Ramsey Al-Ramahi’s Post

Would you pay for a testimonial? And what I mean is should you hire a communications professional to interview your customer or client so they can draft a testimonial for them. Here’s why you should. A customer or client hires you for product or service. They love it and are happy. You ask for a testimonial. They say “sure, love to.” And then you wait. And wait. And wait. If you are lucky, you will eventually receive a testimonial. It may say something like: “Joe did a great job on my marketing. What a great guy. What a great company.” While a positive testimonial beats a poke in the eye, the person who doesn’t know you or the company giving is hardly won over or curious. And that's the objective of getting customer testimonials. Think of a vanilla testimonial like a five-star Google review with no comment. It certainly helps and is way better than a bad one. Yet it may not do much for you in terms of attracting prospects. THEN LET’S SAY YOU HIRED ME. Through an interview process of four simple questions, I’m able to draft a testimonial that shares a few things: ·       What your business did for the client ·       The problem you solved ·       The one thing about working with you that makes you special, different or better than your competition Your client reviews it. Makes a tweak here or there. Then agrees that they would say that about your company. Badaboom, badabing! You have a testimonial that gives you third-party credibility and actually says something specific about what you do and who you are. Now, you’re in business and can use that testimonial to help promote your business! How? Stay tuned. Yet first answer the question: Would you pay someone to write a testimonial for your client?

Get frustrated when competitors say, "We do that too?" It happens to me all the time. Any self-respecting marketer will include client interviews. What those interviews are and how much they add to your success varies widely. A conversation last week with "Rob," the owner of a marketing agency, is very typical. The dialog is from memory. I'd just made a comment about how many insights I get from interviewing my clients' Best Clients. 𝗥𝗼𝗯: "We do the same thing. I do client interviews too." 𝗕𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗲: "Tell me about your interviews." 𝗥𝗼𝗯: "People these days are super busy. I've got maybe 10 minutes so I only get a few questions." 𝗕𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗲: "Who do you talk to?" 𝗥𝗼𝗯: "The marketing manager. Sometimes I can talk to the VP." 𝗕𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗲: "I talk to the CEO or CFO for an hour." 𝗥𝗼𝗯: "How do you do that?!?!" 𝗕𝗿𝘂𝗰𝗲: "Maybe we don't do the same thing." In my experience, the insights that boost your business the most never come in the first 10 minutes. If you'd like to know more about how I get busy C-Suite executives to spend precious time with me -- and thank my clients for including them -- send me a DM. 🚀🌟📈🧲 I am Bruce La Fetra, 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘭𝘪𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘞𝘩𝘪𝘴𝘱𝘦𝘳𝘦𝘳. If you are a professional who is better at what you do than explaining it to others, let's talk. By cloning your Best Clients, you work with clients who • Buy faster • Pay you more • Make more referrals. 𝗦𝗽𝗲𝗮𝗸𝗶𝗻𝗴 | 𝗠𝗮𝗿𝗸𝗲𝘁𝗶𝗻𝗴 𝗦𝘁𝗿𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗴𝘆 | 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗸𝘀𝗵𝗼𝗽𝘀

