Today in Digital Marketing - How Agencies Can Form Meaningful Client Relationships (George Leith, CCO of Vendasta.com)

Episode Date: March 27, 2022

In this paid partnership with Vendasta.com, Tod speaks with George Leith, Chief Customer Officer of Vendasta, about how their platform helps agencies provide more complete service to their customers.Vendasta is the secret identity behind more than 60,000 agencies serving millions of small businesses globally. We provide a one-stop-shop of curated solutions to help businesses move to digital and ecommerce. From a Marketplace of 250+ products designed to meet the needs of your clients as they arise to sales intelligence software, outsourced fulfillment, and an all-in-one platform that handles selling and billing, we’ve your back covered so you can focus on being a superhero for your business community.Our Sponsors:* Check out Kinsta: https://kinsta.comPrivacy & Opt-Out: https://redcircle.com/privacy

Often one of the first decisions you've got to make as you scale your company is which platforms you'll rely on for your CRM, your email marketing, your invoicing, project management, and more. You could use individual apps, maybe try to string them together with middleware, but then you're dealing with API problems, multiple billings, and so on. Or you could opt for an all-in- one solution. Today, as part of a paid partnership, we are continuing to explore the Vendasta platform, an end to end e-commerce system used by more than 60,000 marketing agencies, together selling services to more than 5.5 million small and medium sized businesses around the world. George Leith is the chief customer officer of Vendasta. He's also an advisory board member of the Cultivator Tech Incubator and is himself a podcaster. His show is called Conquer Local. George, welcome. Hey, Todd. Thanks for having us. So earlier, I chatted with Jacqueline from Vendasta about how agencies might use your

platform. But I want to back up and pick your brain a bit about small businesses. Like, broadly speaking, why do you think small business owners are hesitant to buy software and deploy it themselves? Well, what a great question that you have there. My background is in the media business. Before I came to Vendasta 10 years ago to build out our sales machine, I was on the street selling to local businesses as a radio rep and then as a newspaper publisher. And, you know, those business owners back in those days, and it remains true today, are looking for someone that they trust that can help them navigate the space. And I remember when I started exceeding budgets, it didn't happen out

of the gate when I started selling radio. But after a while, I figured out that if I could really help that business owner with all of their marketing concepts, you know, even maybe give them an idea of what they could put into the newspaper or the TV. And that kind of goes against, you know, you're selling radio, so you should be focused on the radio piece of it. But what the business owner was looking for was assistance with their entire marketing plan. So even back in those good old days of the 90s, I figured out that if I could become that resource for that local business, I would actually end up getting more budget and I would have a better lens as to what was really going on with their organization. So when I started working with Vendasta and some of our earliest customers that are out serving those, you mentioned five and a half million businesses, we see the same thing today, only the level of confusion is even higher. Because yes, a business owner could go online, go to Google, do a bunch of searches, find

software, but then you got to put it all together so that it works. I think, you know, if you go and look at your credit card, you might be signed up to some software right now that you just don't use because it didn't tie into the other things that you were doing. So the level of confusion is even higher. And I find that business owners are leaning on people that they have a high level of trust, because we just have to look at our phones. I think I've had nine calls this morning. I don't recognize those numbers, so I don't even answer them. It's from sales professionals that are trying to get the

attention. And usually it's software companies or service providers that are trying to sell it direct to you. So that I've just found, you know, working with people all over the world that sell to those business owners, that that level of confusion is higher than it's ever been. And they're really looking to someone that they can trust to figure out how to solve their problems. Right. And so the Vendasta platform, as I understand it, is primarily for agencies who then resell these white labeled services. Can you talk a bit about what those services are? I know you've got SEO in there, you've got CRM. Like, what is sort of the broad scope of what one entity, like an agency or even a freelancer acting as a kind of agency of one, offer to their customers? You know, great question. I think it has to do with, you know, how does that business make sure that when one of their customers goes looking for a product or service that they offer, that they find them? So, you know, advertising, do they know about you? Listings, can they find you? So are you listed correctly on whatever source that they're looking to find those solutions? And then reputation, do they trust you?

