801: The #1 Reason Agency Owners Shouldn’t Stop Selling Too Soon | Jody Sutter
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🎯 Discover the Secret to Winning More Clients for Your Small Agency 🎯
In this episode, we sit down with Jody Sutter, author of The Small Agency’s Guide to Winning New Business, to uncover the secrets behind her proven approach to sales and business development for agencies.
Jody has helped agency owners double their revenue and boost profits in less than a year — and she’s sharing exactly how she does it.
In this episode, you’ll learn:
👉 Why your role in the sales process is more important than you think
👉 The biggest mistake agency owners make when trying to scale their sales
👉 When to step back from sales—and how to do it without risking revenue
👉 Expert tips for winning new business consistently
📢 Ready to unlock your agency’s growth potential? Hit play now and discover how to win more business without burning out.
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The #1 Reason Agency Owners Shouldn’t Stop Selling Too Soon
Introduction
Jody Sutter: So agency sales doesn’t have to be 100% owner-led, but you don’t just hand over the keys to your agency’s growth and take your foot off the gas.
Jeff Tomlin: Meet Jody Sutter, the author of “The Small Agency’s Guide to Winning New Business”. She’s shaking up the way agencies scale their sales teams and attract new clients. Agency owners who’ve worked with Jody have seen their revenue more than double with significant profit increases in less than a year. But what’s her secret?
Jody Sutter: I’ve worked with hundreds of agency owners diving into their sales strategies, and here’s the most common mistake.
Jody Sutter: In this episode, you’ll learn why your role in the sales process is key.
Jody Sutter: One of the mistakes they see agency owners make is kind of succumbing to this desire to [—] When they actually need something else, they actually need– [—]
Jeff Tomlin: When and how to step back from sales without losing deals?
Jody Sutter: So the bigger your agency gets, the more opportunity you have to be less involved in sales, but it’s really around building systems and understanding how to play your strengths.
Jeff Tomlin: And more expert tips like this.
Jody Sutter: If you want your sales emails opened, then let the agency owner hit send. And that’s because– [—]
Agency Owners Are Your Best Salespeople—Here’s Why
Jeff Tomlin: Well, Jody, let me start off by asking you why do you believe that agency owners are often the best salespeople in their business?
Jody Sutter: Yeah, well, I want to qualify that a little bit because I think when I make that kind of a statement, I can already feel agency owners getting a little bit nervous, like the sweat breaking out across their brow. And so how I qualify that is that, number one, they are the best business development people in their agency, but they’re not the only business development resource that they have. I think for an agency that is less than 40 or 45 people, it’s really hard to effectively sustain the investment in an outside business development or a hired full-time business development resource. So for those agencies, the business, the agency owner is the best business development resource that they have for a few reasons. Number one, because they truly are the ones who are the most passionate about the business. Now, passion, or the word passion or passionate, I’m not a big fan of those words as far as I see them. So ubiquitously on most agency websites, there’s a lot of passion out there, and I don’t buy it, except when it’s coming directly from the agency owner because of course they’re the ones that have put their heart and soul into this business. So that passion and enthusiasm and drive really has come through. The other reason why I think they’re the best business development resource is that you’ve got to start, you’ve gotta build a business development operation based on your agency’s core strengths. And so it doesn’t make sense to, again, outsource that or delegate that to someone else as the agency owner if you aren’t sort of at least building some kind of foundation. Now, a lot of agency owners have a lot of different strengths, so I want to, if you’re not, you’re an agency owner that isn’t necessarily feel that drawn to say outbound, then maybe there’s a different type of lead business development tactic that we can sort of build your new business ecosystem around. You know, the other reason why I think agency owners are the best business development resource is that they have the sort of the authority and the gravitas, the ability to talk to a range of clients, whether those are clients at really big organizations, and a lot of small agencies do business with really big organizations, or even if it’s a smaller organization where maybe you as the agency owner are talking directly to your client, the CEO of the client side, because they’re on the smaller side. So you just come across as being, as someone who they could probably feel they can have more of a quality constructive conversation with. And you’re more likely to have those conversations, I think.
From Solo Sales to Scaled Sales Teams Made Easy
Jeff Tomlin: So at what point in the growth cycle, do you think it’s the right time for the owner to start delegating some of the sales to the broader team?
