You’ve Been Looking For An Agency To Help You Grow Your Company, And You Finally Found It
You’ve done great work getting your baby to this point, but it’s been a struggle getting it to the next level, and you need trusted guidance and support. Unfortunately, most of the companies you’ve been looking at or talking to are good at delivering stuff (building websites, doing email marketing, posting on social, writing press releases or installing HubSpot) and not so great at the strategic thought leadership and guidance you really need.
What you need is the agency of the future to be here today. We think you might have just found what you’ve been looking for.
No one ever really succeeds in business unless they’re bold. Research studies showed Apple that no one wanted a camera to be integrated into their phones. Research told Amazon that people wanted to physically visit stores and touch products. Netflix had to figure out how to stream content when they started out. These companies made bold moves that paid off. The agency partner you work with has to be bold enough to challenge you, disrupt your status quo and give you ideas that everyone else thinks might never work.
Random acts of marketing have to come to an end. Tactical execution without strategy should be considered malpractice in our opinion. You need an agency that has a methodology they’re bringing into your company. They can’t look around the conference room table and say, “What do you guys want to do next?” They should be leading the conversation with, “Here’s what you need first, second and third, and here’s how we’re going to help you get this done.”
What you say is important. The words you use to tell your story make the difference between massive growth and no growth. When we evaluate companies with underperforming marketing and sales, it’s almost always because their story is the same as their competitors. If you’re talking to an agency and they don’t want to upgrade your overall marketing message and company story to be more emotional, more compelling and more disruptive, you’ve got the wrong agency.
With over 7,000 marketing and sales technology options available, how can one size fit all? You should be looking for an agency that understands how to apply technology across the entire buyer journey. One tool can’t possibly be perfect for every stage, every company and every industry. The agency of the future is fluent in the language of technology and knows how to apply it only after your process for targeting, attracting and nurturing new customers is locked down. Technology is never going to be the only solution; it’s always going to be part of the solution, and knowing which tools to apply when is key.
Growing your company isn’t easy. If it was easy, every company would grow year over year. Instead, only a handful of companies grow, and even fewer grow dramatically. What you’ve been doing isn’t working, and you can’t read about growth in a book, take a class, watch a LinkedIn video or attend a conference. You’re going to have to take action.
Engaging with a growth agency and investing in your own company growth (perhaps at levels you’ve resisted in the past) is the right move. Finding an agency that is tuned into growth and understands what’s required to drive more leads, more sales opportunities, more new customers and higher levels of revenue month over month is hard, but such agencies are out there.
When you look at the remarkable businesses (the ones we all aspire to be like and the ones with hockey stick growth), they all have one thing in common: They disrupted their industries. Netflix put Blockbuster out of business with one business model and then promptly put their own DVD shipping business out of business with streaming content. Amazon.com put the entire brick-and-mortar retail model on notice and continues to dominate online shopping.
You shouldn’t be looking for an agency that can build you a website; you should be looking for an agency that can help you disrupt your industry. Today, the most successful businesses are about disruption. Business models are getting turned on their heads. Innovation and transformation drive constant change, and strategically orchestrated experiences rule the day. You need a prospect- and customer-centric push to drive creative thinking.
CEOs must ensure they get business strategy and creative input from an agency that understands your industry, your business model and how you make money. The agency of the future is going to marry strategic thinking with traditional agency services to offer their clients the ability to map out a remarkable experience for the prospect who hears about your business for the first time, the prospect who knows you but has never worked with you, your newest customers and your oldest, most loyal customers.
Every touch point, every interaction, every visit to your website and every inquiry to your company (whether it’s text, Facebook Messenger, chat or email) must be remarkable by their definition, not yours. The marketing, advertising, sales and customer service industries are changing faster than ever. Today, more than 7,000 marketing and sales technologies are available to companies. Every day, new artificial intelligence (AI) solutions are coming out that promise better and faster results.
To keep up, you’re going to need partners that have a methodology and understand how these technology solutions apply to the bigger picture. You’ll need partners that have the business expertise to develop new strategies at a moment’s notice. You’ll need an agency that has the creativity and the boldness to give you the ideas necessary to disrupt your industry and drive growth for your company. You’ll need the agency of the future.
Start Today Tip – It’s time to decide. Do you want to have an ordinary business with ordinary trajectory, growing a little year over year, having down years or down months and struggling with inconsistent revenue results? Or do you want to have a fast-growing, high-flying, super business that has no trouble bringing in new customers, delivering high value to current customers and achieving remarkable results? If it’s option one, any agency probably works. You might even consider buying based on price. But if option two sounds more like what you had in mind, look for an agency partner with the skill sets described above and pay them anything they want if they can truly transform your business and disrupt your industry. The investment will be well worth it, no matter what they ask.Square 2 Marketing – Revenue Is Earned Through Experience, Methodology And Insights!