So when they look at your online reviews, do you have a good online review score and positive comments from your customer base? Or is it less than positive? And then social media, do people like you? And are they engaging in your content online? And then when I get to the website, is it fast? Can I conduct transactions on there? I'm going for a massage after we have this recording here, Todd.

And I booked that appointment online with my massage therapist. I would have a hard time phoning because they don't answer their phone. So I actually conduct that transaction right on their website. And then at the end of all that, after you've landed a customer, will they become your advocate? Will they give you that positive review that you can then promote to other potential customers that are looking at that same customer journey? So when I talk about customer journey, I'm referring to the customers of those five and a half million businesses that we have. And it's that idea of advertising. And are you listed correctly? Can I find you? Can I trust you? Do other people like

you? And then can I conduct business? Can I get to your website and either book an appointment or can I make a purchase? And then can I go online and say good stuff about you afterwards? So that's the way that we look at it. Right. So that's a bunch of processes, but what are the tools inside Vendasta that enable those processes? You talked about social media. Can you manage social media comments through it? Appointment booking, is there a tool inside Vendasta that's on par with, say, the Calendly's of the world? Sure. So if we get right down to the brass tacks of the products and services, we offer a number of different advertising solutions from various top-notch providers that we have vetted, and we have those in different jurisdictions. So if you're looking for something in North America,

we have a provider. If you're looking for something in South Africa, we have a provider. Then on the listing side, we use a number of different listing syndication services. We have about four of them so that businesses can send their data to a wide array of listing sources,

which is part of search engine optimization. But then we also... An example would be Uberall, which is a listing syndicator where they've created relationships with about 40 different listing sites. And then when you put the data into the Vendasta platform, it automatically syndicates that to those sources like vehicle navigation systems. If you were a doctor, we could get your listing information correct on rate MDs. If you were an auto dealer, we could get your listing data correct on edmundsandcars.com. So depending upon the category of the business, there's a different set of sources that you need to have correct listing data on. What are you finding that business owners are asking from these? I think you refer to them as channel partners or trusted

local experts. We're talking about your customers, which are agencies. What are you finding that business owners are asking from those agencies these days, like some broad overall trends? Yeah. Can I get leads? You know, at the end of the day, what a business, we all want that. You probably want leads. I know I want more leads. I'm looking at a very hungry sales floor out there that would kill for some leads. So I think the business owner is looking for, can I get some more qualified customers that I can talk to and convert into paying customers? But it's not that easy because those leads that are out there, we need to get their attention. We need to then give them a conduit so they can get a hold of us.

We then need to, again, I go back to the reputation thing. Can I trust you or do other people say good stuff about you? On the social media component, we need to have social media plans. We need to write social media content. We maybe need to boost that. Then when we look at our website, we have to have, you know, a website that's fast. Can I get that website and find the things I'm looking for within five seconds? That's the data. If a consumer can't find what they're looking for on a website in five seconds, they go somewhere else. So that, you know, all of those pieces of that customer journey need products and services to

make that great experience so that you get a really good funnel of those potential customers coming into the business. We have, as you know, been through just like a massive upheaval in the last year and a half or two years from the pandemic to mass closures and bankruptcies and supply chain issues. And a lot of the discussion of there is focused on the long term impacts. But what would you say, given your experience and the ability where you are to see

that full landscape, what do you think are the small and medium-sized businesses' biggest challenges in the short term, like in the next month or so? Well, as we get back to business from when we're recording this episode right now, like we're going back to business right now in a lot of cases. The mandates are coming to an end. The passport things are coming to an end. So when people start shopping again, when they're able to go physically into business, what are they going to see? And what does your online presence look like? Because we know that people search before they shop. So, you know, the same things that we were

saying before the pandemic, and then when the pandemic hit, it actually accelerated the need to make sure that you're listed correctly online. Do you offer curbside delivery? Do you offer, you know, do you offer the ability to just have it delivered to your house? Can I shop in an online showroom? You know, all of those things, I think some people may have changed their shopping habits. So, you know, business owners, even though you're going to get more traffic in your business, I hope we're still going to have to embrace the fact that a bunch of people just changed the way that they're going to shop. So I think that for business owners, it's going to be a challenge.

