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Entrepreneur earns $4.7M in revenue with Vendasta
Access all of your digital agency needs in one place
$4.7M
revenue earned
via Vendasta
1,271
billed products
in 2020
98%
client retention
rate
Background
Montgomery who sought a new business opportunity to dive into.
“I sold [my] company, thought I was semi-retired for a bit, got bored, made some bad investments, and had to get back into the marketplace. I came across Vendasta (while sitting on) my couch one night,” Montgomery says.
Chris failed at starting up a different business where he sold products through social media. He then went looking for a more complete solution with which he could hit the ground running. After researching the Vendasta ecommerce platform, he recognized it was exactly what he had been searching for.
“I became a partner. Once I signed the contracts and went through the demo with Vendasta, I sold to my first 30 clients from that exact couch.”
Objectives
- Hit the ground running and make a quick first sale
- Manage its sales pipeline
Provide products and support to local - business clients with a marketplace of digital solutions
- Offer clients a way to review and manage their online presence through a Social Ordeals-branded dashboard
- Create a scalable business model that could easily expand into new markets
By positioning himself as an industry expert, Montgomery looks to help his local business clients achieve success and guide them through unknown territory.
Local businesses need experts like us to navigate the waters of the internet and really understand what’s important in the eyes of search engines,” he says. “We also provide great perspective on what’s important to that customer who’s out there searching for the local business.”
The approach
After completing his initial onboarding sessions to learn the Vendasta platform, Montgomery threw himself into becoming an expert. He kept in close contact with his Vendasta Business Development Representative and was able to get quickly up to speed. He developed a deep understanding of the tools and features that would help him find success.
Tools for sellers
Montgomery uses a number of tools to help his digital agency succeed. All of the tools used by Social Ordeals are included in the Vendasta ecosystem, from task management software to an online marketplace full of various products. He relies on reporting software that pulls information into a neat package as well as sales CRM and pipeline management software. Everything is pulled into one dashboard in Business App where his team can manage their clients.
With an average basket size of 3.75 products per client, Social Ordeals makes a point of packaging the right solutions together, creating a holistic approach to manage the digital marketing strategies of their local business clients.
Snapshot Report
For local business prospects that have reached the bottom of the sales funnel, the team at Social Ordeals relies heavily on the Snapshot Report. This report diagnoses the status of a business’s online reputation and helps the Social Ordeals sales reps discover detailed information they need to close that deal.
“I don’t look at a snapshot until I have that client ready to go. I want to discover what’s in the snapshot in real time with the client because it’s more organic. I really want the client to understand that I’m here to help them by working together.”
Montgomery uses Snapshot Report to zero in on the issues a client faces. Then he prescribes a set of product/service solutions to solve those problems. This face to face interaction and discovery of a clients online health in real time is how Social Ordeals makes a sale.
The Snapshot Report is a marketing needs assessment that uncovers a prospect’s online performance in six categories, including: business listings, reviews, social media, website, advertising, SEO, and ecommerce. This was an important prospecting tool that helped to quickly drive business results. By leveraging this powerful and award-winning Vendasta solution, Montgomery was able to provide an automated marketing needs assessment to each local business prospect.
Vendasta partners who use more than 100 percent of their monthly allotment of snapshot reports achieve 18 times more pipeline revenue than those who use less than 50 percent of their allotment. These high performing partners also close 2.9 times more business opportunities than partners who are running less than 50 percent of their monthly snapshot reports.
“It’s the essential tool we sell off of. Without that there isn’t a strong starting point to initiative conversations with the client,” Montgomery says.
Marketplace
According to Mirakl, 87 percent of business buyers, across all age ranges, are making business purchases on marketplaces. Marketplaces are now the top buyer channel exceeding RFPs, digital channels, procurement channels, and person-to-person.
Featuring more than 200 products and services, Marketplace served as the go-to destination for Social Ordeals, as they created packages of digital solutions that matched some of the most common local business needs their team was encountering in the field. The Vendasta Marketplace allows partners to find new white-label products to sell from across 20 varying categories. This includes anything from financial products to marketing, human resources, and websites to name a few.
Because Marketplace has a large number and variety of products available, Social Ordeals can search for just about anything a client could need. “Having the ability to get any type of digital product that I want and have that at my fingertips for my clients is really helpful,” Montgomery says. This allows Montgomery to add to each client’s tech stack of products and services, tailoring their experience to fit their needs.
