It’s Not Me, It’s You: Client Relationship Edition

Kristy: Welcome back to the Free Dive podcast. Thank you for being here again today. We
have as a special guest Bill Cutrer of course.

Bill: This is my second time already on the podcast.

Kristy: Thank you for being here again.

Bill: You know I’ve enjoyed being on the podcast the first time so much that I was like maybe I really do like podcasting.

Kristy: Can I tell you something? Your episode last time has done the best so far.

Bill: That’s amazing.

Kristy: I don’t think that that’s any coincidence.

Bill: See secretly I’ve always thought people wanted to listen to me talk and that’s why I tell long rambly stories and you know the fact that you’re all listening to my podcast um it just validates that so I’m I’m sorry.

Kristy: it’s terrible and good for your ego I think.

Bill: Yes that I’m like I talk a lot but it seems like somebody wants to listen.

Kristy: People want like- like the statistics were like absurdly high for your episode.

Bill: Now it be fair we were talking about AI so maybe it wasn’t as much people wanted to listen to me as versus that listen talking about AI is kind of an exciting.

Kristy: And we have a plan for that to test that we are going to we are going to AB test that and talk about AI without you.

Bill: Ooh I like that.

Kristy: and then we’re going to see how this episode does and we’re not talking about AI today with you.

Bill: So- so hey if you’re listening to the podcast and you’re like what type of actionable insights do I get from marketing from you know spending the time listening to this that was our first one AB test everything that’s right is it Bill or is it AI the only way you’re going to know AB testing.

Kristy: Please let us know.

Bill: Yes.

Kristy: Anyway let’s tell them what we are talking about today.

Bill: Yeah what are we talking about?

Kristy: Today we are talking about uh relationships with our clients which was – someone wrote in and suggested that as a topic so that’s why we’re going to talk about it.

Bill: I- I love that topic as well as an agency owner uh it’s something that I give a lot of thought to.

Kristy: Yes.

Bill: Um because you know from my perspective I set the standard or I set the tone as an agency and how we relate to our clients and also kind of the tone of our agency as a whole and
it’s not accidental.

Kristy: Right.

Bill: Um I think sometimes might wonder if we’re just kind of winging it which sometimes I feel like we’re winging it uh but a lot of how uh our value our relationship with our clients. Uh it’s it’s it’s very uh deliberate in that sense.

Kristy: So just a little plug here we are coming up on our 13th anniversary here at Seapoint so this is a bit of a celebratory thing on that so 13 years in business.

Bill: Seapoint’s a teenager this year.

Kristy: We are a teenager. It’s a big deal.

Bill: I can’t wait for Seapoint to be old enough to drive.

Kristy: Yeah yeah um, that’s a lot of years in business and it is a lot of um a lot of changes along
the way in a lot of ways but you’ve seen and you’ve had many we’ve had many- we’ve had some clients that have we’ve had the like kind of the whole time or most of the time but then we’ve had some clients that you know have come gone throughout the way so let’s start by telling us what you’ve noticed uh in transition with different clients like what’s been something that you’ve learned about yourself or your company um through the years with – accepting and losing clients let’s start with that.

Bill: Yeah so I’m going to go all the way back actually uh something that’s always been really profound to me in thinking about running an agency is so the agency before Seapoint was started I worked for an agency called Say It Social yeah run by this really brilliant agency owner by the name of Ty Downing um just super smart guy very insightful and I remember being down in Wilmington uh I was down there for some work meetings with him some client things uh in my early days uh and we were sitting having a drink after work, relaxing just kind of talking about the state of marketing and agency life and and Ty was a great mentor and Ty told me that you it and it’s always stuck with me is that it costs so much more to get a new client than it does to retain an existing client and he was talking about at the time we were working with a financial company uh they were throwing these lavish part parties to get new investors and you know they were the the cost per acquisition of a new client was really really high and you know he- he
made the point that they learned from that that it’s far more cost-effective to take care of your current clients than it is to go out and try to get new clients and that’s always stuck with
me because it as a person and as an agency and what I’ve tried to part to Seapoint is Seapoint is our personal reputation how we deal with clients right?

