Secrets to Long-Term Client Engagements With Melissa Morris

Melissa Morris: 10:42

But yeah. So I guess I was just really drawn. I always thought it was so interesting. Human behavior has always fascinated me. And I thought it was so interesting how in the 30s or one magazine ad, you could influence people and sway them.

And there’s so much into advertising to really understand how people work. Your ideal client avatar, what makes them tick, how do people think? And I was really interested in all of those pieces of advertising. And so that’s what drew me to select it ultimately, right, in college as my major and then be on the hunt for getting that position in an agency. I do not have a creative bone in my body, though, so I knew design was not going to be my forte.

But I am really good at managing clients and deadlines, so that’s why I was able to slide in the client delivery piece.

John Corcoran: 11:33

Yeah. And was that a shift from what you’d done with the yellow Pages? It was a yellow page. Less on the client management side. Like, just kind of like more on the sales side.

Or did you have to manage the clients also with the Yellow Pages?

Melissa Morris: 11:48

No. So I had a big book of clients. I had a lot of contracts. I was responsible for gathering payment on getting ad work in. But they I mean, they would literally say, get the ink on the contract and get out.

Like, don’t dawdle, don’t wait. They’re going to change their get out of there. Like, get the ink on the contract, get that check and then get out of there. Which did not feel good to me. No.

Yeah. I was like, that doesn’t feel right.

Melissa Morris: 12:12

Which that will.

John Corcoran: 12:13

Kill you in the agency world if you approach it like that.

Melissa Morris: 12:16

Way.

Melissa Morris: 12:16

Yes, yes it will. You’d be done for.

John Corcoran: 12:19

Yeah. So that was a real shift then when you got to the agency world, is that it’s much more of a long term, ongoing relationship type of thing.

Melissa Morris: 12:26

Yes, it was a shift, but one that felt much more in alignment with my just personal philosophy and and.

John Corcoran: 12:35

Yeah, and that’s part of the premise behind the work that you do now is, you know, when you develop those longer term relationships, then it’s easier to turn those engagements into something much larger. So let’s talk about that. You know, you know, part of your job at these agencies was to take these clients from whatever they’re spending now to spending more and break that down for me. Like, what are the ways that you obviously got to do a good job, you know, got to build trust and authority with the clients. But what are some ways that you approach it when you want to kind of develop a good relationship with the client and expand it?

Melissa Morris: 13:14

Yeah. So we talked about this a little bit before, and I just wanted to say it again, because I think it’s really important and useful to hear. It is easier to keep and grow your current clients then go find new ones. It just is. And that’s not that we don’t want to do new sales.

We always want to be out cultivating and nurturing new sales. But I think sometimes there’s so much focus on getting new sales that we were not paying attention to this group of people who had already committed to us. And so working with agency owners and reminding them of the current client base that they do have, how can we continue to extend those relationships? Can we offer contracts that are longer and incentivize that? Can we grow that book of business?

So maybe right now we’re just handling their social media, but can we also handle their website updates or could we do some additional email marketing for them, whatever your service lines match up and make sense. But fostering and nurturing relationships in such a way so that those questions and those opportunities feel really easy.

John Corcoran: 14:19

And how do you do that? Because I know that a lot of agency owners kind of struggle with that. Like, how do you build it into your process so that there is a natural point where you’re going to be talking about additional ways that we can serve this client.

Melissa Morris: 14:36

So, you know, when you think about any relationship, what makes a good relationship? Good communication. And when you keep that in mind with your clients, it’s going to be the same. You’re going to have a good relationship with your clients. And so what does good communication look like though right?

And what are these touch points we can build into our process? And like you said a lot of agency owners want to shy away sometimes from it. But the truth is you need to ask your clients how it’s going. And I have automated workflows for any retainer who comes on with me, and we have check ins and we have surveys that go out to them. Are we on track to meet your goals?

What could I be doing better? What is really working for you? Where do you need support? Just a few simple questions. Now, I know those are always going to go out and those are my safeguard, right?

