The Just Sell Method™ with Josh Nelson, Brittany Filori, & Michael Borgelt

The Just Sell Method™ with Josh Nelson, Brittany Filori, & Michael Borgelt
August 28, 2023

Join Josh Nelson, owner of The Seven Figure Agency, as he covers how 51Blocks is disrupting the world of white labeling with The Just Sell Method™.

Listen in as Brittany Filori (CEO of 51Blocks) and Michael Borgelt, (Owner of 51Blocks), cover the biggest pain points agency owners have on their way to scaling and why their new program has revolutionized the concept of outsourcing.

Show Transcript (Auto-generated)

0:01all right hello and welcome so excited to see everybody so excited for today’s session we’re gonna be doing something0:07really really special today we’re going to be talking about what we call the just sell method which is proprietary0:12method by 51 blocks one of the best white label agencies that I know in terms of really just helping you deliver0:19world-class service to your clients without having to feel like you have to do it all yourselves and you know at the0:25beginning I asked you know what’s what’s the breakdown in the room and I’d love it if you guys could just engage with me0:30in the comments here and let me know um one if you’re in-house right now like you do everything in-house two if you’ve0:37got a little bit of a combination maybe you do some white label maybe you do some Outsourcing and three if you’re all0:43white label like it’s all white labeled out and you can just focus on selling even down to maybe the client0:48fulfillment and customer service management all right wow too many comments for me0:54to read them all out but we’ve got Ken is one Lucas is one Richard is two Bob is two Excellence we got a good mix here1:00we got some people in-house some people subcontracted some people a combination of both1:07um fantastic and then in the comments just so just so Michael and Brittany know what do you do like do you what1:14kind of agency do you consider yourself do you consider yourself a pay-per-click agency an SEO agency a full service1:20agency for those of you that were on early I apologize for the redundance of the question but it does uh it helps to1:26kind of fill in some of the gaps all right mostly full service and you know I’m a big advocate for being a1:32full-service agency right because if you get your hands in their website and their SEO and their pay-per-click you’re1:38going to be stickier you’re also going to be able to generate better results right by blending it across the board so1:44all right last question and then I’m gonna I’m gonna introduce Michael and Brinley we’re gonna get into the content um1:50like are you a niche agency or are you a generalist agency put that in the comments Niche like you work with1:56chiropractors or you work with roofers um or are you a generalist okay generals2:02for now says uh John Alex says Niche okay mostly Niche put a little bit of generalist you know you know here at2:09seven figure agency I’m a big fan of being Niche focused right having a very specific offering for a very specific2:15Niche positioning yourself as the go-to expert but good that gives us a good sense of what we’ve got and who’s here2:22so as you look to grow and scale your agency right we have to solve for a couple things we have to land clients2:28we’ve got to deliver the results we’ve got to retain those clients and create a great experience um and then we’ve got to scale the team2:35right if we want to really have a business that provides money freedom and impact we’ve got to do all four of those2:41things and oftentimes if you’re trying to be great at delivery you’re trying to be great at sales and you’re trying to2:47be great at client retention something starts to give right and2:53there’s there’s really a thought that you should always be thinking and that’s sometimes it’s better to ask who than3:00how right so asking the question how is like okay so how do I do better SEO how3:05do I do better pay-per-click how do I do better Facebook ads and you want to learn it and then you want to test it3:11and then you want to do it and sometimes that’s like writing a blank check right how many of you guys just give me a yes3:17in the comments if you’ve ever spent hours in training hours and learning to try and figure out how to do something3:23only to realize you’re nowhere near being a master at that skill you’re nowhere near being3:29able to do it well lots of it right and so that’s that’s who it’s like writing a blank chat3:35sometimes it’s better to ask sometimes that’s how sometimes it’s better to ask who like there are people that have3:41mastered these skills there are people that already do this at a very world-class level and3:46sometimes I’m not saying this is for all of us or for everybody on the call but sometimes it’s better to say let me3:52focus on selling proving my business model proving that I can you know actually get clients to pay for these3:58services and let someone else do the delivery right and like who would be4:04best to do that and so I just wanted to start us off with that thought and so with that said I want to welcome uh4:10Michael and Brittany from 51 blocks thank you guys so much for being on with us today thanks Josh for having us yeah4:17thank you sir appreciate it amazing how to try and Spotlight you guys and um Let me let me hand it off like4:24this is something you guys have been doing white label for years you’ve really kind of moved to this just sell4:29method so I want to let you guys explain this to the group unpack it and I’m really excited to have you guys run with4:35us awesome cool let’s do it pretty I am we’re just seeing your face now4:41after seeing all those faces to my face all right4:46go ahead can everybody see this okay yep that’s it cool awesome well Michael4:55I think you can introduce everyone and then I’ll take it over yeah yeah so5:00um you know we’re from 51 blocks we’re a white label digital marketing agency uh you know started in 2009 and uh in 20155:08switched to complete to be a completely white label solution um recently as of six to seven months5:15ago we kind of changed our positioning to this just sell method5:22um and that’s it’s really become much clearer to everybody we talked to and5:27kind of what we do and how it’s approached and um and yeah that’s kind of what we’re here to talk about uh is is this ready5:35to join anything yeah so I think uh if you’ve heard of us in the past we used to be a little bit more of the5:41traditional model uh Michael and I opened our ears and listened to all the5:46feedback we were getting right where were the major pain points from our partners what support did they need and5:52then as a white label provider one of the hardest things that we have I think any white label provider feels this is5:58not being able to help with things like uh churn right not having our Hands-On6:04operations not being able to really be a part of a full agency model but we’re just like one component inserted into6:11someone else’s business and so part of this and what we why we developed this was because we wanted to make sure that6:18we gave complete support top to bottom and our partners outside6:23on selling so um yeah that’s where we kind of developed this from there’s been6:29a lot of changes that our own agency that have helped support this everything from our content creation all the way to6:35our client facing Services has evolved because of this so um yeah we’re excited to share with you6:41guys kind of what this is how it helps the other thing for us is that we’re able to help anybody people who want a6:49side hustle all the way to the established agency owner can leverage this service now which has made it a6:55very exciting thing for us to expand our Market in addition to helping people so7:01go ahead and dive in yeah just a quick high level of who we7:06are you know like I said a computer science background uh I helped coach some agencies here in the seven figure7:12agencies for a while uh very passionate about site speed uh actually launched