From Authority to Demand, with Stephen Woessner

Speaker A: Foreign. Welcome back to the Sell With Authority podcast. I'm Stephen Wessner, CEO of Predictive roi. In today's episode is going to feel, it's going to feel a little bit different, actually, it's going to feel a lot different, um, because this is, this is going to be the final episode of the Sell With Authority podcast. And I promise you this, this is not the final episode because the work that we created during this conversation, that the work is finished. That's hardly the case. Uh, this is the final episode because this chapter, this sort of bookends, if you will, did exactly what it was meant to do. And so during this conversation, just you and me, we're going to walk through, um, what that meant, how it was helpful, uh, as far as building an authority position, how that is helpful for agencies in their biz dev process. And then also I'm going to peel back a few layers of where we're going next. So we created Sell With Authority, this podcast to help agencies earn trust to build an authority position before the sale, like in the very beginning of the process. And we wanted agencies, we want your agency to teach instead of push. And we wanted there to be a body of work that, that proved through evidence of execution, that selling didn't have to feel awkward or forced for an agency. And over the last four years of the podcast, you helped turn that idea into something real, something super helpful for agency owners around the world. And how rock solid awesome is that? I mean, that is amazing. So to help better understand how all of this work has been helpful and why that work is ending here, let's briefly go back to what the Sell With Authority podcast was actually built to do. So this podcast started as a book before we ever launched the podcast. And, uh, we didn't write the book because agencies needed more tactics or candidly, a longer list of to dos. We wrote the book because we saw a dangerous trend of fewer and fewer agencies getting paid for how they think. And instead they started taking money for what they could produce. As agencies, we somehow move from advisor, trusted advisor, with a seat at the strategic table. And instead we moved, uh, into this position of commoditized vendor that delivered stuff and candidly could be easily replaced. So one of the arguments inside the book was pretty simple, that if an agency's future is tied only to deliverables, that future is unstable and it's really difficult to future proof your agency, uh, when you're standing on, uh, less than solid ground. So when our work then becomes easier to copy, when it becomes cheaper to buy or when it becomes faster to outsource, the advantages, that leverage that you bring to the table are greatly diminished or maybe lost entirely. And once that leverage is gone, friends, everything else inside the agency gets harder, too. Your pricing, client retention, being able to predict growth, maybe even team morale. So we believed that sell with authority offered a different path. We want you to get paid. We want you to be paid well for what it is that you know, not just what you and your team can produce or make. Because when expertise is focused, when it's taught, when you share that generously, when you share that publicly, it creates something really hard to replace. It creates your authority position. Your authority is trust that's earned. When you go and teach at, uh, depth, and when you teach consistency, and when everything that you teach is relevant to a specific audience. And that meant inside the podcast, providing our insights and expertise around how to narrow your focus. Instead of serving everyone, that meant helping you craft a unique point of view so your clients and prospects could quickly see why you give a rip in how you step away from the sea of sameness. And we wanted you to be teaching instead of pitching. And candidly, if you mastered that, then you would have also been teaching and selling simultaneously. Because here's the reality, friends. The best agencies don't run after prospects. Instead, their best prospects already understand how the agency thinks in most cases. And when that happens, m and I know that this has happened for you. You can feel it. You can feel how the sales process change, conversations change. The relationship starts before that first call ever even happens. And how awesome is that? And those were some of the ideas, the strategies, the philosophy became the backbone of this podcast. If you teach what you know in service of the right audience, your right fit clients will begin to know you. And they'll come in differently. When they choose to come in, they'll come in differently. They'll be well prepared and they'll be ready. That's what Sell with Authority stands for. It's not about selling harder. It's about is about building an authority position so that selling feels less like persuasion and more like alignment and fit. And when agencies actually do this, when they commit to doing it, something important happens. It works. Agencies that choose a niche, agencies that commit to a point of view. In agencies that show up consistently with helpful cornerstone and cobblestone content, they see real change. The agency becomes easier to recognize. Their thinking travels farther than they expect. And every so often, something rock solid awesome happens. A prospect reaches out, and holy bananas, they did that all on their own. Sometimes it starts with, hey, I've been following your work for a while now, or awesome. Sometimes it's a dm, sometimes it's a referral. That feels different, it feels warmer, feels more specific. Awesome. And those moments matter because they prove something important. Teaching works. And your authority position can change the biz dev game. But over time, another pattern showed up for our predictive team. I mean, not a, not a problem per se, but some interesting dating data points. Not dating points, data points. Some interesting data points. Uh, we started watching those inside the predictive lab because inside strategy sessions, inside our intensives, inside Q and A's. When we're hanging out with agencies on a daily