Jody Sutter: That’s a really good question and I think it depends, and you know, it’s gonna depend agency by agency, but I have a bit of a framework or yeah, framework that I often share with my clients to help them decide when the right time. And I actually bit of a stepped framework. So we start from, you know, where you’re, you know, quite a small agency where you’re gonna be doing most of the business development as the agency owner. And as you grow, you’re gonna be able to offload a little bit more here and there. So if you’re really small, if you’re say under five people, I, my personal philosophy or my professional philosophy is that you will probably, as the agency owner, will not, it is unrealistic to think that you’re gonna be able to delegate a lot. You’re gonna have to be heavily involved in sales or in the closing. And I also think it’s really important for you to stay focused on high-level tasks like relationship building, and again, closing the deals, making sure that those prospects feel comfortable being turned into clients. So that’s of a really small team. And I work with a lot of agents. Obviously, there are a lot of agencies out there that are five people and below.
Jeff Tomlin: If you’re finding value in this video, make sure to hit that subscribe button so you don’t miss out on more tips to help grow your agency.
Jody Sutter: When you get to a little bit more, let’s say you’re getting above five employees, then I think you can start delegating. What I would delegate is the responsibilities that are a little bit more administrative. And I think that’s, again, probably goes back to a lot of small business owners. They have to start letting go of the stuff that other people, not only can do as well, but probably much better. So let’s say you are really good relationship builder and you are not afraid of outbound, you’re not afraid of networking, so you’re gonna have a large contact database. Having someone else manage that, that’s a great thing to delegate as you’re sort of between that 5 and 10 employee thing so that you can spend more of your time, your business development time, focused on the stuff that’s really gonna matter, filling the pipeline and filling the pipeline with relationships that are gonna convert. So then as you get a little bit bigger, when you get closer to 10 or 10 plus employees, now what you can do is I recommend that my clients take a look at what their personal new business strengths are. Like I said, some are really good at outbound, some are gonna be much better, say, writing a book, a lead generating book, some are gonna be much better walking out onto a keynote stage and generating leads and growing awareness that way. So we want to look at your strengths and sort of take a reassessment moment and say, okay, are we really focused on your strengths? What kind of basic stuff can we let go of? Maybe now we can decide that we can, maybe it’s not hiring a full-time business development person, but maybe it is getting an outsourced outbound help while you are out doing, going out on keynote stages, going to the conferences where your ideal clients are. And then when we get above 25 employees, 25-50, 25-40, then I think that’s where you can start to expand to that and start to compliment it. And so one of the ways you may wanna compliment it just by saying, well, now we’re finally ready to bring on that full-time person. And I think one of the mistakes that agency owners make is they, I’ve heard this a lot, like I just wanna, I just need to clone myself. ‘Cause at this point, they’ve actually mastered a lot of, they’ve mastered their own approach to business development. And so there’s a sense of, there’s a tendency to think, well now I just need to get more of me. And I say, let’s actually get some complimentary skills so that you can keep doing what you’re good at, but we can also fill in with some skills and talent or tasks that others are better at.
The Dangers of Cloning Yourself
Jeff Tomlin: So are there risks to, and that you see to stepping away from sales too soon as you’re trying to scale?
Jody Sutter: Yeah, well one of those risks could be the sort of a variation on what I just mentioned, this idea of trying to clone oneself. So I think sometimes that can happen earlier on in the process where the agency owner, too early, says, I don’t wanna do this anymore, I need to find someone else just like me. And then it’s, you know, like again, so you’ll probably recognize this too, that as the agency owner, as the business owner, you probably are a little bit more visionary. You’re maybe more of a quick-start type of person. And you know, business development actually does require a little bit of consistency and it can be a really sexy role when you are out meeting clients and bringing in business, but it’s also a lot of like very basic blocking and tackling. So that’s one of the mistake, is agency owners say, I just need more of me, and especially with too soon. I also see a certain loss of personal touch. So we’re going back to this idea that the agency owner is also the one who can truly say that they’re passionate about their business and passionate about getting results for clients. So you remove that and you try to translate that passion onto a salaried employee. And I don’t, these salaried employees, they can be dedicated and talented and totally committed to doing the best for their job, they’re not gonna be passionate like the owner. The other thing too, along with that is some weaker storytelling. And I think this is also where it’s very important early on to get the positioning right, because the more you have that foundation, then as you grow, the better, the easier it is to sort of create that culture of storytelling. I don’t know if that sounded like the type of phrase that I would tell my clients not to use their marketing material. So it’s more about like not having to create the story of the 25-plus person point of their growth, but really it’s a five-plus or below having your marketing be based around that agency and that agency owner’s origin story so that it really informs the positioning and it’s about the value to the clients.
