You might not be thinking about freeing up capital yet, but most agency owners have fascinated about the benefits of stepping back or selling up. Running an agency comes with great challenges and rewards. Some days the idea of leaving it all behind feels impossible, and others you’ll find yourself dreaming about a peaceful life without the stress. If like most agency owners you’re concerned about your future exit strategy, then it’s crucial to assess the present; plan your exit strategy. Making your agency a sellable asset means processes, finances, leadership and client satisfaction must be watertight.
Investors don’t want surface level success. They want to dive in and see that your agency is well-prepared for challenges and threats. Impressive attributes like having a solid team of leaders and strong cash flow management will make you more attractive to buyers from all angles.
Your agency might have the capacity to scale the business, but have you got the foundations to leave it? Let’s break down the key components to equip your agency to command a higher valuation and attract more buyers (meaning an even bigger holiday home by the sea – or whatever tickles your fancy).
Get out of financial survival mode. You might be alright at juggling the finances that make sense to your internal team. However investors will stay clear of an agency that lacks financial transparency. Unfortunately, clients are notorious for not paying invoices on time, and you will incur some unexpected costs. That’s not always your fault, but you still hold the power to optimise finances with effective procedures and tracking.
By implementing organised processes and creating clear strategies, your agency will stand out as a well-oiled and trustworthy choice to potential buyers.
How can you make records look appealing to an investor? Increase profitability and reduce expenses.
The obvious trick for making for money is to increase conversion of quality leads. And investors want to see how to you make money in a stable capacity.
Prospects might be stumbling across your touch-points, but where’s the urgency? A short CTA like “Enquire here” doesn’t incentivise prospects to interact. But, a free online audit of their website in 60 seconds will. There are many ways to increase lead generation, but offering clients real value in return for their contact details comes out on top. Plus, committed leads equals more chances to convert and more opportunities to get the cash rolling in.
Is your sales process streamlined and productive? The sales team can feel overwhelmed when pulling various reports and spend hours creating pitches without a clear process. This messy approach impacts a client’s customer journey and can leave them feeling confused and turned off. Prospects are coming to you because they need your help, don’t make their life harder with data and solutions they don’t understand. If you’re serious about scaling, speak to our team about how Insites improves the sales process and client experience.
The end of the initial project shouldn’t be the end of the road. Nurturing relationships with clients by regularly checking in and revisiting their data is a great way to upsell more services. Maybe you set out to help with their SEO, but 6 months later use a tool like Insites to see that they are scoring low against competitors. Tracking results with data on previous clients gives you the ammunition to jump in again and help!
Hiring and retention will directly impact your operational efficiency and cost management. Hiring the right people who stay longer increases productivity and high retention creates stronger collaboration amongst the team. At the bottom line, having a strong retention rate will reduce recruitment costs – increasing your agency’s revenue. So of course when hiring look at skills and experiences, but try to understand the candidate’s values and if they align with your agency’s culture.
Are you committed to better practises? Or are your stakeholders getting held back with frustrating and unproductive processes? Poor processes are a time suckers, and time suckers create a productivity problem.
Two ways to reduce time spent on unnecessary tasks are; the right automation tools and a streamlined processes.
Sure, outsourcing costs money in the short term. However, outsourcing certain tasks that only require part-time attention means cutting back on unproductive staffing costs. Use platforms like Fiver or Upwork to find freelancers, or white-label services like Insites to generate reports.
Organic marketing should be a key component in the marketing plan – and it’s cost-effective. Your team should be online shouting about your expertise on digital touch points. A strong online presence is essential for credibility and brand awareness.
Moving to a small office or sharing a space could free up cash flow every month. Or maybe you’re recruiting for new roles, do they have to be full-time contracts?
Another cash-flow irritation is being tied into long software contracts. There is not point hanging onto software you’re not getting the most out of. By streamlining your subscriptions and prioritising what really helps your team, your out-goings will finally make sense.
Increased revenue and reduced expenses won’t happen overnight, but you can start tracking profit and loss efficiently now. Getting your records in check and regularly running financial audits supports the growth and sustainability of your agency. Accurate audits will prove your credibility to investors, reduce cash-flow risks, and help internal leaders make informed decisions based on accurate data.
Now you know how to get finances in check, but how do you stay organised and implement the right processes? Take a step back to look at the bigger picture. Where are the cracks?
Trying to cover up the cracks won’t be attractive to buyers, and if you don’t fix problems early on overtime they will crumble your agency. Maybe the cracks are team members feeling burnt out, clients feeling dissatisfied, or scope creep due to a lack of synergy with processes.
Whatever the problems are, simplifying systems and operations will eliminate unnecessary complexity and boost your agency’s productivity. Streamlining systems makes your agency attract investors because of it:
Does your agency have standard guides for procedures like client onboarding and project management? Or do management just train newbies hoping personal experience will carry them through?
You might think you have Standard Operating Procedures (SOPs), but where are they documented? Rather than sending team members away with a task hoping they figure it out you should create alignment with “how to” guides. SOPs aren’t just for big projects either, they should be created for everyday tasks like content creation, tracking analytics and client data storing.
Below are some examples, but to learn more about SOPs and how to make them, check out this article.
