E117: Building a Family of Happy Clients with Award-Winning Work with Samantha Bedford

We’re excited to announce that SEO Brothers and Opteo have partnered with UGURUS as sponsors of our show.

Samantha Bedford was born in England and grew up in Cape Town, South Africa. She came to the USA to help grow a digital advertising agency in 2002 and later founded Pico Digital in August 2014.

She’s won several awards, including The B2, Fourteeners, Gold Key Diamond, ITSMA Award for Marketing Excellence, Transform Awards of North America, and is a Stevie Award Finalist.

Episode highlights:

• Learn why Samantha’s company only hires director-level employees.
• Samantha didn’t know a lot of business basics when she started Pico. Here’s how she made it work (hint: she had some help!).
• Samantha fills in some learning gaps for all of you listeners who didn’t have the experience of working with successful, larger companies.
• Find out how Pico Digital takes unhappy clients and turns their perception around.
• Join us as we dig into Samantha’s philosophies on customer satisfaction.
• Learn how Samantha wins new customers with a well-developed sales process (though not risk-free).
• Run time: 39:45
• Best advice ever received: Perception idea as discussed
• Habit that contributes to success: Taking risks
• Recommended book: Demandbase’s book on account-based marketing
• Recommended tools: Storybrand

Links:

• Choosepico.com
• Location3 agency feature on youtube
• LinkedIn
• Demandbase’s book on account-based marketing
• Storybrand

Quotes:

• “Our jobs are not really 9-5.”
• “I feel like a grandmother.”
• “Imagine doing this from a third-world country…with dial-up.”
• “Listen, guys. I don’t have any clean clothes. Somebody’s got to show me how to use the laundry machine.”
• “I need to change the perception of those around me by changing my actions.”
• “That’s not vague. That’s data.”
• “The first phone call…it’s all about them.”
• “I haven’t been in this industry for 25 years to keep everything in my head to myself.”

Takeaways:

• Look at potential customers who are unhappy with past agencies as an opportunity to change someone’s mind about your industry.
• Be generous with your knowledge. You never know how it could come back to help you!