What should I do with these leads

[Krass]

I've done some networking over the past few months and got me some good prospects who want to do digital advertising for their product/service. One of them is a dentist who already does well but wants more business. The other one is a product owner who got screwed over by a partner recently and wants to get back on his feet by using digital advertising as one of the ways to drive growth.

I shortlisted these two because they have a good product already. The dental practice is well-established with tons of good reviews going for them. The product owner has videos of them showcasing the product on national television. So as far as marketing the offers it won't be too hard.

The hard part is that I'm a one-man operation. I'm decent at buying traffic and writing articles and link-building for SEO, but my coding and web design skills aren't great. And I don't know how to present myself as an agency or expert in the field. In other words, building the trust via credibility and authority.

So I reached out to an agency that has everything I don't have. They have full-time graphic designers, coders, media buyers, the works. So if I present myself in association with these guys I'm increase my chances of closing the deal by a lot.

My question is how do I structure this? The prospects have cash to burn and I'm aiming to close at least in the mid five figures worth of business. How should I go about this?

A) I get an upfront cut of the total project amount. This is the easiest one to do, but I don't get any residual income if the customers renew the contract. But I guess I can use the funds to gain more customers.
B) Structure a deal somehow where I'm in partnership with the agency. But I have no leverage in this situation except for the fact that the customer trusts me. I have to remain the middleman and guard the customer jealously.

I'm meeting with the customer on friday and I need to have something to say to them by then. Any thoughts would be appreciated

 

[propipper]

Tough situation but I'd try to keep everything under your control. Once the agency you're thinking of working with sees the clients' potential (as you do), then they'll just cut you out. I deal with that all the time with working with other companies - I always try to make sure I do what I can so they don't backdoor me.

My question is - if you're going to offer them digital advertising, then do you need coding and web design skills? I can see why you would need a graphic designer but there are several different services for that - I'm not talking Fiverr or Upwork either.

What are your credentials? Obviously, you don't have to state them there but if they have money to burn like you said, you usually don't need to oversell them. I'm sure you have some type of testimonials or completed projects you can share with them?

Bottom line is try to keep everything in house and get that residual income. If that's not an option, I'd just go with A. Get your money and rinse and repeat with more. Hopefully by the time your next client comes around you'll have some companies you can outsource the things you're not good at so you can keep everything in-house.

Good luck.

 

[Krass]

Tough situation but I'd try to keep everything under your control. Once the agency you're thinking of working with sees the clients' potential (as you do), then they'll just cut you out. I deal with that all the time with working with other companies - I always try to make sure I do what I can so they don't backdoor me.

My question is - if you're going to offer them digital advertising, then do you need coding and web design skills? I can see why you would need a graphic designer but there are several different services for that - I'm not talking Fiverr or Upwork either.

What are your credentials? Obviously, you don't have to state them there but if they have money to burn like you said, you usually don't need to oversell them. I'm sure you have some type of testimonials or completed projects you can share with them?

Bottom line is try to keep everything in house and get that residual income. If that's not an option, I'd just go with A. Get your money and rinse and repeat with more. Hopefully by the time your next client comes around you'll have some companies you can outsource the things you're not good at so you can keep everything in-house.

Good luck.

Thanks man. Yeah I posted about my skillset in local forums which is how i got the leads.

These guys don't have anything yet in the digital realm. No fb page, no website, no nothing. And a shitty looking wordpress theme just won't fly. They need to see slick designs.

I've tried presenting myself as a one man expert in the past but the closing rate was horrible. They need to see that there's the dude in charge of websites, there's the adwords expert, this guy does facebook ads, and John does all the SEO etc.

They really need to get this impression of a "big" agency to sign the check. At least that's how it is where i live

 

[Ryuzaki]

You can position yourself in a way that gives you even more power than "I work with this agency" to "I mastermind rockstar plans and let them take care of the overflow menial labor".

The one-man stuff is scary because the buyer has huge visions and a realistic view of how long workflows take. But if you're selling it more as a CEO / Manager then it implies a lot of structure and tiered hierarchies, and most importantly a successful labor force.

If you can't get residuals or have to let them get poached from you, you can still take the initial cash, create an impressive portfolio site later, and arrange a contract with the agency for residuals on sending them leads.

 

[Krass]

You can position yourself in a way that gives you even more power than "I work with this agency" to "I mastermind rockstar plans and let them take care of the overflow menial labor".

The one-man stuff is scary because the buyer has huge visions and a realistic view of how long workflows take. But if you're selling it more as a CEO / Manager then it implies a lot of structure and tiered hierarchies, and most importantly a successful labor force.

If you can't get residuals or have to let them get poached from you, you can still take the initial cash, create an impressive portfolio site later, and arrange a contract with the agency for residuals on sending them leads.

"I mastermind rockstar plans and let them take care of the overflow menial labor"
^ this is a really cool angle. How do I implement it?

Is it just a matter of providing a vision of where the companies can be in five years time and how to get there via digital marketing?

 

[Steve]

The simplest option is dont partner with a single agency that does everything the client wants, but with a few specialist ones (a dev shop, a design studio, a pr agancy) and present yourself as the expert consultant that can utilize these talents to provide value to the client.

Let the agencies bill for the one off stuff direct ( you can bill a % on top for project management, and/or agree a commision charge with the agencies), but make sure the monthly stuff comes from you. That includes the reports etc as well as the bills.