From Authority to Demand, with Stephen Woessner

The transcript below has been edited lightly for clarity, speaker identification, proper names, and section headings. The audio remains the authoritative version of the episode.

Stephen Woessner [00:04] Welcome back to the Sell with Authority Podcast. I’m Stephen Woessner, CEO of Predictive ROI.

Today’s episode is gonna feel a little bit different. Actually, it’s gonna feel a lot different, because this is going to be the final episode of the Sell with Authority Podcast.

Stephen Woessner [00:26] And I promise you, this is not the final episode because the work that we created during this conversation, that work is finished. That’s hardly the case. This is the final episode because this chapter, this sort of bookend, if you will, did exactly what it was meant to do.

During this conversation, just you and me, we’re gonna walk through what that meant, how it was helpful as far as building an authority position, how that is helpful for agencies in their biz dev process, and then I’m gonna peel back a few layers of where we’re going next.

Stephen Woessner [01:08] So we created Sell with Authority, this podcast, to help agencies earn trust to build an authority position before the sale, like in the very beginning of the process. And we wanted agencies, we want your agency, to teach instead of push. And we wanted there to be a body of work that proved, through evidence of execution, that selling didn’t have to feel awkward or forced for an agency.

And over the last four years of the podcast, you helped turn that idea into something real, something super helpful for agency owners around the world. And how rock-solid awesome is that? I mean, that is amazing.

Stephen Woessner [02:01] So, to better understand how all of this work has been helpful and why that work is ending here, let’s briefly go back to what the Sell with Authority Podcast was actually built to do.
02:15 Why Sell with Authority Began as a Book
Stephen Woessner [02:15] So this podcast started as a book before we ever launched the podcast, and we didn’t write the book because agencies needed more tactics or, candidly, a longer list of to-dos. We wrote the book because we saw a dangerous trend of fewer and fewer agencies getting paid for how they think, and instead, they started taking money for what they could produce.

Stephen Woessner [02:40] As agencies, we somehow moved from advisor, trusted advisor with a seat at the strategic table, and instead, we moved into this position of commoditized vendor that delivered stuff and, candidly, could be easily replaced.

So one of the arguments inside the book was pretty simple: if an agency’s future is tied only to deliverables, that future is unstable. And it’s really difficult to future-proof your agency when you’re standing on less than solid ground.

Stephen Woessner [03:19] So when our work becomes easier to copy, when it becomes cheaper to buy, or when it becomes faster to outsource, the advantages, that leverage that you bring to the table, are greatly diminished or maybe lost entirely. And once that leverage is gone, friends, everything else inside the agency gets harder too: your pricing, client retention, being able to predict growth, maybe even team morale.

Stephen Woessner [03:50] So we believed that Sell with Authority offered a different path. We want you to get paid. We want you to be paid well for what it is that you know, not just what you and your team can produce or make.

Because when expertise is focused, when it’s taught, when you share that generously, when you share that publicly, it creates something really hard to replace. It creates your authority position.
04:20 How Authority Changes the Biz Dev Conversation
Stephen Woessner [04:20] Your authority is trust that’s earned when you go and teach at depth, when you teach consistently, and when everything that you teach is relevant to a specific audience.

And that meant, inside the podcast, providing our insights and expertise around how to narrow your focus instead of serving everyone. That meant helping you craft a unique point of view so your clients and prospects could quickly see why you give a rip and how you step away from the sea of sameness.

Stephen Woessner [04:59] And we wanted you to be teaching instead of pitching. And candidly, if you mastered that, then you would’ve also been teaching and selling simultaneously.

Because here’s the reality, friends. The best agencies don’t run after prospects. Instead, their best prospects already understand how the agency thinks in most cases. And when that happens, and I know that this has happened for you, you can feel it. You can feel how the sales process changes, conversations change. The relationship starts before that first call ever even happens. And how awesome is that?

Stephen Woessner [05:42] And those were some of the ideas, the strategies, the philosophy that became the backbone of this podcast. If you teach what you know in service of the right audience, your right-fit clients will begin to know you, and they’ll come in differently. When they choose to come in, they’ll come in differently. They’ll be well-prepared, and they’ll be ready.