uh7:18WordPress hosting solution bionic WP just to focus on site speed and we we7:24kind of say at bionic that if you say the words uh go talk to your developer that’s like saying a curse word right so7:31we really try to fix those problems that you run into with hosting things like that uh I’d say I I authored four books7:37but Brittany really helped do that most my mom’s more excited that I actually wrote a book than anything I’ve ever7:43done in my life and I don’t have the heart to tell her that Brittany wrote most of it but my name’s on it but7:49um yeah that’s kind of who I am and uh Brittany go ahead yeah I so I primarily7:54run the show at 51 blocks now uh you can see we have a lot of businesses uh Michael and I also have a Facebook group8:00that we run we have another agency called bylabel seo.io and of course he just spoke to bionic8:07um but I uh help kind of manage everything here at 51 blocks so if you’ve met me through the sales process8:13or I’m the one who’s helping out the team that’s usually where you’re going to find me these days um we actually had an exciting moment I8:19will say if Josh tells you to write a book write a book because we had a moment last week where someone held our8:25book up on a sales call and just gave me shivers like it was the most exciting thing so definitely write your books8:31because it’s it’s very cool all right uh so we can talk a little bit about the8:37major pain points so if you look at this little model we’ve essentially taken the thoughts that tend to pop into your head8:44at some point um and I think for us you know looking at the way Josh always models this as8:50your agency grows at some point it typically is going to break and you have to decide on which way you’re going to8:55go with it whether you hire more team members whether you look at your your processes and your systems uh whether9:02you just decide none of this is for me and I’d like to just sell a lot of the times when we run into people this is9:09something that they’re typically thinking uh Michael do you have anything to expand on that oh yeah I think it’s9:14all these pain points that you run into as you run in your agency that as you kind of grow you’re like Jesus you know9:19I I you know before Britney came in I would spend a lot of my vacations not on9:25vacation right doing fixing issues within the agency as they come in or like like I kind of make a jokes all the9:31time about my hairline right that comes from managing clients right so if you don’t want a hairline like this you get somebody else to help manage it and help9:38you uh help you do that or if you know you wish you could you know just focus on sales that’s like I mean Sean Denon9:45is a perfect example of this he’s come in and just leverage us to do everything else and all he does is go and sell9:52right and he’s like the perfect model of this growing your agency that way uh9:57through this solution so but these are the type of pain points that people come into we’re going to jump into each pain point and talk about uh you know how to10:04address those with a white label partner uh and then kind of how we address them so go ahead10:11for a little bit more about what we’re going to be covering kind of in this session10:16showing you guys how we operate in terms of supporting all of these areas everything that we do in our agency what10:23we try and figure out is how do we take care of this so that our partners can completely sell10:29um and then in addition I know we just mentioned Sean dunan we actually brought him in to start doing sales coaching at10:34our agency as well so it really is you can see it kind of encompasses every area of your business so let’s talk10:41about the first pain point right here um Michael why don’t you get started and then I’ll follow up yeah so it’s like10:47the pain point is I don’t understand how to how to I don’t understand how to you10:52know do reseller pricing or services to even sell to my clients right and these are the tips for Success here right you10:58research your white label and usually when I first started off I would say hey 2x is too much right because that value11:04Gap but now because of the value Gap that we can create or that we can overcome you can 2x the pricing right so11:10now you immediately have 50 margins is really how that comes into and in the11:16agency world I think anywhere we talk about 20 to 50 is pretty good obviously you’re gonna have some costs with your11:21sales and and things like that so maybe you end up around 40. you know that’s obviously a very really good for a business right we always kind of say hey11:28follow the 7fa model with the three pricing packages that’s how we help support in this space uh don’t over11:35complicate it or over customize just be careful uh with too little value or11:40single price options is really what we say like when somebody tries to Market up four or five times that’s where we’ve11:46seen issues that clients are like hey what am I paying for I see this work but they feel like there should be more11:51right and understanding the level of support you’re going to have to give uh to from your sales providers so um yeah11:58just those are the tips for Success when you don’t understand how to work with a reseller right is make sure you have12:04those options follow the seven figure agency the training and in the modules and don’t over complicate things I think12:10over complicating the things is very common for all of us I think as entrepreneurs we’d like to do that and12:15then we’re like What did we build here and then we come back and kind of fix it and and simplify it ready go ahead yeah12:21yeah so this is uh it’s a really common one I get from people who are just starting out and they’re like overwhelmed by the amount of information12:28so every provider typically looks a little different if you’re doing this in-house you’re figuring out not only12:34how to create the product but also make sure that you have profitability there so these kind of go hand in hand when12:41you’re looking at creating your packages I think Josh has done it in the smartest way which is why we also model kind of12:46our own pricing after it but simplification as we’ve seen is scalable12:51it’s when you try and customize everything for everybody does it become really over complicated in your model so12:58some people look like even selling right there right it’s so hard to sell multiple all these different things if13:03you just go sell like look at in and out right in and out is like the perfect example they give you like three choices13:09of cheeseburgers right and that place is super successful because that’s all you can go there to get right and that’s13:15there’s a reason for that right so yeah yeah exactly um and then also understanding kind of13:21what you’re buying so I I’ve seen this done in a number of ways where depending on who you go to they might have like a13:27very cookie cutter package you’re buying they might have like a la carte options for every single thing and you have to13:34put it together which is when you’re going to need that strategic eye in order to do that or you can have13:40providers who are very fluid and customizable based on the clients goals which is kind of how we try and approach13:45everything so understanding how much need of your effort needs to go go into creating the product is really important13:52here because you’re going to have to be the one that pitches it so you’re going to have to make sure you understand like13:57every aspect of it so these are some tips on going to any provider and throughout this you’re going to see that14:03we’re kind of just giving you General ideas on how to make this work it doesn’t have to be of course with us but14:08we can talk a little bit about how we support in this space a big big thing we14:13get is do you have case studies how do I Market this you know can you help me close deals these are all areas that we14:21have identified as points in getting started that can be really really hard and challenging and so we’ve offered