The Power of the Elevator Pitch—Nail It Every Time
Jeff Tomlin: You’re never gonna be able to scale the way that you want to scale if you’ve got big aspirations unless you have systems and processes in place. And so talk a little bit about the must-have list that you have for agencies so that they really wanna scale, that they have to have in place before they walk away from hundred percent owner-led sales.
Jody Sutter: Yeah. Well, the number one thing, and this is when I do, when I work, I have my core program is called the New Business Accelerator, and it’s designed to take an agency from uncertainty to a more consistent approach. So the first thing that I say they need, and I, by the way, I know I’m not the only consultant to say this, but the first thing you need is a clear positioning. And that positioning, I actually, the first part of my core program, we come up with an elevator pitch. And I know an elevator pitch maybe is a corny-sounding device, but I actually really like it because it is exactly what it says it is. It’s the ability for an agency owner or any person on the agency owner’s team to succinctly and clearly communicate why the agency is a value to its market in two to three sentences. And I think it is both the culmination of a lot of hard work, a lot of consideration and thinking, but it also forms the basis for almost every marketing and sales decision that you’re gonna make from there. So that’s what I say. I would say that that’s the number one thing, have that elevator pitch. By the way, in order to get to the elevator pitch, you need to understand who your ideal client is, and what value you provide to them. So I don’t really see how you can build a strong business development program or approach without those in place.
Focus on Client Pain Points—The Key to Winning Sales
Jeff Tomlin: Yeah. An ideal customer is often challenging to focus on. Because especially a smaller organization, you sort of take everything you can get because it’s a battle for survival sometimes when you’re smaller. But transitioning to having a truly scalable business, yeah, so important to understand who gets the most value out of the the service that you’re providing, right?
Jody Sutter: Yeah, and I may take a slightly softer line than some of my colleagues. Now, I will say that if an agency can have a clear positioning within a business category and do one thing really well for a category, assuming there’s a market large enough, and that’s great, but I know that a lot of agencies are hesitant to niche into one category. So what I will say is like, okay, well, let’s work with what we know you do best for clients. And I think a lot of the identifying your ideal client profile, in some ways, for a lot of agencies, it’s less about identifying a business category. You know, we work in automotive or we work in fast-moving consumer goods. It’s more about understanding how to shift your language to be talking about your client’s issues, your ideal client’s issues versus your features. So a lot of agencies tend to talk about themselves, we are award-winning, we have hardworking staff, we’re really innovative, and I want to say your client, your prospect, doesn’t necessarily care about that, especially if they don’t know you well. They want to know, do they understand my problem. Have they solved it before? Do they have empathy for the issues that I’m struggling with every day when I open up my laptop in the morning? And I think that’s much more likely to make a connection than a lot of language around how fantastic your portfolio is.
From Chaos to Control—Mastering CRM for Agency Success
Jeff Tomlin: By the way, speaking about some of these foundational pieces, I’m surprised how many businesses of not just small ones, but like several starting, ones that are starting to grow that don’t have certain technologies in place, like don’t have a CRM. I thought as you get to a certain size, everyone has a CRM in place, but it’s not the case.
Jody Sutter: Yeah, I think it’s getting better. And I’m interested in hearing you say that because I know that some of the tool sets that you provide to agencies and also on behalf of their clients, is a CRM functionality. So you probably have a lot of thoughts on why this is, I think I’ve always used a CRM. I’m gonna date myself for a moment, but when I first started in business, I was working for a commercial production company and I was a sales assistant and my boss had me working on, I think it was called Q and A, Q&A, I don’t even know if it exists anymore. It was MS-DOS. So that was a long time ago, but I just automatically, as a 22-year-old kid, I just got used to understanding the value of tracking and documenting the interactions of, in this case, my boss with the people that were potentially gonna hire him or hire us. So I think of your CRM database as being this asset that most agency owners or many agency owners don’t understand the value of. They just see it as sort of another layer of work. But once you can start to understand the interrelationships and that the whole becomes more valuable than the sum of its parts, also as you scale, it’s also going to be easier as you start to essentially hand off your database and say everything you need to know is here. Of course, the opposite can happen if you’re not maintaining that data well, you hand off that CRM database and it’s like saying nothing is here. Here’s that extra layer of work. By the way, there’s no value. So it’s really creating the interrelationships, tracking that data, being able to analyze what’s working and what’s not. So yeah, it’s amazing to me that is, I think like I said, I think it’s getting better, but I think a lot of agencies really shy away for whatever reason, and I want to change that. You probably do too.