Sales CRM & pipeline management software
The platform’s built-in customer relationship management or CRM gave Montgomery and his growing sales team the ability to save time and money by working out of one connected place.
“My account managers are in the platform on a daily basis, the fact that we have all of the different tools, not just for our customer but for our staff to be able to manage their sales funnels, their tasks, to be able to keep all of your account managers on task with the platform, has been unbelievable for us.”
The Vendasta CRM comes with built-in meeting scheduling software that’s integrated with the platform. Just by using a tool that’s dedicated to schedule meetings, local business experts can save ten hours per week.
“I don’t have to think about what’s next or new on the internet. I’ve got a team of unbelievable developers at Vendasta that are constantly bringing that next wave of whatever is happening on the internet to my fingertips, to be able to sell to my clients.”
Chris Montgomery
Founder & CEO, Social Ordeals
Task Manager
Task Manager, Vendasta’s in-house task management software, gives Social Ordeals the ability to manage all of their client’s requested work. This includes social media and review management services, all within one dashboard.
“We have about 15 account managers working out of task manager right now, it helps us to improve efficiency and make sure that we don’t miss critical to-do’s for our clients,” Montgomery says.
Task Manager gives the partner the ability to integrate local business clients into their system. Social Ordeals can then fulfill their clients digital marketing needs from the task manager dashboard. This is where all reviews will be brought in, all social media can be managed, and any other requested tasks will show up. Monthly automated reporting is emailed directly to the client, showcasing complete and pending tasks.
Passion for expansion
Mongomery makes a point of choosing strategic partnerships to grow his customer base, contributing in a big way to his bottom line.
“What I’ve realized is that there are a lot of businesses out there like web hosting companies that aren’t offering upsales. Website companies want to upsell but don’t have the manpower to do the work on the back end. There are also membership groups that want to add value.”
This realization has helped Montgomery in choosing his client partnerships more strategically, because he knows that he’ll get referrals from them.
“Once you strategically partner with them and give them a piece of the action as you’re going along, you’re going to get a consistent lead source coming from them. I think it’s the future, it’s basically a paid referral coming through,” Montgomery says.
Execution
Cold calling
According to Montgomery, cold calling is Social Ordeal’s greatest challenge. However, with his approach of choosing strategic client partnerships, his team is able to get a direct introduction to the potential SMB client through these partnerships. By leveraging his existing client partnerships to warm up the potential clients, Montgomery skips the cold call step because the potential client is already familiar with his work. He can also lean on his company’s excellent online reputation when working with new prospective clients.
Building trust
Another challenge faced by the team at Social Ordeals, is building trust with clients. Montgomery says prospects are often jaded by the number of digital products and sales people approaching them, but Montgomery approaches this situation head on.
“I only hire seasoned sales representatives now, and I spend the extra money for it. I want the person that’s going to bring me results. I don’t have to train them how to sell, I just give them a good product that they can stand behind.”
By spending the extra money on hiring professionals instead of rookies, Montgomery can put more effort and time into understanding his customers. He can trust that his team has sales experience and are able to jump in without extensive training. “I love seeing a problem and knowing that the products I have are the tools that can solve that problem.”
Overcoming roadblocks to grow
“Once I had 30 customers, and I was doing all of the fulfillment myself, handling all ofthose back-end tasks, I realized my company stopped growing and new sales weren’t coming in as frequently.”
Montgomery began to get bogged down with posting on social media for his clients, correcting and claiming Google My Business (GMB) accounts, and claiming business listings on other popular sites.
“I was putting all of my energy into the back end to make sure that my customers were satisfied and that I was living up to what I promised them.”
At that point, he decided to hire two account managers to take on the fulfillment work so he could refocus his efforts on client acquisition. As soon as sales hit a plateau, it’s a good indication you should consider expanding and adding more resources to your team, Montgomery recommends.
The Vendasta Platform
The use of a white-label platform with a large product marketplace has given Montgomery the leg-up he needs to evolve with his clients.
“When my clients log into the Vendasta platform, they’re logging into Social Ordeals. My clients don’t even know Vendasta even exists. It’s completely white-labeled to me, so as Vendasta grows with new technologies, it appears to all of my clients that I’m growing with new technology, so it’s phenomenal.”
Platform tools like the built-in CRM have also helped the Social Ordeals sales team manage their work.