That’s what Sell with Authority stands for. It’s not about selling harder. It’s about building an authority position so that selling feels less like persuasion and more like alignment and fit.

Stephen Woessner [06:24] And when agencies actually do this, when they commit to doing it, something important happens. It works. Agencies that choose a niche, agencies that commit to a point of view, and agencies that show up consistently with helpful cornerstone and cobblestone content, they see real change.

The agency becomes easier to recognize. Their thinking travels farther than they expect. And every so often, something rock-solid awesome happens. A prospect reaches out, and holy bananas, they did that all on their own.

Stephen Woessner [07:05] Sometimes it starts with, “Hey, I’ve been following your work for a while now.” Awesome. Sometimes it’s a DM. Sometimes it’s a referral that feels different. It feels warmer. It feels more specific. Awesome.

And those moments matter because they prove something important. Teaching works, and your authority position can change the biz dev game.
07:32 The Pattern Predictive ROI Began Seeing
Stephen Woessner [07:32] But over time, another pattern showed up for our Predictive ROI team. I mean, not a problem per se, but some interesting data points.

We started watching those inside the Predictive Lab because, inside strategy sessions, inside our intensives, inside Q&As, when we’re hanging out with agencies on a daily basis, we would hear things like, “You know, we’re getting more visibility.” Okay, awesome. “People know who we are.” Amazing. “We’re on more shortlists.” Super awesome.

Stephen Woessner [08:17] And then there’d be this pause. And then, as we leaned in to hear more, we’d hear something like, “But the timing of when our prospect will become our next new client feels unpredictable. We feel like we’re still waiting, and we are still waiting. We don’t know when our prospects will actually move.”

And candidly, friends, this is where things started to get interesting.
09:00 Why Attention Does Not Decide Timing
Stephen Woessner [09:00] So what Sell with Authority created was credible attention through an authority position. Amazing. And no doubt, attention is powerful. But attention doesn’t necessarily decide timing.

Your right-fit prospect can know you. Amazing. Your right-fit prospect can respect you. Awesome. And then can even believe that you’re the right-fit agency at some point, and yet they can still wait. Not because they don’t trust you, but because waiting feels safer in some instances to your prospect rather than acting does.

Stephen Woessner [09:50] And I know that you know this, but hiring an agency carries risk. Outcomes and budgets, those are all very important. And in some instances, the career of the person who is selecting the agency might be on the line.

So even when authority is established, delay can easily become the default, and it shows up like this in a conversation. We hear things like, “You know, let’s see how the quarter goes,” or, “Let’s revisit after the holidays,” which might still be two months away.

Stephen Woessner [10:29] My Predictive ROI team knows this is like a pet peeve of mine when you’re getting toward Halloween and we start hearing things like, “Yeah, you know, let’s revisit this after the holidays.” It’s like, oh my gosh, there’s a 12-month revenue plan, but only working toward that for 10 months. So let’s revisit it after the holidays. Or let’s wait until things settle.

And if you’re listening to this and thinking, like, “Okay, is it us? Is it something our agency is doing that’s getting in the way?” I promise you, I’m not trying to sound patronizing here in the least little bit, but the answer is no, it’s probably not you. But there may be something missing in the overall biz dev recipe, and I’m gonna loop back to that piece in just a minute.

Stephen Woessner [11:29] So candidly, you hear delays like this, like the ones I just shared with you, because the market doesn’t reward passive trust the way it used to. If you’re the agency on the other side of that equation, frustration no doubt creeps in because you’ve done the work, you’ve earned the credibility, you’ve shown up consistently, you’ve taught generously in front of your audience, but movement still happens on the prospect’s timeline, not yours.

Some agencies respond by doing more, thinking that if they just did more, if they just produced more content, if there was just more activity, if they just pushed more boulders up a hill, then that would solve this problem. While others will go backward, and they’ll slip back into old habits, thinking, “Well, content just didn’t work for us.” But neither perspective solves the real issue.
12:34 The Missing Ingredient Is Activation
Stephen Woessner [12:34] The issue isn’t visibility, and the issue isn’t your authority position. The issue, in our opinion, is activation.

