CredoCast Marketing Consultants and Agencies | Credo

https://getcredo.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/You-need-a-process-for-everything-especially-sales.mp3

When I come across service businesses, especially agencies, that are struggling to grow it’s usually because processes are not in place to allow them to scale.

Whether it’s a marketing process, a payroll process, or a sales process, getting these squared away in your business will only make it more sane, more profitable, and incredibly better to run.

In this episode I talk about an agency I spoke with where I helped them rework their sales process to great effect. I’ve done it for many, and it’s always super fun to watch.

In this episode I talk about:

1. Why you need to think about who can do a thing, not just how to do it yourself
2. Why letting the prospect drive the process puts you on the defensive instead of being the expert
3. A few processes I have in place that help me deliver great results every time

Transcript

John:
Hey there everybody, and welcome to this episode of the Credo Podcast. I’m John Doherty, the founder of getcredo.com. On this show I interview smart marketers and entrepreneurs who can help you grow and scale your business through great digital marketing. Every now and then I do a shorter me only episode teaching you something that is on my mind specifically. This episode is of course sponsored by getcredo.com, my company, where we have a highly curated network of vetted digital marketing professionals who are best in class at what they do. We’ve interviewed them. We’ve seen their client metrics and we’ve accepted them into the network only after they’ve checked the necessary boxes. At Credo we specialize in helping companies find and hire the best digital marketing firm or consultant for their specific needs, so if that’s you get in touch with us at getcredo.com that’s G-E-T-C-R-E-D-O.com and click the find a marketer button in the top right navigation.

John:
Hey there, what’s going on? John Doherty, founder and CEO of Credo here. Man, it’s good to be back on the microphone. It’s been a little while since I’ve done a new podcast episode, and I’ve recently gotten this itch to get back to creating, to get back to blogging, to get back to putting out new content and to put out content like this on the podcast because this is a great place for me to share just some lessons that I’m learning, quick lessons that I’m learning. This episode isn’t going to be super long. Future episodes probably aren’t going to be super long, but I want to start sharing, just getting out in audio format. This episode is around something that I’ve recently been thinking about a lot. I talked about it with some agencies yesterday, talked about with an agency owner today and something I’ve really become convinced about is the need for processes within a business. Your business straight up cannot be scalable if you do not have documented processes that you can hand off to other people for them to take care of so that you can go and solve other problems.

John:
So yesterday I was talking with an agency on Credo about their sales process. This agency, this customer has been with us for four-ish months now, four maybe five months now. Honestly, they’ve been struggling to close work. We’ve got some great deals onto their calendars and other agencies are winning them. I think something like 25% of the projects that we have matched them up with that we have scheduled them to speak with were won by another agency that looks very similar to their profile. And so what I try to do is I try to hop on phone calls with agencies that are struggling to close so that I can try to help them get back on track. Point out some things in their process that they need to fix, things to add in, things to take away, things to start doing, things to stop doing, because I’ve seen a lot of work get closed and I’ve seen a lot more work fail to get closed and found the process that works really, really well.

John:
And basically this agency’s process boiled down to we had an initial call, and then we let the prospect tell us what they want us to do next. Send a proposal, have a follow-up call, that sort of thing. That’s not a process right there, you all. That is an abdication of responsibility, especially when it comes to sales. You need to have a process that you go through, and of course there’s a little bit of... There can be some flexibility in there if they need a third call, that’s fine, but letting the client drive or letting the prospect drive it, that’s not the way to actually win work. Of course, we’re talking about sales specifically here. In my opinion, any process is better than none. I wouldn’t even call that a...

https://getcredo.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/02/Raise-Your-Prices.mp3

I hear from way too many service businesses who haven’t raised their rates in way too long. Some of them, their teams are even begging them to raise their rates!

So here’s the newest episode of the CredoCast. Why you should raise your prices as a service business.

We cover:

• How you’re losing money (not just not making it) every year if you’re not
• Why higher rates leads to happier and more successful clients
• How to raise your rates so you don’t screw your revenue

Transcript

John:
Hey there everybody. Welcome to this episode of the Credo podcast. I’m John Doherty, the founder of getcredo.com. On this show, I interview smart marketers and entrepreneurs who can help you grow and scale your business through great digital marketing. Every now and then I do a shorter me only episode teaching you something that is on my mind specifically. This episode is of course sponsored by getcredo.com, my company, where we have a highly curated network of vetted digital marketing professionals who are best in class at what they do. We’ve interviewed them. We’ve seen their client metrics and we’ve accepted them into the network only after they’ve checked the necessary boxes. At Credo, we specialize in helping companies find and hire the best digital marketing firm or consultant for their specific needs. So if that’s you, get in touch with us at getcredo.com, that’s G-E-T-C-R-E-D-O.com, and click the find a marketer button in the top right navigation.

