Step-By-Step Guide To Close Clients For Your SMMA In 2024

the most important part of any business especially an agency is your ability to sell but unfortunate thing is 99% of beginner agency owners have absolutely no idea how to sell so in this video I'm going to break down stepbystep the closing strategy that I have taught to thousands of agency owners over the last 6 years that's helped them not only sign their first client but countless of clients thereafter so let's get started and L and gentlemen as normal I created a diagram in a figma so if I look off to the side it's just to

get a reference and as always you can find that linked down below as well as any other resources that I have prepared for today's video so let's get started because before you even think of getting on a sales call it's imperative that your systems are in place to actually host the sales calls without any technical issues or bugs now in order to do that you need to make sure that you have the correct software in place and you also need to make sure that your environment allows these softwares to do their job correctly and this

is what I mean first you're going to need a zoom account now as you know Zoom is widely used around the world and most business owners will be aware of it and probably use it on a daily basis but before you actually have a meeting you need to make sure that your Zoom account is set up correctly first things first is you need to ensure that you have a zoom Pro account and the main reason you shouldn't stick to a free Zoom account is because of the meeting length a free Zoom account only allows for

45-minute meetings and what's worse is that after 35 minutes a 10-minute countdown starts and that's actually displayed at the top of the screen and obviously this is a terrible first impression if the business owner sees that an online agency owner doesn't even have zoom Pro now I believe Zoom Pro is like $16 a month $10 $116 $20 something like that a month the point is it is well worth its investment so it's extremely important that you invest this because First Impressions count and trust me you don't want to have that little timer saying that alloted

time is about to run out next you want to make sure that you set up meeting reminders to ensure that your prospects arrive for the meeting now you need to understand that for you this sales call will probably be one of if not the most important thing you do in that day for your prospect it could be one of nine meetings they're having so that's why you want to make sure that you have reminders in place to ensure that the meeting is front of mind for your prospect then we move on to the Account Details

because you want to make sure that you change your display name on Zoom from Zoom user to your full name the last thing you want is for your prospect's first impression of you to seem unprofessional and in addition to this make sure that you also have a profile picture the picture can either be a head shot of you or your agency logo either works but do not leave it blank next thing I want to discuss is the waiting room because Zoom has a waiting room function and this needs to be turned on because you want

to make sure that you have time to jump into to the zoom room and have the ability to let your client in when you're ready you don't want to hop into the zoom room and your prospect is sitting there waiting while you're still trying to get your notes in order and everything set up around you and that brings us on to the next thing which is your personal presentation and background the first thing that your prospect is going to see when they join the call is the way that not only you present yourself but also

the environment that you're in so when you are trying to build an agency you need to look the part you need to look like a business owner so that means no bed in the background okay it can't look like you're sleeping in your parents basement even if you are and this doesn't mean that you need to be wearing a suit and sitting in a multi-million dollar office no all you need to do is make sure your background looks clean and you look presentable and investing into your setup can definitely help with this as well and

one of the easiest places is investing in a microphone because if your audio is bad it's just going to take away from the professionalism I've been on calls personally with people where I'm like how do you not realize how terrible your audio sounds or for example they'll be using their airpod Pro earphones and the sound is just terrible and by the way when I'm outside of the house and obviously I don't have my setup or for example I'm traveling abroad somewhere you know I don't take this setup while I travel and by the way I

travel a lot for business I just use the $20 or $25 um Apple ear pods you know the wired ones to be honest anytime I leave the house that's what I use because the microphone is so good it's just easy and you know it's kind of funny in life there's different ways to Signal status when you have a super professional audio setup like this like top the end audio setup it usually signal status but on the flip side I've usually found that most of the wealthiest friends I know including myself we all just use ear

pods we use wired ear pods so once again this is also maybe just my perception but I've realized that there's certain things that may not be expensive but in a way they signal something good and I've just noticed that ear pods is always to me the best alternative if you can afford a nice setup and it doesn't need to be this one you know inside of the presentation notes that I gave you there's a microphone from the same company that's around half the price and then we move on to background now you need to make