our14:28support to our partners in this way understanding that because we created the product we can speak to it really14:33really confidently and well same with the workflow right how do we get started what’s the onboarding like these are all14:40motions that are going to take you some understanding so we’ve decided in our model that you know what we’ll put14:46ourselves in that seat and help um explain this to any of the prospects that our partners have if they need any14:53of that support Michael maybe you could talk a little bit about high level and how we use that yeah I’ll talk a little14:58bit first about like I suck at sales right that’s why we’re a white label company and then as I built that and as15:04we were kind of building this out I was like okay how can we provide more sales material to people right and one of them15:10was getting the best trainer I think in seven figure agency about sales Sean Dennen right and now he well get on a15:18private pretty much a private call because the groups are very small and address you know any questions and issues on how to sell this and I think15:25that’s the biggest thing to overcome and then I was like okay if if we have that and we have the ability how do we track15:31these leads how do we do all that we give you guys access to our to a go high level account that you can have inside15:37of your agency under our brand so you don’t have to spend that money right away until you get up running further15:43along or if you’re a bigger agency and you don’t have a CRM yet you can leverage that as well and that’s kind of where we’ve thrown like I’ve tried to we15:50try to think about I say I because of like I’m the furthest thing from a salesperson so I’m like how do I solve15:56this problem right so the CRM solution is you know we were using high level we give support on closing deals like I’m16:03much more confident in a sales call when Britney’s on with me in it right and that’s what she’ll jump in and help you16:09help you do that on some of these deals where if it’s a bigger deal and you don’t know how to talk to something having another person in the room just16:15builds trust in that space as well and then having it all branded underneath your email is how we kind of do it so16:21we’re communicating if you need us to help communicate but go ahead no that’s perfect I usually tell people16:27you can call me whenever you like right I’m joining the call as the operations person as the SEO expert as the other16:34sales person but the goal here is that it’s a win-win right if if we help16:39support our partners in closing deals it’s a win-win for everybody so that’s why we like to offer our time and16:45support to be able to do that and if you see the column here under your job it’s the most you’re going to have to do in16:51is under the sales part everything else you’re going to see it’s just going to say just sell right and that’s on16:56purpose right so that’s a little teaser to the information later but go ahead17:02you might take this one all right uh so the next Green Point uh is usually about onboarding existing clients to a new17:08agency this is super common you know you’ve you’ve had five clients you’ve managed them the whole time like oh my17:15gosh what are how were they we gonna ever like pass the Trust basically or get them on board so um something that’s17:22really important to do when you’re looking at either Outsourcing this or to be honest just hiring a new person and17:27trying to create that trust is to make sure that you understand what the process is going to look like to17:33introduce them so if you go to another vendor understand what their onboarding process looks like are they involved in17:38some way to make sure that the client is nice and smooth um one example that we do is we’ll sit17:45down with our partners and do these like pre-planning sessions now where we can actually go through and say okay what17:50have you done and where would you like us to pick up and then we go through like our task board on the call and try17:55and identify areas that we can swap out or things that we can do our goal is to make it very seamless so in a lot of18:03cases what you want to make sure that you’re doing is understanding how the vendor or person is going to be getting18:10access points what understanding they need from you to be able to kind of close that Gap and make sure that your18:17clients feel well taken care of in our world for us we always say it’s as simple as saying you’ve hired on a new18:22team member you’ve introduced a new software to the agency that’s going to give them ultimate transparency so our18:28ability to get a legacy client into our agency is actually pretty easy it’s more so just understanding that there’s going18:35to take a little bit of effort maybe join a couple of calls with your new team or with your partners and see how18:41that goes Michael I just think the onboarding process is so key and I think we all talk about it if that goes18:48smoothly the trust is built I think if nothing else you know reach out to us18:53and steal our onboarding process we’ve been doing it a long time right take all the data that we’re collecting18:59um and build it as your own right that’s if nothing else that’s that’s something we’re welcome to give that and provide19:05that uh through the process I just think the smoother onboarding is the the better the relationship goes from day19:11one just think of any time you interact with a service company and the first Communications are very difficult it’s19:18already set in your mind that this whole thing is going to be difficult right where if it’s very smooth it just goes well so yeah and we taught that in a19:25ninja hack you remember we did the video ask it has worked so well at our agency it’s19:31scalable really cool it’s super cool and I mean the best part about it is that our partners have a preview of it so19:37they can actually see exactly what their clients are going to walk through before they decide whether or not they want19:42their clients to use it um so it’s I’m using the Vizio video ask19:48you can do it in three different ways collecting information if you’re somebody like me that shouldn’t be on camera that much you can just type and19:53and and talk as speech right if you if you like to be on camera there’s a video option as well so there’s so many20:00different options that you can use through video ask in the onboarding that makes the collection of information so much easier yeah for sure20:08all right uh so this is what we do in our world for onboarding so we welcome clients we have dedicated client success20:15managers that will uh reach out one of the things we changed in our agency recently that has really helped is that20:20we’ve uh asked clients what they prefer in their communication do they prefer20:25monthly calls do they prefer Loom videos we have a ton of Home services at our agency a lot of those guys are out in20:31the field and they are not interested in always hopping on a zoom call so we ask their preference and this has allowed us20:37to really tailor the experience by client instead of trying to fit everybody into our workflows we’re able20:44to really make sure that we’re addressing The Client First and what they prefer and then we kind of go from there making sure we follow up on access20:51points assisting with literally anything in fact after this speech I’m hopping on a zoom call to help a client get through20:57just sharing access points because it’s just that much easier to quickly do it on a zoom and then making sure that we21:04follow up as much as possible in that first 30 days they’re going to get a lot of communication from our side of things21:10this is something that I think is key in any agency and I know Josh teaches this but making sure that first 30 days you21:17get everybody just to make sure everything’s running smoothly that’s really important for overall retention21:24yeah I think one other thing we there’s two things that we’ve kind of done that I would recommend anybody doing we