How to Close $3,000+/mo SMMA Clients (Sales Guide)

My marketing agency and the agencies we work with are routinely getting clients paying between $3,000 and $5,000 per month. These are the clients who see the value of our services and are excited to get started with us. Now, at the same time, other agency owners are struggling to even sell $1,000 to $2,000 a month packages. Prospects say to them it's too expensive or they'll have to think about it. If you're experiencing this in your own agency, this video is exactly for you. I'll go over how you can make sure prospects see the value of your services, how you can pre-handle every objection so they don't come up on the sales call, and how you can close 3 $5,000 deals on Zoom without having to hard sell anyone. Plus, I'll share the exact sales script that we've used to sell over $10 million in recurring digital marketing agency services. Let's get into it. All right, so let's get right into the sales process. First things first, we have to make sure you have the right offer, right? You could be an amazing salesperson, you could have the best script in the world, but if you're not meeting with the appropriate person that has a bleeding net problem that you could solve and an offer that's gonna resonate, there's no way you're gonna convert. Make sure your agency is organized to serve a very specific market. In our case, our agency serves plumbing and HVAC companies, right? So that's our market. All of our messaging, everything we put out gets people to raise their hand or schedule in so that we can provide the transformation of taking that plumbing or HVAC business from where they're not getting enough leads, they're not getting enough sales online, to where they're the dominant player generating hundreds of sales, keeping their phones ringing, the trucks running, and their business booming. And you want to have an offer and messaging like that, right, for a very specific audience. Number 2 is you want to make sure you attract the right people who know who you are and respect you at some level, right? So you want to position yourself as an expert with content, with expertise, with examples and case studies. So when people come into you, they're thinking of you as the expert and they're leaning in in the sales process. And number 3 is we want to make sure that we pre-solve the objections, right? They're going to come in. Is this too expensive? Are you going to be able to give me results? Have you done work like this in the in the past? I need to talk with my business partner, right? You can leverage your lead up to the appointment by seeding those questions, seeding those answers through your sales flow and through your sales copy leading into the appointment. So just some things to think about before the meeting even starts. Now, there's 5 steps to the SendFigure Agency sales process that we teach on. Number 1 is we're going to get the prospects to raise their hand. We're going to get them to express some level of interest. Number 2 is we're going to capture the details to qualify that prospect, to qualify, are they a good fit or are they not a good fit? That could be done through a pre-screening process before they meet or through a discovery call. Number 3 is the actual strategy session. That's the meeting you have, the conversation you have with that prospect. We know it was in our niche. We know it was a good fit. They— we know they've got a problem that we can solve. And so we go into that meeting having researched their website, researched their rankings, being able to show them exactly where there's a gap in their current strategy and how we can help. Right? So that's the strategy session. Step 4 is we want to have some type of hot lead follow-up process after we meet with the prospect so that we can move them to sale, to signature, which of course is step number 5, which is getting that client signed client where we've got the credit card authorization form or the ACH form and we're launching the program. We're launching the relationship with that client. The first step is getting the prospects to raise their hand. That's a, a training for a different video. I've got lots of trainings on that where I walk you through how to create content, whether it's books or case studies or information that get prospects interested so that they want to schedule in with you. Number 2 is we want to master the discovery call. Depending upon what niche you're in, I think it's a little bit different for home services than it is for professional services. You may want to prescreen in advance. The way we do it at Plumbing and HVAC SEO, the client says, I want to meet, right? And they answer some questions about how much revenue they're doing, how much they're investing in marketing, how many trucks they have. And based on those answers, we can use predefined logic to say, okay, this is a company that would be a good fit for us. They've got at least 2 trucks. They are doing at least $500,000 per year in revenue. They're spending a couple thousand dollars a month in advertising already. And if they're not, well, then they're probably not a good fit. They're not worth us spending a lot of time on it. So we would disqualify those prospects. And I kind of walk you through how to do that in the Ultimate Agency Funnel and the appointment funnel process that we teach. If you don't have that in place or you're in a more, more legal healthcare-related industry, maybe you need to spend a little bit more time with the prospect on the front end data, then you would take them through a discovery call. And this would be a 15 to 20 minute conversation with the prospect where you're getting to know them. You're getting to understand how they market themselves. This can save you a lot of extra work. Having a predefined process where you get those details, you get a sense for the prospect. Do they have a need? Do they seem like the kind of client you want to work with? And if not, you can weed those companies out on that discovery call. But if it is of interest and it does seem like a good fit, you could say, based on what you told me and kind of how you're marketing yourself today, I really think we can help. I'd love to do a deeper dive