sure that the environment you're in shows professionalism and this means that your background needs to be clean now this can either be just a white wall to limit distractions or it could be a well setup office space with some books maybe some lighting maybe whatever you want in the background you know maybe you have a vinyl player in the background or you have your camera your old uh uh film camera analog camera collection there you know your background should represent you and kind of your personality now you also want to avoid clutter and you don't

want your office to look like a bedroom as I said no posters no beds and no untidiness in the background keep it clean and professional to be honest this side of my desk like if I need to keep stuff I keep everything on this side this side is clean pristine because obviously when I'm on calls there needs to be a certain impression and I need to make sure that I have a good clean background now when it comes to setup you want to make sure that you have good quality lighting and as I said also

a good microphone because that instantly gives a professional first impression to your prospect now when it comes to good lighting you can invest in a soft box line you know we have lighting uh to my left side here or you can also just take calls in a room with good natural lighting so you just want to make sure that you face a window now when it comes to a microphone you can either invest in a top tier microphone for example like this this is a sure s77b some something like that or it's baby brother which

is the mv7 so something like that with an arm or there's a microphone called Blue Yeti that I used to use way back in the day so honestly either of those will work but as I said this is just going to show a visual level of professionalism and then next we have camera quality now camera quality is the last focal point you can either use your laptop camera if it's a good laptop for example MacBooks or you can actually set up your iPhone as a camera and there's a setting that allows you to do that

inside of Zoom now when you have more experience and your cash flow is good enough you can also invest in a camera like this and plug it straight into your computer so this is the camera that they see on Zoom moving on we have personal presentation you know the way you dress and take care of yourself gives prospects insight into how you run your business you cannot look like you just woke up rolled out of bed and jumped on a sales call you also don't want to be wearing a three-piece suit neither of those two

extremes you want to make sure that you showered you're dressed well and you look well groomed the first impression if you arrive at a sales call looking like a slob is just going to be a deal breaker don't show up in a hoodie okay make sure you look the part and the way you are dressed also makes an impact my recommendation is just wear a simple collared shirt or well-fitting t-shirt just something like this it doesn't need to be anything crazy just no oversized crazy print shirts anything like that or you know hoodies just keep

it smart casual or semi-formal moving on we have internet connection because if your internet speed is an issue it's going to be something that needs to be dealt with when you jump on a sales call the last thing you need is to be lagging and for the prospect to not be able to hear you firstly this is just going to throw off the Rhythm completely but it's also going to present doubts as to how professional you are in the prospect's mind so if you face this issue upgrade your internet speed or move your sales call

to a co-working space with good internet connection now before jumping on a sales call it's imperative that you know the basics of the business that you're speaking to you want to prepare in a similar way that you prepare for a job interview you need to gain as much understanding about the ins and outs of the business that you're going to be having a call with so that way you're able to assume as much familiarity as possible by knowing more about the business you can come across as prepared and therefore professional and it also allows you

to build up ammo for the sales call which you can use to navigate questions that may come up first is really just the scope of the product or the service service by understanding exactly what products or Services a business provides you can gain an understanding of whether they are actually a fit for your Niche and whether you'll be able to provide the best value to the business and this also leans into professionalism because you're going to be able to assume familiarity from the start of the sales call coming across as an expert in your Niche

is so important and by knowing the exact scope of what your prospect does you're going to be able to show off your knowledge about their business without them going into every single detail now examples of what you should know includes aspects like what the business sells to customers who their target market is what their price points are and services within their field that they don't actually offer next is location or locations because it's important to have a knowledge of where the business is based whether they have multiple locations and how wide their target market is

are they a local family-owned business or are they a franchise or are they a business that trades globally like an e-commerce business again knowing this information allows you to assume familiarity and helps you create an angle of attack prior to Discovery then you need to understand their current marketing strategies so when doing research try and understand what are they currently doing to promote themselves do they run ads are they active on social media are they on lead generation websites like Zillow which is amazing for Real Estate or check a trade for home renovation this is

really going to help you over overcome any objections that may arise and it will help you craft the perfect angle when pitching your service and why it would bring more value than what you're currently doing then we move on to the sales call structure now there are two different types of sales call structures when running an agency the one call close and the two call close let me make something clear both of these structures can work and I use both of these structures in the past for years but there are pros and cons to both