John:
Hey, what’s up, you all? John Doherty, founder and CEO of Credo here, back here in your ears, talking with you about some topics that I have come across recently that I’ve been thinking about a lot, that people have honestly been asking me to share about, and I haven’t been doing it. So I’m getting back to it. So welcome to another episode of the Credo Podcast. Super glad that you’re here. Today, I’m talking to the service business owners out there, really any kind of business. It doesn’t have to be a marketing agency. You can be a coach. I don’t know. You can be teaching people how to build websites without having to write a line of code. I don’t care what it is.

John:
To shout out to you, Tara Reed from Apps Without Code, asked me to go deeper about all this. So Tara, this is for you. So the topic here is about pricing and about raising prices. People often ask me, they’re like, “Well, why should I raise my prices? I don’t want to be greedy. I don’t want to overcharge people,” that sort of thing. What I find honestly, is that the first one, I really, really... I respect both of those, but I think that they’re both false statements, right? If you’re like, “Well, I’m happy where I am, making the money that I’m making. So why should I raise my rates?” Right? Or you’re like, “Well, I don’t want to be greedy. I don’t want to act like I’m just in it for the money,” that kind of thing.

John:
The reality is you’re running a business here, right? I firmly believe that you can provide better services to your clients and have a saner life so you don’t have to make more necessarily. You can make the same amount and work less and focus on other things, have more time to do the things that you love doing, right? You don’t have to work... What I often find is people that are saying those things that, “Oh, I’m happy making what I’m making. I don’t want to be greedy,” that sort of thing, the reality is they’re working a ton. They’re working a ton.

John:
They’re stressed out. They’re not getting time with their family, their kids, to pursue their hobbies. Their health is probably a little bit. So I want to help people fix that. I exist on this earth to help people fix those problems to live a fuller business life in that way, right? I believe that entrepreneurship can drive incredible change in the world and incredible change in people’s lives. So when people ask me like, “Why should I raise my rates?” There’s really three specific reasons that I want to cover today.

John:
Number one, did you know that you’re literally, if you’re not raising your rates yeah every year, and I think you should review your rates every three to six months, I actually think you should always be raising your rates, but at minimum reviewing it every three to six months, and at absolute minimum reviewing it every year, if you’re not raising your rates by at least 3% every year, you’re literally losing money every year due to inflation, right? You’re doing the same work for less money because, not like top-line, but your expenses are going up, right? You’re giving people raises. Software is getting more expensive. You’re growing your emai...

https://getcredo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Marcel-Petitpas-on-Agency-Operations-to-Optimize-Profitability.mp3

Is your service business optimized for profitability? Do you know where you are making money and where you are bleeding money?

Making the agency model work comes down to three things:

1. Hiring good people who get clients results and help you retain those clients;
2. Charging the right prices for your services;
3. Getting proper data on work to know which teams and projects are profitable and which are not.

Marcel Petitpas is the cofounder and CEO of Parakeeto, which is a soon-to-launch agency software company that, as they say on their homepage, “automates your reports so you can simulate decisions & make more money.”

As he says:

The goal is to help make it easier for service businesses to track the critical metrics that determine their profitability which is a notoriously hard thing for them to do unless they’re a big enterprise company and have hundreds of thousands of dollars for enterprise licenses for software. So if you find yourself building a spreadsheet to try and figure out simple stuff like, did we make money on this project? That’s the problem we’re trying to solve.

Resources mentioned

The resources mentioned are:

• Parakeeto
• Parakeeto Agency Toolkit
• Dan Martell’s SaaS Academy
• Credo
• Databox

Transcript

John Doherty:

Hello everybody. Welcome back to the Credo podcast. It’s been a little bit since I’ve done one of these episodes but trying to get back to it. I’ve been producing a lot of content other places, on the blog, on YouTube, writing a lot of emails. All of that, but kick starting this back again because I’m recognizing that I’m not an expert in everything. There are a lot of people out there that are super, super smart. I’ve been doing a lot of solo episodes on this in the past but I’m trying to get back to a bit of a balance, of solo episodes teaching you things but also bringing on experts, people that I listen to, that I respect, often friends of mine, and letting them share their genius with you as well.

John Doherty:

So today, I have Mr. Marcel Petitpas from Canada on the call with me. Marcel and I are both a part of SaaS Academy, which is Dan Martell’s group coaching program. Marcel and I have become friends over about the last year or so. He’s a marketing wizard.