But I’m also often asking If we’ve gone through a few weeks, I may check in with them and say, you know, I’m looking back. Always come back to the liberals. I’m looking back at our deliverables. I’m looking back at the goals we set up for this engagement. This is what I see we’ve accomplished.

Are you feeling on track? How’s that feeling? And they’ll tell me. Yeah, you’re right. I think we’re doing really well.

Or. Gosh, I’m feeling a little stressed. I really thought we’d be a little farther along by now. Okay, well, let’s talk about it. And you can see how easy that was.

Just. It was a very simple question. This didn’t need to feel very formal. We didn’t need to block out fresh time on the calendar. I didn’t need to put all this weight and heaviness on this very simple question.

But ask them, how are we tracking? How are we doing? If you’ve freshly delivered something to them, ask them. I wanted to check in. Now that you’ve had that in your hands for a couple of weeks, is it still feeling?

How did it resonate with the rest of the team? Did this pass by a board? Have you gotten any feedback? Check in and here’s the thing you want to know. The question is always, but what if they’re not happy?

Well, don’t you want to know that now, while they’re still 4 to 6 months in your agreement, and you have an opportunity to make it right and get things back on track, or do you want to be blindsided in six months when they don’t renew their contract?

John Corcoran: 16:44

Yeah. And so you mentioned both automated surveys or emails that go out and you mentioned asking them one on one. Is there one that works better than the other or does it depend on the client?

Melissa Morris: 17:01

I think it depends on the client. And I would say you, you know, your clients. So a lot of my clients are very overwhelmed agency owners. And so I can send them that survey. And it is not uncommon for them to not see it, not get to it.

2 or 3 weeks could go by. They’ll even comment, oh, I saw you sent me something. I promise I’ll, I’ll look at it. So to continue to pester them in their email is not the best way to get some solid feedback from them. But on a call, quick to say hey, just want to check in real quick.

How are we doing? Are you feeling good about progress? Yeah. Yeah. Now, if they were to open up something and say, actually, no, this is feeling really off track, I’m feeling.

Then maybe we schedule an extra call. Maybe there are additional steps and measures I would take, but a lot of times it’s really simple. Or they’ll say something really simple like, yeah, no I think things are going really well. But gosh, you know, it would be really helpful if you could. X, Y and Z.

Sure. Right. If that’s going to make your life a lot easier. And it’s a really simple task. Absolutely.

I can do that for you. And that they feel they feel seen. They feel heard. I’m giving them what they need to make their life easier. And off they go.

John Corcoran: 18:17

And are there ways to get honesty out of the clients? Because there are some clients that won’t speak up. And then all of a sudden, you know, boom, they’re out. How do you ask? How do you kind of encourage them to open up and to be truthful with you?

Melissa Morris: 18:36

I think some of it’s asking those open ended questions, not, did you like that thing I sent you.

Melissa Morris: 18:43

Because it was fine?

John Corcoran: 18:44

No. Out of politeness, they’ll want to say, yeah, right, right.

Melissa Morris: 18:48

And then that’s why I always ask the hard question: what should I be doing differently? What didn’t you like about that? And then it really opens the door for them to share. And, I mean, we all have our own comfort level with what we can speak about. So if your gut is telling you there, they’re telling me everything is good, but I’m not quite sure I believe them.

You can even offer to follow up via email, right? You can tell them if they’re like, oh no, I mean, I guess I think it’s good, right? I wouldn’t worry about it. And they skirt, say, okay, you know, I want you to always, you know, be happy with the deliverables. I want you to feel good about that.

If something’s not sitting well, you can also feel free to email me. Give them an opportunity to get it written out. If maybe face to face is feeling a little intimidating for them. And then ultimately, if they’re not going to come to you with what’s going on, if they’re not going to be open and honest and allow you the opportunity to continue to correct things, this is probably not a relationship that’s going to be long term anyway. And I know I sleep better at night if I know I’ve asked, and I did the best I could to try and check in with them and give them a really great experience.

