By For someone with a big title and a winning success formula, David Little exudes a refreshingly humble, down-to-earth attitude.
Little is the Senior Vice President of Enterprise Sales at Comporium, a telecommunications company that operates a full-service digital agency known as Comporium Media Services. The agency serves over 10,000 small and medium businesses (SMB) across the Carolinas.
Under Little’s leadership, Comporium Media Services’ digital revenue surged 82 percent in just one year while his client retention stands at an enviable 99 percent.
How does he do it? It starts with attitude.
His ability to connect with people at their level helps create rapport with local businesses and is a principle he instills among his sales teams.
“It really does come down to who they trust, who’s bringing value to the table, and who’s helping them, not just in their marketing but really anything that you can do to help a small business,” Little says.
“We always talk about how relationships are key, but today there’s just so many players in the field that customers have to choose. The people with the best relationships who bring the most value to the table are the winners.”
In this blog, Little offers his digital agency success formula within four of his best tips for cultivating relationships and driving results.
Tip 1: Create a low barrier to entry
You and your sales teams may be excellent at building relationships with prospects, but if you don’t have a simple, low-cost offering that suits their needs, you may struggle to get them across the line.
That’s why Little and his agency sales team do their homework on various customer segments and offer digital marketing solutions and packages that are cost effective and easy to sell.
“It's important that you understand and know your ideal customer profile, and then you need to really understand how to bring value to that customer,” Little explains.
I’m always looking for solutions that we can offer our local businesses that don't require a large investment upfront. So things like software-as-a-service and cloud offerings where they have the ability to pay as they play and turn services on and off.
Key takeaway: Segment your local business opportunities, assess the pain points of each group, and consider which digital solutions are easy to explain and cost-effective as part of a starter package. Develop a talk track that convinces your prospects and customers that you’re providing value, not just becoming an expense. It’s a vital part of the digital agency success formula David Little uses to succeed.
Tip 2: Leverage your team’s talents as part of a winning success formula
Often, agency owners and sales reps put the weight of the world on their shoulders to speak with clients, close deals, or appear to be the expert. But from experience, Little says they shouldn’t.
“My biggest challenge is learning that I don't have to be the expert in the room at all times, that I can let other people lead and take control of their responsibilities,” he says.
“That's truly what creates a good team. When people have the ability to learn, sometimes through failure and sometimes through success, that's really what it's all about—the team effort.”
Key takeaway: Don’t be scared to align your team’s individual strengths and talents to tasks and opportunities that they are better placed to tackle.
Get the case study: Media services provider increases digital revenue by 82 percent
Tip 3: Measure everything and have controls
Having been a business owner in the past himself, Little knows how important it is to have accurate data and consistent processes. One mistake he sees across sales organizations is different reps going off and doing their own thing and using wildly different talk tracks and reporting procedures.
“I would say measure everything, and trust the data to make your decisions. You also need to have controls in your process because if everyone's kind of doing their own version of the process, then your data's flawed and you can't really make good decisions off of that,” he says.
“So don't be afraid to change, because every day that you don't make a change, when you're not getting the result that you need out of your process, then that's lost revenue and lost opportunity,” he explains.
“Years ago, one of our processes was leading with the Snapshot Report, and we increased our revenue in one year by 82 percent by doing that. So again, you have to track, measure, and then make the appropriate adjustments when needed,” Little continues.
Key takeaway: As part of the digital agency success formula, develop consistent processes, measure whether your strategy is working, and adopt a continuous-improvement mentality. If something in your process isn’t working, be nimble and willing to change it to make it better.
Tip 4: Keep a good local reputation
Digital agencies are in the game of helping local businesses improve their reputation, but how often have you thought about yours?
“You can have a lot of different solutions, from advertising, to your website, to SEO. But at the end of the day, no matter how great your lead-generation tools or your awareness tools may be, if your reputation is not stellar, then you're just basically going to send those leads to your competitor,” Little says.
“So I know reputation was something that's been around for a long time, but it's still probably one of the most critical things a business needs to understand and to manage if they're going to succeed,” Little shares.
Key takeaway: Agency owners must place the same emphasis on developing and maintaining a five-star reputation that they do for their local business clients. It’s a key part of the dgital agency success formula.
Want to be as successful as David Little?
David Little is one of Vendasta’s top partners. Learn more about how he uses our platform to sell solutions and generate millions in revenue in this case study.