How to 4X Your Fees with a Market Dominating Guarantee – In Just 7 Minutes with Mandi Ellefson

Resources/Links:

• More Growth, with Less Dependence on You: Download the ULITIMATE ROADMAP TO SCALING YOUR CONSULTING AGENCY: https://handsoffceo.com/roadmap/

Summary

Mandi Ellefson is the founder of Hands-Off CEO. She leads owners of consulting agencies to dramatically scale profits. And make the business RUN and GROW without them. She helps them immediately free up to 20-50% of their workweek to focus on accelerating profits.

In this episode, Mandi shares how she helps extract CEO’s from the business so that their business can keep growing and scaling with less dependence on them so that they can work less and make more.

Check out these episode highlights:

• 01:29 – Mandi’s ideal client: “Our ideal clients are B2B service providers. They have to do consulting agencies, multiple six and seven figure companies with teams.”
• 01:50 – Problem Mandi helps solve: The problem we solve is that they cannot grow without the owner working more and more hours. So, growth is completely dependent on the CEO. And what we do is we help extract them from the business so that their business can keep growing and scaling with less dependence on them so that they can work less and make more.
• 02:31 – Typical symptoms that clients do before reaching out to Mandi: “Some of the challenges that they’re working more and more hours, and they don’t feel like they’re actually getting further and further ahead in their company. They’ve gotten to a point where, you know, maybe they can sell pretty well, but they really can’t fulfill in all of that.And what that looks like is a lot of times they stop marketing, they hold back the reins on their marketing efforts because they just can’t really fulfill anymore.”
• 03:33 – Common mistakes people make when trying to solve that problem: Well, one of the things that they do wrong is that they look and say, “Well, the things that I’m the most involved in is the strategy and the business.So, what we’re going to do is we’re going to reduce the amount of strategy and then we’re going to make our service more scalable. So, what they do is they try to make the service more scalable, and what that does is it lowers the results for their clients, and then it lowers what they can command as a fee.”
• 04:39 – Mandi’s Valuable Free Action(VFA): Looking at what is the best outcome that you can create for clients and under what circumstances?
• 06:24 – Mandi’s Valuable Free Action(VFA):More Growth, with Less Dependence on You: Download the ULITIMATE ROADMAP TO SCALING YOUR CONSULTING AGENCY: https://handsoffceo.com/roadmap/
• 08:18 – Q: “Why do marketing agencies deliver such crappy results??” A: Well, the thing is, most marketing agencies deliver absolute crap work. And the reason why is because some of them are like, you know, millions in sales, like we generate millions of dollars for their clients, some of them will deliver 20,000, and they don’t know why? And so, what happens is they price somewhere in between. So, these people get ripped off, these people that are not charging enough for. So, it’s about, they’re underpaying, right? So, it’s really about understanding who you should not be working for and start, stop, stop selling to them. Just stop selling to them. That’s all I got.

Tweetable Takeaways from this Episode:

“Sustainability is always what you should be focusing on first.” -@MandiEllefson Click To Tweet

Transcript
(Note, this was transcribed using a transcription software and may not reflect the exact words used in the podcast)

Tom Poland: 0:09
Hello everyone, a very warm welcome to another edition of Marketing The Invisible. My name is Tom Poland, joined today by Mandi Ellefson. Mandi, good day, very warm welcome. Where are you hanging out?

Mandi Ellefson: 0:19
California?

Tom Poland: 0:21
We’re best in California hopefully away from the fires.

Mandi Ellefson: 0:25
Yes. Couple of hours north of Los Angeles, in a town called Bakersfield.

Tom Poland: 0:30
Oh, I heard of Bakersfield. Famous for something because I’ve heard of it.

Mandi Ellefson: 0:34
Lots of oil. That’s what it’s famous for, lots of oil.

Tom Poland: 0:38
Okay. Well, for those of you who know Bakersfield but don’t know Mandi, She’s the founder of Hands-off CEO. She leads owners of consulting agencies to dramatically scale profits. There’s a whole lot of other things she does that goes with that, but for the sake of time, we won’t dwell on that right now. She also helps them to get the business RUN and GROW, predictably and reliably with great certainty, without them. So, she helps them free up, also, 20 to 50% of their work week to focus on accelerating profits. She is God’s gift to the consulting actions. And the creme of the cake is our subject today, Mandi, which is, “How to 4X Your Fees with a Market Dominating Guarantee.” You’re going to have to show us how to do that in just seven minutes. Our time starts now. Question number one is, who is your ideal client?

Mandi Ellefson: 1:29

Our ideal clients are B2B service providers. They have to do consulting agencies, multiple six and seven figure companies with teams.

Tom Poland: 1:38
With teams. Perfect. Thank you.

Mandi Ellefson: 1:40
With teams, and they do good work.

Tom Poland: 1:41
And they do good work. They’ve got some magic. Taken magic to the market. Question number two, six and a half minutes left, question two, what’s the problem you solve for them?

Mandi Ellefson: 1:50

The problem we solve is that they cannot grow without the owner working more and more hours.

So, growth is completely dependent on the CEO. And what we do is we help extract them from the business so that their business can keep growing and scaling with less dependence on them so that they can work less and make more.

Tom Poland: 2:07
Perfect. Thank you. Just over six minutes left. So, we’ve got this person who’s got the agency, it’s doing six or seven figures, probably. They’ve got people, but they’re not getting growth because they’re running out of time. And they’re probably killing themselves trying to get that growth, which is not happening. What are some of the typical symptoms that people tell you they were suffering from prior to finding the Hands-off CEO?

