"Why Do We Stop Selling When Client Work Gets Busy?" — Transcript

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1. 0:00We build websites. So WordPress websites
2. 0:02for enterprise client. So like
3. 0:04>> enterprise. Okay.
4. 0:05>> So we deal with digital media to start
5. 0:07with but mostly marketing.
6. 0:08>> How big is enterprise?
7. 0:11>> Has to [clears throat] be
8. 0:13like thousand employees. It's like has
9. 0:15to be million page view per day or
10. 0:18higher that kind of
11. 0:19>> okay
12. 0:19>> the traffic. So like it's like has to be
13. 0:21custom build. Everything's custom build.
14. 0:23There's a lot of integration. There's
15. 0:24like some banking companies marketing
16. 0:26like it's like
17. 0:28>> super cool. How'd you get I mean, well,
18. 0:29we don't have time for [laughter] that,
19. 0:30but like very interesting. Okay, so
20. 0:33you've got this I Yeah, I totally want
21. 0:35to hear the story, but we will not. So,
22. 0:37what's what do you want to do? Why like
23. 0:39what what do we need to do to grow your
24. 0:40company?
25. 0:41>> So, last year new clients, I mean, but
26. 0:44within clients, they will add projects
27. 0:46and expand. They want more people there.
28. 0:48So, like those we've been doing, but
29. 0:50also we have two big whales. So, we have
30. 0:52two
31. 0:53>> big companies that are like 90% of our
32. 0:55revenues. So like we wanted to not do
33. 0:59that because we had that experience I
34. 1:01think year two or three.
35. 1:02>> Yeah. One leaves and you're like
36. 1:04>> yeah we we had that happen cuz like one
37. 1:05of our client got merged by new vision
38. 1:07or some some other companies and then
39. 1:09they kind of decided not to use us but
40. 1:11we quickly got another whale which was
41. 1:14good but we've been kind of having
42. 1:15trying to
43. 1:16>> What did you do when you had to quickly
44. 1:17get another whale? Well, [sighs] we're
45. 1:19very refor So yeah, we like we literally
46. 1:22like sell sales sell sales and then like
47. 1:24both of both of
48. 1:25>> And then you're like, "Okay, now I've
49. 1:26made enough money again. So now I don't
50. 1:28need to do sales sales sales sales
51. 1:29sales."
52. 1:29>> Well, yeah. And also like we both of our
53. 1:31own both owners are still very hands-on.
54. 1:34So we do a lot of client work. So if the
55. 1:36client
56. 1:36>> When you say both owners, you mean you
57. 1:37and
58. 1:38>> and the 50% of
59. 1:39>> Okay. You said both. Okay. Like the
60. 1:41owner of acquisition.com agrees with me.
61. 1:43Um yeah,
62. 1:44>> so co-founders and then he and I we had
63. 1:46a third partner but we have to buy him
64. 1:48up and all those stories.
65. 1:50>> Um after that so we when there's a
66. 1:52client war that always takes president
67. 1:54so like some of the things that we split
68. 1:56it out so he's doing sales and um and
69. 1:59financial and I take care of marketing
70. 2:01and um HR and other operations are kind
71. 2:04of shared including account management.
72. 2:07So when there's a client work that gets
73. 2:09busy like one of us gets busy so one
74. 2:12department or whatever the operation
75. 2:14kind of gets behind.
76. 2:16>> So that always happens. It's been our
77. 2:18struggle to then we try to hire some
78. 2:20people but I didn't know too much about
79. 2:22other departments. So like this hiring
80. 2:24didn't really work out. I think I kind
81. 2:26of mentioned that too. You need division
82. 2:27of roles between you and the co-founder
83. 2:30>> and then you need to not step over each
84. 2:32other's
85. 2:33>> like territory
86. 2:34>> and no one owns new businesses which is
87. 2:37why you don't have new business.
88. 2:38>> That's actually my question cuz because
89. 2:40his client got really busy so he's on
90. 2:43sales. So I felt like sales I'm like I
91. 2:46can help but normally [clears throat] we
92. 2:48really separated out cuz we figured out
93. 2:50that accountability actually work better
94. 2:52if you split out the divisions. So it
95. 2:56worked out good but last year for some
96. 2:58well
97. 2:58>> and by divisions you mean you have one
98. 2:59client he has the other client.
99. 3:01>> So oh no no no that so like ex sales is
100. 3:06him. So like I wasn't really touching
101. 3:07the sales part.
102. 3:08>> And by sales you mean like internal
103. 3:10sales like trying to upsell them and
104. 3:12just get them to buy more from you.
105. 3:15>> No outbound sales actually.
106. 3:16>> Outbound sales but you're not getting
107. 3:17any customers from that so far. Got it.
108. 3:19>> Yeah. So outbound is not it's pretty
109. 3:21dried up. So inbound like is that I
110. 3:24don't know the the sales term to
111. 3:25actually figure out
112. 3:26>> inbound's like someone reaches out to
113. 3:27you outbound you reach out to them
114. 3:29first. That's all.
115. 3:29>> Yeah. Yeah. So inbound has been fine but
116. 3:31like outbound hasn't been so like we
117. 3:32because we didn't want the two wells. We
118. 3:34wanted to do more outbound sale but that
119. 3:36hasn't been successful all last year.