and in all honesty in the first half of my agency career I always aimed for one call close and the second half of my agency career I always went for a two call close but quite simply you need to make sure you pick the correct structure according to your level and the time that you have available so let's unpack the one call close as suggested by the name the full sale from the discovery all the way to the close is all done in the single container of a call the one call close is a better

structure for more seasoned agency owners because this structure requires you to be able to think on your feet handle objections swiftly and keep the energy high that the prospect has throughout the call now the biggest advantage of this call is that you can save time and you don't require the prospect to attend the second call the other benefit is obviously you don't ever run the risk of the prospect jumping on the first call and then not attending the second call you know basically having a no-show now I found that the one call closed structure works

the best for agencies that don't have a lot of Vari between clients so for example with the agency that I had for 6 years the reason I had to move to a two call close I actually didn't technically take the first call the first discovery call was taken by my CMO and that was really just again an understanding of the inner workings of the business obviously I trusted my CMO you know we work together for years and years and he knew realistically if this was going to be a good fit for our agency and I

don't mean like a good fit in like the salesa like oh and if we're a good fit we'll move forward no like literally because we did so many performance-based deals was always you know it could be a big gamble with a client we could take on a client think that they're going to make a lot of money and then we wasted a bunch of time so that's why we really had to do our due diligence on clients before they came on so he did the discovery call and then he joined as well for the actual

closing call and that was because our deal structures were quite complicated you know we had performance-based deals and then we were working with e-commerce or info product owners but that's kind of a type of business it's not really technically a niche so the service delivery is still quite different for each client any anyways all that to say that that's why I did two call close the one call close works really well for example if you have an offer for real estate agents uh and you're just churning it out it's just a guarantee it's a simple

offer or you're working with gym owners and it's a simple offer that a one call close and that scenario works very well but in my humble opinion if you are a beginner I suggest that you stray away from the one call close until you get a little bit more sales experience and that brings us on to the two call close as you would assume the two call close structure splits the structure of the sales call into two separate calls the first call is focused on Discovery and really just fully understanding the needs of the prospect

that you're speaking with the second call is when you take them through the details of your service in more depth and this is where you're actually going to pitch them the service and this allows you to understand the business fully after the first call and really craft a pitch that suits them to increase the likeliness of getting a close you're able to Crunch the numbers make sure the business is a fit and bring an offer to the table that will suit them now as I mentioned I prefer a two call close over a one call

close as a beginner for a few reason the first is energy because when you do a one call close you're normally set to be in the sales call for a longer period of time because obviously you have to do the discovery phase and the close all in one call and this can actually work against you because prospects buy when they are interested and a lot of the time interest is linked directly to energy I put this inside of the presentation that I prepared for today's video so you'll see it in the resources but I'll also

put on the screen right now if you actually look at the graph below you're going to see that as time goes on the energy of the prospect starts to drop and because the energy of the prospect is dropping their attention and interest starts to drop as well which leads to a drop in the likelihood of closing the client to really paint this picture have you ever decided okay I'm going to go shopping and you know it's going to be a big shopping day and the first hour the first two hours of shopping you have the

energy to try things on and you're excited to buy things and then like four or 5 hours in if you've ever done like a big shopping day you're just so tired and even if something's so nice you're just like H I just can't be bothered to try it on in a much condensed version if you do two 30 minute calls compared to one 60-minute call because the potential client is having to use so much of their brain capacity to actually think about the structure of the deal and wanting to work together and stuff like that

that can cause a lot of mental fatigue so by having two calls which are slightly shorter it allows you to keep the interest Higher by the end of the call ensuring a higher likelihood of booking the next call and then closing the prospect inside of call two and the gap between the two calls acts like a reset of energy which increases your ability to close now next I want to talk about preparation because by allowing yourself to have a quick break between the two calls it really allows you to look back at your first call

and truly take time to understand the client's needs and by understanding the client's current position and and their needs it's going to allow you to tailor your presentation towards addressing these needs and increasing the chance of getting a close then that brings us on to having time to Crunch the numbers because it can be very difficult for a new agency owner to Crunch the numbers the client reveals during Discovery so if you pick up that the prospect you're speaking to isn't on the financial level that you expected then you are able to review your offer