call21:29it a pizza tracker right and that’s constantly updating people on where they’re at all the time in the process21:35so they never have to ask we used to get multiple emails uh hey what’s going on what’s next in my campaign can we get21:42this going with the pizza tracker it lays it all out you know tells them each step of the way these seven steps this21:48one takes one to two days this one takes three to four days whatever so they’re always in the know of it and the other thing we just recently launched was a21:5430-day uh or a 21 a 21 day um uh update of just their onboarding22:02process of what’s going on so that more communication I find is better early on so yeah for our partners any days of22:09onboarding uh it gets an email every day and some form of Education22:14that’s all from like running moments uh just working with people which is really really exactly22:20cool next game point good all right22:25um this is probably the most common and right is that you’ve gone through a white label provider one you didn’t like22:31now there are different reasons for everybody as to why they don’t like it but the most common one we do see is22:37that they didn’t feel like they delivered on what they said they would um I think for every provider out there22:42they would say expectations are key making sure you understand their delivery times how they’re going to22:48communicate and what the product actually is is super super important before you ever sign on with them so22:54that’s something that I would say and recommend to anybody who’s using an outsourced provider especially if you’re22:59managing the clients and they’re just doing back-end fulfillment making sure that you understand these things are23:05going to be key in retaining your clients or keeping their expectations in line making sure that you understand23:11what level of transparency they’re going to give you is also super important now at our agency we’re a hundred percent23:17transparent and we’re month to month so our goal has always been to make sure that the team is held accountable and23:23our partners can see anything that we’re doing at any time same with their clients but not all agencies are built23:29like this right there’s some that just kind of get the work done and they do it behind the scenes there’s some that might give you a little monthly update23:36but knowing what you’re going to get from them is going to be really important because when you get that client who gives you a call on a Friday23:42afternoon and asks about some update and you don’t have it in front of you you’re going to want to make sure that you have23:47the ability to get that information quickly I’m making sure that you uh discover23:53their goals uh your clients goals in the sales process so this is just a tip I23:59think from what we typically see is that understanding the goals before the client signs on is really going to be24:05important for us to execute or your provider to execute against those goals and that way they don’t feel like they24:11signed on and didn’t get what they were supposed to get so when we talk about not feeling like providers deliver or24:17something of that nature sometimes it’s because the goals or the understanding of the goals aren’t in line so this is a24:23really great thing to get just carved out in the sales process and then making sure that whatever is being executed is24:30against those goals throughout the entire campaign yeah I think you could say it a thousand24:38times and I don’t think we would say it enough times as expectations if you set the expectations up front properly your24:44lifetime value of that customer is going to be significantly longer than if you come out and try to close the deal with24:51a three or four month SEO campaign right like set the expectation that it’s going24:57to take six to nine months to see this x result or in a year you should see this this is not pay-per-click right SEO is25:04this right and setting the next those expectations make a huge difference I always talk about it’s no different than25:10when you’re in your relationship with my wife if I say hey like I don’t tell her what I want to do this weekend and she25:15has other expectations the weekend doesn’t go as smooth ahead we both communicated it right and it’s the same in business in my opinion as if we set25:22the expectation and say hey this is what we’re going to do this is how it’s going to work and you’re within you know you’re steering the ship the right way25:28we’re going to make adjustments as we go but the expectation is this that that relationship is so much smoother25:35awesome so operations the biggest space in our business right because we’re on the25:40we’re on the Fulfillment side um because of that pain point I feel like we mend a lot of broken hearts25:46around here and you are gonna obviously be interact with people who might just not like the way we do things so what25:52we’ve really tried to do especially I would say in the last 90 days is I’ve you know kind of taken a deep dive into25:58everything um is that we’ve tried to customize our our workflow support because I think we26:04want to make sure that it fits a partner as much as it fits a client in terms of the way things are going we do a lot of26:11operation support in the form of just keeping people organized we have lots of Partners here that now have their own26:17kind of custom views of things to make sure that whatever feels most important to them we’re keeping our eyes on and we26:23customize that for them every month or as often as they need we do everything from like the fire management if any26:30clients are unhappy to the standard check-ins we have tons of measurements of client happiness kpis proactive26:37emails going out to clients before reporting periods to make sure that they understand we’re still on top of their26:43goals we have lots of Education around here too that’s the the benefit of kind26:48of being Michael and I being a little bit more in like the nerdy space is that we actually develop a ton of material26:54just to educate on everything so we allow our partners to leverage that for any needs and then of course we take27:01care of all the team management hiring recruiting all that good stuff yeah I mean like I said I shouldn’t talk27:07about you know the sales part but with the way that we do I think it works for my personality at least in regards to27:12just education and then it’s like hey if you want to take us up on a great if not not a big deal right27:19um where you should probably take more lessons from Sean than me on on how to sell but that’s just how we position it27:25kind of what we do and how we try to approach it’s almost kind of like what Josh talks about the abundance right you27:31give and if you you know you give and you give back is kind of how how it is and to be honest at the end of the day27:37like I think somebody mentioned you know you give them expectations set expectations without guarantees for sure that’s great I think if somebody is27:45unhappy at the end of the day I’d obviously work with them to come to a resolution that would make sense and doing business the right way through27:51operations kind of so go ahead right uh this is a big one mostly see27:58this for smaller agencies but uh I would rather manage my own clients because they know and trust me so I can’t tell28:04you how many times I’ve seen the agency owner become their biggest roadblock in scalability in making sure that things28:11are moving forward um there’s something called Death by fulfillment and that’s taking on too much yourself so that you you aren’t28:18able to sell you aren’t able to focus on those things a lot of people come to us and this is the spot they’re currently28:24in they have a handful of clients they do it all themselves and they are unable to focus on growing because they’re too28:31busy focusing on fulfillment so um this is something that I would say be careful of because like I said you will become28:38your biggest roadblock if you don’t find the solution on how you’re