SOTR: Marrying Marketing with Sales Will Make Your Agency Really, Really Explosive

May 27, 2022

Ryan Stewart is a well-known marketing expert and serial entrepreneur. He has developed a process to help owners scale their businesses in the online ecosystem by allowing them to step back after realizing the company’s potential. He has more than ten years of experience in this industry and has done many things during this period. He is currently the Managing Partner of WEBRIS, an SEO agency that helps clients get more customers from Google search using their fast, effective Sprint Methodology; and Managing Partner at The Blueprint Training, helping SEO agencies scale past $100k by “productizing” their service (aka the SEO Sprint Methodology).

Stewart sold WEBRIS in 2018 after scaling the SEO and digital marketing company to $1.1 million ARR in a little over a year. As the fraction CMO at Ardent Cannabis, Ryan Stewart took the company’s annual sales from $750,000 to $1.4 million in just eight months. 

He lives in Miami with his amazing wife (Pamela) and sausage dog. They are also in the process of building up their own real estate portfolio of short-term rental (STR) properties.

What if your agency’s sales and marketing were on the same page? If you can get the sales dialed, it makes your marketing that much better. With this explosion of growth comes bigger margins, more clients, greater revenue, and a better culture. This SOTR episode explores the topics of marrying marketing with sales, staying sharp by staying on top of the latest trends, taking care of your people, and why there's so much money in the cannabis industry.

This Cast Covers:

  • Why there’s so much money in the cannabis industry that people in it don’t know what to do with all of it (05:13)
  • How cannabis companies make so much cash they’re willing to take an injection of their capital and pay 30% interest on it (05:41)
  • The law of supply and demand and the number of limited licenses there are in the United States (07:26)
  • Ryan talks about his role as a fractional CMO for this cannabis company (08:22)
  • What product-led marketing should actually look like (08:45)
  • Why he’s being paid a premium as a consultant for these companies and not only that but also being given an earnout (11:56)
  • How Ryan watched this company grow from pulling their hair out not knowing how they’ll be able to pay the rent to now having so much money they have no idea what to do with it (12:20)
  • Choosing to do things that forces dudes like Ryan and Joey to sharpen the knife and reinvest back into their own education (13:08)
  • The main reason Joey’s going to take 3 or 4 really elite high-caliber coaching clients (hint: it’s not about the money) (13:57)
  • How quickly the digital landscape changes and if you don’t keep up, you’ll get so left behind (14:42)
  • Why Ryan keeps banging out content on YouTube that doesn’t talk about marketing or SEO, and all that stuff his companies are well-known for (17:24)
  • The people who really understand how to get attention are the ones who draw a line in the sand and they don't give a shit (21:42)
  • When it comes to sales, does Ryan still believe you shouldn’t be a pushy, jackass salesperson when selling a service like SEO? (26:55) 
  • You’ve got to be comfortable making other people uncomfortable and ushing them to make a decision they don’t want but need to do (27:33)
  • JJ, Joey, and Ryan talk about extreme ownership in sales roles (31:12)
  • There are different ways to sell and different types of salespeople who can be successful in their own way (31:48)
  • How do you hire, build, and train a rockstar sales talent, but also retain them? (35:08)
  • Find out what your salespeople care about and get to know them individually (06:30)
  • How Ryan has never had somebody leave or quit in the last eight years of business at his two companies (37:40)
  • The surprising number of agencies Ryan has worked with are either on their way to seven figures or have already gotten there (39:52)
  • Joey gives advice for all agency owners – define success for each client and identify what their win is (42:03)
  • Is there still something holding Joey and Ryan back in getting to where they potentially want to go? (47:16)
  • The parable of a six-year-old a.k.a. JJ’s daughter on how to celebrate your wins (50:57)

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