into your website, your current rankings, and schedule a follow-up conversation where I can show you exactly how we can implement strategies to help you accomplish the goals that you've set out. Does that sound good? And assuming they spent 20 minutes with you explaining their goals and explaining your challenges, explaining who they've worked with in the past, they say yes. That's a very pre-qualified, interested prospect that's worth you investing the time and the energy with. And so that's what you want to do on your discovery call. Number 3 is we want to prepare and execute the strategy session. There's a, a definitive prep process that needs to go into this so that that prospect that you know is a good fit, that has passed your qualification criteria, that maybe either had a discovery call or filled in their survey in advance, it's worth investing some time. And so what we like to do for that meeting prep, run a ranking report, and we use either Search Atlas or BrightLocal for this. And we'll run a list of the most common keywords in the niche combined with their service area. We'll put that into a Google Sheet and then we'll use Merge Words or ChatGPT to combine those keywords and we'll run a ranking report that we can show them. See, these are the words you're ranking for. These are the ones that you're not. So we run that keyword list. We run that ranking report. Of course, we'll pull up their website and we'll run some analytics through Search Atlas, which I'm a big fan of. BrightLocal. If you don't have those tools, Ahrefs, SEMrush, some tools that you can analyze the website so that when you do get on the call with the client, you can say, hey, thanks so much for your time last week. What— last time we met, this is what you told me, this is what I understood. Based on that, I did some due diligence on your website, your rankings, your paid search strategy. I really believe there's some things that are, are missing that we can help you with. You need to be prepared in that way. I would suggest you run those reports, you have that data, not so that you can vomit on the client, but so that you can be prepared to show the gap. They're here and they've got a goal to get here, right? There's a transformation that they want to see happen. The only way they're going to believe that you're the bridge, that your company has the solution to help them accomplish that goal is if there is a gap that you can point to. Hey, look, here's what's going on on the website. Here's why it's not coming up. After you're prepped and the meeting's about to start, you're gonna have your tabs open so that you can have this conversation. You're still gonna follow a linear path to the appointment. I like to break this into 3 steps: lead, establish the gap, and present. And so the lead portion of the meeting is you spending a little bit of time building rapport, asking some questions about their day, not A lot, but we're just establishing a little bit of rapport. Then we're setting the agenda. Hey, I've got a very specific process that I follow for these types of meetings. I'm going to ask you some questions. I've done a bunch of research to show you where I think there's room for improvement. Is it okay if we get right into that today? Yes. Last question before we get started is, can we both agree that we'll make a decision one way or another on whether to move forward or not move forward within the next 2 weeks? Right. And you want them to say yes to that in advance. So that you've set the buying frame. So that's where you're leading the conversation. You're kicking off with that lead. Number 2 is we're going to establish the gap. And so to establish the gap, we've got to get clear on where you are today and where you're looking to go. So tell me a little bit about the business. How much revenue do you guys do today? How many trucks do you have? How many technicians do you have? Whatever the questions are that are relevant to where they are in the business right now, assuming they're interested, they're going to answer these questions, right? If they're not willing to answer questions about how much revenue they're doing, they're probably not that interested. From there, you could talk about, so, all right, so if you're here now, what What's the goal? Where do you want to be over the next 12 to 24 months? Where are you trying to go with this company? And they'll answer that question. They'll tell you like, you know, we're at a million, we're trying to get to $2.5 million. Excellent. Tell me about your marketing, right? You can get into this. How have you marketed yourself in the past? What things have you tried? Who have you used? They'll talk about, you know, I tried this company, I hired this kid, I did these things. And you know, what's not working right now? Where do you feel the gap is in your own mind? And they'll talk a little bit about, about that and kind of the frustrations they have. And we're like, really, this is where we want to go, but we're not there. First of all, spend a couple of minutes with them in the pain. You're not generating the leads that you need to keep the trucks running. How's that impacting your company? How's that impacting you personally? Let them talk about the fact that, you know, because we don't have enough goals, I had to let this one technician go. Because we don't have enough revenue, I, I had to take money out of my personal account in order to pay for this. I wasn't able to do some things that I wanted to do. I had to put myself into debt. If there's not a pain, if there's not a problem, if there's not a bleeding neck, there's no sale. From there, Talk about why it's important. So, hey, you told me the goal is to get to $2.5 million per year. Why is that a priority? How is your life going to be different or better once that's accomplished? Ask these questions and wait till you get the answers. People buy based on emotion and they justify based on logic. Your ranking report, your analytics, all the issues you're going to show them with their current website is the logical side of the equation, but they're going to buy based on emotion. So that emotion is the pain. What they're giving up because they're not where they want to be. And