going to end up expanding that and again it could be28:44hiring someone finding a vendor that fits your needs but this is a big one understanding how the provider will give28:51you enough support and communication is also again kiwi talk to the about that here in the operation space but making28:58sure that you feel supported it’s different than just making sure that they’re fulfilling29:04um this is really ensuring that you have a team on your side who’s going to be there whenever you need them there are29:10definitely times where we’re just answering small questions or there’s times when I’m hopping on sales calls29:16doing full quotes like we Dazzle and do the whole show for them and whatever that is you want to make sure that your29:22provider is open to things so this is a really big one for us too and then making sure that of course clients29:30understand what they’re buying so when we back six years ago when I came here we had our account managers client29:36facing and people clients would get so married to their faces that they would29:42almost get upset when you had to move things around or people left whatever it was if you have account managers you’ve29:48probably been through this before so something that we did that’s that was actually pretty smart is we developed29:53the client success manager role which was a hundred percent a concierge it’s a dedicated person to communication so we30:01tell clients all the time that they are like a liaison right they’re going to go from you know whatever is taken from30:06that call to the account manager and get it taken care of this is still something that I think is super important is that30:12your clients understand what they’re paying for they’re not paying for a person they’re paying for results and as30:17long as you drive home every month the value and the results and you become their biggest cheerleader team is that’s30:24where I think this really becomes something that you can then step away from and you don’t have to get stuck in30:29because they see it a lot of the times where the owner they’re the face right they’re the person that the client knows30:36and trusts but it is possible for them to know and trust other people too I think that’s a huge point because it30:43happens in all agencies that happen in mine it happens I think throughout the processes you have to kind of shift the30:48way that you sell you’re not buying the person you’re buying like Britney said the results or at least the process and30:53procedures that they have put in place and that’s a little bit different in the sales process as you go through it when30:59you’re smaller growing and as you kind of move it through that you know passing that trust to that person that’s going31:05to be taking over the campaign and then even when that person leaves or moves to a different position because it all31:11happens in all in all agencies people want different jobs or they move on to different things31:16um it it’s it’s it’s something that’s that’s super important and they go back to your other point31:22um how many people feel like just an answer in the chat that you’ve been in oh just say yes if you’ve been your own31:28roadblock in your agency I know Brittany could probably write yes for me a31:33thousand times right because there’s times where I’ve put yes like I’ve I’ve definitely31:39um you know put Roblox and she made me work through them right or I moved them31:45out of the way or just said Michael this isn’t your space you do something else here right and that like there is a time31:52where she’s like this isn’t your job right and that was like whoa I’m the owner but I’m like it doesn’t matter that I’m the owner she’s right that’s31:58not my job right now is the roadblock and had to remove it that’s all my job is is helping her remove roadblocks but32:05then I was putting roadblocks in the place so it’s just something I think we need to yeah as an entrepreneur or as32:10anybody as a business owner it’s something you got to think about as the roadblocks that you put in place32:15either just by usually by accident I don’t think anybody does it on purpose but then when you sit back and look at32:21it there were it’s it’s that and then I I really like the quote death by fulfillment because it’s true right32:27um You Gotta avoid that and and that’s that’s so good no all good and I think you know for all32:34of you who own these businesses these are your babies so from a person who is an employee of the business I will say32:40it it’s very understandable uh to see that you’re very attached to everything but at the end of the eight players into32:47place that Josh talks about into those like he even has a special Mastermind just for those people to talk or talk to32:53each other that’s so important that if you find those people like Britney started here as an account manager and32:58within three weeks she was very easily elevated because luckily I didn’t see a33:04roadblock in my own way and was like she is a rock star and she needs to like putting people around you that your33:11weakness I’m really bad at managing people I shouldn’t be doing that right and understanding that and then finding somebody that’s really great at it and33:18that’s how we’re able to really work well together so when you talk about that people33:25people pass sometimes it feels like babysitting until you have the right people in place so our you know our job33:31at our agency has been to constantly recruit uh we we’re always recruiting partly because we you know need to be33:37scalable but the other side of it is that you should never stop leveling up your talent33:42um and so when it comes to people management you’re training a person to be the face of the agency to make sure33:50that they’re a big cheerleader um we joke about like our tone with clients on email but you never really33:55know what the person on the other end is going through if they’re having a bad day so we try and be the team that could34:01maybe turn that around for them or be really positive for them so um on our fulfillment side of course we do like34:06the day-to-day client management which can be tough especially if you have tough clients we try and roll with them34:12whatever level of service a client needs we go with that making sure that of course we’re fulfilling in the standard34:18sense and then doing a lot of check-ins with people um I think it’s tough like you shouldn’t34:23assume that someone’s happy just because they’re quiet so we try and make sure that we are at least touching her client34:30every so often and seeing how it’s going especially if they’re quiet and ensuring that they see the value one big question34:36actually Michael’s taught us is to ask on our check-ins is like what’s important to you what’s going on in your life right now and sometimes you’ll find34:43that those client check-ins turn out to be like a therapy session for them and sometimes we’re actually just there for34:4910 minutes and we’re covering very high level uh information but the important thing is that they feel like you you34:55showed up today and you were there to support them and that’s what we try and train our team to do35:00yeah I think that’s uh and if you’ve seen every column so far as you just sell right that’s that’s the Focus right35:08exactly it’s tough to be honest people management as a people manager it’s one of the most draining things when you35:15don’t have the right team in place and so if you feel like it’s a it’s a point of stress for you right now I would35:21highly consider like Michael did whether or not you’re the right person to even manage the team or if you even just have35:26the right team in place if your team is stressing you out that’s a problem they’re either not trained or they don’t35:33understand what the expectation is so those are just areas to address I would also say this real quick if you35:41um need to learn how to when you fire somebody and have them say thank you35:47you should talk to Brittany that’s what she does it’s amazing how people how she’s able to