As our sales reps become more and more confident in the product and they see thosesuccesses for their clients, it just propels them to be more confident on the next cathey get onto now they’re able to show off different clients that are successful in theirindustry, so it makes the sales process very easy for my reps.”
Best-selling products
Citation Builder
The single source of truth for local business listings.
Reputation Management
White-label online review management software for businesses and multi-location brands.
Yext Listing Sync Pro
Digital knowledge management and offers a listing solution that syncs automatically with more than 100 local directories.
Social Marketing
A social media marketing tool built to help you elevate your social strategy.
Listing Sync Pro
Instantly enhance the accuracy of local business listings, protect from 3rd-party changes, and suppress duplicate listings.
The result
Social Ordeals closed its first sale after only one week with Vendasta and today is one of the largest platform partners in the United States.
“They gave me an all-in-one business… That’s what’s propelled us to the point we’re at today. Without Vendasta we wouldn’t be in the agency business,” Montgomery says.
$4.7M
revenue earned
via Vendasta
1,271
billed products
in 2020
98%
client retention
rate
Conclusion
Montgomery offers his recommendations for other entrepreneurs looking to successfully serve a local business community:
“You’ve got to be able to roll up your sleeves, dive in, and care about your client first. Utilize the platform products to help you and your client grow. You’ve got to be dedicated.”
The team at Social Ordeals plans to continue growing its client base, using resources like the Conquer Local Academy to stay up to date on new-to-market products and industry trends.
“Vendasta has scaled our business by completely evolving everything we do on a daily basis,” Montgomery says. “As the internet evolves, Vendasta evolves, and our clients evolve. It’s a win-win for everyone.”
This is what partnering with Vendasta feels like
Average G2 Rating
“Vendasta makes it easy to provide full-service solutions to clients. The best feature is the breadth and quality of providers that they have attracted to the Vendasta Marketplace. You can build a business confident that you’re offering ‘best of breed’ solutions to your clients. Plus, the Vendasta platform allows you to pull it all together and present an impressive single dashboard presentation. In addition, Vendasta provides partner support to help you continually grow and innovate.”
Bill B.
Principal
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“Vendasta is an amazing company and the platform is better than any other on the market. They provide world leading training and support. Their lead generation tools are very intelligent and work to get signups for your agency. This is a company that you can trust and create a truly unique and powerful marketing agency in partnership with. The support is second to none and they do what they do with passion, focus and expertise to ensure that you succeed.”
David R.
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“What I appreciate most about the platform is the broad choice of tools and customization. But in truth, it’s the people. SaaS is trash. Add great people to a solid platform and it turns into a solution. Vendasta account team, product specialist and executives [are] all here to support their agency clients, makes it my go-to choice.”
Mathew
CEO in the US
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“I love Vendasta because the entire software system is so streamlined. Everything is incorporated into one platform that helps agencies grow and scale. Their software platform gives your clients a portal to manage everything related to their business marketing online.”
Mitchel T.
Principle Consultant
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“The Vendasta platform helps me grow my digital marketing agency by providing everything I need to succeed, including a Partner Center, Task Manager, Vendor Center and built-in CRM.
Their online marketplace has over 200 digital solutions, allowing me to provide all of the digital tools and services that my clients will ever need. It also allows me to add my own products and services to my online store, enabling me to include up-sells and additional value-added services to my clients.”
Michael K.
Owner
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“Having a product offering that is well-rounded and possibly unique from my local competitors definitely gives me an edge. Having more tools also helps me become more confident. Highly recommend.”
Justin
CEO in the US
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“I highly recommend Vendasta to anyone operating a digital marketing agency. They help you focus on growing your business by taking over the heavy lifting of doing the detail work for you. You can stay focus on the big picture and not get bogged down in the trenches. Without them, I would never have been able to scale my business, we stayed lean but expanded our offerings.”
Scott K.
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“Vendasta’s agency tools have allowed us to provide our clients the tools and services they need to stay on top of their online reputation and social media. We’ve gained market share from our competitors, provided our clients with the latest technology to be successful online and increased our retention of clients to over 97% after their initial contract terms.”
Terry B.
CEO
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“The main benefit is that I can run a business without a bunch of employees. Even when I am big enough to need a few employees I will still need far less than if I were to run the business without Vendasta.”
Thomas F.
Agency Owner
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