Kristy: Definitely, definitely.

Bill: Um and that’s who we are anyways as- as as a company as people that work at the company uh but even more than that it just makes sense for take care of your current clients um and that’s the number one thing you can do to have an effective business um an effective agency and I and I- I know we’re in marketing but that really goes across to..

Kristy: To any business.

Bill: To any business. Like think about it how much does it cost for you to get a new client you know different. Different um Industries it’s going to be completely different right so um some companies are far more transactional someone buys something he wants they’re and you may never see them again uh but for the majority like you’re going to have reoccurring Revenue through a client you you have them you know maybe it’s project-based they’re going to come
back to you for the project needs um they’re purchasing something from you they have that sense of brand loyalty that you as a company care about them that you take a lot of pride in what you do they’re going to come back and a shop they’re going to also refer other people to at that point right.

Kristy: That’s true.

Bill: Um so that’s always something that’s really stuck with me at Seapoint. We don’t do a lot of Business Development uh you know other agencies our size have somebody on staff um BDR um doing business development um a salesperson. They’re buying lists, they’re they’re being really aggressive in that regard and we’ve done 13 years we’ve done very very little of that
almost all of the work that’s come into Seapoint has all been inbound um as far as people who have found us online people who worked at another company that hired us and then as they went on to a new position they were like we should call Seapoint they were awesome other people in the industry who known us and know what we’re about uh referrals…

Kristy: Networking.

Bill: Networking, things like that yeah so I do think what’s really interesting so marketing agencies specifically and especially marketing agencies that have a connection to software as a service uh type providers there is a desire or there’s a training or kind of a mantra that they’ve been given especially we find this a lot of times with agencies that work with HubSpot um they’re always being trained to upsell yeah so that idea like software like okay you’ve bought our software you’re paying x amount of dollars uh what can we upsell you to- to more software and that same philosophy I think where they’re talking to these software companies that are constantly like you can make more revenue from your clients you can- you can increase revenue streams from your existing clients uh the problem with that is those situations don’t always have your client’s best interest at heart right and I think for the majority of clients they can discern when you’re trying to sell them on a billable or sell them on a software versus going to them and saying hey this is a solution I think that ultimately is going to meet your business objections. Uh not objections your business goals um that you- you know this is going to make you more money this is going to care for a pain point with customer service things like that.

Kristy: and who would you really rather have taking care of you?

Bill: Right and so the problem is- not the problem but when you’re working with a company you’re working with an individual uh they can very easily sense when you’ve got their best interest at heart right versus when you’re just trying to sell them a software or you’re trying to increase your retainer with them and you’re trying to upsell them so if someone always feels
that they’re being upsold or that like their marketing partner or again any industry like whatever you provide that your goal is always just to maximize the transactional value of that relationship uh you no longer have that uh relationship with the client if- if you’re just if the client knows that you’re just looking at them with dollar signs of what’s the most I can leverage out of my relationship with you versus I care about your business I care about your needs I care
about you as a person your company to make help you grow and thrive uh that’s going to be very apparent um and I- and I see that all the time, especially like great example HubSpot agencies that focus on HubSpot uh they get so much training on this idea of sell software
sell software and HubSpot again as a software company that’s their primary goal they want to utilize and leverage agencies that are working with them to sell the most amount of software and I- I’m picking on HubSpot but there’s lots of other software uh in the industry very similar like hey how can you be our partner sell our software um and there’s always some type of commission or some type of thing for the agency uh that pushes them to want to do that but they don’t stop to be like hey is this really- is this piece of software really going to solve my client’s needs or is this tactic that I’m trying to upsell my client uh really going to care for their needs.

Kristy: yeah.
Bill: Um I think that’s a big thing. I think another thing too is there is a find balance uh by adding value to your clients but also not having uh scope creep. Here’s the balance um you know you’re working with a client and sometimes clients want additional work that’s may not be directly tied to the deliverables you’ve agreed on.

