The Agency Build-Grow-Repeat Read online

  THE AGENCY

  BUILD

  GROW

  REPEAT

  Fiftyfive Books

  © Luca Senatore 2019

  All rights reserved.

  No part of this publication may be reproduced,

  stored in a retrieval system or transmitted,

  in any form or by any means,

  electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise,

  without the prior permission of the publisher.

  Fiftyfive Books

  The Agency

  Build

  Grow

  Repeat

  How To Build a Remarkable Digital Agency Business That Wins and Keeps Clients

  Luca Senatore

  CONTENTS

  INTRODUCTION

  SECTION ONE: BUILD

  THE WHY

  THE ‘DO WHAT YOU LOVE’ ARGUMENT

  THE WHAT

  THE PLAN

  THE PEOPLE

  THE WHERE

  THE SPEED

  SECTION TWO: GROW

  THE SELLING

  THE MARKETING ON LINKEDIN

  THE MARKETING ON FACEBOOK AND INSTAGRAM

  THE MARKETING ON GOOGLE

  THE NETWORKING EVENTS

  THE EXHIBITIONS AND CONFERENCES

  THE COLD CALLING

  THE PITCH

  THE RELATIONSHIPS

  THE FEES

  SECTION THREE: REPEAT

  THE GROWTH

  THE REPEAT OF THE WHYS AND WHATS

  THE PRODUCTIVITY

  THE COMMUNICATION

  THE END

  THE GRATITUDE

  THE TOOLS

  INTRODUCTION

  This book is for agency people: founders, CEOs, MDs, employees, entrepreneurs and anyone else involved in the agency world. I’m talking about design, SEO, PPC, marketing, CRO, development, analytics, branding, PR, recruitment, and everything in between.

  Over the past 12 months, I have been invited by Google to speak to the top three percent of agencies in the EMEA region about how we run a successful digital agency and deliver the best performance for our clients. I have spoken at Google in London, Milan, and Berlin in front of some of the best agencies in the world. When they asked me the question: “what do you think is the one thing that every agency can do to be better, more successful and more profitable?” my answer has always been the same. And to this day, I stand by it strongly.

  My answer is that if every single agency did a better job, if every agency did a perfect job for their clients and delivered a remarkable experience, then every single agency would be more successful and more profitable. The truth is that there is still a huge number of potential advertisers who are sceptical of working with agencies. There is still a large number of potential clients who, when you walk in and tell them that you are from an agency, act as if you are telling them you’re the Antichrist, running to grab their crosses. Yet these people, who perhaps chose to manage their digital marketing in-house, are our potential customers. They could be in the market for agencies, if agencies had a better reputation.

  In 2013 we built Genie Goals, a digital marketing agency that specialises in paid channels and works exclusively with retail brands. Our goal was to revolutionise digital marketing for retail brands but also to positively impact the whole industry and improve the reputation of agencies. As part of our sales process (there’s a lot more on this in the chapter THE SELLING) we audit an incredible number of accounts. Often these accounts are in terrible shape, either because there was clearly a lack of talent and expertise within the team at the agency that managed the account, or because there was a lack of resources, and too little time was assigned to the account.

  On one hand, that makes our sales process very easy; it’s a no-brainer for the client to switch agency and come to us, especially when we show them what we would do, why, and what results the changes would be likely to produce.

  On the other hand, it always makes me sad because I know that accounts in such terrible shape and teams that deliver such bad performance dent the advertiser’s trust and confidence in agencies. How many times does an advertiser need to be burned before they lose total confidence in the whole industry and decide to bring the activity in-house? Or even worse, decide that a particular channel ‘doesn’t work’?

  We have managed to persuade clients who had lost all confidence in PPC or social media to give it another try and helped them see that these could in fact be effective channels for their business. After a few weeks of high-quality work, these channels turned out to perform, and within a few months to a couple of years, they had become the biggest source of revenue and new customers for these clients.

  But how many ‘unpersuadable’ customers are there for each one that we win? If every single agency did an incredible job, if they delivered on their promised performance, then the reputation of the industry in general would be better and we’d all win – you, us, everybody. Higher confidence in the industry = higher demand. Higher demand = more business.

  That’s exactly why I wrote this book. I want to share the things that we have learned, that we have done and are doing which make us good. The stuff that makes us worthy of being invited by Google to speak to the top three percent of agencies in the EMEA region. The stuff that makes us lose very few clients and that made us grow as much and as fast as we did.

  I will also share all the things that I know we’re not doing yet, the things that we are aspiring to do, which will make us even better. I want to share the methodologies. I want to share the theory, the practice, the case studies, the examples, the strategies, and the techniques that make our agency a good agency – and those that will make our agency even better once we adopt them.