Building a Sales Pipeline with Focus—Turning Prospects Into Partners
Jeff Tomlin: Yes, I do. And by the way, just a soundbite from myself and some wisdom from my own experiences in scaling and scaling through different levels of growth, the list of things that you should have in place, in order to relieve yourself of being a hundred percent the rainmaker in the business is if you’re building a car, for example, you can have 99% of the pieces, but if you’re missing the starter, the car’s no good to you. You’re not going to go anywhere, right? And so I think that that list, like you can’t cut corners on the list like nail your positioning, understand your ideal customer, have your sales process in place. Like you can’t cut corners on that, right?
Jody Sutter: Yeah, I agree. But it’s interesting, you, the list word is, that’s something else I’d stay away from. Well, I shouldn’t say stay away from it, but what I don’t want your listeners to walk away thinking is like, oh, well, that’s what I thought. All I need to do is generate a list and I’m going to go to ZoomInfo or apollo.io, no disrespect to those fantastic sources of information. And then you get a list, again, meaningless because it may or may not apply to your ideal client profile and they’re just a bunch of people that you don’t know with zero relationships, with zero, yeah. With zero bonds too.
The Agency Owner as Sales Leader—Driving Growth from the Top
Jeff Tomlin: Alright, well getting around to that then. Like who should be doing the outreach?
Jody Sutter: Well, I have bad news for some agency owners because for a lot of agencies, it should be them. So again, especially in that smaller, that five-person or less, I don’t think that there’s a way to avoid that. And I think up until, unless the agency owner is and I was gonna say unless they’re so introverted, but I’ve actually worked with a lot of, there are actually a lot of introverted agency owners. And what’s interesting is that they are, in fact, they actually have some very strong interpersonal skills. They just are going to benefit themselves with having a clear value proposition, and a clear rationale. So ironically, those are the agency owners that are gonna benefit in some ways the most from a clear elevator pitch. But, so if you are, so I would say if you are an agency owner and you’re getting to that sort of 10 plus or 25 plus person level, yes, you can probably, and you cannot stand doing the outreach then yes, there’s probably, this is the time now to say, well, I need to compliment my strengths to someone who’s good at outreach. But here’s the thing, it always goes back to, I think, and every agency owner should ask themselves, well, what do I give up? Am I going to sacrifice again that authority and gravitas that my clients might react positively to if I send a more junior person? So I think that’s really the trade off and that’s what you have to look at carefully as you grow.
The Art of Client Selection—How to Choose Clients That Fuel Growth
Jeff Tomlin: By the way, when you were mentioning ideal customer before, I wanted to ask you, what is the best way to evaluate whether a prospect is gonna be a really good fit for your business? Because I think that evaluation is so, so important in the whole process, right?
Jody Sutter: Absolutely, and I think a lot of clients, a lot of my clients don’t always have that selection criteria in place. But I think there are two things. So what I will tell my clients is in terms of defining that ideal client profile so that you can recognize them when they come across a transom. You wanna ask yourselves two things. Number one, you wanna ask, who do we serve best?
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Jody Sutter: And then who are we best served by? The thing is that most agencies, I find, answer that second question first. So I say, who’s your ideal client? Well, our ideal client is someone who is collaborative, someone who allows us to do our best work. Someone who’s going to be, is going to make brave creative decisions, and that is who they are best served by. That’s how the agency should start to qualify their client. The problem is you can’t really qualify a business based on those criteria until you get to know them. You certainly can’t build a list. So I say, well let’s, instead, let’s ask who are, who do you serve best? So again, we’re going back to, we’re shifting the conversation, we’re shifting the context around what does that client need? And that’s more like, well we serve sort of those small growing B2B technology firms who are in startup mode, but are looking to either be sold or IPO in three years who really need a brand platform to get out there, to appear bigger than they are, et cetera, et cetera. That is how your, and that’s actually a fairly, that’s actually a specific example of an agency I worked with recently. So if you can answer it that way, then all that marketing starts to be communicated. All marketing is designed to communicate to that target. So what you’ll find is that the right messages, and the right signal is going out to the marketplace. People are gonna respond to that signal. They’re already pre-qualified. So you don’t have to think about, well, are they the right fit client, because they are, they’re already within that category, ideally, in a perfect world. And then you can start to ask the questions, are they gonna be easy to work with? Do they understand the value of what we do? Those types of more qualitative things.