do doesn’t really work. And so our team analyzes all of the spend of our customers and we say, Hey, look, if you take this 80% of wasted, I don’t want to say wasted, but those aren’t efficient channels. And then we put it towards the channels that are working in terms of lead generation. We have a clear path to 10X-ing the inbound leads or their pipeline and so on.

And so doing that over and over repeatedly, and I really believe this, by the way, that all of the people that are listening to us, there is 20% of something that they’re doing that is really helping them from a growth perspective. Maybe it’s customer referrals that drive the customers. Maybe it’s something else that you do, but it’s our job as marketers to really find, where is the inefficiency in our pipeline. That’s where it started.

Disconnected Systems Hinder Marketing ROI Measurement.

Jeff Tomlin: 100%. There’s this old adage when we’re talking about advertising, “Hey, 50% of my ad dollars are working, I just don’t know which half are.” And the promise of the internet was that, hey, we will be able to track everything, but it’s not trivial, plumbing everything together and building a great picture of everything. And it takes a lot of effort still, doesn’t it?

Solomon Thimothy: Absolutely. And I think a lot of businesses are still operating as a Franken-System technology, right? It’s a Franken stack. In other words, their website, their marketing, their CRM, they’re all different, different tools that don’t talk to each other. And so, when you have disparate systems, your salespeople use CRM, but your marketing people don’t, or your website doesn’t connect with anything else, you end up with these challenges. We cannot pull any reports or any meaningful reports on how a campaign is performing. And so, again, these are the challenges we as agencies go through. And everyone listening here can probably relate. We can’t make the change for our clients. The clients have to make the change for themselves, but it makes it harder and harder for marketers to prove our ROI. Do you agree? When we want to ask for more budget, what do we use to do that? What can we show that are meaningful metrics? And this is the same challenge that we fix, and this is what we all as an industry have to work towards, how do we make marketing and sales more unified so that we can show them, “Hey, we literally helped you get this client, that client, that client, and it came from social channels or paid search or SEO, you name it.”

Fragmented Software Hurts Small Business Marketing ROI.

Jeff Tomlin: You’re speaking my language. That’s a challenge in front of us, the people that do the things that you and I do. If you look at the typical small business, even the smallest businesses can use up to three dozen different pieces of software to run all sorts of different aspects of their business. And you get up into little larger businesses, it’s not hard to have a hundred or more different pieces of software. And getting those things to talk together is still a challenge. And that’s, what you’re describing the holy grail out there is to be able to give a small business a single source of truth and be able to stitch everything together and give them a story of, “Hey, what’s working, what’s not working?” And it really is the dream, isn’t it?

Solomon Thimothy: And unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it looks, and our customers are literally, they’re running a business, so they don’t have time to do the things that we do. But as marketers, I think we need to continue to push for, “Hey, we need to change this. We got to get a website that can talk to your CRM or whatever else.” And then having the people on site, their salespeople really adopt it so we can see that they’re creating opportunities, if they’re bigger companies. If it’s small business, that they’re picking up the phone and calling people back or sending a text message, whatever it is. If we don’t have any insight into what happens after our job is done, which is make the phone ring, we’re in the blind, right? You have no reason to go ask for more money or to say, “Hey, we should spend more money.” So look, this is what I’ve realized with small businesses, Jeff. They want it done for you. Would you agree? They don’t want to manage any of this. So as agencies, we have to add more services to our arsenal to then give them more and more of the challenges. Maybe we have to build the integration between our systems and their POS system, right? Our system, and their whatever else system that they have, appointment setting, booking, if it’s a dentist, doctor, you name it. And if we do that extra part, not only does it make us more competitive as a business owner or an agency, it also solves some of the challenges that we’re talking about in terms of reporting and showing real meaningful ROAS for their marketing spend.

Solomon Discusses Balancing CEO Duties, Investing, and Book.

Jeff Tomlin: 100%. And by the way, speaking about not enough time to run your business, you do an awful lot of things. You’re CEO, you’re also an angel investor. Maybe talk a little bit about how you balance your time. You’re an author as well. So how do you find the time to do everything that you do currently?