Kristy: Yeah.

Bill: So here’s the balance with scope creep, is the tendency would be very much like well that’s an add-on that’s an upsell um and…

Kristy: Yeah so how do you decide?

Bill: Right so you know be discerning, right so we think about that of adding value like if you had a customer and you’re going to spend money on maybe sending them a thank you, thank you Christmas gift or you know like end of year like that’s pretty standard in the in the company world right or other add-ons right so if we go and we see a client we’re going to take them out for lunch we’re going to take them out for dinner to show our appreciation for their..

Kristy: Keep the relationship strong.

Bill: Right and that’s standard right yeah like any agency would do that if you were going to go visit a client you know show that type of hospitality and appreciation for working with them so you think about that like in a day-to-day business right if you’re willing to go that way and and
and express your appreciation in those ways um by not being being so particular about scope creep again the client knows when they’re getting better service um and you as an agency are going to know is this a case of the clients just trying to get more out of you versus there just might be an immediate need um to care for something if they discern that you’re willing to go and do that extra work and that you care about them as a client and this isn’t about just like what is the X at the end of the retainer that the brand loyalty right. So that goes back again to customer retention if if a client feels well what am I really getting out of my relationship with Seapoint?

Kristy: To stay, not move on to really appreciate them.

Bill: Right, and- and so that’s you know like would is it worth spending maybe for us $5,000 to get a new client or is it worth it for me to spend that time um, and taking care of our clients and going above and beyond our clients expectations uh to care for them and we keep that client for another 5- 10 years.

Kristy: Well so then I you know how- how do I prevent myself from being taken advantage of then what if I have a client who you know maybe I’ve had for years and they just always want the add-ons for free at what point do you say that’s enough they’re constantly wanting those things that are out of scope and I’ve been giving them for years like how do you then discern like enough is enough and then keep their relationship.

Bill: Right so I guess that’s more of a case of auditing that relationship again business relationships are two ways so you want to keep your clients happy but on the same hand you need to understand as an agency owner if a client is a good fit.

Kristy: Yeah.

Bill: So you know the vast majority of clients I work with it’s not really a case of them trying to get extra or you know they’re trying to they’re trying to take care of a business need right um and they’re looking to you for help um and they’re they’re looking for assistance so if every time they’re looking for assistance and you’re just like well that’s that’s an add-on um they’re going to stop looking you for assistance versus you very easily understand if it’s that’s the situation or the situation is a client is trying to end around your retainer relationship and that usually can be seen when it’s time to uh you might have to renegotiate like if you’re on a contract terms with them uh understanding like at that point if they’re trying to just lower costs and get the cheapest service possible.

Kristy: That they can.

Bill: That they can and you know we’ve had that over the years clients that have been that way it’s it’s more of a case of trying to um aggressive negotiate in that regard um but then the question is like is that client really worth it at that point long-term and so you know same token like sometimes relationships with clients and you realize that’s not the best fit for the agency you’re doing a lot of work the work isn’t appreciated, or I think usually in those situations too usually what you have happen is it always coincides with a lack of trust or with the experience to the agency.

Kristy: Mhm that’s interesting.

Bill: So what- what will happen a lot of times in those same circumstances is a client will then also really start trying to micromanage and not trust your insights into…

Kristy: So there’s warning signs?

Bill: Yeah and then you know I we’ve had to part ways with clients you know as far as it’s- it’s it’s always a difficult thing to say hey we have a client to bring revenue in for the agency but you know it’s not it’s not a good fit because the amount of extra work whether it’s again as you said people adding things on or because of how their interactions with the agency is causing a slowdown in um process.

Kristy: Productivity?

Bill: Productivity um morale in the office um so you know if- if workers are feeling super underappreciated or super frustrated- frustrated because of a client’s interactions with them then it’s a good time to look at like is this the best relationship.

