It was a pleasure to sit down with agency growth advisor Corey Quinn, for a discussion about contemporary agency growth strategies. Corey, former CMO of Scorpion, discusses his strategy of “deep specialization” to avoid the “journalist trap” and founder-led sales. He emphasizes the importance of specializing in a vertical market for better client understanding and positioning. He shares his success with gift-based outbound marketing, which helped Scorpion grow from $20 million to $200 million.
He advises agencies to treat themselves as their best clients, plan strategically, and use personalized gifts to build relationships and secure appointments. Corey generously offers a free audio version of his new book, Anyone, No Everyone, on his web site, as well as consulting services and helpful tools, to help agencies implement these strategies.
Discussion points include:
- The challenge of category exclusivity in agency prospecting, where clients demand exclusivity, which is antithetical to hyper specialization.
- The importance of understanding the client’s needs and the strategic risks of platform-specific specialization.
- Why it’s important to have dedicated resources for agency growth and the challenges of sharing resources with client-facing teams.
- The four primary ways to grow an agency: events, content, inbound (paid media), and gift-based outbound.
- The importance of understanding the decision-making process in B2B sales and the role of influencers within organizations.
- The strategy of targeting high-level decision-makers with gifts to secure appointments and the importance of follow-up.
- Why it’s vital to create a strategic roadmap and go-to-market strategy to attract the right leads and close deals effectively.