This document outlines a new agency model for generating profitable work through qualifying prospects in a step-by-step process rather than relying solely on large retainer contracts. It proposes beginning with free assets and moving clients through smaller paid offerings like consultations, workshops, and marketing campaigns to better understand their needs and weed out less suitable clients before pursuing longer-term contracts. The goal is to acquire work from qualified leads and avoid problematic clients who may not fulfill retainer obligations.

1. Welcome to my presentation where I hope you will learn how to make money
before selling a HubSpot licence or a full marketing retainer.

2. I discovered Inbound Marketing through HubSpot in 2009 when I was running
my own Digital Media Consultancy in Sydney, Australia. Fast forward a few
years later I moved back home to Dublin and started working in DubSpot (our
friendly name for HubSpot in Dublin). Over the past two years I have worked
with over 150+ agencies in the Asia Pacific region, today’s advice comes from
my own experience and that of the companies that I have worked with.

3. Is any of this resonating with you? Are
you an established agency and you
are feeling a little tired.
Are you questioning the quality of your
leads that you are getting from your
website?
Do you feel you are doing a lot of free
speaking, pitching and educating
others about Inbound Marketing?
Are you coming up against too many

4. “we don’t have enough time or budget
objections”?

5. Over then next 40 minutes we are going to explore
some new ideas around the traditional Inbound
Agency Retainer Model, we will look at why is there
a need for change, an outline of what it could look
like in your agency, who it is for and what to watch
out for. Ready? Lets go. . .

6. Before we get started lets look at why?

7. Most of you are probably familiar with this model,
your HubSpot Channel Consultant will have
educated you on this, let me explain for any non-
HubSpot agencies. We recommend creating some
free content that your buyer persona would be
interested in like a free Ebook, when they download
this then you follow up with some lead nurturing
emails and invite them to have a free Assessment
with you that then hopefullly leads to a Free Pitch
or many Pitches with a prospect. If you are keen to
win the business, you sell, sell, sell and more often
than not the next step is a 6 or 12 month retainer
with a company you barely know anything about
and don’t know how you are going to work with you.
Ringing any bells with anybody?

8. If they do sign up, in the beginning all is fantastic,
the client signs up, they pay their first month
retainer, they are super excited, then you give them
a list of things they need to do, they are like, “oh
sure no problem we will have that over to you next
week”, and we all know how the story goes.
In many cases the client does their homework and
all goes well, however in much more cases the
client does not do their homework, you cannot
create content and move to the next step of the
project, days turn into weeks, turn into months etc.

9. Before you know it you are now in the relationship
from hell, the client is disappointed they have not
seen a result from you, you are so frustrated that
they have spent money with you and yet will not
give you the content that you need.
Then I am on the end of the phone listening to you
saying “How did it come to this . . . .again.”

10. Hence over the years of listening to these calls (and having been there myself
in my agency life) I wanted to come up with some new ideas that
1. Helps agencies to acquire more profitable work.
2. Weed out potential bad clients without losing money.

11. So today if we look at the a summary of the current inbound agency retainer
model.
I have taken out the dollar/pound/euro signs to avoid confusion so the figures
here you can imagine in your own currency as they are not fixed but
dependent on the customer you are working with.
So today we have lots of free work then high stakes poker pitching a 12 month
HubSpot licence and a 6 or 12 month marketing retainer.

12. Here is a new path for your agency.
Going from your free work being a smaller part of your time then the customer
can dip their toe in the water for a small fee, moving up to getting to know each
other, and progressing where you qualify the prospect over time, they are
getting practical advice they can use and you are getting paid.

13. Before we launch into the paid work now is the perfect time to do an audit of
our current free assets that you have on your website/social media platforms.
11

14. I invite you to take some time to step
up the ebooks a notch,
Some of your ebooks/content could
include video and think of how to send
it straight to an iPad or iPhone for
reading later.
Use fresh up to date visuals.

15. This is a great example of a “magazine
style” ebook from our own HubSpot
marketing dept.

16. Create more video content like how to
videos, tutorials -
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r
2jhJoMu0xg
This works for Jamie – he recently got
a €4k sale from this as the person rang

17. and said they didn’t have the time to
build it.

18. There can be a lot of phone calls /
emails with questions from the
prospect before you book in their free
assessment. Having a rich FAQ page
is essential.
This page (or pages) need to have lots
of information on them about your
business, basic questions about
marketing & online marketing and

19. specifically about how your
engagement processes work,
elaborate on each of the steps here on
how you work with clients.
Think of the questions you get asked
over and over again and make sure
they are on this page.