and possibly tweak your offer to make it more attractive to a lower level client but if you do a one call close you have no time to understand the numbers and tweak your offer to ensure you're having a high probability of getting a close basically if you do a one call close you kind of have to just like make up the offer there whereas if you do a two call close like for example with me when my CMO did the discovery call and then I did the actual closing call I was like 70% dead set

of what my offer was now sometimes there would be information that arose in the discovery call which made me tweak my offer slightly now if that ever happened I didn't then try to set up a third call what I used to do is I used to actually tell cents hey can I actually just have a chance to speak to Danny and I would actually put clients in the waiting room inside of Zoom I would speak with Danny and we would just talk about the deal the risk so what minimum term we should use uh how

much we should charge uh how much should be base how much should be performance etc etc so as mentioned that's kind of one of the downsides to one call closes you just kind of need to make everything up on that call and that brings us on to the sales call framework because now that you're prepared to take sales calls and you understand what structure you're going to use you need a framework that dives deep into each part of a sales call and what the key outcomes are that you need from each part to actually close

a client at the end now the layout of a sales call is as follows Rapport pre-frame Discovery transition pitch and then close so let's start off with Rapport because it would be extremely awkward to jump on a call with a prospect and just get straight into business business you need to break the ice for 2 to 3 minutes and just get to know the person that you're speaking to you want to keep this extremely natural but try to avoid topics like how the weather is today just ask a question or two about them keep it

casual and speak with confidence you need to sound natural to hold Authority and sound like you've done this a thousand times and if you and the potential client have a you know something overlapping with some familiarity that you can discuss sometimes I don't mind just talking about it for 2 3 minutes you know if we're talking about a specific City and our experiences in a specific City because maybe they live there or maybe I'm visiting at that time or we're speaking about a specific product or service or whatever it may be if there is a

commonality don't be afraid to just kind of you know shoot the for 2 3 minutes but once that's done you need to move on to the preframe because pre-framed for the call is very crucial this is where you want to change your tone from casual to getting straight to business the reason this is so important is because this is the part of the call where you're going to take authority you see in every single sales call there's one person that leads by asking questions and the other that follows by answering them as the person trying

to make a sale it is key that you hold the authority you need to lead the way in order to keep the call on track and if you fail to do this you will get interrupted continuously and the call will inevitably go nowhere so let's go ahead and talk about the key outcomes of a preframe first is gaining Authority you want to take control of the call by out lining that you have done this so many times and you typically know how these calls go and you want to let the prospect know that you're going

to be fully transparent whether you can help them or not but in order to do so you need to agree to transparency on their end as well and by doing this the prospect will allow you to ask questions and they will answer truthfully as the sales call progresses next you want to show no desperation desperation is a trait that no one is attracted to and this could not be more accurate in sales if you as the agency owner sound desperate to close the prospect they're going to start to question your credibility so by pre-framed with

a line like if I believe that we can help you at the end of the call we will make you an offer but if not we're going to try to point you in the direction of someone that can this puts the prospect at ease because they are actually hoping to get an offer which leads to less objections and more transparency remember people want what they can't have so coming across like you're not desperate is going to entice the prospect more next you want to agree an outcome being transparent about the reason for the call and

agreeing to get an answer by the end of the call is going to allow you to avoid objections later and here's what I mean by this if you say something along the lines of before we begin I just want to agree on one thing at the end of the call I just want a yes or a no let's avoid the maybe and this is going to allow you to avoid objections later on like I need to think about it or I need to speak to my wife by agreeing on an outcome both parties on the

call agree on where they stand and the call can run smoothly from here on out next up we have Discovery now Discovery is arguably the most important part of any call Discovery is the part of the call where you start to understand the client where they are where they're looking to get to what is stopping them and what their concerns are this being said it goes a level deeper because this is where you start to highlight the problem in the prospect's mind and if done correctly they will mentally start to sell themselves that they have

a problem and you the solution are sitting right in front of them now there are actually five elements of Discovery and they are as follows first you have your current state now the first thing you're trying to understand is where the client is at right now you need to understand what they do how much they charge how many sales they make on an average month what their profit margins are what their profit is per month and you can work that out and how they currently get clients now once you have all of that information you

