The transition from solopreneur to CEO is never easy. It can be hard to let go of control and trust your team to deliver an ROI. Today’s guest shares how you can break through that 6-figure plateau and set your team up for million-dollar success with a sales-focused marketing strategy. 

Victoria Hajjar, founder of Ugli Ventures, helps female-founded startups scale from 6 to 7 figures. She specializes in the sales and marketing strategies, team building, and leadership development they need to build profitable 7-figure enterprises. Her clients have had million-dollar months, been featured on Forbes 40 under 40, and several have passed the billion-dollar revenue mark.

How to Build an ROI-Driven Team

Victoria uses a 4-step process to help her clients transition into an executive role. The first step is brand clarity: getting focused (or re-focused) on your messaging, ideal client, and positioning. Before you can build a successful marketing strategy, you need to be clear on your ideal client’s pain points and the transformation you provide. 

The next step is a sales-focused marketing strategy. Victoria recommends a 24/7 content flywheel that speaks to all six stages of the customer journey. Once you have a funnel in place, measure the performance of each piece. Look at your conversion rates to determine where the leaks are, then optimize accordingly. 

Once you’ve optimized your funnel, evaluate your team. If conversions are low in a particular area, it could be because the person assigned to that task isn’t an expert. A common hiring mistake is expecting each person to do multiple jobs. If you can’t afford to have more employees on retainer, hire an independent contractor with a proven track record. For example, if your website conversions are low, hire a user experience expert to solve the issue on a project basis.

The last step is leadership. Are the right people in the right seats, and are you managing them well? Each team member should know which metrics they’re responsible for and bring ideas for improvement.

3 Essential Marketing Meetings

Even if your team is mostly independent contractors, you should still include them in your quarterly planning meetings. This keeps everyone on the same page as you move toward your goals. 

You should also meet weekly to review your marketing scorecard. Let each team member report their own metrics and offer feedback and ideas. Regular communication eliminates silos within your company. 

Lastly, take the time to sit down monthly or quarterly with key people on your team. Ask them to tell you about what’s going on in their life, the challenges they’re facing, their career path, and any resources or training they might need. Investing time in your team pays off in long-term loyalty. 

Enjoy this episode with founder Victoria Hajjar…

Soundbytes

4:01-4:30
“I bring a fresh perspective because I’ve been inside so many people’s businesses over my 15-year career. Not only inside different businesses but also in different countries around the world. I’ve worked in China, I’ve worked in Mexico, I’ve worked in Dubai, and the UK…and what’s been really great is figuring out this universal approach. How do you grow and scale a business using marketing as the catapult for growth?”

7:32-7:51
“We have to make a transition. And the transition is from doing everything ourselves and feeling like we have to execute everything ourselves, especially when it comes to marketing and sales, and beginning to take that path towards stepping into the leadership role in your business.”

21:47-22:08
“Building your team doesn’t mean that you need to get a bunch of employees and have a ton of people on retainer, but you have to systematically, in an intelligent way, invest in the growth of your business.  That means getting people in who have proven track records that really know what they’re doing in particular areas.” 

Quotes

“Any business can use marketing as a catapult for growth, it just depends how the business is setup.”

“Once our time, money, energy, and budget gets split across different efforts, that’s where we also tend to see that dip in performance.”

“Even if you don’t consider yourself a leader, you are. Your team is looking to you.” 

“So many of us as business owners, but especially women, we think that someone will like us more if we’re in the trenches with them, instead of as a leader.”

“You’re not going to build a million-dollar business, a 7- or 8-figure business, by being too nice.” 

Links mentioned in this episode:

Podcast Resources

Ugli Ventures: http://www.ugliventures.com  

Connect with Victoria on LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/victoria-hajjar/

24/7 Marketing Flywheel resource: https://www.ugliventures.com/overwhelm 

Learn more about Victoria’s accelerator program: https://www.ugliventures.com/accelerator 

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