How the Owner of Volume Nine Dramatically Reduced Time Spent on Sales Tasks and Improved Client Acquisition

Client

Founded in 2006 by Chuck Aikens, Volume Nine is a boutique digital marketing agency that offers search engine optimization, social media marketing, and content creation. Boasting clients such as Volkswagen, Fiji Water, and Vitamin World, Volume Nine is considered a top-tier agency known for producing great return on investment.

Challenges

Despite not having a formal sales background, Chuck's industry knowledge, passion, and hustle were enough to win new business and grow his company to 30 employees. Chuck's team included an experienced sales executive who figured out how to sell Volume Nine's services as well as Chuck. Unfortunately, his good fortune turned into a nightmare.

In Chuck's own words, "Our sales guy was closing deals, but many of the clients were a bad fit or had unrealistic expectations due to issues with our sales process. The churn on the back end was killing my delivery team, and our profitability suffered."

Chuck was constantly dragged into the sales process to fight fires. His hours were long, and his stress level was high. Growth stagnated, and rather than being a source of pride and joy, owning his agency made him feel like he was trapped in a cage.

Solutions

Chuck attended a public workshop taught by Forrest Dombrow, founder of Solve Sales, titled How to Sell SEO. It was during this presentation that Chuck and his right hand, Natalie Henley, felt that they found a solution to their predicament. After an in-depth discovery, both parties agreed that Solve Sales's private extraction program was the right solution. Over the course of about 18 months, Jay Mays, Solve Sales's managing partner, helped Chuck and Natalie work through the 4 Pillars of The Extraction Model™.

"Amongst other powerful concepts, Jay introduced a consultative sales process focused on winning long-term clients versus selling short-term project orders. This resulted in a dramatic improvement in client longevity and retention, which allowed the agency to make a bigger impact for clients and not waste time chasing the next project," said Chuck.

The key tools and tactics Chuck used to free himself from his sales nightmare included the following:

• Removed underperforming sales staff, which instantly decreased his stress level
• Implemented a simple lead scoring framework to maximize the use of his limited resources
• Used 7 Magic Questions during discovery to increase the predictability of his pipeline
• Defined key roles, and used a team selling approach for better efficiency
• Eliminated short-term client churn by having account managers approve the scope of work prior to the pitch
• Documented and delegated parts of the sales process to a support person he hired

Results

Although there were other wins along the way, here are the key results Chuck reported:

• Eliminated 40–48 hours of time spent on sales tasks each month
• Maintained a close rate of 70% on referrals and 40% on cold leads
• Increased the predictability and efficiency of his sales pipeline
• Reduced his stress level from a 9 to a 3 (out of 10, self-reported)