can move on to the Future State the future state is built around where the client is looking to get to so this is where you need to understand their financial goals how they believe their client acquisition needs to change in order to get to their financial goals as well as the timeline that they want to achieve those goals in then we move on to the Gap because once you have the current and future State you automatically understand the Gap you need to know how many extra sales or clients they need every month in order to

achieve their goals and here you can also gauge whether your service can fill this gap for the Prospect and get them to achieve their goals now during the Gap phase you can also challenge the prospect ask them what their plan was if you hadn't approached them and if they have no plan politely challenge their thinking because by doing this a clan starts to feel the need to change and they slowly start to realize that the solution to their problem is sitting right in front of them next we need to address the opportunity cost this is

where you double down on the fact that you can help the prospect but the key is that it comes from them ask the prospect if they had access to your promised outcome from your service whether they would be closer to the goals that you previously discussed and go a level deeper and ask if what they are currently doing will get them to the goals they have you see by asking these questions and the client ADM adting that they will be closer to their goals they are basically subconsciously selling themselves remember the key is in the

fact that the client says it when you say it it means nothing but when they say it themselves is when your message is hitting next we want to talk about doubt now the way you identify doubt is by asking why they have never tried something like this in the past is this their first time hearing about this maybe they've had a bad experience with agencies in the past have they got doubts about whether agencies actually bring value by bringing these to light you are able to manage these objections and you can put the client at

ease before pitching your service next we have transition now the transition acts as a bridge between Discovery and your pitch it would be very unnatural and almost awkward to jump straight from Discovery straight into a pitch the transition is a way to show the prospect that you have listened to what they have to say and you have all the information you need from them now your goal with the transition is to get the buying from them so that way they want to hear what you have to offer and if it makes sense they're going to

be happy to make a decision by the end of the call you also want to give them one last opportunity to share any extra information that would be helpful for you to understand their situation the first thing you want to ask them is if there's anything you've missed during Discovery and whether there are any extra information that they would like to share say something like this thank you for all the information is there anything I missed or any information you like to share in order for me to understand your current situation better next you want

to confirm Synergy and fit so whether you get more info or not you can now confirm to the prospect that you have a good understanding and you believe that there is an opportunity to work together you're basically confirming with a prospect that you can help them so it would go something like this now that I have a good understanding of where you're at and where you're looking to get to and the gaps that currently exist I think we could definitely help you get to your goals and then we move on to the permission to proceed

to the pitch here you give the prospect two options they can either ask a few questions or you can break down your full system from a to zed in order for them to gain Clarity on how you can help them Reach their goals you always want to give the A to Z option second because 99% of prospects won't know what to ask and if you have done Discovery correctly they will want to know more so this means that almost every single Prospect will choose a second option and give you the permission to break everything down

which ultimately means that you can pitch them so you would say something like this cool well from here it's entirely up to you I don't know if you just had a couple specific questions you wanted to ask me or alternatively what I can do is just run you through the process on how we help XYZ problem or XYZ type of client and you can just ask me questions along the way so how would you prefer to do this and then obviously they're just going to say oh yeah like walk me through your process which is

your chance to basically pitch then you have your final outcome agreement so you want to confirm with the prospect that after they gain the clarity they need and everything makes sense that they will be ready to make a decision today you're basically just reconfirming this to gauge any possible objections such as speaking to third party decision makers for example okay perfect well my goal is to make sure that you have complete Clarity so I'll make sure any questions you have are answered and by the end of today's call would it be out of this world

to say that we could get you started today and that is when we move on on to the pitch so the pitch is when you break down your offer from a to zed and help the client understand the system you use in order to solve their problems now during the pitch you want to break your system down in the simplest and most digestable way for the prospect touch on your guarantee if you have one and even boost prospect's confidence by including some client testimonials where possible now once they understand everything you break down the price

where price is you charge for your service and attempt to get the clothes now one of the most important aspects of pitching your service is actually pitching it like a system not a service business owners can view Services as expenses but they often view systems like Investments so obviously business owners are always drawn to Investments and often try to avoid expenses where they can so by making your offer sound tangible you increase the perceived value and therefore you increase the chance to close the deal so make sure to break this down in the simplest way