But I can only bring in the 50%. They got to bring in that other 50% and talk to me and tell me what they need or what needs to shift. So I would say it doesn’t happen very often at all, that I have people who are dissatisfied or, you know, even through my clients and like working through all of them. It’s not often that people.

Melissa Morris: 20:20

Won’t.

Melissa Morris: 20:21

Come to them with what’s going on when that door has been opened. But sometimes it does take that step of inviting them to email you instead.

John Corcoran: 20:30

I know, I know with our company we have deliberately developed really kind of more of a productized service, which a lot of companies try to do develop a system and a process and stay within that for a variety of different reasons. So if you ask that kind of open ended question to say, what else could I be doing? What if what if they answer something that is beyond the scope of that? Or that you just kind of disagree with it? Like maybe from a strategic standpoint, they’re focused on the wrong thing.

How do you, you know, course correct or how do you be responsive when you get that kind of feedback from a client and you don’t think that it’s you don’t think that you should alter your process, or you don’t think that it’s something that you can do for them.

Melissa Morris: 21:18

That is a great, great question, and I’m so glad you asked me that. And I have a few thoughts on that. So one, I still see that as valuable feedback. If they’ve asked you to do something and it’s out of scope, is it something you can add to scope? If it’s not, then that’s a conversation that you need to have with them.

Like that’s actually not a service I provide. Something else if they come to you with a complaint. I am also a big fan of we don’t have to fix everything, and you need to use your judgment sometimes, because sometimes a client will come to you and they have a complaint and it feels important to them, and it feels like a big sticking point, but it’s also a very unique and specific complaint. Yes, if a client comes to you with a very unique and specific complaint, you as the owner of the business can recognize that this is a very unique and specific complaint, and it does not mean you need to change your service offerings or jump through hoops to accommodate this. It’s an opportunity to share with them maybe why you can’t honor that particular request and be open with them about it.

And as a fellow business owner, I would hope they would understand. But that’s something to keep in mind. As an agency owner, you don’t have to do everything but use your best judgment on if it’s a valid correction or if it’s not. And what’s also useful about asking this question is you might start to notice a trend. And if you are asking your clients and they are continuing to ask for something that you haven’t previously offered, but maybe you can offer that’s something better.

Or maybe you could partner with somebody who offers it. Or as you mentioned, from a strategic standpoint, if they’re feeling like, well, if I just had this extra report or I had this extra thing, I would have a better understanding, well, let’s talk about that and let’s get you to understand more about this process and more of what’s happening. And so sometimes it’s even just meeting them where they’re at and helping them understand the strategy and the plan and what’s actually happening. And then by the end of that and that education moment, they may think, oh, you’re right, I don’t need what I was even requesting or that’s not a complaint anymore, because now I understand. But you’re never going to be able to have those conversations until you open the door for them.

John Corcoran: 23:44

I think this is a good segue, because we’re talking about what you want your business to be and what you don’t want it to be. But I think that’s a good segue into how you ended up launching Agency Authority, which was you had had a change in family, right? You had had your second baby and you decided that there was a shift at the agency you were working in, and you wanted more control and more freedom over what you were doing, and that’s what led you to start Agency Authority. And I think that’s an important lesson for agency owners out there around deciding what your priorities are, deciding what your what your business is going to look like, deciding how you’re going to serve clients. So just reflect a little bit on that and how that change showed up for you and how you made that decision to start your company.

Melissa Morris: 24:38

Yeah. So like I had mentioned I had my second baby, and up until that point, the agency I was working at was not paying me very well. And that’s, you know, kind of a stigma sometimes of agencies. And they were, though , giving me a lot of flexibility. They were allowing me.

I was 18 months old, so I was able to pick her up at 2:00. I could work from home. And I allowed this poor pay because of all of this flexibility. And then after I had my second baby, there were suddenly shifts going on in that agency and a lot more micromanaging. And this idea of, well, we need you in the office, we need you here.