Kristy: So that process for you kind of looks like you- you said like an audit so it’s an audit kind of how much how much money is kind of being drained here uh what’s the audit look like of of how it’s affecting your company’s your staff their morale their productivity and then and then what if you decide this is not working what what have you found is like the best way to say how do like I’m a business owner I’m an agency owner how do I cut it off appropriately.

Bill: I- I usually at that point will try to find a new solution for them so usually in those situations it’s it’s a case of um you know this isn’t a good fit for Seapoint you know as far as we’re obviously not meeting your needs I don’t want to I wouldn’t say you’re not meeting our needs yeah um it’s not you.

Kristy: It’s you.

Bill: Um you but you know in those situations still like trying to you know hey is there a better solution like maybe they need a different type of maybe it’s not an agency relationship they’re looking for maybe they need somebody in-house right maybe they need just that person who’s
kind of in beds with them you know like looking at the situations maybe there’s another agency that’s a better fit. Making recommendations on that.

Kristy: It’s a specific kind of breakup it’s a breakup and being like but you need this man
Instead.

Bill: Yeah.

Kristy: but you do you want to part ways as as kindly as possible you don’t want it to be ugly right and when that does have to happen.

Bill: Exactly so again you know we’re we’re talking about this in a podcast format uh what lessons we’ve learned at Seapoint and obviously the people who are listening to us you know it’s not all marketing people like we probably work in other Industries and so like thinking about like well what do I take away from this right so how just help me marketing so I would say the biggest thing to look at is look at what what is your average cost per acquisition of a new client
like how- how much do you have to expend both you know whether it’s financial and advertising or you know the time your personal time employees time you know as far as you know do you have someone who’s doing cold calls you know whatever tactics you’re using right so figure out like I spent x amount of dollars I get x amount of clients um figure out what your cost per acquisition is and then the next thing to figure out is what is your average cost per client lifetime
value so again it might seem like a pain to spend again $5,000 on a client um but if that client’s lifetime value is $100,000 – $500,000, a million dollars like that’s that’s completely reasonable and especially depending on what your your margins are you know your profitability margins for your company um and then again for those clients if you can increase a client’s engagement with you from a 5-year period to a 10-year period like what’s that cost look like so again if it’s a million-dollar client um it costs you $5,000 to uh acquire a client like that for that 5year period if you’re spending an additional $5,000 of company resources during that period of time to build brand loyalty with your client then you’re you’re acquiring them for the next 5 years at the same cost uh that you would have.

Kristy: Just a lot of kind of crunching numbers and looking at is it is it more than evening out to make it worth it.

Bill:Exactly and so the same token like if you’re working with a client and maybe the cost per
acquisition is $5,000 for a new client in that space but then you’re realizing that work you’re doing and that profitability um that margin is shrinking and shrinking and so you know is it- it could be more cost-effective to go out and spend that money in business development to find that new client um if that relationship with a you know current client is um it’s not profitable in that regard, the other thing to think about too in that cost per acquisition and cost of lifetime value is also always look at what is the value of referrals from a client.

Kristy: Okay, that’s a good point.

Bill: So like you might see like lifetime value especially if you’re let’s say you’re an industry with a very low margins and in those low margins uh you’re thinking well I- it was a high cost per acquisition for this for this client you know my margins aren’t that great so you know what’s the profitability here but again if that client knows your work is amazing and they recommend three-four more people well then you’ve cost you’ve lowered your cost for acquisition for new clients based on the testimonials.

Kristy: Yeah that’s a great point.

Bill: Um their margin may not be that high their lifetime value may not be that high uh but if they’re assisting you with business growth in your company then really you know you need to attribute some of that other um income to that initial client and factor that in- in your acquisition of that client.

Kristy: Yeah that brings up a good point um because it makes me think about some of my Matterport clients and how sometimes I may only get small jobs from them but then they will be clients that refer me to other clients and then I will get more and more jobs from them so yeah to that point I’ve experienced that myself in getting more clients so that is a really good point in something to consider in the overall audit.