Solomon Thimothy: Look, you making it sound like I’m doing some impossible stuff that you and Brendan are quite changing the world. So, first and foremost, kudos to you all and what you’re doing.

Jeff Tomlin: Appreciate that.

Solomon Thimothy: Honestly, like I said, over time you feel like you have more and more gift, right? The book thing was just being able to share what you know. I want to share as much as I can with as many people as I can. So that was that route to say, how do we serve more people? Because not everybody’s going to be a customer. Not everybody’s going to be a good fit. However, you want to share as much as you know. So I signed up for that, of course, it’s extracurricular activities. But it’s much more of finding the right fit. And if I feel like there is a product out there that I could help move from a marketing perspective? I’m interested, because I know how to do that part, right?

I’m not a product development guy, but I’m a marketing guy. So if I feel like there is a startup that I could really move the needle, then it’s a good fit. And I’ve been in the startup world for quite a long time as a mentor at 1871 in Chicago. I’ve seen so many great products. They never make it to the real world because they can’t figure out their marketing. I’m sure you’ve seen those, right, Jeff? So many products. I’m just like, this is the secret. All of us on this podcast, everybody that listens to this are marketers. They know this part really, really well, which is creating demand, capturing demand, right? Getting leads, converting our landing pages, Facebook ads, whatever it is. So if we could take that and put it into other companies out there that are struggling and they’re product companies that don’t really do marketing? I really think there’s an intersection where we could all have 10X.

Lead Generation = Acquisition + Nurturing Leads = Growth

Jeff Tomlin: 100%. And by the way, speaking of demand, hey, I got the marketing guy in front of me here. Let’s talk about that a little bit. And so I mean, you’re an expert when it comes to in the field of lead generation. It’s a space that’s continually changing on us. I’d be curious to hear what some of your insights are and what are some of the trends that you’re seeing and hey, are there any new tactics that you’re finding that are really driving a lot of success for a variety of businesses?

Solomon Thimothy: Absolutely. I’m going to share a quick little chart here with you. What you’re seeing here, if we can just switch it. It’s basically a graph that we made, right? This is what we call the growth formula, Jeff. So what this shows you is literally acquisition on one side and retention on the other side. What this means is like, hey, if there’s a customer, we’re all on the acquisition side. And what that really means is, again, creating demand for our products and services and capturing demand for our products and services. That’s that part. So we implement this framework for the clients. I think this might be interesting to a lot of our listeners if they’re able to watch or see it. It’s basically a two-sided equation. It’s acquisition plus retention equals growth. And what I mean by retention is not only customer retention, which obviously we all agree, it’s also retaining the leads that are coming into our pipeline from Facebook ads that are top of funnel or Google ads or SEO that are not ready to maybe make a decision. How do we nurture those people, right, in a systematic way so that we can have more and more growth? So we implement this framework. So when you ask, “Hey, do you have a system or is something that you see work?” It’s literally what I usually talk about on podcasts like this. How do we make this more simple for our customers? Right? How do we make this simple for the small business owner who’s not very technical when it comes to paid search or cost per click, cost per acquisition? We can always explain to them like, “Hey, if you Google your products or service and you don’t show up on top of Google, you are not capturing the demand that’s there for your product or service.” As easy as that.

Jeff Tomlin: Yeah.

Solomon Thimothy: If you’re not showing up in Google business profile, we’re missing out.

Customer Growth = Acquisition + Retention (Long-Term Focus)

Jeff Tomlin: I love the fact that when you’re talking about customer acquisition, you don’t talk about it without talking about retention. And that little bit is missed by probably a surprising number of businesses. In the last two conversations that I had with my last two guests, we spoke about retention heavily, and you simply can’t afford to grow unless customer retention is a big focus of your business. I love the fact that you think that those two things should go hand in hand.