He’s phenomenal at what he does, especially with Facebook ads and that sort of thing. He’s helped me out a ton, taught me a lot, helped out Credo a lot as well. Basically what he says, is he helps high growth creative agencies, consultancies and service businesses track the right metrics and maximize their profitability. So now only is he a phenomenal marketer but he’s also a phenomenal business mind. I’m really excited about this because agency operations, agency profitability, to be completely honest, is not something I know a ton about. Or it’s not something that I would consider myself a world class expert in versus Marcel is. He is the co-founder and I believe CEO of Parakeeto. Marcel, welcome to the show. If you would, introduce us. Tell us about Parakeeto, tell us about yourself.

Marcel Petitpas:

Thank you for the very generous and kind introduction John. It’s an honor to be here and I’m excited that anyone is tuning in to listen to this. I hope that I’ll be able to share something that is going to be valuable. Yeah, to kind of summarize what I do. I’m an agency profitability consultant. I’m also a business coach and I am the head strategic coach at SaaS Academy so I’ve spent a very big part of my career helping business owners become more successful and particularly have a focus on software and marketing or consulting businesses.

Marcel Petitpas:

What we do at Parakeeto is we’re building a set of tools. The goal is to help make it easier for service businesses to track the critical metrics that determine their profitability which is a notoriously hard thing for them to do unless they’re a big enterprise company and have hundreds of thousands of dollars for enterprise licenses for software. So if you find yourself building a spreadsheet to try and figure out simple stuff like, did we make money on this project? That’s the problem we’re trying to solve.

John Doherty:

Awesome, awesome. I love it. And I agree, it’s a deep deep world. It’s something that not a lot of people are doing well. Often what I find, is a lot of ag...

https://getcredo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/Spencer-Rascoff-on-Layoffs-Cashflow-and-Leading-in-tough-times.mp3

It’s not every day you get to interview the former CEO of a publicly traded company, and it’s definitely not every day that this CEO was also the CEO of the company that laid you off from your job.

This is one of those days.

With today’s realities of COVID and small businesses hurting across the world, I knew I needed to get a bigger perspective on layoffs and doing them well, managing cashflow and shoring up your revenue so you can survive the rainy seasons, and finally leading well through a crisis.

So I reached out to Spencer Rascoff, co-founder and former CEO of Hotwire and Zillow.

In a twist for you, Spencer was CEO of Zillow when I was there and he was CEO when I got laid off from one of their brands. We’ve stayed in contact over the years and he’s sent me a few consulting leads and I’ve helped a few of his companies with SEO advice.

So in this episode, we dug into three specific things:

1. Layoffs – when to do them and how to do them well
2. Cash flow – what are some steps Spencer has taken in the past with his companies and those he invests in to determine cashflow/runway and how to make decision from that.
3. Leading the team – how Spencer has rallied team support in the past when he’s had to make hard decisions and do layoffs?

Resources mentioned

• Zillow
• Hotwire
• Dot.la
• His post on dot.la about doing layoffs with compassion

Transcript

John Doherty:

Hello again everyone. Thank you for joining me again here on the Credo Podcast. I’m John Doherty, founder and CEO here at Credo, where we help companies find and hire great digital marketing firms. Today I have a very, very special guest, actually an old boss’s boss of mine from Zillow. So today I am joined by Spencer Rascoff. Spencer, if you don’t know him, he’s one of the smartest people that I know. One of the people I’ve had the pleasure of working for in the past. Co-founder of Hotwire, Zillow. He served as Zillow CEO for 10 years. And I just read today, I knew a lot of this history, but led them through the 2011 IPO. Led them through, what, 15 acquisitions, Spencer, or something like that? I think that’s what Wikipedia told me.

Spencer Rascoff:

Yup.

John Doherty:

So a lot of acquisitions, he’s got a lot of experience, now based in Los Angeles. Founded a couple of startups there and doing a lot of angel investing. And so I invited Spencer on, and I asked Spencer if he would come on because we’re dealing with all the COVID stuff going on in the world now. Spencer has a lot of experience leading through crisis times. Both peacetime CEO and wartime CEO, as Ben Horowitz from Andreessen Horowitz calls it.

John Doherty:

And so today we’re going to be talking about three specific things. Number one, we’re going to be talking about layoffs, unfortunately. How to do them well, how to think about doing them well and Spencer’s advice having gone through it both with Hotwire and Zillow. Cashflow, so steps that they’ve taken in the past to determine runway cashflow, shoring that up and making sure the business can continue. And then number three, how do you lead the team? So people obviously is the hardest part of leading a company, as I’ve learned the hard way over the last few years. And so again, I’ll ask Spencer for his take on that.

John Doherty:

So Spencer, first of all, thank you. Thank you for being here. I really appreciate you taking the time.

Spencer Rascoff:

Thanks, John. My pleasure. Happy to be here. Good speaking with you.

