Surprises Are Surprising...

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Everyone Loves Surprises, Right?

Many years ago, my wife had a surprise 40th birthday party for me. That was freaking awesome. I loved it. But, if I ever, ever threw a surprise party of any sort for my wife, she would fly into a murderous rage. I would be left in a pile of innards on my kitchen floor.

Birthdays aside, surprises are evolutionarily challenging. That big mushy gray thing between your ears is perhaps the finest pattern recognition solution designed in this part of the universe. Our brains are constantly predicting what is coming next.

If what happens next doesn't match with our expectation, some ancient part of our brain is terrified. Then, if we are able to recognize and categorize the surprise, it might turn into delight. But it all starts out in fear.

Your Agency Tinder Profile

You know, landing a new client is a lot like dating. (Editor’s note: It is hard for me to remember back to the 1870s when I was dating, but I hear about the perils of dating from my kids).

If your agency Tinder profile says you're 6'2" and you show up standing all of 5'9", it only makes sense that there are going to be some raised eyebrows. Unlike meeting someone for a drink or a cup of coffee, in the world of new client acquisition, rarely do agencies see their prospect storm out of the building because you just don't match what they're looking for.

You've probably had this dating experience too where the first date was fantastic. You were funny. They were interesting. You both shared stories that made you feel good about one another. You found out that they didn't vote for the person that you that you hate. And not only have they've heard of your favorite band, they actually know the names of the songs.

Green flags everywhere.

Then there’s date number two.

They're not laughing. You can barely hide your boredom at their stories. You found out that had they voted, they would have voted for the person you hate. They are pissed because you secretly think their favorite band sucks. And, now that you think about it, that story they told about the puppy was more alarming than endearing.

Surprii-ise! You Just Got Smacked in the Face with INCONGRUITY

As agency leaders, we actually have a really good sense of congruity. There's got to be a real connection between your ad creative and your landing page. There's got to be a real connection between your packaging and your product.

We've all had this experience where you buy something from a beautifully designed website, and their confirmation email looks like it was printed on a 1988 dot matrix monstrosity.

I can almost guarantee that there is some really challenging incongruity in your outreach, marketing, sales, onboarding, and client management experiences.

So what really happens when there is a surprise or incongruity? (We will dive in right after this fantastic ad from one of our dear, dear sponsors…whom you should definitely check out…gotta pay them bills.)

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When There is a Disconnect, Your Prospects & Clients Get Disconnected

Imagine this…you send a cold email or make a LinkedIn post that is super-super insightful. it is on point. It is really relevant. And it shows real depth of thought and understanding.

Your prospect was so impressed that they scheduled a meeting. Hooray!

On your discovery call, you race through a capabilities deck, never ask probing questions & don’t deliver any of the relevant insight that spurred the call. It suddenly feels like the second date - there is NO MAGIC.

There is a 0% chance that even the most insightful follow up email ever created is going to generate forward progress.

“But why, Tim, why?” you might by wailing aloud right now…It’s because you didn’t meet the bar that you had set for yourself.

You created an expectation deficit & that surprise hits the primitive part of your prospect’s brain where surprise = threat. Then, they are able to look at their surprise and categorize it appropriately…

Then they recognize a pattern that they know all too well - you are a YAFA. The YAFA is a horrible, ugly creature and you can’t discern one YAFA from another. They all look alike & they seem to swarm together using all the same tactics.

When you didn’t meet the bar that you set in your 1st communication, the expectation deficit transformed you into Yet Another Fucking Agency. You will never capture the prospect now, regardess of how fast or how long you chase. YAFAs are persistent but ineffective hunters.

How To Not Be A YAFA

It’s actually pretty simple. Don’t create expectation deficits.

Here is the step by step anti-YAFA playbook:

1. Be Yourself: Don't try on tactics and make them your agency personality. A long time ago, I had a client that bought a funny copywriting course because he thought that humor was a way to break through the noise. But here's the problem: he wasn't actually funny…he could follow the copywriting course well enough to write a funny email, but when you spoke to him, he wasn't funny. Expectation deficit created.

2. Focus on Congruity: As a marketer, you already know what this is. Congruity is when your ad copy and your landing page copy are in concert. It's when your homepage and your emails feel like they came from the same business. It's when you can identify specific characteristics that truly connect things, even if they are different operational functions a business. Loosely, in my world, it’s you VIBE. It’s the recognizable but unidentifiable thing that is the genesis of a brand.

3. Operate Around That Vibe: It it takes all sorts of people to create an agency. It might take artists and technologists and marketers and nerds. Not all of these people are going to have the skill set to articulate things in the way that you do, or the way that your marketing collateral does, or the way that your sales team does. But you need to hire around the energy that creates that style. That vibe is the axis that your little universe revolves around…and by zealously protecting the integrity of that axis is a key to YAFA prevention. That doesn't mean that you hire people who are just like you. It means that you hire people who can understand and tap into the energy that makes you the anti-YAFA.

4. Focus On Fit First: You might not be a YAFA, but I bet if you have clients that don't understand your energy or your perspective, or they have a wholly separate set of vibes, vision, and values, they feel like you're a YAFA. I alluded to this in Inner Circle 106 - Everything is On Sale!…when you focus on finances rather than fit, you get misalignment. That creates a persistent and ongoing expectation deficit.

5. Examine Your Evolution: Last week, I talked about the fact that you don’t “decide” your agency culture, but rather DISCOVER it. when you do discover your agency culture, that means immediately you are an anti-YAFA. But as your capabilities, clients' experience, team channels, focal points, and culture are going to change as an agency, you evolve. There are a bunch of inflection points in your agency journey where shit changes. You have to be so aware of those changes and then understand if they have adjusted the axis that you spin around. Has chasing your vision changed your vibe? Have your values changed as your clients have changed? This is all stuff that you need to be aware of to make sure that you don't start creating expectation deficits and devolve into a YAFA.

6. Don’t Be An Asshole & Take Off: So many agencies become YAFAs because their leaders and leadership get distracted and forget about their trustables. I see it happen all the time…a founder will get bored, and they'll decide to start something else. But they've forgotten that their stewardship is the thing that holds their vibes, vision, and values together. They remove their attention & leave a continuity & alignment vacuum, and the agency turns into a machine that has no purpose. It is a zombie YAFA - one that has died but doesn’t quite realize it yet.

It’s Hard To Not Fall Into a YAFA Pattern

It takes real diligence and real discipline to stay on top of your continuity and your emotional spine. It requires attention, insight, and passion. These aren't rare qualities in agency entrepreneurs, but it's the rare agency entrepreneur that respects the power of these these gifts.

A Quick Note From The Self Promotional Department

One of the ways you can avoid becoming a YAFA is by being really intentional and forcing yourself into congruity. In order to do that, you have to know the things that you're doing. This is a big part of why I created SalesOS.

We’ve put together a sample of outputs from our SalesOS platform, so you can see the depth of insight you can get about sales efforts. We are super excited about this…and later this week, we will be coming out with a real banger of a deal for our initial Call Lab Pro & Discovery Lab Pro bundle…stay tuned.

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Want to try something fast & fun? Just take 90 seconds to say (with your voice - no typing required!) your elevator pitch or objection response or to describe your offer & get instant feedback from Call Lab Instant. 100% free, and there isn’t even an email capture if you don’t want.

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