  In this book, I’ve included everything from working out your mission and your big WHY to recruitment, goal setting, objectives and key results (OKRs), selling, marketing, executing, contracts, relationship management, and whatever else you need to know to build a new agency, or grow your existing one and take it to the next level. I have left nothing out, no secrets unshared. I have also interviewed brands for their take on what they want from, like or dislike about agencies. I have interviewed people from the industry for their take on it. I have interviewed other large agencies and I’ve included all the elements that will help you build and grow your super agency, the agency of the future.

  I really hope this book will bring value and that it helps you build or grow a better agency – a solid business delivering quality work you and your teams can be proud of. I want you to build an incubator of happiness, creating, in the words of my good friend Geoff Griffiths, former professional rugby player and MD of Builtvisible, “meaningful experience for your team and for your customers”. I’ve included everything I know to help you do that. But you have to do your part for this to work. You have to act. One of the key elements of success, the single factor that will allow you to grow, and be proud of your work, is action. You can read this book hundreds of times, word by word, letter by letter, but if you don’t implement anything, nothing will ever change. Inspiration is the spark that starts the engine, but action is the gas that keeps it running. No action, no motion; no motion, no growth.

  My biggest piece of advice is to read this book once, and then read it again as if you’re reading a manual or a how-to book. That way, you’ll be able to implement the ideas you find useful. When you find something that you want to – and can – implement immediately, stop reading. Make a note of the action you want to take and then go on to finish the chapter. As soon as you complete each chapter, take action, implement what you can which is relevant to that chapter and build a roadmap. Once you have set the machine in motion, once t
he projects or tasks are being actioned, go back to reading the next chapter.

  Caution: In the first half of the book, I talk about things I’ve done well, things that worked, the victories. Later I talk about the failures, the mistakes, the vulnerability that inevitably anyone building anything will encounter. Don’t let the early chapters fool you into thinking I think I know it all; I don’t. Don’t think I am super-human; I am absolutely not, and I know it. I mention my achievements early on because they frame the book the way it needs to be framed. There will be plenty to discover about me stumbling, failing and falling, just keep reading.

  It is my sincere hope that you’ll build a remarkable business, one that makes you proud, makes you happy and makes you better at what you do.

  We will keep this book alive. Things change, especially now. Change happens quickly, and change is dramatic, so we need to keep things relevant. To do that, I have created a live version of this book at lucasenatore.co.uk/theagency. Be sure to visit the site for additional resources, tools, and updates on the content of this book.

  Join these two groups. I created these to provide additional help and resources to grow your agency business:

  Facebook: goo.gl/QLfvHh

  Linkedin: goo.gl/b94sif

  Connect with me: @lucasenatore

  Good luck and enjoy the reading.

  SECTION ONE: BUILD

  This section is about creating YOUR AGENCY. That doesn’t mean that it’s only for those who are starting out or thinking of starting out. Even businesses that have been established for years might, and most probably at some point will, need to recreate themselves – to create something new, to create something different. This section touches on certain elements of creating your agency, your business and your next thing. And when you create something, it’s far more than the word may suggest. Creating something in business means you’re giving something life; you’re giving life to something that you hope to see grow and succeed. You’re bringing something to life that wasn’t there before and that wants to become something remarkable.

  Much like any new life, whatever you choose to create deserves respect, and it deserves your love and attention. I see so many micro businesses starting and so many established businesses changing without really giving the creation or the change much respect. Even moving office is part of the process of creating, because you’re creating a new environment where your people will work, and your customers will visit you. When you move office, throw an office party, send out an announcement. Celebrate the birth of your new thing.

  When we create something, we must have a mission for it. That mission has to be bigger than us and bigger than money and profits, as we argue in the next chapter, THE WHY. You need to be fixated on your goal and where you want to go, but you must also be flexible as to how you’re going to get there.

  The moment you become too fixated and obsessed on the road itself, the destination may become out of reach. If roadworks and accidents or anything else happens on the road to your destination, you might get stuck. You need to be prepared, flexible and adaptable, so that you can change the route and still get to your destination. Some routes to your destination will be longer, some shorter; some routes will be smoother and some rougher. It doesn’t matter if you take longer, it doesn’t matter if the journey is harder. As long as you are obsessed about what you want to achieve and flexible about how you get there, then you will give yourself the best chances of success.

  This section is all about creating, reinventing, growing. When you grow you are creating – you’re creating more of something. And even then, it’s unlikely that you’ll create more of the same; in growing, you want new elements and new dynamics, new branches, new services, new channels, new people, new departments. That’s all part of creating.

  This is what we mean by create. In the chapters that follow you’ll find all the elements we have considered and used when creating, when growing. And we’re still going through the process, I doubt we will ever stop (the moment we stop, I think I’ll probably be very bored and start looking for something else). This is not always an iterative process, it’s a never-ending process – you’re always creating. I’m creating right now, and you are creating right now – in your mind you have ideas and thoughts, and plans might be taking shape.