So Sell with Authority taught agencies how to become known. Amazing. But it wasn’t designed to answer the question that comes next. And here’s what we’re hearing. Agencies are no longer asking us, “Hey, Predictive ROI, how do we get noticed within the niche that we want to serve? How do we become the known expert, the authority in that niche?”

Stephen Woessner [13:05] We’re finding that more and more agencies are essentially kind of past that point. Awesome. The problem isn’t necessarily attention or how to earn an authority position anymore. The problem is what attention does and doesn’t do all on its own.
13:29 Authority Earns Attention…Demand Creates Action
Stephen Woessner [13:29] And here’s the distinction that is becoming more clear. If authority earns attention, which it does, demand is what turns that attention into action. That’s the activation piece.

Authority answers the question, “Who should I trust?” Demand answers the question, “Why should I move now?” And typically, and what we have seen as we have studied this, is that agencies don’t control the second question or the answer to the second question. They’ve earned trust, awesome, but action still comes and goes. A conversation with a prospect starts, amazing, then it seemingly can get stuck in the mud.

Stephen Woessner [14:20] The mistake that many agencies make is assuming that something is missing in their kind of front end of the process, and so, again, leaning back into more effort, better messaging, more proof. But effort, I promise you, isn’t the constraint.

Authority by design is patient. It waits. It creates gravity. It pulls people in when they’re ready. But demand does something in addition to that. It’s different. Demand introduces tension, and we need both. We need both authority and then we need the activation that demand creates. We need demand to introduce the tension.

Stephen Woessner [15:09] And I promise, I’m not talking about schmarmy sales pressure or false scarcity tactics. No, that’s yucky. What we need is tension.
15:20 The Three Questions Demand Must Answer
Stephen Woessner [15:20] Demand creates the contrast between now and later, between staying with the status quo and doing something different. Doing something different now. Doing something different that is meaningful.

That’s when three questions show up in your prospect’s mind: Why now? Why you? And why your agency instead of waiting?

Stephen Woessner [15:52] We need to answer these questions either explicitly or implicitly in our content, in our conversations, in our sales process. Authority doesn’t force those questions, but demand does. And demand, I promise you, isn’t accidental. It’s intentional. It doesn’t just happen because content exists.

Demand is built on purpose, brick by brick, in both content and in the sales process. Authority is the foundation. You can’t jump to demand, you can’t jump to being in demand without the excellent foundation of authority. And demand is what you build on top of that foundation.
16:43 What Being In Demand Really Means
Stephen Woessner [16:43] So once that distinction really kind of clicked for me inside the Predictive Lab one day, the next question became, okay, what does it actually look like then when an agency is in demand? And is, quote unquote, “in demand,” an attainable status to achieve?

And to be clear, we don’t believe that being in demand, again, is about popularity. It is not. It is not about popularity. It is not about being more busy because in-demand agencies are highly selective. In-demand agencies shape with intention who enters into conversations with them.

Stephen Woessner [17:30] At the core, being in demand means choice, your choices, and having complete control over those choices. So choice and control over who is going to be your dream prospects. I’m reluctant to use the word pursue because this is not about pursuing. Choice over when you engage, and choice over what you say yes to.

Because when you have choices, friends, you protect your team, you protect the agency, you protect both, and you’ve worked so hard to build both. So being in demand gives you the power, the control to make those choices.
18:20 Intrigue, Curiosity, and Desire
Stephen Woessner [18:20] And to be clear, in-demand agencies still teach, they still publish, and they still share generously. You can’t get to in demand without owning an authority position. But they also design to create intrigue, to create curiosity, to create desire.

So intrigue isn’t hype. It’s what happens when your point of view creates contrast, when a prospect encounters your thinking and then pauses, thinking, “Hmm, I hadn’t thought about it that way.” And that pause, when that happens, it matters because in those moments, that’s when intrigue and curiosity turn into desire.