Solomon Thimothy: 100%. I think the way that we came across this, Jeff, is literally taking all of our clients and analyzing who’s getting the best result. What are they doing? What about the mid-tier? What are they doing, right? And they’re not really doing terrible. They’re doing better than their peers and their industry, however, they’re not getting the same cream-of-the-crop results that we’re seeing with some of our clients. And they’re not necessarily based on budget, by the way. They’re just based on what they’re doing. And this is why we led to eliminating wasted spend and things like that, is that in order to really truly scale, and we have to first think past 90 days by the way, agencies that are listening today like, oh man, I’d be happy. We got to stop preaching ninety-day campaigns. We’re going to start talking three-year goals, right? What do we do with a customer where we can truly help them become a market dominant, if they want to become market dominant or a local dominant, right? One of the biggest players in their market. And so we realized that it’s not just an acquisition game. They’re doing really well on the retention side. They’re doing really well by lead management. They’re doing really well by following up to their leads. They’re doing really good on email follow up and automation and text and whatever else. And so we said, “Look, for all of our clients, this is the framework that we should utilize. We should teach it, preach it, do it. Does that make sense? And then have them tattoo it if we can so that they believe in it and they will invest as much as they need to because they’ll start seeing the results.

Businesses must Differentiate to Avoid Obscurity.

Jeff Tomlin: Love it. You’re a best-selling author now. Hey, tell me a little bit about what motivated you to write your book and maybe you could share one or two of the insights to give people a teaser of what’s inside.

Solomon Thimothy: So, I’ve been on a couple of book projects, by the way. This is like, I don’t know, Saturdays and Sundays, I don’t know when I have time for these. However, it’s basically the first book was Business Success Secrets. The chapter is Differentiate or Die. I know it sounds crazy, but as marketers, what are we trying to do? As many businesses as you think of, we’re in a commoditized world. Would you agree? Agencies are in a commoditized world. Plumbers are commoditized, roofers are commoditized, who isn’t commoditized? So we can’t just be the lowest-priced provider. In fact, I believe in the opposite. We should be charging more because we need to be able to show more value to our customers. So the only thing marketers can do and business owners can do is differentiation. That’s it. That’s it. If we don’t differentiate what happens? We’re going to get mixed in the masses. And there’s just no way to stand out. Would you agree?

Jeff Tomlin: 100%.

Solomon Thimothy: How else can you stand out? These kind of concepts come to my mind and I’m like, we got to do something about this. And obviously, all of our customers are in that boat. We deal with customers every single day. What are we trying to accomplish? Well, we’re trying to grow in this department, this division, this thing. And when you look at their offering and what other people are offering, it’s clear that our customers sometimes lack differentiation. While they might be a great company, great product, great service, great everything, they’re not the most well-known provider for that. And so, we as marketers have to put our marketing hands and say, what can we say about this product? If it’s peanut butter, what can we say about our JIF or whatever it is that maybe it’s, maybe it’s allergy-friendly, I don’t know what it is. We need to find that and really blow it up for our customers. Do you agree?

Focus on 20% that Drives Customer’s 80% Results

Jeff Tomlin: 100%. 100%. Solomon, if you had a takeaway for our guests today, what would be the number one takeaway that you’d leave them with?

Solomon Thimothy: I think for us, it’s much more of going back to the 80-20 principle. That’s what I live by. And you shared a lot about what businesses need to be doing. I think agencies kind of starts with us marketers who are responsible for growth for our customers, we have to be looking at where is that 20% that is making all the difference in our customer’s business. That might be in the sales side, it might be in the marketing side, it might be customer retention side. It might be just optimizing their tech. That is the thing that I think will make where a customer would be six months or a year, could be a ten-year customer because you are helping them solve real business challenges.

All-in commitment for Business Success: No Backup Plans, Full Focus.

Jeff Tomlin: Hey, Solomon, I love that. And I’d be remiss if I didn’t ask you about the all-in philosophy. So this is a philosophy that you apply to your own business and you teach to other businesses. Can you tell us a little bit about that?