  So give that creation the respect it deserves by planning it, putting action behind it and treating it like a new thing that has come to life.

  Next, you’ll be introduced to THE WHY. It is absolutely vital that we have a strong WHY, and you’ll learn how you can build a strong WHY. Then comes THE PEOPLE – discover how you can find, train and keep your best team members. THE MARKETING and THE SALES follow: how do we put our business in front of the people that want to buy? How do we sell? Finally, you’ll be introduced to THE COMMUNICATION, and learn how to talk to your teams and customers and how it’s not only what you say but how you say it that makes a massive difference. All these elements and much more will help you create, recreate and grow THE AGENCY OF THE FUTURE. Enjoy.

  THE WHY

  I have vague memories of my father driving expensive cars and somehow had the sense that we had a luxurious lifestyle. I also have some memories of being scared of my dad, that I didn’t like him, and that the only emotion I had toward him was fear. I honestly don’t remember feeling anything else about him. But I don’t really recall much else about that time, nothing specific at least. My parents split up when I was very young, probably about five, I can’t be sure. My mum and I were left with nothing, from one day to the next. We didn’t have any money, debt piled up quickly, and things were difficult. At times we were living from meal to meal.

  The real challenge, I now know, wasn’t so much the ‘what’, it wasn’t the fact that we were poor and that my mum was a single mum. It was mainly challenging because we were different. We were different from most other people around us – back then in Italy, it wasn’t common for people to divorce. Where I come from, Valmadrera, a pretty small village near Lecco on Lake Como, everyone around me had more money than we did – that didn’t take much – and everyone I knew had a father and some sort of, at least apparent, stability. I know now that this does not mean they were happier than us; I later understood what real happiness is and I learnt that happiness and normality are not the same thing, and that normality certainly doesn’t guarantee happiness.

  Because of the lack of stability and structured education, as well as not having a role model, I had absolutely no idea as to what I wanted to do with my life when I grew up – no sense of direction or example to follow. I didn’t even know what I could aspire to. My future didn’t look the brightest, and this lack of stability and role model meant my confidence was low. In my undeveloped mind, the fact that we were so different meant I had to find different tools to most of my peers. The skills and stories you learn by doing chores for your father as he does DIY, I had to learn somewhere else. The sense of union and family – group dynamics, including negotiating, compromising and co-living – you learn when you have a busy household, I had to learn somewhere else.

  So I learnt pretty quickly, before the topic of ‘fake it until you make it’ became mainstream, that I had to pick some role models, some examples to follow. The good thing about my father leaving and my not being able to find a role model in my family was that I could choose whomever I wanted to be a role model. I had no limits. I just needed to pick someone I liked and could have close to me. I picked Bruce Lee as my main role model, plus a few other characters from movies I liked: Superman, Rocky and various others who I emulated depending on the situation.

  I would walk around literally pretending I was them. I would think what I thought they would think. I would move the way I thought they’d move. The result was that I appeared way more confident than I actually was. So I went about it differently, taking on the part of one of my role models: the classic outcast that doesn’t fit in and will one day emerge in victory, surprising everyone. I became quite a rebel, a
nd the place where this showed the most was, of course, school.

  I remember one day in particular, the last day of the last year at secondary school. All my friends were going to high school after that year. I had a job lined up as we couldn’t afford for me to study. We were in the school gymnasium where all the final year classes came together for their last goodbyes. Being the very last day of the very last year in that school, everyone was celebrating, playing around and saying their goodbyes to teachers and fellow students. A few were even doing cartwheels and gymnastics moves – I was one of them.

  Ms Gandini, our English language teacher, came over, very angry about what we were doing. She decided to take me, just me, and send me to the Head’s office. During the past year, Ms Gandini had never marked my work but always classified it as ‘“ungradable”, equivalent to a U, apart from once when I manage to get a “severely insufficient”, equivalent to an F.

  We got to the Head’s office, but the Head was out for a few hours. Ms Gandini told me to wait there and she left. After 20 or 30 minutes she came back to check if the Head had returned, but he hadn’t. She then looked at me and said: “okay, if you apologise, I’ll let you off the hook.” But I was a rebel, and I knew I was right when I contested being the only one in trouble when several students had been doing the same thing (which, incidentally, wasn’t all that inappropriate since we were in a gymnasium). So I refused to apologise; I felt I had nothing to apologise for.

  She didn’t like that at all and stormed out, leaving me to wait in the Head’s office. Half an hour later she returned to find the Head was still not back. She offered the deal again, and I rejected it again – politely, but with an obvious smirk. She lost it. She started screaming at me that she’d make sure I’d never be allowed in any Italian school ever again, that I was going nowhere in life and that I would be a failure.

  What do these stories have to do with growing an agency, or any business? I hear you ask. They are important. These stories form part of my WHY. Part of who I am. They form some of my deepest values. These stories are the moulds of some of my strongest WHYs and some of my most important goals.