Everyone in Your Agency Should be Selling
Issue #2: How project managers, developers, and designers can influence revenue growth for your agency.
Anil Gupta
September 21, 2024 • Reading Time: 7 minutes
Welcome to Peaceful Growth, where you will learn simple tips to grow your agency to $5M without working overtime.
In this issue, you'll learn:
Why relying solely on a small sales team limits your growth potential.
How your delivery team can uncover new sales opportunities during everyday client interactions.
The importance of educating and empowering non-sales team members to contribute to sales.
How to implement a simple incentive program that motivates your team to sell.
Real examples of how this strategy has increased revenue by hundreds of thousands for agencies.
Finding a Good Salesperson is Difficult and Costly
Sales is a crucial driver of growth for any agency.
In many agencies, the sales team makes up less than 10% (sometimes even less than 5%) of the total workforce.
For instance, if an agency has 100 employees, only 3 to 5 of them might be in sales.
So, let me ask you: how big is your sales team? I bet it’s less than 10% of your total staff.
Finding a great salesperson is both difficult and costly. You’ve probably heard the saying, “A good salesperson is worth their weight in gold,” and it’s absolutely true.
That’s why, in this issue, I’ll show you why (and how) you should turn your entire team into a sales team.
Everyone in Your Team Should Be Selling
Allan Dib, a marketing expert and author of two standout books—The Lean Marketing and The 1-Page Marketing Plan—whom I’m now lucky to call a friend, shared a story in his Lean Marketing book about a BMW service clerk that reinforced my belief that everyone on our team should be involved in sales.
Some time ago, I dropped into my local BMW dealership’s service center to check out an error message I was getting on my car’s computer system. A few minutes later, the service clerk emerged. The guys in the garage had made a couple of small adjustments. “It’s all sorted,” he said, and went on to explain what the problem was with some technical car jargon.
Next, he asked me, “Would you like to book the car in for a service? The car’s computer indicates you’re almost due.” Nice upsell move. I said, “Sure let’s book it in for mid next month.”
The service clerk then advised me that when making a booking that far in advance, I’d be eligible for a loan vehicle (dealership gives you another car while they work on your car) for the day. I thought, great. That way, I wouldn’t need to have anyone drop me off and pick me up.
I requested to borrow a car that is the next model up from mine.
This request should have sent his sales alarm bells ringing; existing customer with a three-year-old car that has just come out of warranty requesting to borrow and test drive the expensive next model up for a whole day. If ever a golden sales opportunity dropped in someone’s lap, this was it. Instead of recognizing and grabbing this opportunity, he apologized and said he could only loan me a car several models down from mine. Then he goes on for the next few minutes telling me how good the much cheaper model is. That day this service clerk made a huge mistake unknowingly and lost a great sales opportunity.
Did the service clerk really not see the opportunity?
Probably not. It was likely more of an “it’s not my job” mindset. He might have thought, “I’m in service. If the customer wants to test drive a car, they should talk to sales.”
This is a mistake many agency owners make (myself included). We set up departments, and anyone outside of sales assumes that selling isn't part of their role.
Why Should Sales Be a Secondary Role for Everyone on Your Team?
Growing a sales team is both challenging and costly.
However, your delivery team—project managers, developers, designers, and solution analysts—is already regularly engaging with clients. They have the perfect opportunity to influence clients to purchase additional support hours, hire more developers/designers, or suggest new billable features.
The key advantage? Clients trust your delivery team more because they aren’t seen as pushy salespeople.
At my agency, Multidots, our solution analysis team, account managers, and delivery team help generate at least $300K in additional business each year.
In our product businesses, Multicollab and Dotstore, our support team also adds around $25K annually through effective upselling.
How to Turn Your Delivery (or Entire) Team into a Sales Team?
As an agency owner, it’s essential to make it crystal clear to everyone that sales are the lifeblood of the business—and that everyone is part of the sales team.
At some point, every team member will have the chance to either positively or negatively influence a sales opportunity. Make it clear that, no matter their primary role, responding to sales opportunities is part of their job.
Here are three ways you can instill this into your culture:
#1 Educate → Have your sales team provide basic sales training to the delivery team so they understand the process and how they can contribute.
#2 Empower → Teach your staff the signals to look out for so they can spot sales opportunities without being pushy. Give them the tools and support they need to feel confident about upselling to existing customers. You might even share this peaceful growth issue with them as a starting point.
#3 Incentivize → At my agency, we launched an incentive program where the delivery team earns a percentage of any new sales they help generate. This motivates them to be proactive in identifying opportunities.
Key Takeaways
Tap into the potential of your existing team to boost your agency’s revenue.
It won’t cost you extra, it’s straightforward, and it works.
All you need to do is commit to the idea and then communicate it positively to your team. With a bit of training, you’ll start seeing results in just a few months.
If it helps, feel free to share this newsletter issue with your leadership team—project managers, account managers, and senior members of your delivery team.
I also recommend checking out this podcast for a deeper dive into the topic: Turning Your Delivery Team into a Sales Team.
👋 Until next time, Anil / CEO & Co-Founder of Multidots.
P.S. I’d love to hear about the challenges you're facing as you grow your agency, so I can cover those topics in future posts. Feel free to share by replying to this!
More Ways to Grow Your Agency
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