We need to see you all the time. We need you showing up. And I just remember thinking, they they pulled me into the conference room as I’m coming back from maternity leave, and they’ve got this big whiteboard up and they’ve got like 8 or 10 clients listed, and you’re going to manage all these clients and this is what you’re going to be responsible for. And I just remember thinking, I know what these clients are paying you. I know what you’re paying me.

And there’s a big disconnect for me on that one. And I remember thinking I could have three clients and make just as much money and. And so ultimately I just left. It just didn’t feel like it made sense. And there were just so many.

And this it’s so interesting too. In reflecting back on this time, this agency had tons of inefficiencies. They were struggling financially, which makes sense now. They’re what so many agencies do. We’re going to clamp down and we’re going to micromanage.

And you’re going to clock in and out for lunch. You’re going to be in the office. You’re going to do all the right things and fill out the reports. And I was like, no. And it got me thinking.

Looking back even then, when your business is really inefficient, things are not streamlined, things are not running smoothly. You’re just bleeding money. And then you start to clamp down on your employees. Your clients start feeling the stress. And it just kind of comes out, like to bring it full circle to my Yellow Pages days.

We could joke that you could see the desperation on someone’s face, right? If they’d gone so many days without a sale, you could almost smell it on them. Like they were just so desperate for a sale. And then they’d finally, like, get the sale, and then they’d be back on track. And I think you can get that same vibe from an agency, and you’re putting that out, even subconsciously through your body language.

And I just realized I’m like, this isn’t what I want to be a part of. And I’m out of here.

John Corcoran: 27:12

So what motivated the shift? Because then you shifted from, you know, working within a lot of agencies so you could have maybe started your own agency, hired people within it to work, and you could have been kind of the Rainmaker, but you shifted to serving agency owners and helping them. Talk a little bit about that decision.

Melissa Morris: 27:32

Yeah. So my first step actually was just to be a marketing consultant and start, you know, so to speak, building my own agency. But I was seeing more and more of these inefficiencies in small businesses. And so for example, I’d ask one of my clients at the time, okay, we’re going to do a marketing push. What’s your most profitable offer?

We don’t know.

Melissa Morris: 27:55

Crickets.

Melissa Morris: 27:55

Like, what do you mean? I’m like, what do you mean you don’t know, right? And I’m thinking, okay, well, how many of these clients can you handle at a time? Like, what if we push this off? How many can you handle at a time?

Oh, gosh, I don’t know. I don’t know, and I’m thinking. What? Oh, okay. Well, you’ve had this project.

I keep hearing you talk about this project. When is it done? It was supposed to be done four months ago.

Melissa Morris: 28:15

Why are you still?

Melissa Morris: 28:16

Working on it? And so, as I’m asking very marketing related questions, I’m uncovering all of these very operational things in these growing businesses. And I said, can we look at that? Can we start talking about that? And I start consulting them and coaching them and training them on those types of things.

Right. Well, let’s rework your package so that you’re getting paid. Let’s implement a contract that says if the project extends beyond 30 days of the date, we can charge you a fee. Or if you’re not paying me, everything goes on hold. How do we start creating things to protect your business versus you constantly being at the mercy of your clients?

And I was getting a lot of success. I was really helping these businesses in this way. And when I first started, I was actually happy helping a variety of businesses. I would work with a photography business, I was working with bookkeepers. I was working with all kinds of businesses.

But what I found is a lot of agencies and people with this agency model thinking, a lot of like digital marketing, even some PR firms, I just so deeply understood their business, their jargon, their needs, their clients, that it was really easy for me to plug in and start getting really big results for them. And so that’s where I really started to focus down on agencies.

John Corcoran: 29:40

And you know, we’re recording this in about almost into the fourth quarter of 2024. There’s a lot of new technologies that are coming along. A lot of agency owners are really afraid of AI and how that’s going to affect their businesses. What do you say to the clients that you worked with? What do you say to agency owners that are, you know, seeing that shift or that are fearful of what’s ahead.