Bill: Yeah um and then I think the other thing that we’ve talked about before off camera is like the connection about our company social yes and that and what we do so it’s it’s it’s kind of funny because I think people who know me personally um and also see our social media probably have this understanding that Bill’s the goofball and you’ve seen Bill in his odd sense of humor yes yeah yeah unfortunately I’m far too Michael Scott like at times and then like and then I go back and look at it and I- I cringe right um but you guys also know when it comes to like running a business I-I I’m very dialed in.

Kristy: There’s different sides to you, yep to all of us.

Bill: Yep um but we look at Social so I was- I was listening to your first podcast the first episode
where you and Anna-Lynn were talking about this like it’s hard to express uh in a Instagram reel or a Tik Tok about using automated bidding in Google ads or how the Google merchant center works.

Kristy: In an interesting entertaining way.

Bill: Interesting way where people are not just going to use that to fall asleep. Maybe I should do a podcast just talking about things and that way we could call it white noise and then people could sleep to it.

Kristy: uhhuh yeah review- it would just get so many plays.

Bill: It would get so many plays maybe that’s why my videos get more plays people are using it to fall to sleep too as the whitest noise they can find. Yeah you’re welcome people if if I’m solving insomnia.

Kristy: yeah excellent.

Bill: Excellent but no um and so our social tends to be a little bit goofy um and we do funny things around the office um and we do funny things anyways around the office it’s not just cause we’re like on Instagram and all of a sudden we’re like oh let’s let’s pretend like we’re a fun place to.

Kristy: It’s just who we are.

Bill: That’s who we are we’re always kind of goofing around and and and keeping levity in the office um but like expressing that um I’m going to say something really really cynical for a second okay it’s- it’s much harder to when you have to say like hey I’m working with this agency agency’s pitching me another agency wants to take the business and maybe they’re promising grand things right it’s much harder to walk away from that agency that’s made you laugh and- and that you think about the personality traits of those people that you work with right.

Kristy: Yeah, that you have this like humanization experience with yeah.

Bill: Right and so that’s the problem with it we’re a digital agency right um very few of our clients are local very few of our clients will come in here to the office for meetings or we’ll go meet with them most of them are on the other side of the country yeah um you know we have zoom meetings with them, we you know do site visits and all the things the normal agency would but you know as far as building that rapport with clients and understanding who we are I think that that window of like you know seeing those kind of goofy things that we’re doing on social seeing the personalities understanding that we like to pick on Tim now you know all that kind of in- in- in the office I think gives people that insight of like this is my market agency.

Kristy: Yeah and so how have you seen that play in like in real time with our clients and for you showing the humanness of you and your staff directly to any of your clients.

Bill: So I think the most interesting story to me in all this and thinking about like what’s the value of of entertaining and social media entertaining and educating and social media and podcast like that right is when we had our 10year anniversary so at the time our creative director Gretchen Coburn, fabulous Gretchen, um not with us anymore but just wonderful person she
had always wanted to do the Dundies yes and you know great lover of the office and seeing all the parallels between personalities again I might be Michael Scott at times unfortunately uh but seeing that like she that was her idea right she always wanted to do like the the Dundies and she put so much work an effort into throwing a red carpet.

Kristy: Listen you like to give her all credit for that night I equally planned.

Bill: You Kristyequally planned it getting myself in trouble I’m I’m video recording and I’m just like talking crap about my current place Kristy, Gretchen, amazing things they even made a chili’s sign so we could say I felt I feel God in this chili tonight yeah it was it- it was an amazing evening for morale you know I think everyone was super excited about it it really made them feel great about the work they did black- like black tie bounds the whole thing hopefully uh Kristy will share some pictures if you’re watching this on the YouTube or.

Kristy: I have a YouTube highlights video.

Bill: Yeah no I’m saying like you should overlay on that just to show people um it was not a necessary work thing it was a lot of fun and it was silly and you know we had the pointy Awards like the Dundies and they were like the- they were silliest names of you know Awards
we all got awards everyone got awards it was you know.