20. Take each of the Frequently Asked
Questions and expand on them by
creating quality blog posts.
Tell stories about your processes and
the success stories of your customers.

21. So now I’m going to get a bit
controversial here. How many of you
have “Inbound Marketing Assessment”
as part of your offers?
This might work in the States however
in Europe/APAC the term Inbound
Marketing is still rarely heard and
nobody has “an Inbound Marketing
problem” they have a content

22. marketing problem, or lead generation
problem. So tailor your assessments to
respond to the problems that your
buyer persona already has – don’t give
them a new problem they don’t know
anything about.
What is the agency good at?

23. The assessment does not always have
to be so formal.
Concentrate is an agency in
Christchurch, New Zealand.
I remember these guys really well as
when I rang them in November 2013
they were already dusting off their
fishing rods with their feet up on their
desks talking about their long summer

24. holidays that were coming up (down
under there is almost a three month
slow down in business activity from
Nov to Feb).
“Aw, we will do an Inbound Campaign
when we get back from our holidays”
they both said.
Now I knew that would be February
before they would get a campaign up
and out the door with another 6-12
weeks before it would turn around any
kind of result, here were were in Nov
and they wouldn’t see any results from
their HubSpot investment by potentiall
March or April.
NOT ON MY SHIFT
I enouraged Greg & Owen to get a

25. quick ebook up and out so that at least
it was sitting there over the holiday
period and we came up with their
MOFU offer of “a cup of coffee” – if the
person is too far away you can arrange
a Skype call.
Yes their buyer personas were going to
take holidays however in the
days/weeks that they would be
returning to the office they will be
reading/planning/downloading material
to get their head in the game. When
the boys got back into their agency
they over 33 leads and they closed two
sales within a week.
They still have the caffeine shakes 

26. So now all of our free assets are up to date, lets start moving into
getting paid for our time and knowledge in small steps.
Now this will take time for some of you to retrain your current habits
of jumping at every opportunity to sell/pitch your services.
I want to preface these steps are not for any companies that you
have a relationship with, have the budget the money and are ready
to go. These are for people you need to qualify more and you need
to get paid to do so.
Next time you get “invited” to pitch Inbound Marketing to a
company you can respond “thank you for the invitation, we are fully
booked up for our free pitching spots for the coming months,
however I have some availability for . . . . And insert some of the
new services that you have chosen from the coming list”.
Now if this idea is too far fetched for you right now I would like to
bring to your attention to who I call the supermodels of the HubSpot
Agency World – Zooma – Sweden who “don’t get out of bed for
less than 5k a day”.

27. Everyone in this room is passionate
about Inbound Marketing and I’m sure
we have all been in a situation where
you have shared some of your
knowledge and then the person
listening says “tell me more” and so
you do. I don’t know about you,
sometimes I have been in a situation
where my passion has overtaken and I
have given lots of advice only to feel

28. drained at the end of the conversation
and wishing I was on the clock.
Clarity.fm is a platform where you can
set up a profile, hightlighting your
expertise and people can book you in
15 minute increments.
How do you do this . . . . You can set
up a free profile or page on your
website about your expertise and
promote on your website/social media.
You can also set up a simple pay pal
button on a landing page on your
website to book a 15 minute
consultation with you.

29. Bryan set up a profile
after seeing this
presentation last
year.

30. Quote from Brian
“From an experience point of view,
we're finding our perceived value is
higher earlier in our process and those
who have historically been scared off
by the large fees have had a chance to
experience the value they will receive
before risking a large budget and so
they are now more likely to convert.”
You can say you are booked up and
happy to talk more with them then
send them the link for your Clarity.fm
page. See how serious they are when
they have to pay for your expertise.

31. This is another step in the “try us”
offering – who has heard of The
Content Marketing Blueprint”?
You can purchase this whitelabel and
then rebrand to sell to the customer.
€2000 to join their training and €795
per blueprint there after (a great
business model – well done guys).
http://www.contentmarketingblueprint.c
om/join-the-community

32. Another offering you can have is a
Virtual Strategy Session.
You will see Jamie here again, he lives
in a remote part of New Zealand
making it time consuming and costly to
travel to do meetings, so he doesn’t.
He has set up a whiteboard and video
conferencing, sends his prospect a link

33. to pay along with a questionnaire and
then books them in for a consulting
session.
How to : Set up a page on your
website with what your strategy
session will cover. Set up a paypal
button for payment or something
similar.
At the end of the session you can take
a picture of the whiteboard and email it
along with your recommendations or if
at the end of the call you want to work
with this person tell them what your
next steps are or simply tell them you
would like to work with them and ask
them if they feel the same.