Having SOPs in place will help team thrive now, but also shows an investor your effective organisation and:
Refining you sales process feels like one of those ‘where do you begin?’ moments. The first thing to do is map out your current process and identify where the cracks appear. This could be in your documentation, lead generation tools, conversion rates or follow-up strategy (to name a few). One solution to streamlining a better sales process is using sales automation. Time-consuming tasks that can be automated include:
That leads us onto the next question, are you getting the most out of tech tools?
As the world speeds up, so should you. Investors want to see that you’re dynamic and relevant, so a modern tech stack will aid efficient project management, improve team collaboration and enhance client communication.
Great news if your agency has the right tools to create effective projects, but do you have a tool that generates high-quality leads and gets prospects over the line? To scale your agency, your current tech-stack might need an upgrade.
When I say “upgrade” I don’t mean add on MORE fancy tools and features. The best way to upgrade your tech stack if by replacing broken systems or reducing paid users across them.
Are there too many manual processes? Can they be swapped out for automation that aligns with your business goals? Simplify manual processes like producing online audits and use the Insites platform that does it in 60 seconds. Your team will thank you later!
Improving your agency’s use of resources and management style will set you up for scaling and can set you apart from the competition.
Imagine tasking your sales team to bake cupcakes to sell, but don’t provide a recipe for success or ingredients. Everyone in the team will produce poor-tasting cakes that all look very different. Customers won’t enjoy their cake and next time will go to another bakery down the road. The outcome is the same if you don’t equip a sales team with a consistent process to follow and effective tools. But if you do (make great cupcakes, or smash sales), it’ll create better client experiences, retention, and increased sales.
Investors love to see a competitive edge and high client satisfaction, so here’s how you can stand out:
Let’s circle back to SOPs. Do you have one for the sales process? If your sales team are currently “winging it”, they probably don’t have documentation to follow. Creating a seamless and well-justified process gives your team confidence, and avoids overpromising and underdelivering to clients.
“We do weekly power hours!” Great, but investors might want solid documentation of what you’re doing before, during and after those calls. Show your value, by demonstrating how upselling and client retention are achieved at your agency. A buyer could ask; “What do you have a process for keeping up to date on a client’s industry trends?” or “What data do you use to support a pitch?”. Demonstrating the how and why of processes shows any investor that your agency is switched-on, proactive and ambitious.
For example: “We use the Insites ‘Quality Assessment’ feature to track a client’s performance and upsell after the partnership is completed. After 3 months sales agents get an alert on Salesforce, and we get back in touch with the previous client to demonstrate new areas for improvement and how our agency can help”.
Client satisfaction is the backbone of your agency’s success. If you don’t believe me, check out these word-of-mouth marketing statistics. By streamlining CRM software the relationship with current clients gets stronger, and you’ll leave a better impression on future clients who find value in your agency’s organisation and responsiveness. There are multiple CRM software, so choosing the right one is important. To read more about sales CRM read this article.
Bringing new software to a team can be scary. But you can do it seamlessly by integrating sales tools into existing CRM systems like Salesforce, Hubspot and Zapier. Insites allows you to introduce new tools in a way that makes it feel more familiar to your employees. Find out more about our integration capabilities here.
When your client is impressed after a project, you’ll get the impression the’ll return with new business. But they might forget about you, or read something like “SEO is dead”, so don’t wait for them to come back to you.
Don’t waste time manually setting reminders and tracking performance. With Insites you can automate reports to monitor their performance and use it as leverage in a follow-up. Demonstrate to an investor that your agency’s follow-up process is organised and time-efficient.
A crucial component for your agencies long-term success lies within the leadership team. Create a strong management system where tasks can be delegated effective and team members feel empowered and supported, not burnt-out and lost.
We’ve discussed making a plan to sell your agency, but exiting doesn’t always mean completing cashing in. It could also mean taking a step back and employing a managing director. Regardless, both sound kind of scary so making sure you leave behind a team of people who know to manage risks and optimise efficiency is crucial to the sustainability of your agency.
Not only should you be aiming to make customers happy, you also want them to be ambassadors for your agency! Their satisfaction with your business should promote your word-of-mouth marketing. If investors can identity through reviews and retention that clients find value in your agency, they will too.
Tips for improving client relationships and winning long-term contracts
By this point, I bet all the ideas of an exit strategy are swirling around in your head. Don’t let the ideas slip away. Write them down and give yourself documentation to refer back to. Even if your plans to exit are way into the future, it’s never too early to map out plans and give yourself a focal point.
A trusty SWOT analysis is a great place to start. It’s not too daunting and is a natural place to start analysing your strengths and weaknesses from the perspective of an investor, rather than a CEO. Outlining your agency’s strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities it avoids running into long-term issues before they become deal-breakers.
Preparing to exit your strategy is a good idea at any point – the earlier the better. It allows you to stay on track with long-term business goals and develop the best practices to make your agency a valuable asset. Hopefully, you can now see that your agency’s value isn’t just about the money & numbers. Your business value is also measured by:
If this resonated with you and you’re looking for support with lead generation, streamlining your sales process, or reducing time spent on digital presence audits, book a call with our Sales Manager, Jeni. She’ll provide personalised advice to help your digital marketing agency optimise its sales process and position you for a successful exit strategy in the future.
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25th January 2021
07th December 2022