It’s been 8 months since we went full time with The Playbook Agency Here’s the 8 things I’ve learned since going on this journey and the key takeaways I’d use when doing it again 🟣 Co founder skill set overlap is a challenge Me and Leo Branica are both sales leaders with a lot of overlapping skills. We realised this a bit too late and were often 2 people doing the same job, rather than being effective as 2 individuals 🟣 The product is everything You can spend a lot of time on other aspects of the business, but really your customers will live and die by the quality of your product. There are no shortcuts. 🟣 Do the thing, before you hire for it Hiring can seem sexy and feel like growth. But if you don’t hire with the processes (somewhat) built, you’re asking for trouble. Build clear SOP’s and hire lean. 🟣 Spend time understanding your time cost and delegate accordingly Sit with a spreadsheet and calculate how much each hour costs you (let’s say it’s $50) Then delegate everything that isn’t a $50 dollar task or above 🟣 Branding Helps Sales Cycles Our brand has magnetised people towards us in a way that I didn’t really consider. People trust us, we’re not like the other agencies and don’t claim to be. Spend time on marketing and making yourself “cool” to work with 🟣 Have constructive arguments We argued for about 30 minutes the other day, on moving a task from 4 day delivery to 3 day delivery (it was more a debate) but in the end we got the things we needed to sorted. Nothing happens if you both stay quiet. 🟣 Everyone is more successful LinkedIn, Instagram and so on. Everyone seems to be doing well, it’s easy to get caught up in it and get a bit disheartened It’s rarely the truth, lock in and focus on your business. 🟣 The more you progress, the more devils knock on the door to distract It’s easy to get distracted by the next new product or shiny service you can offer. Or the endless partnership offers etc. Stay focussed, don’t get distracted and only do things that make sense and genuinely progress you, not just feel like progress. ____ My names Abbas Somji👋🏽 and I run what will be the best cold outbound agency in the world ✌🏽

Approach PR-Marketing, Marketing-Sales, Sales-Customer Success as if you are the customer, because at in the end it’s ALL about the customer or else your just another salesperson. In 2024 and years to come customers will become hyper aware of which brands are authentic and which are just out for quick cash. Yes I just said that, meaning $ shouldn’t be your driving force because if it is, you just built your house upside down.

Holistic Approach to Revenue Operations A common error in management is compartmentalizing sales, marketing, and operational roles too rigidly: that all teams are aligned and working towards common goals. Marketing should generate leads that sales can close effectively, while operations should ensure fulfillment capabilities match sales efforts. Recognize that while sales teams are directly responsible for driving revenue, other departments like marketing and PR play crucial supportive roles that prepare the ground for sales to succeed. Each function strengthens the other, and their activities should be integrated rather than segregated

Want to know the biggest mistake I see #cannabisindustry operators making? It's not understanding the graphic below 👇 I see it time and again. "We need marketing" followed by "Why aren't they closing sales." Or "Why won't this PR agency guarantee me article placements?" Or "I hired a sales team and it's working for our wholesale business, but not doing a thing for retail" The list of examples could go on for a bit... The reality is: Every. Single. Cannabis. Company. Needs. It. All. They just don't know that. They THINK they need 1 or 2 of them, and then some slick sales person promises them the world. They sign on with a marketing agency expecting sales, or a publicist expecting advertising, or SOMETHING like that. 6 months later the account rep is catching heat for it. The business owner is mad and likely hurting in the pocketbook region. The agency's reputation is damaged. Or... They hire a new CMO and expect them to run a sales team, or they hire a new VP of sales and wonder why the marketing calendar is hurting and all the article pitches keep getting rejected. Or... They hire someone and expect them to do 5 jobs, or they hire an agency and expect the same level of commitment as an employee. Or. Or. Or. Many Scenarios. Same Errors. Every Time. And it's always the operator's fault. ALWAYS. It's their duty to ask the right questions. Here's my three best tips to start you off right: 1.) Clearly explain your goals, and ensure any KPIs align with them. Want more sales? Tie success to that metric alone, and make sure you get a detailed explanation about how each planned activity drives towards that goal. 2.) Agency's scale faster, Internal Teams scale better. Early stage companies need strategy internally and to contract out the work, late stage companies need to contract out the diversity of thought (and occasionally the work). Hire accordingly. 3.) Think holistically. CROs and Rev Ops people get a bad rap for being "just another sales guy" but with some spreadsheets... and that just isn't the case. A good CRO (Even a fractional one, or an agency filling that role) is the glue that holds the front end of a business together. Find one of those and you can ignore the rest of this post. Have any other tips on this topic? Drop them in the comments 👇 Disclaimer: This post is brought to you by a former sales person who got a master's in PR (that he rarely uses) and parades around as a marketer (and somehow people believe it). 🤷♂️ Take it with a grain of salt. 🧂