John Doherty:

Awesome. You as well. It’s been a long time since we caught up.

So today, as I said, the first thing I wanted to talk about is layoffs. It’s something no one wants to talk about. You recently had a piece on one of your new companies, dot.LA, based out of Los Angeles, obviously, talking about the tech world. And so one of the things you talked about in there is cutting deep, and cutting deep from the start, and only doing it once. So if you’re talking to, or when you’re talking now, I assume you’re talking to a lot of CEOs and leaders that they’re thinking about layoffs, how do you advise them to think about them, when to do them, and how to do them well?

Spencer Rascoff:

So my typical advice is you want to cut once so you don’t have to d...

I recently almost triggered an avalanche when backcountry skiing near Breckenridge. In reflecting back on it, it taught me an important business lesson too.

https://getcredo.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/03/What-almost-triggering-an-avalanche-taught-me-about-business-3220-9.52-AM.mp3

Apologies if you experience a slight clicking during this episode. I recorded it on AirPods while driving in my car.

Transcript

Hey, what’s going on everybody? So I am currently heading up towards the mountains to spend a few days at the ski cabin for the weekend that we’re renting for the winter. And as I’ve been driving along, I’ve realized that I learned an important lesson a few weeks ago that I think might be relevant to all of you as well.

There’s a lot of entrepreneurs, and freelancers, and agency owners, and that sort of thing listening to this podcast. So I think this is relevant.

A few weeks ago we were up in the mountains, and we went backcountry skiing. So my wife and I love to ski in the winter. It’s our thing and we do a lot of backcountry skiing, so a lot of touring where basically you put things on the bottom of your skis called skins, and that lets you climb up the mountain wearing your skis.

So we basically have these special bindings that we put the part of our boots into. They’re called pin bindings. And the rear, our heel, is free. So these aren’t telemark skis, they’re backcountry skis. We can flip the heel piece around 90 degrees and tamp down our heels and ski down regularly. But so basically we do this.

Part of the fun is climbing up. We call it earning your turns. You’re climbing and you get to the top, and it’s a beautiful run, right? Untouched powder.

Because it’s not officially a ski run, it’s just a mountain, and you climbed up that snow on it that you’re going to ski down. And so we went out onto this slope that we’ve been out on quite a few times now, and we had our daughter with us. We pulled her up, and I believe my wife pulled her up in her little [inaudible 00:01:50] chariot behind her.

And so Courtney was going to hang out down in the meadow while I went up with the dog and skied this slope. I was going to come back down, hang out with Tatum so Courtney could go and do it herself.

So there’s been a lot of snow this year in Colorado. We’re actually over 300 inches already in Breckenridge, which is the earliest that they’ve hit that mark in 15 years, or something like that. So it’s been a phenomenal snow year. I’ve gotten in great shape from shoveling snow, let me tell you what.

And so we went out to the meadow, skied up there, and then the dog and I kind of take off and we’re skinning up. And I’m like, man, the snow’s a little crusty, right?There’s kind of some layers here as I’m walking up, and taking my ski pole and punching through, just to kind of feel where the layers of snow are. I feel there’s maybe a layer that’s kind of weak, and the top is a little gnarly.

It’s a little crusty, but it feels okay down lower. And so I’m skinning up through the trees and I start getting off and I’m like, man, that face that we usually ski, it’s not super steep. And so basically when you’re skiing up like this, and then you’re going to ski down these slopes, you’re looking up for avalanches, right? And I’m going to say an avalanche is a bad thing. If you get caught in it, you can die. We’ve had avalanche training and you know... so I know what to look for and I know this... the contour of the slope, we’ve seen it a couple times. It’s beautiful, and we... but these are the... You go over this one knoll, and then it’s kind of a divot, for lack of a better word. And then you go up the next one, and you get to the top.

It’s usually a cornice up there. You know, you kind of want to avoid, don’t want to break that off inside the slope. And I was looking at the middle part, and I’m like, man, that’s kind of wind loaded, so I’m not going to go up that. I’m going to go up this other face, which is a little more southwest facing than the one we usually ski, but it’s like south-southwest, so it’s basically South.

And I’m going up there, I’m kind of traversing back and forth across, taking my angles and going. And I’m going up with the dog, he’s coming behind me. I’m like, all right, I’m going up and I’m [inaudible 00:04:01], it’s still a little sketchier the further we go. But it’s feeling okay, and I think I can ski it. And I’m going and I get up [inaudible 00:04:12], I’m going to that tree.

I’m only going three quarters of the way up. I’m not going to try to go all the way to the top, because it’s pretty exposed. It was windy that day. And I get up there to the tree, and I’m looking back, kind of in the shelter of the tree to my right, skiing slope...