3 Big Mistakes New Agency Owners Make

… are in high demand. What is the TSB going to do to earn your business?

“Agents don’t know that they have the power to negotiate,” Rowland said. “They do. It’s competitive.”

2. Talking to All the Vendors

Rowland said vendors take an aggressive, and at times borderline predatory, approach to sales outreach. Vendors will call her saying that a TSB gave them her information. In other cases, a vendor will simply send a calendar invite for a meeting. The sense of entitlement is palpable.

Many agents oblige and run the full gamut of meetings. In some cases, they do so because they want to do everything they can to grow their technological expertise. In other cases, they’re looking for free stuff.
“We all know which agents are not going to be successful. It’s the agents that show up to every vendor presentation,” Rowland said. “They know there’s like a free iPad and Amazon gift card giveaway. They’re there to try to try to win the free stuff. They show up to every single meeting. Those are not the heavy hitters.”

Rowland came to the conclusion that she couldn’t give her time to the endless parade of channel managers. She needed to focus on her business and her customers. That meant saying no.

“It’s actually difficult to reject people at first, because you want to be kind, and you want to be generous with your time, and you understand the hustle that they’re going through. But I make it really simple. I just say, ‘Sorry, I can’t meet with you. This is a decision that I’ve made for my business. It may be different in the future, but at this time, I’m not meeting with any vendors,'” she said.

Rowland said this is where the TSB comes in to help. When her customers need a technology that she doesn’t know well, she’ll ask a channel manager to recommend a few suppliers.

“It’s their job to be the expert on the vendor,” she said. “It’s not my job to be the expert on the vendor.”

Rowland said many agents enter the channel anticipating that they’ll maintain dozens and dozens of ongoing, direct relationships with vendors. During early days of her business, she debated signing direct agreements with them. But ultimately, the protection TSBs provide around supplier agreements cemented their value to Rowland.

“Their legal team is better than my legal team. They have already ironed out all the agreements. It would be much less likely that a vendor would stop paying them than stop paying me. It would be easy to stop paying me, especially if I have one or two deals with that vendor,” she said.

3. Getting Distracted from Your Core Business

Rowland added subagents during the early days of Adaptiv Advisors. She bought an advertisement and hired 11 contractors to do cold calling.

However, the vast majority of them didn’t do the work. Rowland said she realized she was trying to grow before she was ready to grow. New agencies can’t afford to put the cart before the horse. And that horse is the relationships you build with your customers.

“I should have been spending my time automating my sales funnel, building relationships with people that can refer business to me and really just focusing on my customers.”