Kristy: Trophies, we made trophies trophies with real plaques.

Bill: They set up a stage in the parking lot of our office building.

Kristy: Rented chairs.

Bill: Rented chairs. Put an actual red carpet down, and my favorite thing in the middle of it right we’re getting this all setup and we have a chiropractor in our business and he drove around the back of the building and he was just like what is wrong with those people next door to me and that marketing agency.

Kristy: We did not care.

Bill: We did not care. Um but so you know it was something I sanctioned people in the office felt really strongly about it um and it was primarily done for morale you know we shared a lot of it on social media. Somebody reached out to me in a professional setting on LinkedIn and said you’re the company I want to work with.

Kristy: Someone you never met.

Bill: Never met it wasn’t even like a friend of a friend and we had this connection and they heard about like they saw that and they said Seapoint Digital is the company we want to work with because they could see our human side they could see our sense of humor uh they could see the creativity in in doing something that silly right um we didn’t do it as a promotional activity um and so that’s the thing like that humanization of understanding who we are as an agency went a long way of people um kind of getting a glimpse into the creative process here at Seapoint now that said right new client acquisition um you know what we do on a day-to-day basis with other kind of quirky things around the office it really does two parts right it builds morale uh people love working at Seapoint because we have those those things um but on the other side of it it gives people that are our clients who may not come into our office on a regular basis uh they might be at a Zoom meeting and they only see me or maybe their account manager in a very like hey we’re going over this report here’s your metrics here’s your numbers here’s your growth um in that concept but it gives them a chance to like passively get a little bit understanding of who are the people that are they’re working with um a little bit more fleshed out about their personalities a little bit more fleshed about who Seapoint is as an agency and that in turn builds brand loyalty right. So if you can relate to this person that you really maybe met once or twice but you feel like you know them uh again other agencies that are trying to take their business because everyone that’s that’s just the nature of it agencies are always knocking on people’s doors cold calling um trying to move business that’s just another added element of why they have loyalty towards Seapoint.

Kristy: It builds trust.

Bill: Exactly.

Kristy: So what would you say if you know I’m maybe I’m a business owner maybe I have my own business or agency but I’m not I’m not like you guys I’m not goofy and silly and I don’t want to be dancing on Tik Tok that’s not who I am fundamentally how do I how do I show my humanness or my company’s humanness maybe we’re a little bit more shy you know how do we do that to the same level you guys do without your personality.

Bill: And that’s a great question and I would say the reason why we do those things that’s because of our personality right so like lean into what is good about your personality are you
an incredibly punctual person um and or incredibly detail-oriented um you know find ways to leverage to express that that’s what you’re doing you know point those things out to your client you know help them appreciate that. Um you know find other ways to you know help your clients
and your perspective clients to see what makes you special and your service special so you know for us it’s you know kind of the quirkiness of who we are um but a lot of times we also pivot to like hey here’s some awards we’ve won uh here’s here’s the really good work we’ve done right so in those same instances whatever you’re doing as an occupation or your business or along those lines like how can you highlight those things and not a braggy way but just like help convey to people like this is this is your personality or this is your dedication or this is why you love what you do and I think that’s really what it is is like speak to the passion of what you do uh both in a digital format and then in person and your customers will appreciate that.

Kristy: Play to your strengths.

Bill: Exactly.

Kristy:and highlight them you don’t have to be fake or anybody that you’re not but really
showcase your strength.

Bill: And and I think that comes down to it too is far as like understand are you doing this
because this is the authentic you or are you doing it as self-promotion yeah so.

Kristy: Because people can tell the difference.

Bill: Yeah exactly like spend five minutes on LinkedIn right like it’s like- like you read some stuff and you’re just like oh man that is that’s you’re- you’re, you’re laying it on heavy like yeah I get it
you think you’re awesome yeah right yeah you know that’s not what we were saying to do is like go out to LinkedIn and just start bragging or humble bragging about stuff on you know but what we’re saying is you know as far as like highlight your authentic achievements highlight the things that are like the core values of your company.