basis, we would hear things like, you know, we're getting more visibility. Okay, awesome. People know who we are. Amazing. We're on more short lists, super awesome. And then there be this pause. And then as we leaned in to hear more, we'd hear something like, but the timing of, uh, when our prospect will become our next new client feels unpredictable. We feel like we're still waiting. And we are still waiting. We don't know when, when, when our prospects will actually move. And candidly, friends, this is where things started to get interesting. I hope you don't mind me, uh, coughing in your ear, uh, or clearing my throat in your ear. Uh, I'm getting over a cold, apparently. So what sell with authority created was credible attention through an authority position. Amazing. And no doubt attention is powerful, but attention doesn't necessarily decide timing. Your right fit prospect can know you amazing. Your right fit, uh, prospect can respect you. Awesome. And then can even believe that you are the right fit agency at some point. And yet they can still wait. Not because they don't trust you, but because waiting feels safer in some instances to your prospect rather than acting does. And I know that you know this, but, but hiring an agency carries risk outcomes and budgets, those are all very important. And in some instances careers of the person who is selecting the agency, the career of that person might be on the line. So even when authority is established, delay can easily become the default. And it shows up like this in a conversation. We hear things like, you know, let's, let's see how the quarter goes. Or, um, let's revisit, uh, after the holidays, which might still be two months away. Uh, that's. My predictive team knows this is like a pet peeve of mine when, you know, you're getting toward Halloween and we start hearing things like, yeah, you know, too much. Uh, you know, let's, let's revisit this after the holidays. It's like, oh my gosh, we there, there's a 12 month sort of revenue, uh, plan, but, but only working toward that for 10 months. So let's revisit it after the holidays or let's wait until things settle. And if you're listening to this and thinking like, okay, is, is it, is it us? Is it something our agency is doing, this getting in the way, and I promise you, I'm not trying to sound patronizing here in the least little bit, but the answer is no, it's probably not you. But there may be something missing in the overall biz dev recipe and I'm going to loop back to that piece in just a minute. So candidly, you hear delays like this like the ones I just shared with you because the market doesn't reward passive trust the way it used to. If you're the agency on the other side of that equation, frustration no doubt creeps in because you've done the work, you've earned the credibility, you've shown up consistently, you've taught generously in front of your audience, but movement still happens on the prospect's timeline, not yours. Some agencies respond by doing more thinking that if they just did more, if they just produce more content, if there was just more activity, if they just push more boulders up a hill, then that would solve this problem. While others will go backward and they'll slip back into old habits thinking like, uh, well, content just didn't work for us. But neither perspective solves the real issue. The issue isn't visibility and the issue isn't your authority position. The issue in our opinion, is activation. So sell with authority taught agencies how to become known. Amazing. But it wasn't designed to answer the question that comes next. And here's what we're hearing. Agencies are no longer asking us, hey, predictive, how do we get noticed within the niche that we want to serve? How do we become the known expert, the authority? The in that niche, we're finding that more and more agencies are essentially kind of past that point. Awesome. The problem isn't necessarily attention or you know, how to earn an authority position anymore. The problem is what attention does and doesn't do on all on its own. And here's the distinction that is becoming more clear. If authority earns attention, which it does, demand, demand is what turns that attention into action. That's the activation piece. Authority answers the question, who should I trust? Demand answers the question, why should I move now? And typically, in what we have seen, as we have studied this is that agencies don't control the second question or the answer to the second question. They've earned trust. Awesome. But action still comes and goes. A conversation with a prospect starts amazing, then it seemingly can get stuck in the mud. The mistake that many agencies make is assuming that something is missing in their kind of front end of the process. And so again, leaning back into more effort, better messaging, more proof. But effort, I promise you, isn't the constraint. Authority by design is patient. It waits. It creates gravity. It pulls people in when they're ready. But demand, demand does something in addition to that. It's different. Demand introduces tension. And we need both. We need both authority. And then we need the activation that demand creates. We need demand to introduce the tension. And I promise I'm not talking about schwarmy sales pressure or false scarcity tactics. No, that's yucky. What we need is tension. Demand creates the contrast between now and later, between staying with the status quo and doing something different. Doing something different now. Doing something different that is meaningful. That's when three questions show up in your prospect's mind. The question of why now? Why you? And why your agency? Instead of waiting, we need to answer these questions either, uh, explicitly or implicitly in our content, in our conversations, in our sales process. Authority doesn't force those questions, but demand does. And demand, I promise you, isn't accidental. It's intentional. It doesn't just happen because content exists. Demand is built on purpose, brick by brick, in both content and in the sales process. Authority is the foundation. You can't jump to demand. You can't jump to being in demand without the excellent foundation of