I think some people are going to be saying, oh, well now I don't have to do all that digital stuff because we're going to go back to the way it was before. And I think there's a big chunk of the population that are never going to go back because it's maybe a better experience for them the way that they're able to shop today online. And we can find throughout those five and a half million businesses we have on our platform, if we look at the trends, we can see businesses that really adopted an online presence. And we can see that they did quite well during the pandemic. And we think they're going to do really well post pandemic. So as much as we're going to get back to breathe in the same air, I think there's a whole bunch of

people that just don't want to shop that way. They had to before, but now they've adopted to new tactics. And I think that's going to be a competitive advantage for business people. If they still have that digital sales opportunity or that e-commerce opportunity where I'm able to shop online or at least get to the point where I can make the decision. And then maybe I might come in and pick it up. But I just see that all the things that we've been saying for the past 10 years to business owners, the evangelizing we've been doing about you have to have that online presence. I just see it on steroids now. Yeah. And also in the last 10 years or so, as you know, one of the big trends that keeps coming back is automation, right? The sense that we have the AI now that we can turn loose on routine marketing

and lead gen tasks, smarter segmentation, focused messaging on specific target groups. So, you know, this automation is always something people are talking about. And I feel like we've now, like in the last couple of years, gotten to a stage of maturity with the technology. How do you think businesses are best to take advantage

of this better quality automation? Well, I think we have to look at our economics. And, you know, all of us on here are entrepreneurs and business people. We have a profit and loss statement. And we have to look at how we might be able to optimize to get the, you know, the most profit at the end of the day and be the most efficient. And that's where automations come in. And as we look at inflation and prices going up and labor is more expensive and, you know, maybe rent is down a little bit because there might be some space, but not everywhere.

Definitely not where you live on the West Coast, Todd. It's expensive there. So I think that business owners are going to have to look to automations to find those efficiencies. I was at a Dollarama the other day and there were no humans checking you out. It's a brand new store. It's all robots. Now they have one person. You know how that works. They got one person with the robots. You scan your stuff and you walk out the door. Now Dollarama, I don't even expect a level of service there. I just like going in there and getting a great deal. So that's an example. Go to a McDonald's.

You get the same type of thing. You got the robots. Now in the sales business, which I've been in for 35 years, we used to go door to door and then we were able to use maybe some email marketing. So that was a pretty efficient way to get our message out there and do some of that education of our prospects. So even in that business, I see an enormous amount of automation happening to be able to make organizations more efficient and we see industries that haven't even looked at maybe crm or running some marketing automation with email marketing that are starting to consider it i have a friend of mine that i've worked with for 30 some odd years that owns a number of john deere dealerships

and he reached out to me here recently saying you know we really should adopt some social selling skills and i'm like don't you know every farm where you just go and you know what you know even know what they bought in the past and he's like yeah but that's not the way they buy anymore they're making a lot of their buying decisions um online before they ever walk into my dealership so we're seeing all sorts of industries that before they were like no that's just not the way our people shop that they're starting to have to look at some of these automations. A lot of it is around efficiencies, but I think at the root of it, it's actually the way that customers want to buy. If you want to make yourself relevant to your customer base, you have to understand that the way that they're buying is changing. Let's circle back to people who might be listening that are owners or marketers of agencies.