Kristy: That’s going to draw in the client base that you want anyway.

Bill: Yeah it’s going to go a long way of you know talking to who you are um and then again like those we go went back to that like hey sometimes you have to talk about clients that may not be good fits um you know like a company that doesn’t want a quirky um agency you know they’re going to look at our stuff and be like yeah that’s not what we’re looking for and- and we’re just going to solve that problem ahead of time um but you know versus a client who’s like hey I love what they do you know like some of the aspects like we say goofy right but like look how we support mothers in our office um you know we support families with- with difficult not difficult but like with special needs um with their you know with their children or family situations I think
that’s a big way that we’ve supported um we’ve supported uh you know other things along
those lines like you know people are going to pick up on that as part of our values.

Kristy: and our client and our clients I think can see that and know that and I think we have built relationships. I mean very often we’ll enter meetings and be able to just chat about what’s going on in football or they’ll know about the last party we did and laugh about it and whatever and couldn’t have those conversations with clients that didn’t have an appreciation for that stuff and I think it creates much more of a an easygoing friendly relationship with those clients and like you said it creates long-lasting relationships.

Bill: And I think that’s part of the longevity of Seapoint so I think that you know what we’re talking about at the beginning about like client retention right and then being authentic of who you are look at Seapoints um well I’m saying look at but for us we know Seapoint that the vast majority of our clients have been with us for five-plus years yeah um we may only bring on one or two clients a year yeah we don’t need to bring on 30 clients and then hope that five of them stick because we know if clients are going to be loyal to us they know we do good work they know that we’re good people um and that we care about them and their company as much as we care about what we’re doing um that’s the success of Seapoiny where I’ve seen so many agencies just flame out especially kind of in that HubSpot ecosystem you know they do all these things that they think on paper are right as far as like hey I got a salesperson who’s really aggressive trying to go out and get clients I’m doing outbound calls I’m doing all of this effort and I’m building rapidly building this client base and I’m building my MMR to be like these like really impressive numbers for MMR but that underlying of what the agency doesn’t support that well then you’re going to have incredible churn yeah so it goes back to hey if I spent $5,000 on
customer acquisition and I only keep them for a year like the value of that customer is not um because you didn’t support that customer you didn’t provide them what they needed um and I see so many agencies in the HubSpot again HubSpot as- as I’m not picking on HubSpot here but just kind of in that ecosystem of marketing agencies that rely on a blueprint or a game plan have really relied on that yeah and that growth model um there are some who’ve done wonderful and they’ve grown and scaled and and and are able to deliver and build those relationships uh but there are much fewer than the ones that just kind of either had to change their model or they’ve- they’ve gone under because they just you know the clients don’t realize clients realize that there’s not a relationship there it’s transactional and you know we’ve got you now well great versus we’re going to put a low-level account manager and you’re never going to see me as the agency owner again or you’re never going to you know have that rapport with somebody you’re going to get a report every month and that’s about it um and I think that again is goes back to what you put into your company but more importantly what you put into your clients and their vision for their companies is what’s going to at the end of the day talk to the longevity of your company.

Kristy: And stability.

Bill: And stability.

Kristy: So key takeaways from all of this for um keeping- keeping clients losing clients taking care of your clients what would what would be the highlights.

Bill: I think the highlight is love your clients right love the people who’ve trusted your company um and they invested in you they trusted you for whatever service you provide reward that trust with exceptional service um exceptional deliverables added value when they don’t expect it um to really kind of show that and that’s going to go so much farther than running putting a billboard up or- or an ad campaign or have hiring somebody to spam people’s inboxes um that’s going to be the number one indicator of a company growth excellent.

Kristy: Well I feel like we’ve learned a lot Bill.

Bill: Another fun day on the on the podcast.

Kristy: Another fun day.

Bill: On the podcast free diving.

Kristy: Free div- free diving indeed thank you for all of your insights there.

Bill: All right thanks for- thanks for having me on.

Kristy: All right we’ll see you next time