it's also the outcome that they want to accomplish. Maybe it's so that they can take a better vacation. Maybe it's so they can retire their spouse. Whatever it is for them, make sure that they're not just giving you a number, but they're giving you a reason for why that's important. And then make sure you ask the question. So, you know, you want to get here for these reasons. How important is that to you on a scale from 1 to 10? Like what? How big of a priority is this? Right. Get them to say why this is so important for them right now. I like to ask, is this a now thing or a later thing? Like, is this something you're just kind of evaluating and you're going to kind of see how it goes? Or like, if you can find the right provider, if you can find the right solution, is this something you're ready to move on now? Like, why is this a now thing? Let them explain why they can't hold off, why this is a priority. If you get the customer, the prospect, talking about what they've tried, the frustration of it, where they want to go, why they want to get there, how life's going to get better once it's accomplished, why this is a priority to happen right right now. Also, why not just stay with the company you've got right now? Why not just stay with the current process? And let them answer that. This is where they're selling themselves. This is why they're buying into the emotional aspect of why they're hiring their services. And make them answer that question. Oh, I can't stay where I'm at right now because that company has charged me for 6 months in a row and I don't see any results. They're committed to making a change. And you've just brought that out of them. So super important that you ask all of those questions. You've let them sit in the pain. You let them talk about why. You've let them explain why it's important that it happened now. Why that they can't stay the way that they are. Then you shift gears to say, hey, okay, thank you so much for sharing with that with me. It's really good to understand where you're at, where you're looking to go. Like I mentioned in advance, our team did a bunch of research on the front end. We pulled up your website. We ran this ranking report. We've got a lot of data that I'd like to go through with you to show you probably why you're not where you want to be and why your internet marketing isn't performing the way that it should, is it okay if we get into that now? Let them say yes. And this is when you would pull up your tabs and say, hey, look, so I pulled up your website and I think it's got some good elements, but here are some reasons this website might not be converting the way that it could. And get them to see like, yeah, you're right. Yeah, I can understand that. Yeah, I'm glad you pointed that out. I really think if we're going to accomplish your goals, there's 3 things, right? We've got to drive leads, maximize conversion, optimize results. To drive leads, we're going to do organic, we're going to do paid, we're going to do database marketing. When I look at your current website and the way that it ranks today, we ran this report. Let me just pull up the report. Here's the most important keywords in your service area. Get them to agree. Like, so these are the most commonly searched keywords based on commercial intent, based on people that are interested in your services right now that are getting searched every day. Let me show you where you're ranking on Google and Google Maps and on Bing, right? And show them the ranking report and show like all of the other keywords that you're not in the top 5 spots. Right? And if you're not in the top 5 spots, that's where the lion's share of the magic happens. That's where the clicks happen. Do you think if you were coming up in the top 5 results for those keywords, you would get more traffic, you would get more clicks, you would get more calls? Absolutely. And then they're gonna say, well, why the heck am I not ranking? Okay, I'm glad you asked. Right? So I did an analysis where we can look at your website right now and see the reason you're not coming up is, right, you don't have these pages on the website. You don't have this proper optimization with the content, the title tags, the H1 tags, or look, there's just not enough authority. There's not enough reviews. Get into the, into the details about why they're not ranking. Really show them the problem, show them the issue and ask, do you see how these missing components are preventing you from getting the results that you should online? Right? Get them to say yes to that. And then say, would it be okay with you if I show you what we're doing with our internet marketing program, how I think we can help you and really walk through what that looks like? Get them to say yes. Yeah, I'd love for you to do that. I'd love for you to show me. And don't want to get too technical, but you can then get into your program. You would get in and say, hey, look, here's what I think we need to do, right? Maybe we need to launch an updated version of the website so that it's built to convert. And then we need to make sure we update the optimization, the number of pages, the way we, we optimize the on-page and the off-page elements. Really get into what your program is and say, how does that sound? Does that feel like a fit for what you're looking to build? What, look where you're looking to go with your online marketing today, right? And they're probably going to say yes. You might show— if I show you a couple examples of other clients we work with in your market that we've implemented this for and the results that are getting out, I'd be wondering for sure, like, so here's one of our clients. You can see when I run these keywords, this is where they come up. Here's the reporting information where I can show you. Here's how many calls, here's how many leads, here's the return on investment. This is what we want to do for you. We want to make you the dominant player in your market and put the right conversion strategy, put the right follow-up strategies, put the right tracking in place. So that you can absolutely hit that 2.5 or whatever the number is goal over the next 12 to 24 months and continue to grow and continue to scale to whatever