Melissa Morris: 30:07

It’s funny you ask that. I was just thinking about this the other day, and I and the, the metaphor or like similar thing that was coming up for me is way back in the day, if you called in to a business or the line, you got a person and they’d ask who you need, and then they’d connect you, and then you’d connect over here and you talked and you used a person the entire time. And it resulted in often, like, really long wait times. You’d be on hold. I remember my mom sitting, I’m on hold with the bank for, you know, like 40 minutes and she’s just sitting there on hold.

And then all of these automated processes started coming out and lots of automated prompts. And now I could easily pay on the phone and click through and hear my balance. And I didn’t need to talk to a person. So there was a lot of speed and efficiency that came from that, that was really helpful. And even today, it can be oftentimes very helpful to move through that.

But there’s also times where you pick up that phone and you’re like, zero person, person. Like, I need a person. I’m not going to go through a prompt. I need to talk to a human to help me with this. And I think it’s very similar.

I think businesses can use AI to really gain a lot of efficiencies and really improve customer service and a lot of areas, but I also think there are these areas where I need a person and I need a human, and that’s really going to be the best, and that is going to be the fastest and most efficient way to solve my problem is to be in that human to human engagement. So my advice to agencies is to absolutely start looking into AI, lean into it where it makes sense, see how you can use it to gain efficiencies in your business, but also see where you shine. When? When am I going to like, smashing the zero and saying into the autumn person, person, what are those things? And also really lean into those.

John Corcoran: 32:04

That’s great. I think that smashed the zero. That sounds like the title of a book or the name of an agency or something like that. Smash the zero, smash the zero zero.

Melissa Morris: 32:13

Is it just me? Am I the only person, like, smashing myself?

John Corcoran: 32:16

No, totally. I was, as you were saying, that I just had to deal with my internet provider Xfinity the other day and it was mind boggling. Like this horrible chatbot that just was wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong, wrong. And it was like, how do I get to be a human person.

Melissa Morris: 32:31

Yeah.

John Corcoran: 32:31

Yeah, exactly. Well, Melissa, this has been a lot of fun. You know, I love to wrap things up. I’m a big fan of gratitude, especially expressing gratitude to those who helped you along the way in your journey. Imagine you had some mentors, some friends in the agency world, maybe some current clients even that would maybe come to mind when I asked that.

But I’d love to just kind of give you a space here to mention any people that come to mind that we’re mentors or friends or peers or contemporaries that continue to inspire you as you move along in your journey.

Melissa Morris: 33:06

Yeah, I’ve definitely had a couple of really great coaches along the way that I think have really helped me move the needle forward. Lots of colleagues, like you said, clients, friends. But I think the shout out has to go to my husband. He was a big driver for me to go out on my own and a huge support system. Right.

You think when we did this we had a two year old, a newborn, we didn’t have buckets of time sitting around. He is an officer in the military, so he has a busy schedule. He travels a lot. So this wasn’t necessarily easy for me to do. But he has always been like my biggest fan and really supportive.

And I know I’m fortunate because I know that’s not the case for all people. I know some people, their significant others, maybe don’t understand or get frustrated or put timetables on, you know, their entrepreneurial significant other. And so I do feel grateful that not only has he given me that space, but really kicked me out of the nest and told me to go fly.

John Corcoran: 34:13

Yeah. That’s great. Well, we thank him for his service and we thank you, Melissa, for your time here today. Where can people go to learn more about you and Agency Authority?

Melissa Morris: 34:22

Yeah. If you want to head over to youragencyauthority.com/call; you can find a time to chat with me. Or you can always find me on LinkedIn. If you want to send me a DM. I’d love to hear if you found some value from what we discussed or if you have any questions.

Happy to answer them there.

John Corcoran: 34:37

Awesome. Thanks so much, Melissa. Thanks.

Outro: 34:42

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