I have a bone to pick with the marketers who get hired by guaranteeing they'll hit your sales targets 😐 They'd literally say yes to the most outlandish 🐂💩 £200k in sales from £1,000 in ad spend? 𝘕𝘰 𝘱𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦𝘮. Promising sales when it's actually down to the sales team to sell and they can do diddly squat to influence that? 𝘔𝘪𝘯𝘰𝘳 𝘥𝘦𝘵𝘢𝘪𝘭. Paying lip service saying exponential growth is possible when the numbers literally tell you there's no chance in hell? 𝘛𝘳𝘶𝘵𝘩 𝘪𝘴 𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘢𝘯𝘺𝘸𝘢𝘺. It's disingenuous. It's a downright lie. It's only for their short term gain. And what comes out of that is a short lived contract with you (usually 3 months), after which you'll have developed a general a mistrust of agencies and marketers that will take a long time to overcome. I'll be damned if I sink my reputation and credibility for a quick buck. The industry is a lot smaller than we think, and people talk to each other. Honesty > money grab. I haven't yet come across a business who hasn't appreciated a candid approach, regardless of whether they've become a client or not.

3 Signs That you SHOULD NOT Hire The agency you are in talks with!! (Viewer warning! Some will get triggered!) So here is something Tangible for you that you can memorize in less than 30 seconds that could save you hundreds of thousands of dollars! 1. They Create & Own your Business Assets. Simply put. A BIG RED FLAG. You own your own stuff, they get to manage it. Don't trust anyone on their word. When you decide to switch service providers, you face the painful reality really fast. And that is the fact that you do not own your own assets if you allow this! 2.They have No references to Offer! I'm not saying to be judgemental (But your business is at stake here!) If they have 0 Case Studies about the Clients they helped. I'm not talking a little “We scaled this brand to xxx,xxx $”. Real Tangible Case studies with breakdowns and legitimate contact points you can be introduced to verify them. Don't be shy when asking for proof. Their goal is to sell themselves to you. Make them earn it! 3. Bad Communication & Likeability. Might be controversial but…. Don't Hire people you don't like, you don't align your ideals with or your vision. It only brings issues down the road. From the Sales standpoint I see it like this. The reality is that you can tell they are selling you. You are not stupid. But their job is to make you want it + make your life easier. The best deals come when you feel like you are talking to a friend. Not a Sales person. So if it feels off. It probably is off. In case you are wondering how the exact opposite of these 3 tips feels. Give us a DM at Furlough :)

I like to split all the Agency growth activities into 2 categories: Outer world & Inner world. The outer world is everything that you do before you close a client. Your outbound prospecting strategy, sales process, funnel, sequences, sales calls, hiring, etc… The Inner world is basically everything related to service fulfillment. And you are maybe wondering why this is important… Here is the short answer. At one point, once you intentionally start scaling your agency, you will have to start hiring people. Both for the “outer & Inner world” parts of your agency. A few days ago I recorded a video giving you the full explanation as to when you have to start building your team for the best efficiency and growth opportunity. Since I don't want to make this description too long, my advice to you is simple. Go ahead and watch that video if you want to scale your SMMA to 5-figure months in a short time frame. It will be worth your time. Here is the link: 👉 https://lnkd.in/eEkKkCGR

When you’re just starting out, you do favors for clients. As you grow, you gain experience. You know your work is effective. You understand your value. Then you should STOP doing favors for people. Never do favors for first-time clients. If you do, that’s the kind of relationship you’ll build. They will keep asking for more favors. And you’ll keep doing them again and again. When they have a BIG budget, they will hire a Rockstar agency, NOT YOU. Let them earn that favor. P.S. If you’re new with zero experience, this advice isn’t for you. 👀