outcome you're after. Does this sound good to you? Yes. And so that's lead, establish the gap, then we present our findings. And I like to ask a 3-loop question. And that 3-loop question is, are you comfortable with everything we've covered so far? And they're going to say, yeah, it sounds good. Are there any questions that you have about the program, about what's included, about how this works? And they're usually gonna be like, well, no, I think you've covered it pretty well. Where do you think we should go from here? And let them guide the process. At this point, you've established the gap, you've shown the problem and how you can help, and then you're asking like, where do you think we should go from here? Let them sell themselves. Usually they'll say, well, what does it look like to get started? Like, what are our next steps? And that's where you can pivot to make the offer, right? Where you can say, hey, look, everything we talked about here is $3,500 per month plus ad spend. What we'll do is we'll launch the website within 4 to 6 weeks. We'll start to drive traffic. We'll do the database reactivation. We'll get things off the ground. There is a $5,000 setup fee. However, if we can decide to move forward in whatever period of time in the next 2 weeks, I can waive that setup fee. How does that sound? Sounds great. Where do you think we should go from here? And they're either going to say, let me give you my credit card, right? Or they're going to say, you know, let me, let's, let me meet with my team and discuss this further. Usually they'll say like, what do you suggest? Well, I suggest we get started. Like you told me right now, the goal is a million. You're at a million. You're looking to get to 2.5. You said this is a priority to move forward right now. I really think there's 2 great times to plant a tree. The best time to plant a tree was 5 years ago. The next best time is right now. We'll get the credit card and we'll get this party started. And some And people say, yeah, let's go ahead. Like, here's my credit card number. And if they say no, or they say, hey, look, you know, I really need to think about it, or I need to schedule with someone else. Not a problem. You know, I'm happy to let you do that. Go ahead and have that conversation. But let me ask you this. Assuming you met with that team member, assuming you had the time to think about it, what would prevent you from moving forward? Draw out those objections. Draw out those concerns. Ideally, you can address them and ask again. Hey, look, I really think now would be the best time to get started because it's going to take us a couple of weeks to get this off the ground. If I can get your credit card authorization, we can schedule your kickoff call later this Ask a couple of times. Sometimes they're not ready to rock and roll just yet. And they're going to say, hey, look, Leo, let me meet with the team. Not a problem. Like we agreed, we're going to decide to make a decision one way or the other within the next 2 weeks. Yes. Yes. Okay, great. Let's go ahead and schedule our follow-up meeting right now because you're going to get busy. I'm going to get busy. It sounds to me like this is a priority for you. It's definitely a priority for us to support you. If we don't schedule it now, we're going to wind up chasing each other and that's not good for either of us. So always schedule the next meeting right then and right there. That way, You've got forward momentum. But then in addition for that, what we want to do is make sure that we've got the hot lead follow-up process in place. And so that's, you met with the prospect, they were a good fit. They said they're interested. They're on the 2-week time horizon on when they're going to say yes. Don't just wait until the next meeting, which happens a week from then or whenever you guys scheduled. Put them into a hot lead follow-up. And this would be literally you move them in your sales pipeline to hot lead follow-up that triggers a shock and awe package that goes out, which is a package with a copy of your book, testimonials, case studies, and then kicks off a follow-up sequence that adds more value, that solves more objections, that gets more and more of those prospects interested in moving forward. Last step in the process is to close the deal, right? And that's to get the credit card authorization form either over the phone or on DocuSign or whatever online signature process that you use and get them launched, get them into a kickoff call ASAP. So that you've got the client and you're already off to the races to exceed their expectations. The 5 steps: get the prospects to raise their hand, make sure you vet them through a discovery process, prepare in advance so that you can demonstrate logically the issues, follow the strategy session process where you spend the time on the front end understanding where they are, understanding what their goals are, getting them to explain why it's a now and why they can't leave things the way they are. And make sure you have a hot lead process in place. But this is exactly how you can close $3,000 to $5,000 monthly retainer deals in your agency. Now, just by implementing this, you're gonna get some awesome results. However, mastering the sales process is not enough. You see, we've now helped over 133 marketing agencies scale to 7 figures, and you can check out dozens of interviews and testimonials on our website or on this channel. The way we did this was by helping these agencies master each part of their business. Landing clients, delivering results, retaining clients long-term, and scale. So if you're running a digital marketing agency doing 6 figures or multiple 6 figures and you're looking to grow to the next level and finally hit that million-dollar-per-year mark, then make sure you click the first link in the description and schedule a free one-on-one agency acceleration session. On that call, we'll deep dive into your current situation, craft a roadmap that you can use to take your business to the next level, and we'll also see if we can help you get there even faster. So again, click that first link in the comments below, schedule your free agency acceleration session, and we'll talk to you soon.