have people see the same35:54things that we’re seeing but in a way that people appreciate her approach in35:59the way that she addresses it it’s it’s amazing if you need I’m going to offer it up because I think it’s it’s honestly36:05this magical thing that happens and the way that she approaches it it’s very very unique and very cool to see so if36:11anybody ever is in a situation or has a situation like that that needs to get rid of somebody I’ve refereed I used to36:16referee I refereed in front of 19 000 people before I had to fire as my first person I’ve never been more nervous I36:22was more nervous to fire that one person so like I said Britney’s really brings a light to that that if anybody needs help36:28with that please reach out that’s where here is a resource for that too you my my36:36school so all right um let’s talk about case studies so this36:42is a big one if you’re starting out this is the hardest thing to get and this is of course what you show as your Authority36:48um we recommend of course just like asking a provider if they have anything we give this away36:54um at our agency we actually still develop it I have people who haven’t even signed on yet have come to me for case studies and we’ve been working on37:00developing those for them so I think you know kind of how Josh is like we have that same motto you just share it37:07um with anyone who needs it and it’s full circle right usually comes back around um making sure that you also can37:13leverage your own authority and other in other ways too like this is interesting I get a lot of people37:19um people who are in on-ramp people who are just starting and they have these careers in digital marketing and I37:24always say just leverage past clients that you’ve had before as well like be able to show that through new case37:30studies they don’t always have to be Niche focused so that’s what we provide um this is something that I feel like a37:36lot of people miss an opportunity to showcase and it’s still to me it still counts right you’re able to to work in37:42that space and then also you talk a lot about perceived Authority um you know learn your Niche and become37:49the expert until you make it I think this is a really great uh tip that we’ve37:54provided to a lot of people too if you don’t have the confidence yet just pretend you do and then eventually you38:00know you start to really stack up those clients you’ll you’ll have everything you need38:06Michael yeah I mean it’s funny you say you know that I I mean I don’t know I38:12don’t know if anybody’s ever old enough or knows the movie Boiler Room they talk about act as if act as if like you’ve38:18ever been there before right if you act that way and you can talk that way and you understand the lingo even though38:23you’ve never done it you can be that perceived Authority in that space right and that’s it like we used to talk in38:32refereeing all the time and I’m sure people would agree when you see officials but you fake it until you make38:37it right like you’re out there trying to do the best you can until you start to build that confidence that you can you can do it it’s the same with running38:43agency or anything like that so for sure so this is where a lot of our partners get valued from us as they get38:50started our whole partner Center is just full of information uh swipeable assets38:55all that fun stuff this is the hard stuff I think to create as you get started39:00um and so we’ve gone ahead and just provided anything we absolutely can it’s super cool now having Sean dunan at our39:06agency helping with sales coaching because he’ll come to me and say we should create this um so of course this is ever expanding39:12at our agency now but this is something uh super cool that we’ve been able to provide to all of our partners39:18yeah and there’s lots of valuable stuff there for people so yes39:26are going to be giving that entire Resource Center away to anyone um if as long as we meet and say hello39:33um and then we’re also going to waive our partner minimum normally we have it at 1K it’s a couple of clients but we’re39:39happy to waive that for life for anyone who just books a call uh just to kind of get more information you’ll be meeting39:45with me so you can definitely bring any questions that you have and like I said even if it’s outside of things like this39:50I’m not somebody that wants to try to be here pitching something but here to help grow agencies and really behind Josh’s39:57um message of you know making all of these agencies over seven figures and now even eight figures right as people40:04get there and how we can help support and if that’s you know as much as you40:10know you’re having a bad day and your agency just lost a client geez Britney’s the best person to talk to about that40:16like Joe help she’ll help you understand that it’s not the end of the world and those things happen and they turn around40:22or hey I just landed this big client how would you approach this we’re literally here for anything and everything to help40:28support this community as part of Josh’s group and you know somebody that really appreciates Josh40:35and what he’s done that that’s kind of what we want to try to do is just be here for for people though with any questions running an agency uh we can do40:43that so yeah for sure this is for everybody to just have whether or not you decide to go with us that’s a40:49totally different story but I think this is something that really felt big for us to be able to provide to a lot of people40:55who normally wouldn’t get their hands on things that are going to give them just such a push forward with selling and41:02everything that you need to get lined up cool and here’s a little bit more about41:08how we do business if you decide to ever sign on with us no contracts complete transparency reliability and we’re big41:15on communication we can talk more about these things if we sit together and then41:21the last one Michael maybe you could tell people about Whiteley bless you yeah so kind of the opposite of 5141:27blocks and not the opposite but it’s still in the both in the white world the white label space 51 blocks is very much client facing very much Hands-On we’ll41:34do all this stuff completely transparent does a lot of these things the white label SEO is I would say I don’t want to41:42say a level down but it’s a level to the side where he doesn’t do the client management for you right it’s just a41:48fulfillment only service and it’s much less than not much it’s 20 less let’s41:54say or something like that uh than than the white label solution right or the just sell solution where you’re like hey42:01I can’t get to just sell yet because I have to be in front of my clients and I can’t trust me I know what that feels42:07like right um and if you just want somebody to help with the Fulfillment that’s the white42:12label SEO dot IO that’s that website um and it’s pretty cost affordable so42:18yeah we built this out of I I think somewhat necessity if you’ve ever been42:23with the Hoth or are one of those type of bigger more machine-like white label Solutions usually go there for a need42:31right you have a team in place you’re just looking to expand bandwidth you just want something to get done in the42:36background that’s why we created this solution which it’s been pretty popular with our lead gen agencies so let’s say42:42you’re already doing Facebook or some other type of lead gen and you just want to have a little bit of SEO taking place42:49this is a really great solution we’re also taking on Partners who might have their own Sops so let’s say you like42:55your keyword research done in a certain way you can come over to White Label seo.io and discuss that with us so that43:01we can use our time and energy there to help support you all right43:07all done a couple a couple people asking for the link the QR code43:12um is hard if you’re on like a mobile phone so if you guys could grab that link I think that would be that’d be43:17awesome I think so Michael you have my calendar link oh my