Mandi Ellefson: 2:31

Yeah. Some of the challenges that they’re working more and more hours, and they don’t feel like they’re actually getting further and further ahead in their company.

They’ve gotten to a point where, you know, maybe they can sell pretty well, but they really can’t fulfill in all of that. And what that looks like is a lot of times they stop marketing, they hold back the reins on their marketing efforts because they just can’t really fulfill anymore. And then they can’t hire more people because they don’t have the cash flow to do it. So, it’s really this vicious cycle of they don’t have the cash flow to hire more people, but they don’t have the time to go out and market more. Because if they do, then they don’t have the time to actually fulfill the work. So, they’re at this catch in two places, very difficult to scale. It’s not quite enough time and resources to get to the next level.

Tom Poland: 3:11
Frustrating. Question four. Which is probably another symptom, frustration. Question number four, five minutes left, what are some of the common mistakes that folk make prior to finding your solution? They’re going to try and bust through this revenue ceiling, but they’re going to do some stuff that isn’t going to work so well. So just let us know, what are some of those common mistakes?

Mandi Ellefson: 3:33
Well, one of the things that they do wrong is that they look and say, “Well, the things that I’m the most involved in is the strategy and the business.” So, what we’re going to do is we’re going to reduce the amount of strategy and then we’re going to make our service more scalable. So, what they do is they try to make the service more scalable, and what that does is it lowers the results for their clients, and then it lowers what they can command as a fee. So now they just completely change their business model to a volume one, and they’ve just totally ruined it. That’s what I see that happened a lot. So instead of doing that, I could say later on, but, so it’s focusing on scalability before sustainability. Sustainability is always what you should be focusing on first. And the other mistake is just trying to grind through it, and grind, grind, grind, to make it happen. And the thing is, that got you to where you are right now. But grinding more is just going to burn you out. And you really need a new set of steps and actions and mindsets to get to the next level.

Tom Poland: 4:25
Well-articulated. Sounds like a lot of people that I know. So, question number five, it’s three and a half minutes left, what’s one valuable free action that someone could take? It’s not going to solve the whole problem but it might take them a step in the right direction.

Mandi Ellefson: 4:39
So really looking at what is the best outcome that you can create for clients and under what circumstances? So instead of looking at how do we, like, dumb this down, so we can make it quote, scalable, like you would read in the E myth and a lot of other scalability books. It doesn’t work for service-based companies. It does not work for high-end service-based companies. There’s a lot of great things in those methods, but you have to be looking at how do we increase the value. And then when you do that you can command much higher fees. So how you do that is you look at your very best-case studies and say, “What do we need to have in place in order for us to guarantee that every single time?” And then you really put together this dream checklist for what they need to look at. And then you go out and just reach out for those type of clients and those are the types, that’s the direction that you grow, so really focus on that. And when you can guarantee that, “Hey, we’re going to be able to add $10 million to your company in three years,” and that’s a real example. Or we can add $5 million to your food company in the next 12 months, like, those are real examples. But when you can do that, you can charge double, triple, quadruple, 10X the fees. You know, another one of our clients went from charging $30,000 for service to $300,000, because she was willing to stand by that.

Tom Poland: 5:45
Amazing. That’s amazing. So, and that’s in part an answer to, you know, fulfills the promise that was in the title of this, which is, how to full time through a market dominated guarantee. There was so much in that folks, I really encourage you to rewind and play it again and again, because we’re talking about focusing on the value delivery that you can really, that you’ve really got magic in. And then only targeting those people that is going to get an extraordinary result with that particular magic. So, it’s a classic example of less is more. One minute 45 seconds left. Question number six, what’s one valuable free resource that we can direct people to that’s going to help them even a little more?

Mandi Ellefson: 6:24
Right. So, there’s an ultimate roadmap to scaling your consulting agency. And I go through, you know, how to break free from that cycle of being able to, you don’t have the right cash flow, you don’t have enough money to grow the company. So, if they download handsoffceo.com/roadmap, they can go and download that, and really learn how to dominate their industry.

Tom Poland: 6:45
Nice. handsoffceo.com/roadmap. Thank you. Question number seven, a whopping one minute and two seconds left, what’s the one question I should have asked you but didn’t? And the answer, please.

Mandi Ellefson: 6:59
One question that you should have asked me is that why do marketing agencies deliver such crappy results? I just thought that one on the spot.

Tom Poland: 7:09
I’m shocked.

Mandi Ellefson: 7:11
Well, the thing is, most marketing agencies deliver absolute crap work. And the reason why is because some of them are like, you know, millions in sales, like we generate millions of dollars for their clients, some of them will deliver 20,000, and they don’t know why? And so, what happens is they price somewhere in between. So, these people get ripped off, these people that are not charging enough for. So, it’s about, they’re underpaying, right. So, it’s really about understanding who you should not be working for and start, stop, stop selling to them. Just stop selling to them. That’s all I got.

Tom Poland: 7:44
Perfect. Mandi, thanks so much.

Mandi Ellefson: 7:46
Sure thing.

Tom Poland: 7:49
Thanks for checking out our Marketing The Invisible podcast. If you like what we’re doing here please head over to iTunes to subscribe, rate us, and leave us a review. It’s very much appreciated. And if you want to generate five fresh leads in just five hours then check out www.fivehourchallenge.com.