Solomon Thimothy: So I think as entrepreneurs if you’re going to go into this, if you’re a marketing agency, a consultant coach, whoever you are, we can’t succeed when we’re half-wind. Do you agree? You agree. Can’t lose weight if you’re not really willing to fully do everything your nutritionists tell you or your exercise, whoever the person is you’re working with, your trainer will tell you, and this is not just for me, we’re an entire team. We have to be all in. That means all the chips are on the table. It’s either do or die. And the reason I say that is I don’t like to have backup plans. A lot of people say, “Oh, I got to have five different plans.” I think those are great. We should. However, in business, when we’re trying to grow and scale, it’s a hyper-competitive world we live in there, we’re all commoditized, everything I just shared. How else can you succeed? If you look at a brand like Tesla, they’re not going to create hybrid cars just because the EVs aren’t selling as much. Well, they’re not going to change their plan. They’re just going to do what they’re doing. They’re going to go bigger. And so whenever we are met with resistance, we usually, what do we do? We resort back to whatever we were comfortable doing. Would you agree? We’re like, oh, we’re going to lower our prices because we’re not selling as much. I want us to say, you know what? We decided this is what we’re doing. We’re going for it.

Jeff Tomlin: I have to share a story with you because I absolutely love the philosophy. And there was a conversation that I saw a long time ago. There was an interview with a famous Canadian band, and the interviewer was asking, “Hey, what would you tell young musicians that want to succeed, and they’re struggling out there right now? What do they have to do to make it to the big time like you did?” And he simply said, “No plan B.” And he said, “You’ve got to be all in and you got to approach this thing, like, hey, it has to be this.” And I love that because I agree with you 100% that that’s what it takes to succeed. It’s a grind and you’ve got to be all in.

Solomon Thimothy: Absolutely. And for agencies out there, right, it’s not easy. Do you agree? AI changed the game. There’s so many businesses doing things differently, and there’s more and more pressure on producing ROAS and ROI and everything else. So what do we need to do? We need to adapt. We need to change. Would you agree? Our job is to change, but our customers don’t have to change. They do whatever they do, but we get paid to change every single day, if that makes sense. So, there you go.

Connect with Solomon Thimothy via thimothy.com and OneIMS

Jeff Tomlin: We are the change agents, and I appreciate that perspective. Hey, Solomon, it’s been an absolute pleasure having you on the Conquer Local Podcast. If people wanted to continue the conversation with you and reach out to you, where do they find you?

Solomon Thimothy: It’s easy. So they can just go to my personal website. It’s probably the easiest, thimothy.com. Or they can go to OneIMS, our agency. I’m pretty out there. LinkedIn, anywhere, and I’m here to serve. So if you all have questions, I’ll happily answer, anything, everything I possibly can.

Jeff Tomlin: Hey, again, pleasure having you on. Hey, let’s do this again. Let’s come back, do this again in six months and continue the conversation.

Solomon Thimothy: Happy to do it. Absolutely. Thanks for having me, Jeff.

Conclusion

Jeff Tomlin: Solomon is such a good dude. I love the vibe!  A lot of valuable takeaways, but the first one that I’d note is focus on efficiency and integration. Many SMBs waste marketing budget on disconnected tactics.  Help them identify inefficiencies and consolidate their marketing stack – all their tools from website to CRM and beyond.  This will improve lead generation, campaign tracking, and overall ROI for them.

Another takeaway that resonates is go beyond lead generation – think growth. It’s not just about getting leads – it’s about nurturing them and converting them into long-term customers.   Develop a systematic approach that includes lead nurturing, customer retention strategies, and differentiation to stand out in a very crowded marketplace.

If you’ve enjoyed Solomon’s episode discussing Scaling your Agency, revisit some of the older episodes from the archives. Check out Episode 706: Transforming Your Business in the Hyper-Digital Era with John Rossman or Episode 642: LinkedIn Strategies that Double Lead Generation with Geoff Chaney

Until next time conquerors, I’m Jeff Tomlin. Get out there and be awesome.