the prospect needs to understand remember something very important confused buyers never buy next we talk about guarantees if you have a guarantee well then of course leverage it because if you're able to show the prospect that you are bearing the risk and the risk on their end is minimal well then the offer becomes a no-brainer and this has a huge impact on your ability to close because the prospect ultimately has nothing to lose and then we move on to testimonials now once you get a few clients you always want to attempt to get some testimonials

from them if you have other people vouching for your offer prospects feel more comfortable working with you because this proves to the prospect that your offer works if it works for someone else why would it not work for them testimonials are one of the reasons that sales become easier over time because the more credibility that you have the easier it is to gain trust if you have testimonials use them next we have price breakdown now once they have a full understanding of what you do the guarantees that you have in place and the fact that

this has worked for other people as well the last step is simply agreeing on a price and this is where you need to use your Authority you need to State your price or prices if you have different options which I usually don't recommend by the way but you want to State it with confidence do not try to justify your prices to a prospect because when you try to justify your prices you radiate desperation you need to State your price and use silence to your advantage regardless of your prospect's reaction this shows Authority and also shows

that you are confident that the price you charge is worth it then we move on to the close and I'm sure this is what you've been waiting for you need to seal the deal and get paid so first agree on the close so basically confirm that the prospect is happy with everything and they confirm that they are set to come on as a client and by the way you want to get a solid yes then you want to send the contract in invoice so ensure that your contracts and invoice are ready to go before the

call and as soon as they agree send over the contract and the invoice push them to sign the contract on the call if possible and give them a few minutes to read through the contract and collect payment then you want to collect cash on the call you need to make sure that you receive the payment on the call because a client is only a client once they have paid always push to collect the full first month fee on the call but if there's any any sort of confusion regarding the contract terms just take a deposit

for now a deposit will show that the client is 100% on board because if you allow a prospect to get off the call without paying there's nothing stopping them from ghosting you afterwards so make sure you get at least some form of payment and then we move on to onboarding because once they've paid you want to send them the onboarding funnel and briefly explain the onboarding process so that the client understands what the onboarding process includes make sure you state that if there are any issues with with onboarding you and your team will be happy

to assist and that my friends concludes the sales process now just a few final thoughts before I end the video agency sales it should always be approached as a problem solving exercise it is so important that your Discovery is strong and that you're able to identify the problems that your prospect is facing and simultaneously make them aware of the problems if you are able to do this effectively you're going to be able to help your prospects understand that the solution to their problem problem is sitting right in front of them next thing to remember is

confidence is everything the way a prospect feels when speaking to you will ultimately be the aspect that will lead them to trusting you and opting into the deal if you speak with confidence and you make the prospect believe you are the solution that they are looking for you will have no problems closing deals if you don't truly believe you can help the Prospect and you speak with an air of nervousness about you the prospect will struggle to trust you and will lead to objections and doubts confidence arises from experience and the only way to gain

experience is through preparation and Reps make sure that you are practicing sales by booking as many meetings as possible and doing mock calls with fellow agency owners next thing to remember is that businesses buy into you there are lots of people selling marketing Services out there but ultimately the difference lies with you if you present yourself well speak with confidence and entice the client to trust you they are going to invest in your service the biggest differentiator between agencies is actually the agency owners themselves not necessarily the service that they offer now moving on remember

that failure isn't final every sales call you jump into is a learning opportunity and the biggest learning curves arise when you fail to close the call you see every call that doesn't close is an opportunity to gain Clarity on where you can improve if you can review sales calls that fail and understand understand why you didn't close the deal that is when you can Implement something new that will ultimately lead to higher close rates in the future the biggest difference between formal education and business education is in formal education if you fail a test it

is a fail in business failure is an opportunity to improve and be more prepared for the next one ladies and gentlemen there you have it a full breakdown on how to sell effectively during your agency Journey if you are able to implement these steps and continue to improve them as you go there is no reason why you won't be running a $10,000 a month agency by the end of the year as always I hope you enjoyed the video I'm going to go ahead and leave some resources down below so go ahead and check those out

and as always I'm watching from afar and I'm rooting for you