As a small agency, the biggest challenge you face is strong competition from the existing players. Most agencies will go the obvious yet weaker path long term – offering services at a cheaper rate. Instead what most should do is stand out by doing 2 things:
I will often throw around this line when talking to a Dev Agency;
“What sets an Agency charging 30 USD/hr apart from one charging 100 USD/hr? – Process;
And what sets apart an Agency charging 100 USD/hr from one winning quarter million contracts? – Branding”
In this article I will go over the top 3 ways how I have improved the process for various software development agencies 10xing their revenues.
1 – Getting off the right foot in your process
Delivering value upfront is the best way to stand out – even if the client doesn’t convert, the impression you will leave will be the long term worth you should look at as an agency.
When it comes to software development, the answer to a strong first impression is – Discovery
Integrating any basic system to do a discovery with your new clients will improve 3 aspects of how you deliver software:
A – It will show the clients you care about diving deep into their specific problem and are not having an ‘off the shelf’ approach to things.
B – It will help you with your design, development, and other stages of the delivery process if you do the documentation right as far as the discovery is done.
C – The discovery serves as an excellent test to see if the client you are about to get in deep with – is even a good fit or not? Learn to say No to clients that will without question cause you more pain later down the road.
Ok so I want to do a discovery, where do I start?
Well I can tell you how to offer it first –
The best way I have found on how to offer a discovery is to position it as an introductory service of sorts.
You let the clients know that this will be a paid engagement (could be a small payment to start with) – which will then be adjusted into the larger cost of the project if the client decides to go with you after the call.
What’s in for the client?
They get a blueprint for what they need designed and/or developed. A document that will help them understand their requirements better and help them get the work done from any other team – if they don’t choose to go with your team.
What’s in it for you?
The ABC mentioned above + an additional source of revenue for your efforts that can lead to higher quality of opportunities and better outcomes for your new engagements.
2 – Get approvals done correctly
Clients WILL ALWAYS try to maximize their bang for the buck.
Which means they will always try to adjust or change the requirements as the project goes on.
In your Agency, you need to have strong processes for approvals – period.
If you don’t have strong and intermittent stages where approvals are done – the project will NEVER reach the finish line on time and in budget.
Here’s how you go about it:
Go with 3s – love the 3s. For your design and development stages, give your clients 3 rounds of feedback, be clear about it. Let them know they ONLY get 3 rounds of feedback (feel free to give an extra round if absolutely necessary of course) so that they LIMIT their feedback and think long and hard before passing it along.
Secondly, you need good feedback mechanisms for the feedback to be handled.
I am a Google Sheet veteran, Gsheets are a win in my book – but if there is something else that works better for you – more power to you. Just understand that clients are not savvy, and it needs to be easy for THEM not YOU so you can refer back to the feedback as the source of truth down the project pipeline. If you use a complicated tool, the client can always pull the ‘I didn’t know it did that’ on you leading to further dissonance.
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3 – Documentation, Documentation, Documentation – Process everything through documents
BUT needs to be done right. The primary issue with documentation is that most agencies go overboard with it to the point where it is hard for your clients to grasp, hard for your team to follow, and what you get is a contract noone will bother reading. You NEED to learn how to do lean and effective documentation necessary to the point which protects you and your clients interests.
Here’s a free resource of mine to help you with it: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJaGZT-ZnIw
If you got this far – understand that there isn’t enough space here to go over every detail – and hence as a reward feel free to hit me up for a consultation session at https://topmate.io/saqibtahir
As your business matures, you need someone to come in and offer diverse help
- You need someone who knows enough to “execute faster”
- You need someone who “gets the job done”
- You need someone who adapts to “how you work”
I am your best bet for quicker results.
Schedule a call today!
Or email at hello@saqibtahir.com
See, at the heart of it – I love solving problems for people using technology, it doesn’t get simpler than that.
I am known for constant experimentation and relentless execution.
If I have an idea, it better have a .com at the end of it within the month.
With a decade of delivering successful projects and products, along with hands-on experience of 10,000+ hours in IT, Software Development, and SaaS –
I help great People build greater Products
[…] Their documentation tends to be quite poor from the get go because most agencies won’t invest in process building.– They aren’t transparent on who is working on your project. You will never get to see the […]
[…] Source: Process Prognosis for Software Dev Agencies […]
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