gosh that’s the one Brittany told me I was supposed to drop43:24in here and I’m an idiot I got two I was like such a dummy okay here it is sorry it43:32was this one I was supposed to but when she said when I say this do this that’s how good I follow directions so43:39apologize I look good awesome so Dave’s asking a question I think I’ll kind of43:44address it Dave says Josh pushes Niche Niche become the expert Advantage you gain doesn’t Outsourcing the white label43:50diminish that not necessarily so the idea is to position yourself to understand the industry Plumbing Roofing43:57whatever it is and to really go deep in that industry understand what the keywords are understand what the hot44:02buttons are and kind of craft your offering in a way that makes sense um no reason you can’t have a white44:09label provider provide that on the on the back end they’ve mentioned a couple times Sean Dannon as an example so I’ll44:14just use that as an example um he works in the in the veterinary space he’s positioned himself as one of44:21the go-to experts in that space relatively quickly um and he white labels it through 5144:27blocks so instead of trying to position yourself as the expert do the webinars be at the trade shows in advance get44:33your cold cold Outreach machine purring doing podcasts and interviews and trying44:38to figure out how to fulfill and trying to you know serve the clients simultaneously he’s able to focus on44:44selling the just sell method and know that that 51 blocks is going to be able to deliver the service for that Niche on44:51his behalf show up and act as the client liaison on his behalf so he’s able to44:56have a sales operation and know that the film fulfillment is done and still provided Google class service to his um45:03to his client base yeah and one thing with like Sean he first came to us years ago with his legal Niche and I think the45:10coolest part about having a white label is actually the fact that they have bigger sets of those clients like that’s45:17in our case that’s how it was for us like we have huge verticals of all sorts of clients and they’re all from45:23different agencies which has allowed us to really work with tons of different levels45:29um which I think actually expands our our growth expands our knowledge because we have the experience to take on 30 of45:36those types of clients right rather than just having two so um yeah I think it actually could45:42enhance depending on your Niche depending on how you’re positioning your own agency it could actually enhance what you’re providing45:51Garen was asking hey everybody I joined a little bit late but if I’ve got it correct you take care of fulfillment and45:57client management so all I need to do is sell that is like a perfect synopsis of what was just covered46:03did you sell right and 51 blocks will deliver the the service and client Management on your behalf right yeah46:10just to address kind of again why we created this it was we wanted to help address churn as much46:17as we do fulfillment and part of that is making sure that you have a great team on the front end that you’re not bogged46:23down and we we had Partners who really wanted to hold that seat at their agency but they were struggling to give their46:30client the level of service I think that they were hoping to so um we created this solution as a way for46:36anybody to just like take it all off their plate um now it is you know still at our agency fairly customizable we definitely46:43have Partners who still want to hold it and we do everything else maybe they only leverage like uh you know the46:49client-facing site as needed that’s fine with us like we’re not stuck again we’re not stuck in any little box but we like46:55to expand ourselves to anybody who really does like to just sell and grow a seven figure agency47:04great stuff um guys I’d love to know if you have questions because you know you get47:10you’ve got them here if you’ve got any questions on their services or kind of you know the the benefits of white label47:16versus trying to do it in-house now would be a great time we can definitely answer those uh let’s see uh thank you Casey47:24Randall says Josh says one Court offer package with one variation can you offer47:31that to us yeah that’s a great question and you know over the years at one of our first roadmap lives as the roadmap47:37book was created um Michael and Brittany were there and I was saying hey look you’re gonna choose47:42one Niche you’re going to put together one package it should be all inclusive it does the website the SEO the pay-per-click uh and they created47:48packages that marry in with that very nicely so that you can sell your program at you know two grand a month have them47:55do the entire fulfillment and still have a healthy margin I don’t know if you guys can add to that at all48:01yeah we have this um if you go to our partner Center so partners.50 on box.com we’ll put it in48:06the chat uh we have a little q a on this as well like developing your package so the way we’re structured we’re all a48:12cart and we’re month to month so what it just means is that you can take Josh’s model and you can literally Plug and48:18Play everything that we have and build out your own package we also have the three kind of low medium and high so it48:25allows you to just kind of seamlessly build that out um so yeah we’ll work with you on that48:31too like based on our experience of certain niches will kind of give you what that should be like for example the48:36lawyer in New York is going to look different than the dentist in Ohio so we can help kind of change that up for you48:42and give you the best pricing options um all of our pricing is on our website it’s self-checkout where maybe like48:49we’re not sales people we’re not billing people either so you get to manage all of that too and it’s sign on at any time48:55awesome great answer to that question good Lane to know about partners.51blocks.com Michael dropped it49:02um Casey posted in the comments I use 51 blocks of my agency and they’re great communication is incredible total49:08transparency Britney’s amazing uh always willing to jump on a call and help out via email I was able to email an entire49:15web team I was able to add an entire web team with them overnight they’re crunching it for us on multiple clients49:21can’t recommend them enough uh amazing that’s it that’s a content from Casey Richardson Casey thanks for posting that49:26that’s that’s amazing appreciate that let’s see what Solutions do you guys49:31offer uh or is it just SEO that’s from Steve yeah we do SEO Google ads organic49:38social we build websites we of course have bionic which is our hosting company um we do pretty much everything and uh49:46there’s a possibility we’ll be launching Facebook ads in the future here fantastic49:52let’s see Ormond can you please show the slide that includes the pricing that was included did you guys have a slide with49:58the pricing uh we have one for white label SEO but we can send you here you50:04can get all of our pricing here or here so there’s both agencies just so you can50:10see we have a cool little chart on these sites too that shows you the differences between 51 blocks and white label SEO50:15dot IO and like the major core differences that you’re going to experience there50:21awesome did you have a question that you want to unmute and ask or I see you50:26posted question in the comments here oh yeah I I think I posted it on underneath but it’s basically50:33um two things first of all I see that in the SEO side or at least like the local50:39SEO most white label agencies have a like um a fee that’s associated with how50:47competitive the area is so how do you guys handle that50:54see in terms of like the niche like a SC that’s specific to me no it I think it’s51:00based on what where you are like if you’re in oh like Los Angeles versus right so for SEO that’s like our low51:07medium and high right so we did a really easy thing we thought rule of thumb you have rural you have Suburban you have51:13Metropolitan