120. 3:39And we were hearing that cuz he's a part
121. 3:41of like a mastermind for agencies that
122. 3:43last year was pretty bad. I think that's
123. 3:45kind of like a you know,
124. 3:46excuse that there should be some way to
125. 3:50figure out we can get new clients.
126. 3:51>> There is a way to get new clients. I
127. 3:53promise you.
128. 3:54>> But I wanted to figure out like well, so
129. 3:56I don't think it's all his fault, but
130. 3:58like how can I convincingly put a
131. 3:59measure that we can kind of like make
132. 4:01sure this is done.
133. 4:03So like and it's also we're both owners
134. 4:06and like we have a we both are very
135. 4:09responsible but at the same time do we
136. 4:12need to have some sort of measure that
137. 4:13we always kind of make sure that hey we
138. 4:15still have to be this
139. 4:16>> I mean this is how partnerships work.
140. 4:18>> Yeah.
141. 4:19>> And so that's also why division of roles
142. 4:22is important. And so if you're like, I
143. 4:25will take over 100% of delivery if you
144. 4:27go get us customers
145. 4:29>> and then if you don't get us customers,
146. 4:31then one of us isn't necessary.
147. 4:34>> And so I'm just being like really real.
148. 4:35This is me just reading between the
149. 4:36lines from what you're saying. Um,
150. 4:41>> honestly, I just think like when you
151. 4:42needed to go get a new client and go get
152. 4:44a new whale, you got a new whale fairly
153. 4:46quickly, it sounds like, which means
154. 4:47that if you need to go get business, you
155. 4:49know exactly what to do. Go get
156. 4:50business.
157. 4:51>> You just aren't doing that,
158. 4:52>> right? Right? And so the question is
159. 4:55why? And it means that one of you is
160. 4:58satisfied with the amount of income and
161. 4:59the amount of work that they have right
162. 5:01now, which I say is fine if you both
163. 5:03agree on that. But if one of you doesn't
164. 5:05agree on that, then you have conflict.
165. 5:06And so that conflict turns into direct
166. 5:09conflict or it turns into one of you
167. 5:11becoming resentful. And so I'd prefer it
168. 5:13if you just if you or the other person,
169. 5:15whoever, just says like we like the way
170. 5:18that I'll explain something that might
171. 5:20be helpful for everybody. It really
172. 5:22helped me out a lot. So, you guys know
173. 5:24the difference between an insult and a
174. 5:25criticism
175. 5:26helped me a ton. So, an insult is an
176. 5:28attack on someone's character, right?
177. 5:30You suck. You're an idiot. Whatever. A
178. 5:33criticism is you said this,
179. 5:36you did this. These are not the same,
180. 5:39>> right?
181. 5:39>> It's a discrepancy between stated and
182. 5:41reality. It's all it is. So, you said
183. 5:43you would hit this goal. This is
184. 5:45reality. There's a difference. So, this
185. 5:48is criticism. And here's some things we
186. 5:50can do to make that up. Ideally, next
187. 5:52time you say this and that's what
188. 5:53happened. Awesome. Right? And so it's
189. 5:56not a attack. It's a statement of fact.
190. 5:59It's an observation of reality. And so
191. 6:02being able to explain that be like you
192. 6:04are responsible for sales. We have no
193. 6:07sales. [snorts]
194. 6:09This gap is the problem that we have
195. 6:10right now. Now if we did not want to
196. 6:12grow this company and we both were
197. 6:14aligned with that, then we would have no
198. 6:16problem. But I do want to grow this
199. 6:18company. you are not currently doing the
200. 6:19activities that would grow this company.
201. 6:22So what do we do? Either you change what
202. 6:25you do or I stop being here.
203. 6:28Just being really real. So you presented
204. 6:31with a sales problem, but I think you
205. 6:33have a hard conversation with a
206. 6:34co-founder to have. Being really honest,
207. 6:36>> we had the conversation. So we actually
208. 6:40having we did a new partnership.
209. 6:42>> You have a what? Sorry.
210. 6:43>> We we started a new partnership.
211. 6:45>> You started a new partnership.
212. 6:46>> No, no, no, no. partnership with a like
213. 6:48a hosting provider company. So like
214. 6:50they're actually bringing more leads
215. 6:53>> to so we're we're development agencies.
216. 6:55So like so like they're not like a
217. 6:56competitors but we kind of went back to
218. 6:58cuz we were used to work together.
219. 7:00>> So that actually bring in some
220. 7:01outbounds.
221. 7:02>> So [clears throat] now we're getting
222. 7:03that but
223. 7:05>> his Yeah. So I'll probably have like
224. 7:06another conversation.
225. 7:07>> Yeah. Like you like go back to like have
226. 7:09the conversation and then I promise you
227. 7:11if you really really have it and the
228. 7:12thing is don't pull the punches. If
229. 7:14you're going to have the conversation be
230. 7:15like this is what I want. you're not
231. 7:17doing that. And that's my fault, too,
232. 7:19because I probably haven't been clear
233. 7:21about it.
234. 7:21>> But let me be clear now.
235. 7:23>> Yeah.
236. 7:24>> Like, and if and if you don't want to do
237. 7:26that, fine. Let's figure out a way that
238. 7:28we can just work on separate things cuz
239. 7:29I want to keep growing.
240. 7:32>> Cool. I think you do that. The sales
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