Brent Weaver is the CEO of uGurus by DigitalOcean. Before that, he exited his own web design agency. That was back in 2012.
Ever since, he’s been devoted to helping other agency owners and freelancers scale their impact and income through e-learning programs like uAcademy. (Pricing varies depending on whether you go Pro or Elite or want more 1-on-1 help.)
Anyways, the guy’s been involved with agencies since Britney Spears was singing “Hit Me Baby One More Time.”
With decades of experience, he probably knows some stuff. Let’s listen.
“There are very few agencies that have significant market share in any niche,” Brent says. “That’s the nature of agencies. It’s very personal, very relationship driven. And so even markets that have a lot of activity going on, nobody has [a monopoly]. There’s no Coca-Cola.”
“So even in those highly competitive markets, I think there’s still such a localized component and such a relationship component. It’s really hard to dominate.”
“But I look at a few things,” he continues.
“Does that niche have money and do they spend it on your services? There are some professions out there, like legal. They have a lot of money but they’re historically very tight with it. Right? So I like to look for some proof of money being spent – on their website, their funnel, are they running Google ads?”
“And then the other thing is, do you have an interest there? If you’re not interested in the market, then that’s a problem. And then last is, can you deliver results?”
Makes sense. If you can’t get them results or you hate the market or there’s just no money there, it’s like trying to catch the wind. Good luck with that.
Now, if you’re an agency noob, you might have to offer a free trial. Or charge less. Or bend over backwards for the client. Something to get your foot in the door till you have the confidence and the social proof you need.
Once you’re a black belt at copywriting or video editing or social media marketing or YouTube ads or whatever it is you’re offering, the money’s gonna come.
“So let’s say you’re a ClickFunnels ninja,” Brent mentions. “And you wanna get some big name clients. And you have no reputation, no network, no nothing.”
“You could go find an A-list client in that space who has a big network, and tell ’em you’re looking to break into the market. Offer your service for free or for very little pay in exchange for them referring you some of their friends. You might have to offer this to five or ten people, but eventually someone’s gonna say yes and that’s a great way to build some momentum.”
Once you have that momentum, what does Brent recommend for a sales process?
Well, if you’re super niched and you have a productized offer, he likes a quick qualification call followed by a longer strategy (aka sales) call. By the end of of that second call, hopefully you’re taking credit card payment.
If, however, there’s a lot of variation in what you’re selling and to whom, the approach will vary. If it’s a $250,000 engagement, for example, there could be a qualification meeting, two or three discovery meetings, a proposal presentation, a follow-up Q&A session, then maybe you go for the close.
So it depends.
In terms of fulfillment, Brent suggests creating constraints (stop saying yes to everything the client asks for), standard operation procedures, systems – a foundation that allows you to scale.
Ideally, you get it to a point where you’re not needed day-to-day. Maybe it even runs better without you, ya know?
Of course, that hinges on how well you build your team. You need the right people in the right roles, paid the right amount.
There’s a lot of moving parts. Which is why you might consider joining uAcademy, I s’pose.