So maybe they're looking for that opportunity to provide a deeper range of services to their clients. You know, as an agency owner myself, I love white-labeled solutions. I'm not trying to be deceptive, but, you know, it provides smoother onboarding. It gives a level of comfort if it has the appearance that, you know, we've got this all together. So can you briefly walk me through, from someone who works at an agency, what is Vendasta's value to them as it relates to offering services to their customers? Yeah, you touched on it off the top. It's the end-to-end platform and the ability to not go out and sign nine different subscriptions and then have to hire a software developer to put it all together. So that's one piece. The second piece is the ability to go to a marketplace with over 560 different

products and services that have all been vetted and that have some, you know, comments on how they work with the correct marketing and the correct deliverables with them. And then some suggestions as to how to put that together to help that customer. Now, I'm not saying that maybe agencies need everything, but what we're finding is usually agencies have a bit of a niche where there's something that they started doing and maybe they added some adjacent solutions. We're giving them the ability to broaden that stack and solve more problems. Why I'm a big believer in, you know, agencies becoming that trusted local expert is because technology is commoditized.

We can go in there and we can say, okay, I'm solving this problem for you. And we're doing a pretty good job, right? Customer. And they're like, yeah, we like working with you. You're responsive. You're trustworthy. You have integrity. Well, we have come up with a couple of other solutions that can solve a problem that we know that you have. And I think that business owners are looking for

that. I think they're looking for somebody that they can trust. They'd rather not deal with 50 different vendors. They'd rather deal with one vendor that can put it all together. And the analogy I like to use is general contractor. So, you know, if we're going to do big rental on our house or at our business, we're going to hire a general contractor and they're going to go out and pick people that they've worked with in the past. They're going to pick an electrician that they work with really well. They're going to pick a plumber that they work with. They're going to use suppliers that give them preferred rates so that they can win your RFP for that general contract. And I find that that's where agencies are going.

Now, if we look at some of the problems that agencies have, and I'll use maybe a web development agency, that's really feast or famine. You sell the big website, you celebrate, get a bottle of champagne, steak and lobster, have a nice dinner. But then what am I going to do while I go hunt the next one? But what if you took all of that rapport that you have with that customer and you say to them, you know, we've noticed that your listings have problems. We need to get that syndicated properly. We're going to help you with your search engine optimization so your website isn't a billboard in the middle of nowhere. And what it's helping those agencies do is get that adjacent business. But what it's helping the client do is have one throat to choke if there's a problem.

They love that. They love having one person. The latest data shows that 90% of businesses are saying, if I could just deal with one person that could solve these problems, that would be a big win for me. And, you know, not only that, but also one user account, one invoice every month. You know, we're a small agency, but people leave sometimes. And I've got this offboarding checklist and like 90% of it is deactivate their accounts on like a million and one services that we have, you know, MailChimp and Google and Todoist and Sprout Social and Buffer, you know, like that ability, I think, to have it all in one place. There's a lot of hidden value there. Well, you're referring to, you know, something that, you know, might be a little little bit negative but i think all of us went through it where we have to remove somebody so they either

leave or we have to terminate them and you're right what if you miss one of those logins and they're not very happy with you and they go make some changes like that's just a that's a huge risk for an organization so that piece alone by just turning off one user permission is fantastic but let me tell you something else it's better i have been out working with some of our trusted local experts calling on their customers. I'll never forget the story. We were in Worcester, Massachusetts calling on a truck accessory company. And it was a husband and wife team. And the wife was responsible for all the purchasing and paying the bills. And so we sat down and we went through and said, OK, what are you doing today? And she said, well, wait, wait a minute. She went and got a file out of the file folder

and she put it on the desk and we went through the bills. And that was her audit of her tech stack for her marketing. And the funny part is when we went through the bills, she was buying the exact same thing from three different companies, the exact same. They might've actually been working against each other with the tactics. So we find that a lot when we sit down and build some trust with a business owner, they're looking for that consolidated view, one operating system, one login, as much as the agency owner is looking for that. Well, certainly comprehensive. I think when people go to your website, and they see these these tools that they can integrate and offer to their clients, I think it's remarkable what you've put together.

George, thank you for your time. Todd, it's been my pleasure. Thanks for your time. George Leith is the chief customer officer at Vendasta. Vendasta.com is their URL. That's V-E-N-D-A-S-T-A.com. This has been a paid partnership between Vendasta and our podcast.