that’s how our pricing is set up so that when you get a prospect in and you understand where they are51:18trying to Target it’s as simple as looking at one of those and then we have National as like our last one51:24um so essentially what we’ve done is we’ve tried to create a structure that allows us to understand based on more51:29competitors you’re going to need to be a bit more aggressive or have a higher volume so if we’re going to Target three cities in one month that’s going to be51:36Metropolitan if we’re looking at maybe a bigger city or a couple of towns there’s your suburbs and then little rural out51:42in the country maybe five or less competitors that’s your low so we try to make it super like easy to just51:48understand based on a location I’ll say this previously it was this huge matrix51:54it’s actually even on the site still that had every single industry laid out completely you know it just became too52:00confusing even for me right and I built it and it’s just simpler this way when it really comes down to like Oscar said52:07or anybody said like Los Angeles is different than Bismarck North Dakota right so it’s52:13it’s as simple as that now just three plans and then um just one quick question then52:19when you guys how does it work when you build a website I also notice that you have uh some type of uh flat fee which52:27is I think 7.95 and then you have another one that’s like an uh it says SEO optimizing there’s a monthly fee52:33involved with that how does that work so web depth is it’s one of the spaces that52:38I think Michael and I were like we got to get out of the custom side it was like six months to like create a whole52:44site so we have a template offering that is like super easy it’s like 10 pages52:49you get a theme in a box and we put it all together it’s just development only and then we have a monthly uh fee this52:55product was created pre-covered it actually ended up being probably one of our most popular products in 202053:01um and it’s a website created almost like a cell phone model so if you take your iPhone and you have a service at53:07Verizon you pay 30 a month towards your thousand dollar iPhone you have a service fee for the the actual service53:13this is how our website plans were modeled so that small business owner didn’t have to pay five to ten thousand53:20dollars to get a new site I think that’s why Michael would say we did it out of the desire to provide something to them53:28that didn’t have to be an arm and a leg the other thing is we wanted to give our partners something that was fairly53:33sticky so the cool thing about this is because it’s a subscription model it’s like a leased owned model your clients53:39will still be with you even if they shut off SEO or they shut off PPC right you can still retain them and nurture them53:45as their hosting provider all the hosting is done at bionic which has incredible Service as well and then we53:52also give a free what we call an upgrade so every two years they could get a whole new site keep paying the same fee53:57we would just reset those little payments just like when you upgrade your iPhone so it’s a very cool product there54:03is a buyout like there’s a lot of different ways you can customize it now but it is built to be a fantastic54:10conversion funnel it’s a support digital marketing activities so it’s a WordPress54:15site that we typically are going to use it page builder of your choosing to be able to build it out54:22thank you yes it does thank you good questions Oscar um Josh is asking if you guys have54:27any experience within the estate planning Niche you do yes we do54:34there’s the answer to that any any experience in the UK li3 Logistics says54:39do you have any experience in the UK you do yeah you can Australia we do have clients there I would say the only54:46struggle tends to be the client-facing services so our UK and Australian providers do have account managers who54:51manage that side uh but we absolutely do the Fulfillment um on that end54:59amazing marketing hippo says great work it’s a great group to work with highly recommend them that’s always good to see55:05uh Richard billing options are great to get them to sign up for the web design okay kind of have those options to break55:12it down um cultural equipment55:17well I’m not sure what you mean there or is asking if you have any experience with agricultural equipment55:23you know like uh like tractors we surprisingly do have a client that is55:30kind of like a John Deere rental place so maybe like heavy heavy equipment sales and stuff potentially let us know55:37if that’s what you’re talking about Laura yeah that’s what it is perfect so they have some experience let’s see uh okay so Clinton’s got a55:44question here does the PPC monthly admin fee increase based on ad spend budget right so we developed three tiers we55:52used to have this it was like a sliding scale and it’s a billing nightmare so the answer is it depends on what bracket55:58you’re going to fit into we tried to make the brackets big enough that really shouldn’t Flex too much um we have a basic and advanced and a56:05pro and then if you’re up higher than that we can always do something custom but the goal here is that we don’t want56:11you to feel like you have to charge your client like more than what you sold them on so we work with our partners for sure56:18um but we like to make it nice and clean and simple excellent excellent excellent any other56:25questions Theo is asking if you have any experience with e-commerce SEO Google shopping services56:31yeah to that excellent fantastic well56:36Michael Brittany thank you for being on thank you for sharing I think lots of good insights whether you decide to just56:42sell or build your own operation and do it yourself um My Hope in kind of running today’s56:48session and getting you guys on here is to give you another option right a lot of us think we’re going to run an agency56:53I’m going to have to build a team I don’t have to manage a team and not that’s not the best play for all of us56:59some of us you know have a good operations partner that can help execute that some of us have a great operational57:05mind and we really enjoy you know getting our hands dirty and dealing with the client relationship stuff others of57:11us we just wanna we wanna grow a business we want to provide great services and not have to deal with it57:17and I think this is a great option where you know you’ve got a provider that can do the delivery manage a relationship57:24um and you can just focus on maybe what you do best and what you like best which is going out and selling the service know exactly what your cost is going to57:31be know exactly what your margin is going to be and have a very scalable model in that way57:37yeah well thanks for having us thanks so much Josh appreciate it thank you good57:42stuff so last last time if they want to connect with you guys and learn more about the two Services uh where should57:48they where should they go was it partners.51blocks.com yeah partner is not 51blocks.com is a huge Resource57:55Center lots of free stuff in there um and then if you want to reach out to us and just ask more questions or get58:01some advice on any stage of your agency you can reach out to us through our website just our contact form or the58:06link that we gave you um here in the chat fantastic good stuff lots of comments58:13coming in saying thanks if you have followed questions go to 51blocks.com connect with these guys58:20um Michael o’brinley thanks so much for taking the time and we’ll talk to you guys again real soon58:26thanks everybody foreign

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Brittany Filori

Author | CEO

Brittany Filori, Inc. 5000 CEO and author of three digital marketing books, empowers agency owners to scale profitably by removing bottlenecks and streamlining systems. As a podcast host and leadership mentor, she is inspiring the next generation of agency leaders to build a legacy.

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