Stephen Woessner [19:07] But here again, to be clear, desire isn’t urgency. It’s direction. It’s velocity.
19:15 Why Outbound Completes Inbound
Stephen Woessner [19:15] This is where outbound gets misunderstood. So, because when I say outbound, and that’s part of creating demand, when I say outbound, I mean sparking conversations with right-fit prospects, some of whom may already be in your world and others not, but knocking and opening those doors in such a way that is welcomed by your prospects.

Outbound without authority feels like an interruption. Outbound with authority feels like activation, and that’s where we’re going from here.

Stephen Woessner [19:52] In-demand agencies don’t wait for the timing to be, quote, “right,” end quote. They decide who matters. They decide when to engage. Outbound becomes a way to spark conversations. Not force them, but spark them.

Inbound, of course, still matters, but inbound alone leaves too much to chance, in our opinion. In-demand agencies don’t abandon outbound. That would be silly. Instead, they complete it by adding an outbound process that raises the bar of excellence.
20:35 The Next Conversation for Agency Owners
Stephen Woessner [20:35] And that’s what brings us here to why this episode exists and why this conversation isn’t ending, it’s just moving forward.

So Sell with Authority helped agencies earn attention inside a niche they could own. Amazing. And once authority is established, in our opinion, a new responsibility shows up. What do you do with it? What do you do with the authority position?

Stephen Woessner [21:00] That’s the conversation I want you and I to have next, and we’re gonna have that conversation with the world’s leading authorities on how to create demand, and more specifically about how agencies can take earned authority and turn it into intrigue, curiosity, and desire on purpose with intention.

That’s what our new podcast that we’re calling The In-Demand Agency Podcast will be all about. On the new podcast, we’re going to explore questions like, how do you activate authority without losing trust? How do you design outbound that feels relevant instead of intrusive? How do you build intrigue, curiosity, and desire in the mind of your prospect? And how do you create enough desire that prospects don’t just reach out, but they lean in?

Stephen Woessner [22:01] So the goal is to help your agency become an in-demand agency, so you can choose the work that you and your team want to work on. So you have a healthy sales pipeline that feels like a steady stream of well-prepared prospects flowing into your shop, and you stop feeling like your future is dependent on timing and referrals.

The Sell with Authority Podcast has been about earning the right to be trusted. Awesome. And The In-Demand Agency Podcast will be about what happens next. If that conversation resonates with you and where you are and where you’re headed, I would love for you to join me there.

Stephen Woessner [22:50] The In-Demand Agency Podcast will launch in a couple of weeks. I don’t have a firm date just yet, but I promise I will keep you posted.

[Editor’s note: The In-Demand Agency Podcast is now live. Explore the complete episode archive.]
23:00 A Thank-You to the Sell with Authority Audience
Stephen Woessner [23:00] So as we come in for a landing here, I would be remiss if I didn’t also say thank you. Thank you for four-plus years of amazing conversations. Thank you for four-plus years of all of the emails, all the feedback, everything that we received from you, friends, on how to consistently raise the bar of excellence with the Sell with Authority Podcast.

Thank you for letting us know how helpful and meaningful the insights and wisdom that our guests shared with you, how that made a difference. We’re always grateful to hear those things.

Stephen Woessner [23:41] And so thank you for being with us over the last nearly 200 episodes, over the last several years. We are grateful for your time and attention and all of that.

If you have questions or concerns between now and when The In-Demand Agency Podcast is going to launch, you can always feel free to drop me a line at [email protected]. That is my actual inbox. That is my direct email. So please drop me a line if you have any questions or concerns.

Stephen Woessner [24:20] And lastly, I guess the second half of that thank-you is the fact that we have 86,400 seconds in a day, and I am always grateful when you choose to spend some of your precious time with me. Thank you for that, and I look forward to our very first conversation on The In-Demand Agency Podcast, which we’ll have buttoned up or tied up with a bow here in the not-too-distant future. And I look forward to our team sharing that with you.

I think it’s gonna… I know I’m biased, but holy bananas, I think it’s gonna be rock-solid awesome. So thank you for all of it.

Stephen Woessner [24:59] Until next time, onward with gusto.