authority. And demand is what you build on top of that foundation. So once that distinction really kind of clicked for me inside the predictive lab one day, the next question became, uh, uh, okay, what does it actually look like then, when an agency is in demand and is, quote, end quote, in demand, an attainable status to achieve. And to be clear, we don't believe that being in demand, again, is about popularity. It is not. It is not about popularity. It is not about being more busy. Because in demand agencies are highly selective. In demand agencies shape with intention who enters into conversations with them. At the core, being in demand means choice, your choices, and having complete control over those choices. So choice and control over who is going to be your dream prospects. I'm reluctant to use the word pursue because this is not about pursuing choice over when you engage and choice over what you say yes to. Because when you have choices, friends, you protect your Team, you protect the agency, you protect both. And you've worked so hard to build both. So being in demand gives you the power, the control to make those choices. And to be clear, in demand agencies still teach, they still publish, and they still share generously. You can't get to in demand without owning an authority position. But they also design to create intrigue, to create curiosity, to create desire. So intrigue isn't hype. It's what happens when your point of view creates contrast. When a prospect encounters your thinking and then pauses thinking, hmm, m. I hadn't thought about it that way. And that pause, when that happens, it matters because in those moments, that's when intrigue and curiosity turn into desire. But here again, to be clear, desire is an urgency. It's direction, it's velocity. This is where outbound gets, uh, misunderstood. So because when I say outbound, and that's part of, uh, creating demand, when I say outbound, I mean sparking conversations with right fit prospects, some of whom may already be in your world and others not. But knocking and opening those doors in such a way that is welcomed by your prospects. Outbound without authority feels like an interruption. Outbound with authority feels like activation. And that's where we're going from here. In demand agencies don't wait for the timing to be quote right, end quote. They decide who matters. They decide when to engage. Outbound becomes a way to spark conversations, not force them, but spark them. Inbound, of course, still matters. But inbound alone leaves too much to chance, in our opinion. In demand agencies don't abandon outbound. That would be silly. Instead, they complete it by adding an outbound process that, uh, raises the bar of excellence. And that's what brings us here to why this episode exists and why this conversation isn't ending. It's just moving forward. So sell with authority helped agencies earn attention inside a niche they could own. Amazing. And once authority is established, in our opinion, a, uh, new responsibility shows up. What do you do with it? What do you do with the authority position? That's the conversation I want you and I to have next. And we're going to have that conversation with, with the world's leading authorities on how to create demand and ah, more specifically about how agencies can take earned authority and turn it into intrigue, curiosity and desire on purpose, with intention. That's what our new podcast that we're calling the In Demand Agency Podcast will be all about. On the new podcast, we're going to explore questions like how do you activate authority without losing trust? How do you design outbound that feels relevant instead of intrusive. M How do you build intrigue, curiosity and desire in the mind of your prospect? And how do you create enough desire that prospects don't just reach out, but they lean in? So the goal is to help your agency become an in demand agency so you can choose the work that you and your team want to work on so you have a healthy sales pipeline that feels like a steady stream of well prepared prospects flowing into your shop and you stop feeling like your future is dependent on timing and referrals. The Sell With Authority podcast with has been about earning the right to be trusted. Awesome. In the In Demand Agency Podcast will be about what happens next. If that conversation resonates with you and where you are and where you're headed, I would love for you to join me there. The In Demand Agency Podcast will launch in a couple weeks. I don't have a firm date just yet, but I promise I will keep you posted. So as we come in for a landing here, I would be remiss if I didn't also say thank you. Thank you for four plus years of amazing conversations. Thank you for four plus years of all of the emails, all the feedback, everything that we received from you friends on how to consistently raise the bar of excellence with the Sell With Authority podcast. Thank you for letting us know how helpful and meaningful the insights and wisdom that our guests shared with you how, how that made a difference. We're always grateful to hear those things and so thank you for being with us over the last nearly 200, uh, episodes over the last, you know, several years. We are grateful for your time and attention and all of that. If you have questions or concerns, um, between now and when the In Demand Agency Podcast is going to launch, you can always feel free to drop me a line@stephenredictiveroi.com and that is my actual inbox. That is my direct email. Uh, so please drop me a line if you have any questions or concerns. And lastly, I uh, guess the second half of that thank you is the fact that we have 86,400 seconds in a day and I am always grateful when you choose to spend some of your precious time with me. Thank you for that. And I look forward to our very first conversation on the In Demand Agency podcast. Uh, which we'll have buttoned up or tied up with a bow here in the not too distant future. And I look forward to our team sharing that with you. Uh, I think it's going to. I know I'm biased, but holy bananas. I think it's going to be rock solid. Awesome. So thank you for all of it. Until next time. Onward with gusto, Sa.