34. By now you may have done a consultation phone
call or a strategy session with a customer and they
are still want more information before committing or
in some cases you might want to get to know them
a bit better.
So here are some options for when they ask “What
next?”

35. You could set up your own agency
mastermind group for your ideal buyer
persona.
One example of this would be to set up
a weekly coaching call for Marketing
Managers of Medium to large
companies where they can pay a small
monthly fee on their company credit
card and dial in online from the comfort
of their own offices.
You can set a calendar of topics that

36. need help with. Record the call (you
can reporpose this material in the
future). Use each call to see if there is
anybody that needs more help and that
you would like to work with and follow
up with them individually.

37. Instead of going out pitching for
business set up two or three different
onsite workshops and charge €700 to
€1800 depending on the length of time.
Make sure the price point is relavite to
to the client don’t be do cheap.
Examples of these could be
Buyer Persona
Content Creation
Blogging
Social Media

38. with is going to be in attending the
workshop. If there is an Awkward Arnie
or Annie in the room, constantly
questioning you and being difficult, he
or she is sure not going to be any
easier to work with when you are in a
12 month retainer for over 70k.

39. Agency in Brisbane, Australia doing
Linkedin Workshops as a way into
companies and then uncovers their
other needs.
I remember Casey calling me saying
that a law firm had asked her to do a
Linkedin workshop for their marketing
staff, they had a budget of 2k, she was
about to turn it down as it was not

40. “Inboundy” – I convinced her to take it
as number 1 it was profitable revenue,
2. she knew Linkedin well & 3. she
could qualify if they had any other
marketing opportunities.
She did, they did and she got to work
with them on a large marketing retainer
and also wrote a book that is on
Amazon about Linkedin for Business.
Moral of the story, don’t overlook
opportunities that appear too simple for
your agency or aren’t “Inboundy” just
because you know about doesn’t mean
others do.

41. If you would like to get help with building out a workshop Marcus Sheridan has
a course - http://www.thesaleslion.com/workshop-training-for-agencies.
Marcus is speaking here at And there will be a panel afterwards to
ask questions. If you are interested in doing workshops I would recommend
you come along to this too.

42. You’ve made some money, feeling like you know the
prospects in your funnel better you can now either
to choose to move ahead with the companies that
are ready to go, or if Awkward Arnie/Annie is giving
you a weird feeling, you think they are going to be
too difficult to work with, lets look at some other
ways of qualifying and earning money.

43. Working with the company over a 6
week time frame - 1 face to face
meeting and 1 workshop (Buyer
Personas as an example then present
them with a online marketing strategy
that they can either
a. Implement himself or
b. b. include a price that reflects your
desire to work with them.

44. If they have been difficult to work with -
delayed in getting content to you then
that is a sign they could potentially be
a nightmare customer. When pitching
for a 6 or 12 month retainer then you
can price accordingly (price high or
walk away - we don’t think we are right
for each other.)
How to . . . Create your own Online
Marketing Template or make an
enhanced one from the Content
Marketing Blueprint one earlier, do one
face to face meeting and set
homework do be done prior to the
workshop – like do their buyer
personas. Hold the workshop.
Then deliver your strategy with
recommendations on how to do it
themselves or a proposal to do it for

45. them.

46. If you have an Enterprise Portal you
can do Paid Campaigns in your own
portal.
This is actually a training presentation
in it’s own right however a quick
overview is you can create a campaign
for your client over 12 weeks in the
campaign tool and charge them
between €5 to €15k
This will show them a ROI on a
campaign and showcase HubSpot too

47. software.
The key here is less is more, don’t
over do it – just a simple campaign, get
a result then show them how much
more you could do for them (if you
want to work with them over a longer
period of time).
How to . . . We have a project in the
Partner Projects section – here is the
link.

48. Finally I hear you say . . .

49. Ideally you will have worked with your
potential client in one or more of the
previous offers.
Your proposal should be a template
document around your core service
packages and should not take you too
much time to do as you will have built
up knowledge about the customer.

50. Work with them closely to understand
their cost per client as per the pricing
calculator training and then you will
have a pretty good indication of how
much you can charge for a 6 or 12
month retainer.

51. Watch out for
● Confusing the customer can be
easy to do here.
● Don’t building all the offers together
- Pick one or two offers that you are
drawn to and finish that first.
● Don’t share all of your steps at the
same time - tell the customer the
next step only, reveal slowly.

52. Here we are again.
Hopefully now after explaining each one step by step you can see some new
ways for you to make money with Inbound while qualifying out the bad fits and
getting to know your ideal prospects better to create longer lasting profitable
mutually beneficial business relationships.